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Fandom {1x1 || Our Ninja Way || Modern AU Naruto RP}

"Ha-chan!" She hadn't known how long she had stood there, trying to regulate her breathing at the gate of the school before Naruto arrived, though she refused to look or acknowledge the blonde. "Are you alright? I saw Sasuke--I can't believe you got cornered by that Mitomori jerkface...!" Though his words were childish in nature, she found some odd sort of... was that ... comfort? In his concern. She could only imagine how he looked upon her form, hunched and small, with pity. However... when she finally slid her golden orbs over to Naruto, all he showed was guilt. It was so strong, in fact, that she could nearly feel it rolling off of his form in waves. "I should have been there... I'm so sorry, I didn't wait for you, and then this mess happened, and...!" he ran his hands through his hair, furiously scratching his head. "I really messed up!!! I'm so sorry..."
"Stop it..." she mumbled, her gaze narrowing as she looked at the young jinchuuriki. Her face was an unimaginable mix of emotions, and she shifted from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable with this turn of events. "Stop apologizing. It's not like you're responsible for that behavior."
"But... but it's usually me he's after," Naruto frowned, his lip quivering in anger. "If it had just been like normal, he wouldn't have even looked at you twice! But for some reason, he had this weird fixation on you and Sasuke this time around, a-and, well it didn't take me long to realize that I really wouldn't mind taking his attention away if that meant he would just leave you alone. You and Sasuke both are my friends... even if you don't always act like it."
To say she was shocked with his mature stance was an understatement--something so well thought-out and executed in this manner, at least in terms of speech and feelings, was not something that the purplette had expected from Naruto. Her wide-eyed expression melted into something that looked like the ghost of compassion, but it was gone shortly as she turned her head away from him. "Naruto... it's because of who I am... what I've done..." he looked to her in confusion as she continued. "I don't intend to tell you everything right now. I don't know if I ever will, but to know that you think of me as a friend is... valuable... to me." She winced at how robotic she sounded; making friends had never been a strong suit of hers. "But your life is more important than mine, never forget that."
Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and concern. "What? N-No it's not---" but Hanaru had already turned to walk away, beginning to pace down the street, her tail flicking from side to side behind her as the bell rang, school signaling its conclusion for the day. She could smell rain--the clouds were heavy and gray, and it was only a matter of time before the heavens opened up, and regarding how much she hated water, she refused to get caught in the downfall.
At least, she would have refused, if she had been running home rather than walking. Instead, it had started raining when she was only somewhat near to her single bedroom apartment, and she took shelter in a bus stop, the glass roof over the bench keeping her gaze as she watched the heavens fall. She was stuck until the rain lightened up or someone picked a fight for their squatting spot. Either way, she wasn't exactly in a hurry.

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Shikamaru was so ready to go home and actually sleep. Usually, he would have spent time during Mizuki's class to sleep. That jonin was far too concerned with causing Naruto trouble to notice or (if he even did) care about the fact that Shikamaru preferred that class period as his snooze time. That being said, he wasn't about to sleep on Asuna if even just the sounds and the smells of the school infirmary were enough to freak her out, then there was no way he was sleeping either. Once Tsunade came back in a blind rage (the only way Shikamaru had known she was even gone in the first place was the fury with which she returned).
Shikamaru wanted nothing more than to cart Asuna away as soon as Tsunade cleared her, but she was at least dutiful to her detention. At least, the Nara figured she was doing so considering her dad found out about their little night's sleepover at the school, and would expect her to work off her detention accordingly. That being said, as bad as he felt, Shikamaru wasn't going to help clean some more--especially since he knew how particular Asuna was when it came to cleanliness etc. He waited outside the assigned classroom, nodding off occasionally, only to hear Sakura and Asuna arguing every once and a while. Who knew she could get so worked up over something like cleaning and cleanliness? It was kinda cute... actually, in any other girl Shikamaru probably would have found that kind of a trait annoying--and while he might have called her "troublesome" he couldn't help but find it endearing.
After a light nap, the students were released from their enslavement, and Shikamaru awoke to the door opening, pushing himself to stand. He crossed his arms as he looked to her, glaring at Sakura slightly when she shot him a pointed smirk. How many people thought there was something between the two of them? He was just watching out for his teammate. He might have done the same thing for Ino if she was even remotely nicer than she was.
He couldn't help but snicker as they made their way back towards the Shuffle of Things. "I believe it," Shikamaru teased as they walked, his eyes flicking over to her. "You threatened me the other day for not cleaning properly." It was only fair, he supposed; he was known for his laziness. As they continued to walk, he chose to listen to the sound of the rumbling skies, and though he wasn't entirely sure when their hands had intertwined, he wasn't about to complain. There was something distinctly comforting about just... keeping her close that was reassuring. Especially after that whole mess with Aku Mitomori and then how she had tired herself out and everything training with Kurenai-sensei. "Try not to go too hard on them, you'll freak 'em out," he couldn't help but chuckle. Asuna could whip anyone into shape--maybe even Naruto. His eyes slid up to the gray, thundering sky. "We should, uh... probably hurry. It looks like we're about to get drenched." He sped up his pace, tugging her hand, and her, along with him.
 
Asuna didn't protest as she wasn't too keen on being caught in the rain. The rumbling thunder grew closer and closer as they hurried down the street. Large droplets, cold and clear, started making their way down to the ground and it wasn't long before the downpour followed. They were running, but there was no way they could outrun the rain, especially not as slick sheets stretched out over the city. The Shuffle of Things was in slight and so was Mr. Takanashi, hunched under an umbrella on the small balcony of the first floor. He barely spared a glance at the two teens as they hurried to the store's awning as it was closer. "It's really coming down," Asuna stated the obvious, opening the door to escape the chill that the rain had brought with it, but found that the door was locked from the inside. Great. "Why today...? DAD! OPEN THE DOOR!" she yelled out as they waited. They could have walked around to the stairs and gone up and through the front door on the first floor, but now that they were out of the rain, she was reluctant to go back in. Normally she had the spare key, but her temporary 'banishment' meant she had to hand them over to her old man.

The lights were flicked on as a small old woman came into view from behind the door, almost instantly Asuna pulled her hand from Shikamaru's. "Asuna, welcome home!" the little old woman said as she opened the door for them, "Hi, Nana, welcome back," the blonde said as she bent down to kiss the old woman's cheek as she entered, motioning for Shikamaru to follow as she disappeared into the back room and up the stairs. Unfortunately she couldn't escape the old woman as she was hot on their heels, "And who is this young man?" she asked excitedly, taking a hold of Shikamaru's arm and studying him as if she'd just discovered a new species. "A friend from school, Nan. We used to play together when we were little, remember?"
"No, I don't remember much in my old age and I'm sure I would have remembered if you were spending time with such a handsome young man," old granny Fu said leaning against the boy's side. She was very short and slightly hunched forward, her face line with old age, but despite her frail appearance her eyes still had that spark of youth in them. Asuna didn't have the strength to deal with her grandmother, already seeing through her 'I'm so old' act as she clung to the Nara boy's side in fear of him trying to escape, "Eiji, Asu's brought a man home, you should come see him!"

