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Cho Cho, the beautiful and courageous, had once again gotten her plans to hang out solo with Sarada foiled and spoiled by Sarada’s two pesky teammates deciding to tag along to Thunder Burger. The two boys were having a conversation so dull that Cho Cho deserved a medal for being able to stand listening to it.
“Yeah, Mitsuki, you really do have nice skin! I’m starting to get pimples myself and it’s making me feel insecure about myse-I mean, it's a sign of maturing into manhood! I would never feel insecure about anything as nothing makes me feel sad on the inside!” Boruto said, all very fast.
“Thanks, it’s because I use face lotion,” Mitsuki said.
"Face lotion? What's that?" Boruto asked.
This was where Cho Cho decided to not listen any more and instead talk to Sarada.
“Hey, Sarada. Can’t we go shopping or something?” Cho Cho asked.
“While that does sound really fun like I told you I still have to do Team 7 stuff today. Maybe some other time?” Sarada said sadly, probably longing for the sweet sweet embrace of retail therapy instead of being forced to hang out with Snoruto and the other one.
“If you have other plans then I understand. No worries, we’ll hang out some other time,” Cho Cho said and hugged Sarada goodbye and left the premises of Thunder Burger.
-*-
While Cho Cho was walking down the street of the Konoha fashion district, she caught her reflection in one of the windows. She finger gunned at her mirrored image, feeling pretty good about herself. Then she saw a poster pinned in the window about a Konohagakure Civic Center Fashion Design Competition.
Her heart stopped.
“My dream… which is to become a fashion designer who wins a competition… could come true?” Cho Cho said, almost foaming at the mouth and not quite believing her eyes. She photographed the poster with her cellphone to save the information on it, and squealed excitedly. She was going to win!
-*-
Cho Cho ran back to Thunder Burger and burst through the door.
“Sarada! I want to enter a fashion design competition, will you please be my model?!” She yelled.
Sarada looked at her curiously.
“When is the deadline? It sounds really fun, but I am going to be busy with some family stuff-“
“The fashion show is this Saturday,” Cho Cho informed her after double checking with her phone.
“Oh no, my dad is coming into town this weekend and I have so much planned with him… I’m really sorry Cho Cho, I can’t be your model,” Sarada apologized.
She looked honestly heartbroken. And Cho Cho feelt exactly like that on the inside as well…
“I’ll do it.” The other one of Sarada’s teammates said.
“Mitsuki, I think the model would have to be a girl," Boruto said, giggling but not in an unkind way.
“Really, do they?” Mitsuki asked, looking directly at Cho Cho this time. Well, he was avoiding direct eye contact as always to be fair. But he was looking in her general direction for sure.
“I guess not…” Cho Cho answered hesitantly. While her general impression of Mitsuki wasn’t that great, with him replacing Sarada as a model this could still work! After all, it was Cho Cho’s lifelong dream to win this specific fashion design competition.
"If that means yes, you can come to my apartment this afternoon and we'll sort out the details," Mitsuki said.
Cho Cho reached out and shook Mitsuki’s hand.
“It’s a deal!” She said confidently.
What could go wrong?
-*-
Getting to Mitsuki’s apartment building wasn’t that difficult, as he had written down the directions on a piece of paper.
Cho Cho rang the doorbell, and the door swung open.
“Oh, so you came. That’s great. Should I offer you tea or something? I don’t really get visitors often.” Mitsuki said.
Cho Cho stepped inside the apartment and took her shoes off. Mitsuki’s place was… extremely boring and depressing. It was a studio apartment, almost empty except for a bed and a cart that had a large number of pill bottles on it.
“Uh, yeah, tea would be nice?” Cho Cho said, recollecting herself. She did wonder why Mitsuki had so many bottles of pills though but figured that it would be rude to ask.
“Oh. I don’t actually have tea, sorry. I don’t have any food or drinks at home since I don’t need to eat.” Mitsuki said expressionlessly.
“Uh, why don’t you need to eat?” Cho Cho said. She was suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable, but couldn’t figure out why.
“Uh, I can't tell you," Mitsuki said, looking like a deer caught in headlights.
Cho Cho now felt really uncomfortable. And extremely concerned.
“You know, Mitsuki, I have kind of struggled with body image issues myself but I talked to my parents about it and now I’m seeing the school counselor, it really helps…” Cho Cho said awkwardly.
Mitsuki stared at her for a long time, like he didn’t understand what she was saying.
“Oh.” He said, also very awkwardly. Mitsuki seemed to soon collect himself though, as he continued:
“While it makes me really, really happy that you’re getting help, the reason why I don’t eat is not in any way alike to, uh, that. I promise.”
