Snakes are Starting Their Annual Shed
Mitsuki had some sort of underlying ‘buzz’ to his usually flat emotions, he didn’t quite know what to call it, but his stomach felt airy and he was on edge. “Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?” Shino-sensei prompted “Oh, yeah, my name is Mitsuki,” he said flatly, with a soft smile he had learned to plaster on. The girls almost all immediately had a new gossip interest. “Well, go have a seat class is getting started now,’’ Shino told Mitsuki, whom hummed in agreement and went to find a seat. He found an empty one next to an almost platinum blonde kid with his hair in a ponytail, who looked as unsettled as Mitsuki felt, with a dark haired boy on the other side of him who looked like he was half asleep. Class started, and seemed like it would never end, Mitsuki had started to get impatient and bored. He decided on running his fingers up and down the bottom side of the desk with his head down to hear the loud but muffled noise, only occasionally throw off kilter by someone’s leg brushing it or books moving, wait- why were books moving? His attention snapped back in, and noticed that people had gotten their science books out and had started turning the pages, the homeroom part of homeroom over with. He glanced warily at the other kids books to see if he could pin-point which page they were turning to. Inojin, or the blonde kid, as Mitsuki knew him right now, noticed that he was confused, ”We’re turning to page 213” Inojin whispered in a hushed tone as to not get their teacher’s attention. Mitsuki mouthed back a ‘Thanks’ and turned to the page they were on. The day seemed to drone on until the Taijutsu portion of their Shinobi class came up. Then things started to get interesting, well, at least for some of the students, they wanted to see how strong, if at all, their new peer was. Mitsuki on the other hand was just happy to be out of his desk and moving around, no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t completely focus when he felt cooped up. Luckily, he was going to get his energy out here, as the one and only Might Gai was their instructor. “Yes!! The power of youth! Feel the power!!” he exclaimed as they stretched, warming up. Ok, maybe Mitsuki wouldn’t like this class as much as he thought, he didn’t expect it to be this loud after all. His ears throbbed a bit as he was processing all the sounds of students running around the gym, their shoes squeaking ever so often, and that’s not to mention the yelling. God how could they yell so much?! He could admit that he was getting agitated, the sound on top of the compiling smell of teenage B.O and the bright overhead lights sent him into sensory overload. His breathing became frantic and he walk-ran to the nearest corner sitting down. He pulled his knees to his chest and hid his face in them, rocking himself back and forth trying his best to just block out everything. He stayed there until the end of the Taijutsu class, Inojin had noticed but wasn’t really sure if he could help, or even if the other boy had wanted someone to mess with him while he calmed down. He sure knew sometimes that he wanted that extra space when he was particularly overwhelmed. Honestly, Inojin was surprised that the new could have something in common with him. Mitsuki was exhausted by the end of the day, and honestly, even though he had met Boruto, he was dreading the next day.
Once Mitsuki got to his barren apartment, the first thing he did after taking his shoes off was crawling under his blankets with the unit’s air conditioner on and the lights off with the curtains draw, thus effectively making his apartment his own little sensory haven. He laid there a few minutes listening to the constant hum of the window air conditioner unit, and just relishing the fact that his brain had no need to process any more yelling, yawning, or the other myriad of classroom noises for the next 12 odd hours. The room was comfortable, it was on the cooler side, but hey that was the perfect temperature for oversized sleeves and kimonos. Mitsuki eventually droned into an underwhelming sleep, he didn’t dream after all, but he did wake up a few hours later feeling better. Then he remembered the homework they were given tonight, what was it again? Oh yeah, they had to do a few math problems on linear and non-linear functions, as well as some Ethics stuff he couldn’t exactly remember at the moment (that was a class he mostly zoned out for). Oh well, he got started on the math problems, they were supposed to do problems 1-20 on page 220 and then 1-5 on 221. Should be easy enough he guessed, well, he guessed wrong. The math itself wasn’t the problem he knew how to divide, multiply, add, subtract, all that stuff, it was the way they were asking him to do it, to memorize all these formulas and functions. He started to get antsy and frustrated at himself for not understanding what they were doing, his leg started to bounce. Eventually after burning through a few problems and half hoping they were right he took a break. It took Mitsuki a few hours of frustration and lots of breaks but he finally got done somewhere around 9:30 pm after starting at 6:00 pm. After he got done with his homework he decided to take a walk around the village and get acclimated. Mitsuki threw his shoes on, retying his ono-styled belt around his waist, and made sure he had a few kunai in case he came across any danger. He exited his apartment and made his way through the apartment complex. The hallways walls were painted simply, tan with a beige stripe a few feet off the ground, and the carpet was short and curly, off-white in color, Mitsuki noticed. Once he got to the elevator the contrast between the older feel of the halls and the more modern style of the elevator was apparent, it was one of those sleek ones that you would find in hotels. Mitsuki finally made it outside into the cool night air, it felt nice after being inside nearly all day. It was dark, people were still bustling around, however, it didn’t feel any more dangerous as it would in the daytime, sure criminals were more likely to spring at night but this one was peaceful. The air was still and crisp, smelling of rain, and the clouds were heavy and dark, making the waning crescent moon less visible. Mitsuki walked along the streets taking in all the different smells, he could smell a late-night taiyaki stand still making fresh treats, and even a ramen shop still open in the wee hours of the night. He eventually made it to a park, the leaves crunching under his feet reminded him of how painfully close winter was. He found a bench and sat down, closing his eyes and just breathing slowly, relishing the moment. After a few moments of just sitting on the bench, basically meditating, Mitsuki got up and made his way back to the apartment building, and then to his apartment. Once he was back in he took his shoes and ono-style belt off, he then made his way to the bathroom and took his clothes off. He put the clothes in his compact washing machine and started to run himself some bath water. Orochimaru, his sole parent, had taken him to get some basic necessities before sending him to Konoha, those included some low scent soap, shampoo and conditioner, and a few towels and washcloths. Once Mitsuki had deemed the water the right temperature he plugged the drain, allowing it to fill, and once it reached a good few inches deep he turned the water off and got in. He eased himself down into the water, allowing the water to ever so gently rise to cover his chest and reach his chin, his wavy hair dancing on the surface of the water.
Orochimaru had mentioned something about Mitsuki literally having the ability to shed his skin, whether it be intentional or not. It was something to do with regenerating his bodies cells so that they could perform at peak performance. What had caught Mitsuki off-guard however was that his skin was peeling off in large portions while he was in the bath, to reveal softer, undamaged skin underneath. Also, why hadn’t Orochimaru mentioned that there would be a little ‘eye-cap’ that would peel off his eyes, and would leave him very agitated and hard-of-seeing until it did? Mitsuki’s shed finally finished and he eventually got out of the bathtub very agitated, he didn’t like the fact that his ‘new’ skin was as sensitive as it was at the moment. He was honestly debating on sleeping naked to avoid the texture of his clothing. In fact, heck why not? It wasn’t like anyone had a key to his apartment and his blinds were drawn all the way, the balcony door was locked too. So that’s what he did.