Asuna groaned as they entered the open living room, her father peeking through the large glass pane from the outside while the kitten stared at him in confusion from the inside. The ball of fur had quickly lost interest as he turned to stare wide eyed at the new people in the room. A cling-ding-ding followed after him as he hopped over to the boy. "Ma, leave the boy alone," Eiji said in annoyance as the cat was no longer interested in their little game, "Shikamaru," he nodded in acknowledgement before taking hold of Asuna's shoulders, "What's this?" Asuna tried to shy away from the man towering above her, but the bruising grip of Mitomori had become very evident on her neck, blooming up to her jaw. "Nothing, dad," she tried to brush him off, but he was not so easily deterred, leaning down to inspect the bruises carefully. "This is not 'nothing', Asuna!" He knew what a hickey bruise looked like and these were definity not that at all. His large hands fell from her shoulders, lifting her arms slightling to inspect the light bruises there too, already putting together a horrific scenario in his head. "Those were from training, they're not related," she said quietly knowing her father was already formulating his own version of what he thought happened, "I'll tell you about it later, it's...a long story and there's some other stuff we have to talk about." Eiji wasn't sure whether to force it out of her or wait until later. His gaze raked over the boy, he wouldn't have brought her home or stood before him if he had anything to do with it though, right?

"Oh you poor dear, you're all soaked," Nana wasn't reading the room at all or she was choosing to ignore it in favour of fawning over Shikamaru, "You'll catch your death out there," she circled him, frowning at his wet attire. "You should spend the night," she stated excitedly. "NO!" Eiji yelled out quickly.
"You can sleep in Asuna's room."
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Both father and daughter looked equally mortified, though for different reasons.
"It's very cozy, you know." The more she talked the brighter she beamed.
"NO, MA! For as long as I am her father, there will be none of that! Ever!" Eiji had scooped the old woman up into a headlock.
"Dad," Asuna whined, her face resembled a tomato, "This is why I can't bring friends home! Can't you be normal for five minutes?!" Her grandmother answered with a manic sound, caught between a laugh and a squeal.

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"Ha-chan, I don't care who you were! I don't care what you did! You're important to me and that's all that matters!" Naruto was never the best at long preplanned speeched, but he could speak from the heart like no one could. Most people might have regarded him as nothing but a knucklehead, and granted he acted like one, but he cared deeply for those around him whether they wanted him to or not. "I know he's a jerk and he doesn't show it, but Sasuke cares about you too! We all do!" He fought with all he had, but Hanaru had decided that the battle was over, leaving the boy standing there staring after her. He wasn't sure how long he had been standing there, but one of the roaming jonin had come to find him to report for his detention. As he was escorted back to the school building, Aku was on his way out with Mizuki on his left and a jonin on his right. "You!" the boy growled at him. "Hah, and you!" Aku shot back mockingly, his hand reaching out to ruffle Naruto's blond locks. "Why are you after Hanaru? I'm the one you want!" Naruto was ready to attack the man, but the jonin by his side placed a hand on his shoulder in warning.

"Oh my, are you jealous? Don't worry, sweet boy, I have enough attention to spare!" chuckling, patted his head, "But unfortunately, this is all the time I have today. Till later my little fox boy!"
Naruto gritted his teeth as Mitomori was escorted to the gate where a fancy black car had pulled up to. "Leave her alone! You hear me?!" his fists shook as he called after the man. Pulling away from the jonin he made his way to detention, missing the look that the suited man shot him before he too disappeared into the car.

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By the time their detention was served, Sasuke left the broom leaning against the wall, shoving his hands into his pockets as he left. Sakura was waiting for him patiently at the door, immediately going on and on about her session with that blonde girl. He wasn't listening to a thing she was saying, internally bemoaning the fact that she thought he cared when he clearly wanted to be by himself right now. It didn't matter if he walked faster or slower, she was right by his side every step of the way.
"Ugh, and then she was all like 'If things get any worse, I'm going to ask you to stop helping me' like she was the only one doing anything! Can you believe someone can be so arrogant?!"
Sasuke sighed, looking up at the dark clouds, glad that he actually had the insight to take an umbrella before leaving for school. Once he reached the gate though, Sakura showed no intention of separating from him, "So, do you want to walk home together?" she asked shyly. "No," he stated simply as he turned towards his home, leaving the girl behind. He didn't get very far though, before he turned to look at Sakura walking home by herself, shoulders slumped and feet dragging.

Looking around, he didn't see Naruto anywhere, he was always jumping at the chance to walk her home and while this wasn't exactly a dangerous part of the city, Sasuke wasn't a heartless monster knowing she'd end up being caught in the rain. Leisurely, he trailed behind her, maybe it's because he couldn't save Hanaru earlier, leaving him feeling compelled to try and make sure the pinkette reached her house in one piece. As the droplets started to descend, he picked up his pace, startling the girl as he opened his umbrella above them. "S-Sasuke?" she was shocked that he'd followed her, but she was grateful as now she wasn't stuck running in the rain. "Let's go," he muttered and she quickly fell into step beside him. Her heat swelled with emotion as she glanced up at him. It felt like a scene from some romantic movie and that thought made her cheeks flare up. "W-what happened today? With Mitomori-san?"
Sasuke gripped the umbrella tighter, his eyes flitting about, "Don't say his name too loud. You don't know who's listening," he warned as one scrawny, sleazy looking man standing in the awning of a bakery looked up from his newspaper at the mention of the official's name. "It's none of your business anyway."

Sakura was taken back by his cold demeanor, it sent a chill through her body and no, it wasn't because of the rain pouring down around them. He escorted her home in relative silence, leaving her by the door, "I'll see you tomorrow!" she called as he quickly turned and left. He had taken quite the detour, Sakura lived nearly in the city proper, and now he found himself wandering the abandoned streets. Abandoned though, wasn't the right word as many people scurried from one place to another, trying to hail cabs who were speeding by as the traffic picked up. There was something calming about the pouring rain, he had always found he slept better. It was easier to think too, as everyone was running away and no one was bothering him.

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There was a distinct tap tap tap of footsteps approaching the bus stop Hanaru was hiding in. A man with a fabulous pompadour ducked in, shaking the water from his leather jacket. "Yous is hidin in 'ere too, huh? Yeah, I don' blame, yez," he spoke quickly checking to see if his hair was still in place and from the side, that fabulous pompadour looked more like someone had tried to puff it up with a footlong hotdog. "Yer kinda lookin' like tis broad, y'know? Yeah, the boss been lookin fer 'er," he tried to be inconspicuous, but he was absolutely terrible at it. "Gots a scar, right 'ere, on 'er nose," he motioned to the bridge of his nose, tracing Hanaru's scar over his own face. He leaned back, eyeing her carefully, he'd been following her for a short while now and he was almost certain that she was the rouge for hire his boss had been looking for.
 