Cho Cho wasn’t entirely convinced by that, but when she thought about it, Mitsuki did have a lot of weird but kind of harmless-seeming secrets in general. Maybe this was one of them? So she decided to change the subject.
“So uh, fashion design huh…. Do you have any interest in that? I’ve only seen you wear one outfit.” Cho Cho said, internally cringing a bit at her awkward phrasing.
“Yes, when I moved to Konoha, I simply brought a hundred iterations of the same outfit," Mitsuki said, sliding a nondescript door open which revealed his closet. He pulled out a couple of drawers to show, indeed, a very large quantity of neatly folded clothes that all looked exactly the same as the outfit he had on now.
“Fair enough, but why would you need a hundred? Couldn’t you keep, like, 10 outfits and just wash them once you run out?” Cho Cho asked, feeling genuinely curious.
Mitsuki stared at her with a completely blank facial expression (as usual). Cho Cho did not know what it meant this time either.
“Yeah, about that… I don’t know how the laundry machine in the basement of this building works. I called my parent and asked about it but they didn’t know either. Apparently, they just throw their laundry on a chair and it gets taken care of by servants. I tried that method here but it really didn’t work. So, right now I throw used clothes in the trash, but I’m not feeling great about it,” He said.
“What? That is so not sustainable!” Cho Cho raged. “But it does give me an idea for my entry for the competition: an haute couture project. I’m thinking recycled materials with a futuristic feel!”
“That sounds very nice. Now, can you tell me how laundry machines work so I can finally wash my clothes? That’s the real reason I agreed to this, honestly.” Mitsuki said.
“What, because I’m a girl?”
“Actually no, it’s because you seem extremely interested in clothes so I figured that you might know. Note that I didn’t ask Sarada even though she’d be way easier to ask.”
“…Huh, ok. Well… I actually don’t know either honestly, so my tip is that you look up a NinjaTube laundry tutorial. Now, let’s go dumpster diving! I need to collect materials for my fashion design project,” Cho Cho said.
Mitsuki made a facial expression that looked vaguely pleased until he seemed to process her entire sentence. Then his face turned into what for him must’ve counted as ecstatic.
-*-
“Why do you want to go dumpster diving? I figured that you’d avoid garbage as much as possible. This is a really interesting and surprising side of you!” Mitsuki said while picking the lock to the local grocery store dumpster.
Cho Cho couldn’t really see what Mitsuki was doing in the dark of night but he had insisted that he had “improved night vision” and that they wouldn’t need a flashlight. Anyway, she had a good feeling about this.
“It’s for my artistic vision! I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win! It wouldn’t be genuine if I didn’t use literal trash!” Cho Cho said passionately.
The lock to the dumpster rattled, and Mitsuki got it open. He opened the small door and made a face.
"Yeah, the smell isn't great. What kind of garbage do you want? I can just stretch my arms and pick them up so we don't actually have to go into the dumpster," he said.
“I want bags of chips! You can empty them out in there, and I’ll wash them at home so that they’re sanitary,” Cho Cho said.
Mitsuki looked at her with an unreadable expression. But he complied anyway, and soon they had filled two entire giant shopping tote bags with empty bags of chips.
“Well, I’m going to go home now and wash my clothes with the technique that NinjaTube video told me,” Mitsuki said while scrunching his nose, apparently having gotten some gunk on his overtly long shirt sleeves despite his safety precautions.
“Sounds great! I’ll go to your house again tomorrow and we’ll work on a mock-up of the design! I’m going to have to stay up really late to draw a sketch of it since it’s already Thursday today and the fashion show is this Saturday…” Cho Cho said.
Mitsuki nodded at her, and then ninja-parkour-jumped away on the rooftops.
Well, Cho Cho had a lot of work to do! To the drawing board and the hot glue gun!
-*-
The next day, a very disheveled Cho Cho made her way to Mitsuki’s apartment with her new haute couture creation in hand(or rather, in a tote bag). She expected to get a warm welcome, but was instead greeted with:
“Why do you look like you haven’t slept and instead of sleeping rolled around in glue and then got a bunch of lint stuck on you?”
“Because that’s more or less what happened last night! I’ll do anything in the name of art. So, I’m mostly finished with the mock-up, do you want to try it on so I can fit it better?” Cho Cho said.
Mitsuki didn’t protest so Cho Cho revealed her creation: a silver 3-piece suit(with a matching hat) completely made out of empty and inside-out plastic chips bags. Confusingly, Mitsuki visibly cringed and stuck his fingers in his ears.
“What’s wrong? Don’t you like it?” Cho Cho squeaked, feeling gutted and confused.
“No, it’s beautiful! It’s just that it crinkles really loud and it took me by surprise.”
“Uh, I don’t understand why that would be an issue, but if you really don’t like it I can make something else-“
“No, no, if I’m prepared I can handle it. I can try it on now.”