Shikamaru wasn't particularly fond of getting caught in the storm, and that is why he hurried their pace, but it didn't seem to matter. They got soaked regardless, and by the time they reached the Shuffle of Things, it looked as though they had jumped back into the pool at school. Thankfully it didn't take long for her grandmother to open the door, a woman he vaguely remember, but thankfully remembered enough to offer her a thanks for opening the door. His eyes widened as she took his arm, pulling him to her height as he blinked awkwardly, unsure of what she was examining him for. "Uh, hi...?" he questioned lightly, but he wasn't about to pull away from the old woman. At least at this point she seemed aware of her surroundings, despite how crazy she sounded. He immediately blushed as she tried to set him up with Asuna.
"U-Um, it's cool, I don't... n-need to do any of that," he stammered, praising whoever was listening that his at least his voice didn't crack in his embarrassment. The last thing he needed was incurring Eiji's wrath, and at this moment in time, while trying to be his wing-woman, Granny Fu certainly wasn't helping in the department of her son. "Sorry to intrude," he bowed partially to Mr. Takanashi, at least remembering a little bit of his manners. Rubbing the back of his neck, he turned and looked between Asuna and her father, the man immediately picking up on the bruises. Shikamaru sighed softly at Asuna's stubbornness, hoping that she would follow through on the issue of telling him later. Remembering the day's events, Shikamaru almost felt the need to apologize again to Asuna's father. After all, if Shikamaru had been there in the hallway... if he had like... tried to go to the bathroom or something, maybe Asuna wouldn't have felt the way she did--or have gotten hurt in the way that she did. His gaze darkened... Aku Mitomori... after the man trailed Naruto the first couple times he came to visit, Shikamaru asked his father some long questions about who he was and why he cared about the knucklehead. That was when he learned about Naruto's 'sacrifice', and why Naruto was usually looked down upon by most shinobi and the adults who remembered and were present during the Nine-Tails incident. That seemed incredibly unfair to him, but he couldn't exactly do anything about it, and such rotten feelings towards the kid were translated through the parents into their children, even if they didn't know why they disliked him...
It was all really troublesome, in his opinion.
Shikaku was not a fan of Mitomori, that much was true. Shikamaru didn't trust him before, thanks to the words of his father, but now he wanted to punch the guy's teeth in. So of course, he felt regret and guilt over not having been there to protect Asuna. He had known what the man was like and still let her walk out there alone with him.
Thankfully, or unfortunately, his thoughts were interrupted once again by Granny Fu, and his eyes widened as she made her sudden offer to stay the night increasingly worse by the minute. "I-I'll just stay until the rain lets up a little. If... maybe, I could just have a towel so I don't get your furniture soaked, that'd be good..." he trailed off, waving his hands as he nervously looked toward Mr. Takanashi. Again, the last thing he wanted--especially if he was interested in Asuna (and he was... wasn't he? That whole 'feelings' thing just had him really confused) was to piss off her father. Shikamaru closed his eyes as he rubbed his neck awkwardly, looking away from the bickering family. "Man... this is troublesome... I'll just go--I'm already soaked." The young Nara turned towards the entrance, waving a hand at Asuna. "I'll see you tomorrow." He paused at the door, biting his lip before turning his head back to the ash blonde. "If... you need anything, feel free to let me know. I swear, I'd kick his ass if you asked me." Of course he would, Aku Mitomori might have been strong for a civillian government official, but as far as Shikamaru was concerned, he had no chakra abilities. That being said, it also had double meaning. Hopefully, if he was correct (and he usually was), saying something along those lines would spark enough curiosity within Eiji that even if he somehow managed to forget Asuna's bruises, it would remind him to ask her about what happened at school until they talked about it. "Maybe get some sleep tonight..." he mumbled, before he opening the door, not wanting to intrude on their family time. The last thing Asuna probably wanted was him there while she tried to explain what had happened to her today. Sure, he was making assumptions, but he definitely didn't want to overstay his welcome.

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Naruto's words had stung. She had a lot of time to think about what he had said while sitting under the glass safety of the bus stop. Thankfully she could wait there until the rain either lightened or stopped altogether. That being said... by the way it was pounding the roof at an incessant rate seemed to signify that it wasn't about to let up anytime soon, and the thought of being stuck at this bus station for any length of time brought a groan from her lips. Pulling her knees up to her chest on the bench, she shivered lightly. It wasn't exactly a warm rain--humid, yes--but warm? No. Of course not. That would be too kind. It was as if the storm was reflecting the tumultuous events of the day. A flash of lightning here, a roll of thunder there... Yep. It was all pretty shitty.
Hanaru was unsure of how long she had been left alone with her thoughts until an unwanted guess decided to join her. Her amber gaze slid over to the male with an unimpressed look as he preened his pompadour. If this wasn't the end-all-be-all of stereotypical Yakuza goons, Hanaru wasn't part cat. She nearly scoffed at his dialect, shaking her head as her ears flicked, indicating she was listening, but not paying him any attention by physically turning her head.
"What time machine did you step out of, bub?" she halfheartedly mocked, sighing and bringing her legs back down to the floor again. "First of all, I'm not some "broad"," she brought her fingers up for air quotes. "And second of all, even if your boss is looking for me, I'm not into that kinda business anymore. Gave it up." She stood, her fur nearly standing on end at the thought of going out and into the rain, but honestly, it was better than talking to Tootles over here. "So go tell him he'll have to hire some other 'broad' to do his dirty work. Got that?" Just great--it was almost as if she expected Mitomori to descend from the heavens to gloat about how he had "caught her in the act" or something. The less time she spent with this guy, the better. "I'm not interested."
She paused at the curtain of rain the fell outside the glass canopy of the bus stop, hesitancy to get wet freezing her limbs. Damn cat instincts! Most of the time she was proud of her demonic heritage (save for one strong, life-changing incident), but when it came to getting wet...? She loved the idea of swimming--in fact, it sounded fun! But the idea of getting her fur all damp and matted and gross and... ew. She could never do it. She never learned. And when she was a rogue nin, she hated doing her work in rainy weather. That's just how she worked.
 
The goon looked rather offended by Hanaru's words, "Oi! Aint no kid on the block messin wit' nobody tha' gots the looks!" he was clearly lacky and probably one that had seen one too many mobster movies growing up as most gang members tried not to stand out too much while retaining an iconic look that was so unique to their own little clique. He looked shocked when Hanaru talked back and so gracious declined his offer, "Ain't nobody tells Lil' Larry nothin', Lil' Larry does the tellin'! Defin'tly not no broad either!" He was glaring at Hanaru's back, he'd been tasked with finding her and now after what felt like months he finally had his lucky break only to hear that she's 'not interested'. "C'mon, yer not easy ta find, y'know? The job pays good!" he tried to reason, he was worried about what might happen of he returned empty handed, but she was not having any of it. "Jus' you wait, Lil' Larry Lil'Finger ain't gonna ferget!"

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Some people would argue that a quiet room or the peaceful countryside was an ideal location to be alone with one's thoughts, Sasuke would disagree. There was something about the sounds of the city that was comforting in a way. Yes, the honking and roaring of car engines was loud and obnoxious, the people yelling profanities while hanging out of the windows even moreso, but that was just the ambience of the concrete jungle. No matter how many people were running around trying to escape the curtains of rain and the rolling thunder above, one could always find themselves alone. No one blinked twice in his direction and he surely didn't pay too much mind to them either, it was something he thought of as a luxury that he could only ever experience in the heart of a city like this. It felt like he was properly at ease, though he still kept his wits about him.

It had been a long day, maybe because there was no proper transition from the previous day as it melded into one, but the day was also full of things he needed to process, the events with the resident cactus. His feet carried him with no set destination, mainly just following the flow of the crowd. She'd told him so much today, somethings he figured out for himself but there was and probably is still so much he didn't know. What was he supposed to make of it? A monster on the run, taking jobs -he could only imagine what kind of jobs. If he took a look in a Bingo book, what would he find? Never safe, never at peace, a kill or be killed lifestyle. Being raised in the pampered walls of his clan he would never really be able to understand what she had gone through. Speculation wasn't the same as experiencing it first hand. If justice was just black and white, where would that leave her? She would have to face her crimes and the most lenient sentence if found guilty of any major crimes would be lifelong imprisonment in one of the most tight knit security facilities they could find, but even that was a longshot. No, her sentence, if guilty, would be death. It wasn't her fault though, survival was probably the purest instinct in any living being and that's what she had done, survived.

He could hear his father chastising him for sympathizing with people who didn't abide by the laws of society. The right thing to do would be to turn her in, but he just....couldn't. It wasn't the life she had asked for. Not once in the time that he had known her had she actually injured someone who wasn't asking for it, even then she scared them more than anything else. Clearly she wasn't a bad person, not in his eyes at least.

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The kitten had bounded up to Shikamaru as he reached the door, weaving between his legs before climbing his leg like a tree. Giving up about half way, it clung to his chest with it's big staring eyes, slowly looking between him and the door. "Don't let the old lady scare you, she does that to literally everyone," Asuna said as she watched him for a moment, not sure whether to let him go or ask him to stay. The day had been nothing if not long and tedious, so she understood if he wanted to actually go home and sleep, "I'm sure my old man wouldn't mind giving you a ride home." Gently, she took his arm and tugged slightly, "If you go out there and get sick, I'll feel bad," she sighed giving in, unable to let him go out there in the downpour.
Leading him back inside, she set out to find some towels. "Just let them wear each other out," she vaguely motioned to her father and grandmother who were really going at each other. Granny Fu was winning. "Oni cat," she finally noticed the cat hanging off of his shirt. As if knowing that the girl was addressing him, it tilted it head backwards to look at her with a "Maw?"
"What are you doing?"
"Frow."
"You being a little shit?"
"Mea!"
Asuna watched as the cat quickly jumped off and scampered off behind a wall, peeking around the corner to see if they were coming.

With an elbow to the side, Grammy Fu was the Victor and aside from holding it over Eiji's head, things quieted down and they almost seemed like a normal family...until Asuna asked her father to give Shikamaru a ride home.
"Alright," Eiji said calmly, which only made Asuna quirk a brow, "What? Just like that?"
Eiji looked at her and blinked, "Why not? The boy walked you home in the middle of a storm, it's the least I could do."
"Where's my dad? You're usually not so nice," Asuna was confused and now a little concerned too. "You make me sound like a villain, Pumpkin!" Eiji grabbed at his chest in mock pain as he looked for his keys, "I can't be nice to your friends? Is that a crime now?"
"Yes and it's weird," Asuna said under her breath, suddenly regretting her life choices.

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For the most part, there was a loaded silence in the old hatchback. When they first got in the only thing Eiji asked was if the Nara's still lived in the same street. He was chewing on the butt of his cigarette, not taking any drags as he drove slowly, the rain making it rather difficult to see anything. It was all just a dark haze, the streetlamps were nothing but little colored blurs in the sheets of rain.
"You used to be a good kid," he spoke after what felt like forever, even the ride seemed to last longer than it should have. "Asuna was out last night and by the looks of it I'd guess you were part of that little party? A little late night dip?" he didn't look at Shikamaru as he spoke calmly, a smirk tugging at his mouth.
"I get it. I was a kid too, but for your sake I hope you weren't doing the same stuff I did," for a moment his eyes flicked over to the Nara boy, "But Asuna's my girl, a chip off the ol' block, so I know she's doing it, whatever 'it' is you kids do these days."
He chuckled as they pulled up to Shikamaru's home, "Can't watch her all the time, though." He had his suspension that breaking and entering was not the worst on his daughter's 'Stuff-Not-To-Tell-Dad' list and although they had a no secrets rule, that didn't mean that they told each other everything. There were things that a father and daughter just didn't discuss and Eiji had his fair share of secrets he kept under lock and key.

He would have preferred anyone else, to be honest, but Asuna didn't bring her friends home anymore and the ones that did come by, well, let's just say he had run out of options and forbidding her from leaving the house completely would make things worse. "That Huyga girl won't stand much of a chance and your little friend Ino? Heh, mini skirts and belly shirts I might have appreciated at some point, but definitely not on my baby. It attracts a...certain kind of guy, the kind looking to score." Guys who were the way he had been before he had settled down. His hand reached out and rested on the back of the seat as he turned to fully look at the boy, "I wouldn't put it past her to try something like that to spite me if I tried to lock her up. It's not easy, but when faced with two evils I'd rather my daughter not hate me for the rest of her life." His arm slid around Shikamaru's shoulders in an attempt to make things as uncomfortably awkward as he possibly could, "I need an extra pair of eyes kid, you keep your hands to yourself and keep her from doing something stupid, I might just let you hang around, rules apply of course-" he gave him a strained but friendly smile. He wasn't about to fully trust the boy with his rhyme or reason for his request, it wasn't his business and he just needed the boy to agree. His other arm came up and took a hold of the front of Shikamaru's shirt, that smile on his face turning into a deep set scowl "-or you get out of this car and hope I never catch you so much as looking in my daughter's general direction. Your dental records better be up to date because they'll need it after I beat your fucking face in." Letting him go, Eiji reached behind the seat, pulling out an umbrella. The 'Aggressive Dad' face he had on slipped off and was replaced with an almost 'Good Guy' grin as if he hadn't just threatened the young man beside him. "Maybe I'll even do you a little favour," he said, unlocking the doors and escorted the Nara to his front door.

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There was no sign of the rain letting up and Sasuke had found he had wandered quite a bit. He had found his resolve though and while Kakashi's question was a hard one to answer, he was sure he had an answer to it as well. Hanaru could push him away all she wanted, beat him, break him, but his resolve was set in stone. He was going to stand by her and push her until she embraced the light she tried to hide away from. There was a possibility that his father would disown him for doing so, but then again his father didn't really care about what he did, especially if it wasn't on par with what Itachi had done at his age. It was always about Itachi. He couldn't even remember the last time his father had told him he was proud of him or loved him. That was fine, if his father didn't care then he wouldn't either. This was bigger than Fugaku though, he was going to break out and do something for himself for once and he was going to do it his way. This wasn't about points or saving face, no, this was about the people that were actually there for him, even if he was stubborn and he denied calling them his friends.

He could make out a bleary bus stop in the distance, might as well take the bus home. The walk in the rain might have done some good when it came to clearing his mind, it didn't exactly erase the events of the day. As he got closer though he could make out two people taking shelter there, one was a noodle of a man and on the other side someone who looked awfully familiar. His pace picked up, but the strange looking noodle man pulled his jacket over his fabulous hairdo and disappeared into the curtain of rain. With his stomach knotting he finally reached the makeshift shelter, but he said nothing.
 