Said and done, Mitsuki tried on the mockup.
“It fits pretty well, and I can deal with the noise. I think?” Mitsuki said while walking around in a little circle. Cho Cho could now sort of understand Mitsuki’s initial aversion to her creation as it really was extremely squeaky.
“Great! Then we need to practice your runway walk!” She said.
“Can’t I just do a couple of backflips or something? That’s bound to impress the judges, I doubt that they are ninjas too.”
Cho Cho patted Mitsuki on the back in a manner meant to be congratulatory, rustling the material of the suit, but Mitsuki shrunk away from her touch. Cho Cho felt a bit hurt by that and it must’ve shown in her facial expression.
“Sorry, it’s just so loud. And I don’t really like physical contact generally so it’s nothing personal. I actually think you’re great!” Mitsuki said placatingly.
“Uh, thanks! I think you’re great as well! Well, see you tomorrow for the competition I guess.” Cho Cho said, feeling a bit overwhelmed (and sleep deprived).
-*-
Saturday morning, Cho Cho woke up with moist palms and an anxious brain. While she was speed-running through her makeup routine, her mascara wand slipped through her sweaty fingers several times. Somehow Cho Cho managed to get her face beat in 10 minutes flat and she ran out the door after getting well wishes from her parents.
She met up with Mitsuki outside the Konohagakure Civic Center and gave him the tote bag with the finished fashion show outfit.
“Why is the handle to this tote bag so wet?” He asked.
“I don’t know! Maybe you just have really sweaty hands? Have you thought about that? Hm?” Cho Cho clipped back mostly out of sheer nervousness all the while wiping her palms on her dress as sneakily as possible.
“Uh, I guess that could be true. I am probably entering puberty soon, after all.” Mitsuki said wisely.
“Yeah, that must be it! Let’s go inside!” Cho Cho said.
As soon as they were inside, she sent Mitsuki off to change in one of the bathrooms while she herself went to the information desk to check in. The foyer was bursting with people, and it made Cho Cho all the more on edge.
“Hello, what can I help you with?” The desk clerk asked, breaking Cho Cho out of her stage fright haze.
“Me and my-uh-model, he’s changing right now, you see, are here for the fashion design competition?” Cho Cho stuttered out.
“Oh ok, what are your names and ages?”
“Uh, my name is Cho Cho Akimichi, and I’m thirteen. My model’s name is, uh I don’t actually know his last name but his first name is Mitsuki and I guess he’s also thirteen? I haven’t asked…”
The desk clerk looked at her regretfully.
“I’m really sorry, but the rules of the competition say that you have to be fifteen or older to enter. It says so on the flyer.”
What.
Cho Cho ran out of the front doors of the Civic Center. Her dreams, crushed and disintegrated.
“Uh, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with the desk clerk. So, we got disqualified because of the age restriction… Did you even read the rules to the competition?” Mitsuki said, apparently having followed her outside after changing.
“Well, uh, you know… Neither did you when I showed you the flyer so I guess we’re both to blame!” was Cho Cho’s improvised comeback to that.
“I guess.” Mitsuki sighed, his suit made out of crumbled up bags of chips rustling sadly in the wind.
“This sucks. I was really looking forward to this.”
“Yeah, it really sucks, but at least we had fun on the way. If you want, we could at least show your, uh, was it ‘haute couture’ creation to our friends at least? I could still do some backflips.” Mitsuki said hopefully.
Cho Cho really did feel quite depressed, but that did sound like at least a little bit fun.
-*-
As they thought, Boruto and the rest of Team 10 were hanging out at Thunder Burger. Cho Cho opened the door dramatically, and as they had agreed on, Mitsuki ran in to and did a couple of really cool backflips, all the while the material of his suit made ungodly crinkly noise(he had put earplugs in as a precautionary measure).
“What’s going on? I love this, but I don’t understand anything!” Boruto tried to yell over the sound of bags of chips rustling together.
Mitsuki ended his “catwalk” with striking a cool ninja pose. Cho Cho stopped filming (she did have to show it to Sarada later on, didn’t she?) and walked over to her friends to explain.
“Mitsuki is wearing the finalized product for the fashion design competition I wanted to be in! We got disqualified because we were too young,” She said, trying to keep a brave face on.
“Well, uh, that’s too bad! It looks really cool, even if it makes a lot of noise!” Inojin said.
“Yeah! What’s it made out of?” Shikadai asked.
“It’s made out of empty bags of chips, to symbolize the futility of fast fashion and the importance of recycling,” Cho Cho said, now feeling pretty confident again.
That was about the moment where they all got kicked out of Thunder Burger for “causing a ruckus”, but her friends later on all agreed the suit was pretty great, which was all that mattered anyway in the end.