Shikamaru shuffled uncomfortably in the seat of the car. They had said goodbye to Asuna and Granny Fu in the house and had then proceeded to Eiji's hatchback. The ride was... awkward. Shikamaru hadn't spoken with Asuna's dad like this in a really long time, and even in the past, the blonde was usually there herself in order to mitigate between the two (or keep them from going for each other's necks, considering Asuna's best friend was a boy). Eiji sighed in the silence as he slowly drove, rain pouring down outside the safety of the car and Shikamaru tensed even more than he already was. 'Please don't speak. Please don't try to start a conversation. This already sucks.' the poor Nara thought, his complex paler than normal as Mr. Takanashi opened his mouth to speak.
Practically read the riot act regarding Asuna, Shikamaru had no idea what to say. "Uh..." usually he was full of ideas, and could think about the pros and cons of what he said in any given situation, but his mind was drawing blanks. Was it because he was Asuna's dad? Was it because he knew that every time he saw Eiji's daughter, his heartbeat sped up significantly? That certainly couldn't be why... right? Realizing that maybe he had been expecting Shikamaru to say something, the male coughed awkwardly, unsure what to do with himself still. Shit oh shit he was grabbing his shirt. Shikamaru blanched, staring down the metaphorical barrel as Eiji scowled at him. He scowled himself as soon as Eiji let go of him. Sure, the wrath of a father was something he was familiar with--though Shikaku was very easy-going, it rarely appeared. Only when Shikamaru had endangered himself in training once did he experience his father's wrath. That being said, if he really wanted, Shikamaru was certain he could outwit Asuna's father--call him confident or whatever, even his unpredictableness could be taken in account in order to factor in enough variables to leave Shikamaru out on top.
The were getting out of the car and walking up to Shikamaru's front door by the time the male actually spoke up. They paused before Shikamaru turned to look up at Eiji Takanashi, and there was a resolute expression on his face. "Takanashi-san, I'd never let anything I couldn't help happen to your daughter," he started, his hands shoving deep into his pockets. God this was so troublesome--he'd rather they didn't have to have this conversation. "Asuna is my teammate, and although our relationship has been... estranged... these last couple of years, I will still look out for her as I always have." And that wasn't a lie. Even though they hadn't exactly been friends since their drifting apart, Shikamaru always seemed to have one eye on Asuna. After all, even if the status of 'best-friend' had been "It's Complicated" at best, he would still keep Ino from harrassing the poor girl too much, distracting her by saying how annoying she was. Or he'd unintentionally trip someone who was on their way to mess with her, or... Really, the more he thought about it, the more Shikamaru began to wonder if it wasn't really an act of unconscious kindness, or really his subconcious being drawn to Asuna in a way that he could never quite fully understand.
Maybe... he'd always liked her. It was hard to tell considering he'd been so adamantly against the idea at first. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd try to deny something to himself, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.
As they stood out in the rain, Shikamaru heard the lock on the door click, and it swung open to reveal a surprised Shikaku. "Eiji! It's been awhile, huh?" the older Nara smirked, pulling Shikamaru home. "You responsible for bringing this rascal home? Thanks, I really appreciate it," he attempted to ruffle Shikamaru's hair and the male could only offer the darkest of glares to his father as the man continued to speak. "I heard that the goings-on at the school was... quite eventful today. I hope everything was alright." Oh, yeah, totally fine. Asuna just got harrassed by a creepy government official. Shikamaru gave his father a look that very clearly communicated 'I'll tell you later' between the two, and Shikaku nodded, deep in thought for only the breath of a moment before he turned to Eiji. "Seriously, you should come over sometime--bring the family. Or we'll have to go out drinking some night, my treat."
"I'm going to bed," Shikamaru loudly announced, slipping past his father and inside. He waved a hand toward his mother who called out to him as he passed. She was cooking something, and although it smelled amazing, Shikamaru had lost his appetite. He had no need for food, and only thoughts of sleep consumed him. Before he could let himself pass out on his bed, however (on top of his sheets and with only his shirt and pants thrown off), he made sure to send a quick text to Asuna. 'Remember to actually sleep, dumb dumb.'
Shikaku watched him go, a sigh on his lips. "That boy... his wits are unparalleled and yet he uses all of that capacity and potential to make sure he's perfectly average in everything he does. I just don't get it... how troublesome."

------------------------

"It's not my fault that your boss was looking for the wrong person for the job," Hanaru growled, starting to get annoyed with this mafia-wannabe. "Lil Larry can go fuck off," she grumbled, crossing her arms under her chest as she glared out in the sheets of rain. It was making her. 'Damn rain...' as if her mood wasn't already bad enough without this downpour. Hanaru barely noticed Larry slip off as her ears swiveled to the opposite side; the distinct sound of footsteps approaching catching her attention. Who the hell was out in this hour? In this weather?! Normally she might have been able to detect or at least recognize the individual via scent alone but the rain was once again the bane of her existence, disguising any and all scents with the smell of wet earth and humid must.
A lovely combo. They should make that shit into a candle. Not.
Relying on sight, she turned her head, only for her body to freeze and her golden eyes to widen. Oh... certainly the last person she had been expecting to roam the streets at this hour in the pouring rain. The sky was starting to darken--though that could be because the rain was starting to pound harder as lightning flashed, illuminating their figures even more than the soft light of the bus stop.
Hanaru turned her gaze, refusing to look at Sasuke more than that first instance. At first she was still, unsure what to do with herself. Her fists clenched and unclenched before she started pacing, every once and awhile glaring out into the sheeting rain again, once more cursing its very existence. Every once and awhile, she would prep herself, as if going and running out into the rain, only to curl back in on herself, her fur literally spiking up at the thought of getting drenched. Growling in frustration at her own instincts, she turned on her heel and sat down on the bench in a huff, her eyes narrowing at her situation. Hadn't she said enough to him? Hadn't he known she was a murderer, a monster... someone who had killed her own mother? It had been an accident. She didn't have control over her body. But it was her hands that were covered in blood, at the end of the day.
Bending over her knees, Hanaru was sure she looked ridiculous, fur all fluffed up. The purplette ruffled her hair, growling in frustration. "How ridiculous! Defeated by rain and my own instincts...!" it was more so to herself but she didn't doubt that Sasuke heard it. It wasn't as though the dinky little bus stop shelter area was very spacious. And she was exhausted, mentally and physically drained after the day's events. "Guess I'm sleeping here..." she curled into herself, huffing. Embarrassed. Face pink.
TL; DR? This sucked. AND IN FRONT OF SASUKE?! Seriously it was as if they were pulled to each other in her worst moments. She cracked one eyelid to look at the male, only to find his gaze upon her and she nearly jumped, startled. "What?!" she snapped, her eyebrows narrowing, and then immediately softening as she blushed, as if recognizing she was being too harsh, before looking away with an angry pout. Silence fell over the two for a moment more, and Hanaru debated her next words very carefully. "H-how... are you feeling...?" she asked cautiously, almost looking as if the phrase had burned her. She was concerned... about another being... it was hard to communicate.
 
Sasuke had been watching Hanaru quietly, he hadn't expected to run into her at all on his little walk thinking she'd already made it home long before the storm rolled in. "I'm fine," he said with a shrug, still a little sensitive both from the blow to the stomach and Hanaru's words, but he'd live. "Thought you'd be home by now," not that he actually knew where she lived, it's not like he was ever bothered enough to actually find out. Taking a seat, he turned his gaze back on the rain, trying to ignore how cute the purplette looked all fluffed up and his own desire to reach out and pet her head. Watching the almost empty road for a minute, denying his previous thought of the girl being 'cute', a sigh passed his lips, "You're not sleeping on the bench like some hobo," especially not if he had anything to say about it. Standing up again, he opened the umbrella and held it out, "C'mon, I don't have all night."
It took some coaxing and a flick at her forehead to finally get her to step out from under the bus stop. Sasuke maneuvered the thin plastic to cover as much of the girl as possible, pulling her closer as they walked. "You're such a pain, I can't always be there to look out for your weak ass," he complained half-heartedly letting the rain hit his arm, but at least it kept Hanaru dry, echoing her words right back at her. "Can't cats sense when it's going to rain or something?" He tried to think up anything he could to make things seem normal, doing his best to ignore the butterflies in his stomach and the increasing need to scratch her ears.

Not exactly knowing where he was going, he allowed her to lead the way to the apartment building she stayed at. His eyes trailed over the building, being used to more lavish environments, not that the building was an eye sore or anything, but looking at it from the outside it looked like they tried to cram in as many rooms as possible, "This your stop?"
He handed her the umbrella as he wasn't planning on hanging around and he didn't want to miss the bus either. The water didn't bother him nearly as much as it bothered her, "It's fine, just give it back tomorrow."
There was a lot that he wanted to say, but it didn't seem like the right time or place, "You still owe me a sparring match," was all he said with a smirk, maybe with this day over and done with things would go back to being normal. Sasuke gave her half a wave as he made his way back to the bus stop, fully drenched by the time he reached it and almost missing the bus in the process.

"I'm home," he called out as he stepped into the house, water pooling around him as he stood in the genkan. The savoury smell of warm food wafted through the house and it wasn't long before the sound of someone hurrying to the front door could be heard. "Sasuke, you're home! Where have you been?" Mikoto had taken one look at him before she turned around and disappeared back into the house no doubt to fetch him a towel. "I..." he stopped, trying to think of what to say, "I walked Sakura home," was what he had decided to roll with as his mother returned with a towel in hand. The worry and relief of him being home was evident on her face, "I heard the inspector was at the school today," she said warily, "Your father's been called out. What happened?"
Sasuke shrugged, "Mitomori-san was there, ruffled some feathers," he didn't want to mention Hanaru's involvement or the fact that he'd been baited in attacking the man, but it didn't look like his mother was buying into his vague explanation. "No one expected him to show up, some students were interrogated and he trailed after Naruto, like usual." Liar, but a part of him was trying to protect Hanaru for as long as he could and while the other didn't want to worry his mother. Dinner with his mother was quite pleasant as he was able to divert the conversation away from the inspector and to more normal and less stressful things.

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"Ages! But who's counting?" Eiji laughed, he was usually quite the social butterfly and unlike Asuna actually enjoyed customers who browsed for hours without actually buying anything as they traded stories and local gossip. "He's a good lad, couldn't let him walk home in this storm after he's been such a little helper in the store, y'know?"
Eiji wasn't a bad guy, yes, he had flaws and a short temper and a slew of personal issues and probably not about to receive any parent of the year awards, but all in all he would consider himself a pretty good guy. After their yelling match that morning, Asuna had let slip Shikamaru's situation with his father. As a father himself he could understand where Shikaku was coming from, only wanting the best for his son and the backlash because kids were kids and the older they got the more independent they tried to be and how quickly things went from 'Daddy I love you' to 'I hate you, get out of my life'. He was far from being an expert when it came to teenagers, but he was pretty confident he'd learned a thing or two about them. Quietly he watched the exchange between the two, an irritated feeling rising in his chest as he didn't know what the Nara meant with the 'going-ons at the school' and for a moment he wondered if bringing the boy home wasn't a plan Asuna had concocted to get out of telling him where she'd gotten those bruises.

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing," he mentally shook his head at the thought of this being some elaborate plan. "Hm, kids these days, I wish they came with instruction manuals," he joked as Shikamaru retreated, "Using his wits to outwit the witty and appear average? Clever boy. Was thinking about letting him work a part time internship, he's already lasted longer under the little sergeant major than most people I hire."
"Oh?" Shikaku looked a little surprised, his son wasn't exactly the most motivated person in the world and here Eiji was ready to hire him.
"Oh yeah, wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it! He's been hanging around the store lately, so leave it to my daughter to put him to work and work he did!" Eiji might have been twisting the truth a little, but if the boy was going to do him a solid, he'd hand no choice but to return that favor, "I'm no expert, but I've found letting them off to stumble on their own and knock their heads a little helps them find their feet y'know?"
With the pleasantries out of the way and the men in agreement that a drink was long overdue, Eiji declined Shikaku's offer to join them that night for dinner as he was itching to get home, growing more worried by the minute that Asuna had planned this and was going to be fast asleep by the time he got home.

The speed limit started looking more and more like a suggestion instead of a warning as Eiji finally tore himself away for the budding conversation, his inner socialite begging to go back and indulge in hours of banter. He all but threw the door open when he finally arrived home, but it seemed that no, Asuna wasn't trying to divert his attention as she was sitting half asleep on the couch lazily flicking the cat who was playing with her fingers. "What did you do? You didn't threaten Shikamaru did you?" Asuna shot her father a glance over the backrest of the couch, he'd been gone longer than she'd hoped and she couldn't bring herself to crawl into bed like she wanted to. "No, not at all! We had a little chat, I almost stayed for dinner when Shikaku came around," Eiji said with a tense smile, trying to keep his cool, as he crossed the open area and joined the blonde on the couch, but it faded into a deadly serious look as he waited silently for her to say something, eyeing the scroll that was deliberately place right next to the ashtray.

While her father was out, the blonde pondered on how to break the news of her mission and tell her father about Mitomori without triggering him, but neither portions of news would be easy no matter how she worded them. Shifting her position, she scooted closer to her old man, leaning slightly against his side as she pulled her knees up to her chest. Taking a deep breath she told him a softer version of the day's events, playing down some of the aspects and already a dark look settled on her father's face.
His silence was terrifying.
Though the hand stroking her head was gentle, she could feel him shaking in anger. It rolled off of him in waves, engulfing the room.
Asuna tried to fight back the pickling feeling behind her eyes, but her father had a way of making her feel small and vulnerable, being able to tear down her walls with his mere presence alone. When the first stray tear appeared in her eye, it was over. Eiji had her in his arms, despite her fighting to break free, he held her close until she gave up. To say that the man was angry would have been an understatement, he was livid, and doing his best to keep it to himself. The sobbing girl in his arms had done nothing wrong in his eyes, so it would have been wrong to let her take the brunt of his anger, but someone would. He was not going to forget.
Asuna hated every second of her pitiful sobbing and although it brought some degree of relief, it filled her with disgust.
There she remained, the roaring storm outside drowning out her own, until sleep took her from Eiji's embrace.

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Bleak and dreary; the stars were shrouded by the dark clouds, the blackened heavens cascading the world in it's tears.
The lamenting night sky was all but ignored by those who tread in the neon city glow.

"And here I thought ninja were suppose to be silent, hm," Aku didn't turn to meet his guest, his eyes focused on the paperwork before him.
"And I thought you government types had more tact," his guest said from the large, plush leather chair in the corner of the room, "You should be more careful, Mitomori-san, one of these days you'll die by your own hand."
Piercing eyes shot up and bore into the golden gaze of the person on the far side of the room, "Tch, I got you what you wanted, you should be more grateful. One must not be afraid of breaking a few eggs when trying to make an omelette."
"But breaking a few dozen is sloppy. Hiruzen is not so easily fooled as your adoring public," rising from the chair, the figure stalked to the desk where a small stack of files neatly rested on the corner, "Hm, these will do quite nicely- ah, I see you were able to get the one on the Uchiha boy."
"Yes, and I was almost splintered by that beastly Sanin. Hiruzen should put a leash on her and maybe even a muzzle," Aku lamented as he watched the long lithe fingers of the man before him flip through the medical records as if they held the secret to life and the universe itself. "Don't forget your half of our little deal, I'd hate for word to get out and have your hideout raided~" the blonde cooed, only for the man to leer at him, "Hm, and I would hate for the public to know just how dirty those white gloves of yours are, Mitomori-san."
Mitomori only chuckled as he leaned back into his chair, never in all his life would he ever have imagined himself getting so involved with the yakuza, "I don't know what you're talking about, Orochimaru-san."

Neither star- nor moonlight were present to bare witness that night. The world turning a blind eye to the secret rendezvous.
 
Hanaru’s eyes had widened at his gesture. Wh… what? “No way I don’t need your help,” she hissed, though her voice lacked all the venom it had earlier. Still—so what if she wanted to sleep on the bench like some hobo? What did it matter? Or more like… why did it matter to him? She couldn’t even begin to understand the mixed emotions that flooded her person as he flicked her forehead, lips parting and forming incoherent words of aggression until it melted into a pout. “Geez, fine. Whatever helps you sleep at night…” she mumbled, getting up finally and walking next to him, choosing not to say anything as he pulled her closer. He was getting wet, but if the alternative was getting wet herself, she wasn’t about to question it. “I’m only have cat,” she muttered at his words, her eyes narrowing. “Usually I might have done more to ensure I got out of it, but let’s just say I got cocky.” That was on brand, right?
Thankfully the silence wasn’t actually intolerable, like plenty of their other shared moments had experienced. There was nothing wrong with walking beside someone and not picking up a conversation, right? Besides… Hanaru had done enough talking in one day, and spilled a lot more than she’d initially ever wanted to share with anyone. Before she’d even realized it, her feet had instinctively lead her to her apartment complex—the same one where Naruto lived with his adoptive father a couple doors down from her. At first she thought the arrangements were made this way so Jiraiya could keep an eye on her while he was home, but now she wondered if that was the case at all. Hiruzen really trusted her a lot more than she gave him credit for.
”Sasuke…” she tried to argue, but he was already pushing the umbrella into her hands, the promise of another sparring match on his lips as he walked away through the rain. At his wave, she brought her hand up, hesitating in her uncertainty. Her ears flattened against her head as she struggled to understand. Why? Why be nice to her? His words from earlier, in the art room, swam in her head as she stumbled into her apartment. Hanaru didn’t have many belongings. She’d grown up not having much of anything, and so she found it entirely unnecessary to hold on to things simply for the hell of it. That being said, her one photograph was a very old, and rather bloodstained picture of her and her mother, Izai. Hanaru had been maybe three? Or four? And her smile was bright. Most days when she was cooped up in the apartment, all she would do was stare and glare at that one picture. But now… her eyes glistened with unshed tears, as one thought flashed through her mind as she dragged herself to bed.
If they could forgive her… did that mean her mother could as well? Could she finally rest in peace? Hanaru had a dreamless sleep.

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^

In the morning she had showered and blow-dried her hair (and fur) and got ready for the day as she normally did. She hadn’t used her sleeves since she had used them to wipe the blood from Sasuke’s face, but they had since been cleaned (she knew how to get out bloodstains like a champ by this point) and so she covered up her scars once more. If they thought her arms were bad, then she had absolutely no interest in showing them her back. It had rained all night and there were puddles left glistening in the roads and sidewalks, but by the time Hanaru appeared from her apartment, Sasuke’s umbrella in hand, the sun was shining. As she began to walk towards the school, it wasn’t very hard to pick up on the fact that she was being followed. Some not-so-sneaky men, including Lil… Lil Loser, or whatever his name was from yesterday, there were two more men with him. Their “stealth” was subpar, and Hanaru could have easily lost them, but she was having too much fun trying not to laugh as they frantically scurried into alleys and behind light posts when they thought she wasn’t looking. Honestly, how pathetic! No, she could ignore them, and thus was her walk to school, twirling the umbrella absentmindedly.

--------------------------------

”I’m gonna what…?” The breakfast table hadn’t been this lively in a long time, and the Nara clan head smiled happily as her husband explained what a great opportunity it was to work at the Shuffle of Things in a sort of internship.
”As I said,” Shikaku spoke after swallowing. “Eiji-san proposed you actually get benefits from helping out at the store, considering Asuna-chan tends to put you to work while you’re there.” Shikamaru groaned, eating his egg fried rice with an unimpressed look upon his face. “Aw, c’mon Shika. This is seriously just what you need.”
The young Nara could only offer his father the best ‘are you sure about that?’ face that he had, eyes narrowed slightly as his lips remained in an impassive scowl. “Please Shikamaru? Do ityou’re your father and I?” Yoshino’s smile was just as sweet as her personality, and although Shikamaru wanted nothing more than to stand up and return himself to bed, he knew he’d have to hurry if he wanted to be doing morning detention for their previous night’s escapades. He hung his head as he finished his meal, standing up without another word. Taking his silence as acceptance, Yoshino could only continue to smile. “Great, so you begin this afternoon—make sure to walk Asuna-chan home, too. Like a gentleman.”
”Yes mother…” he grumbled, gathering his things after putting his dishes in the sink. “Man… how troublesome…”
”We’re doing this, Shikamaru…” Shikaku started, pausing as his son’s unimpressed expression turned back toward him. After all, what hadn’t Shikamaru heard before? ‘Because we love you’? ‘Because we care about you’? All things he’d heard before. “Because,” Shikaku cleared his throat as he came to his conclusion. “You and Asuna used to be close, yes?” Of course his parents remembered the two, always running around and causing trouble. “You work well together on your squad—consider this extended training. Besides, I know how much it would mean to Eiji, since he splits his time between the hospital and the shop.”
That, of course, had Shikamaru pausing. A sigh left his lips at the thought of Asuna’s tearful confession that her mother had relapsed yet again. Why couldn’t the doctors just… figure out what was wrong already? It made no sense to him, but then again, he was no medical nin. “Fine, I got it.” Happy with his answer, his parents bid him a good day. Shikamaru hadn’t told his father anything about what happened with Aku Mitomori the previous day, but he hadn’t bothered because he was sure Shikaku had heard most if not the whole truth of the male’s visit. He didn’t understand why Mitomori was so focused on Hanaru and Sasuke, but whatever the issue there was, Shikamaru knew it would probably negatively affect all of the genin surrounding them. The one thing he did know, however, was that no matter what happened… he was going to be there to support his team, and specifically Asuna. He didn’t care if she wanted his help or not, she was going to get it regardless.
The walk to school had been quiet, and Shikamaru was actually the first student to show up for detention, Ino and Shino not being far behind. They worked in silence, for once (in Ino’s sake) and it went by relatively smoothly. The only thing that occupied Shikamaru’s thoughts were now the mission that they had to face this weekend, and he wondered silently if Asuna was going to try to push herself in training again. Yes, it was good to test your limits, but push too hard and chakra draining had some nasty side-effects (the main one that he was concerned about being death, of course). He mentally reminded himself to make her take it easy. He knew she felt unprepared, but Asuna was strong—what she had done to the training grounds the previous day had been proof enough of that. Just… why couldn’t she see it for herself?
 
Before dawn even peeked over the horizon, Asuna had awoken. At first she was confused, just how and when she'd actually come to bed? She didn't even remember falling asleep in the first place. The curled up ball of fluff, so warm and soft in her neck, started purring as she stirred and she'd almost fallen asleep again, but there was lots to do and she still fully intended to catch the morning detention session. An eerie, unnatural silence saturated the air and she'd almost jumped out of her skin as her father sat quietly at the table, elbow deep in what looked like paperwork. A curt and stiff "Good morning," is all that Eiji could spare her as she went about the morning, the young blonde giving him long questioning glances whenever she passed by him. He was never up this early or looked so apathetic, but she knew better than to prod him. His piercing gaze lingering on her throat told her all she needed to know. "So I...forgot to tell you, but we have this mission-" she started, spotting the summons scroll on the table.
"I've read the summons."
Silence. Asuna wasn't sure whether to back off or push the subject, her father was extremely hard to read when he wasn't bouncing off of the walls, "We'll, ah, we leave on Friday and we'll be ba-"
"I'll think about it."
She was biting at her lip, brows knit together, as she watched her old man flipping through the large file. It didn't sound like he had any intention of letting her go on the mission at all, "We're really excited about it, the team. We finally get to do something and Ino said we could-"
"Asuna, what did I just say?!" Eiji said a lot louder and harsher than he intended as his hand came down on the fat ledger he'd been trying to focus on. Honestly though, he couldn't focus on the figures. If the bruises weren't noticeable yesterday, they sure as hell were today. The black and blue blotches that bloomed up her neck made his heart clench. His most important duty as a father was to protect his child from harm and he couldn't do that and the thought only fueled his anger more, but seeing the brief flash of fear in her eyes only made his heart ache more. Did she really think he would- ?

Eiji stood from the table and abruptly stomped out of the room, leaving Asuna to her chores. It wasn't until she was ready to head out when she saw her father again, clutching some black material in his hands, "Here, wear this. It was your mother's. I'm not angry with you, Asu." his voice low, his free hand reaching for her, fingers ghosting over the blooming discoloured splotches on her skin, but he never touched her almost as if he was afraid his touch would hurt her. "Yeah, alright," she wasn't really sure how to handle her father right now, he was acting strangely, and while she wanted to pick at him until they were both screaming at each other, but there was something holding her back from doing so. Taking the fabric she left for her room to change again, the black material turned out to be a turtleneck vest and it did a moderately good job at covering the bruises on her neck. It was weird wearing her mother's clothes, even if it was just a vest. She quickly fished a jacket from her closet and pulled it on. Unlike the vest that clung to her body, the jacket was oversized, a souvenir she picked up after an inter school event. After dropping it off in the lost and found and it having not been claimed after three days she decided to...acquire it. What? It was a damn good looking jacket in her opinion. The owner was an idiot for losing it in the first place. From the make and size, she could tell it was a men's jacket, perhaps a jonin or a senior? She wasn't sure and she didn't care either.

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The storm has Sasuke sleeping like a baby and when he woke, he went about his morning, expecting things to have gone back to normal, but as he stepped into the kitchen, his father sat at the table, arms crossed over his chest. "Sasuke, sit down," the man's words had Sasuke's heart racing, but he didn't show it as he took a seat. His mother had already fixed breakfast, but she was nowhere in sight. "What is it?" he asked, if his father didn't have the decency to greet him then he wasn't going to either and Fukagu was clearly tense. "I heard what happened at school," the man started, but Sasuke tried not to appear phased as he started buttering up his toast, "Hm, yeah, a surprise inspection."
"Talking back, attacking an official? Sasuke, what were you thinking?!"
Sasuke paused and looked at his father, "He was harassing students, someone had to stand up to him!"
The air in the room changed instantly as father and son stared each other down. The elder Uchiha wasn't blind to what Mitomori was capable of and he might not have approved of the man at all, but that was why he'd always tried to make his son understand that he had to be the best possible version of himself. There had been incidents in the past, ones that had been covered up and not just by who, but by the Special Police Force themselves. He had only ever told a light version of the stories to his children, so they would separate themselves from possible people who could destroy them and bring the entire family down with them. He tried to teach them to be proud of being from a clan as old and as renowned as the Uchiha clan and that those who were not from shinobi clans or family would never be able to understand what it truly meant to be a shinobi.

Fugaku could remember one incident clearly, one that still kept him up at night; a previously non-shinobi family who were quickly rising up and making a name for themselves, who broke the confines of tradition...who didn't understand why Aku Mitomori could do as he pleased. They had said things that the man didn't like. Overnight, that clan had ceased to exist. The official report that they had released -that they had been made to release- villainized the clanhead, an undercover yakuza project that ended badly as they turned on themselves.
He knew the truth though, he could still see the scene.
Aku hadn't bothered to hide his tracks, he had used every contact and resource in his seemingly endless supply and all but massacred the clan. The civilian police? The special police force? If they valued the lives of their clansmen, they turned a blind eye. He might not have seemed like he cared, but Fugaku cared deeply for his family and did all he could to keep his wife and sons safe, even if that meant they would hate him.
"It is not your place! I know of the student that was assaulted, that girl is nothing but trouble and the other one...is not someone you should associate yourself with! Those types are beneath you, the kind that would pull you down when they drown and not think twice about it."
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly, did his father know about Hanaru? His hands clenched, his breakfast forgotten as he met his father's glare, "To serve and protect, isn't that what we strive for? How can you just sit there and expect me to not stand up for my classmates?!"
"Heed my warning, boy, If you roll around in carrion you'll end up surrounded by vultures. I expect you to prepare a full apology for your actions, do you understand me? Why do you have to be such a foolish child, your brother would have handled the situation with more tact."

Sasuke stood from the table, knocking the chair over. Turning on his heel he left the house, making sure to slam every door he walked through. What did it matter if he dedicated his life to trying to live by his family's code of conduct when his father basically told him to not bother with anyone else and only look out for himself because he was from a renowned family? It angered him to his core. Granted he didn't know the blonde slacker very well, but he knew Hanaru...sort of, she wasn't as horrible of a person as she tried to be. His walk to school had turned into a jog, which then turned into him sprinting trying to put as much distance between him and his father.
I am not Itachi.
I am not Itachi.
I am not Itachi.​

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Asuna wasn't sure if she should have been surprised to have seen Shikamaru of all people already at school and cleaning the windows when she arrived to check in for detention. "Morning, never figured you for an early riser," she said as she eyed his work critically, he wasn't doing as good a job as he had in the shop and she fought with herself to correct him. This room...was not her problem, at least that's what she told herself as she gathered up as many supplies as she could carry, "Ne, see you later." That classroom didn't need a fourth hand and they were making some good progress, half assed, but it was still progress. With a good night's sleep she felt ready to take on just about anything as she entered the empty classroom down the hall. As she finished pushing all the desks out of the way to properly clean the floor, the Uchiha prodigy was so graciously delivered at her doorstep. At first she tried to ignore him, but everything he did irritated her; his grip on the broom, the half hearted little pushes he gave it, standing and glaring into space...it was a work of art really. Asuna had never seen someone so terribly average. She wouldn't call him terrible, she'd definitely seen worse, but this was just the right amount of 'bad' to make her actually stop and watch him.​

Sasuke was not oblivious to the blonde's boring into the back of his skull and it was starting to annoy him, "What are you looking at? Get back to work," he huffed. "Have you ever actually done any chores?" her question made him turn around and glare at her, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean you're doing a shitty job at cleaning like you've never had to do it before. I wouldn't really put it past a rich kid like you." Her words had him bristling, "There's nothing wrong with the way I'm cleaning!" he defended, pointing to the floor. It looked clean enough for him. "I would never hire you so much as scrub the floor of a fast food street vendor with what you're doing. Ugh, it's so dirty I can feel myself getting eye syphilis from just looking at your shoddy workmanship!" The blonde rubbed her temple as she walked over to the boy and took the broom from his grasp, "You have to grab the shaft, like really get a feel for it and don't sweep with your elbows!" Sasuke glared at the floor as she swept over the spot he had, somehow sweeping up dirt that wasn't there when he went over it. "Tch, don't tell me what to do!" he snatched up the broom and started sweeping again, feeling her judging him silently. Asuna kept an eye on him and his terrible cleaning skills, she was not going to let him leave until the room was spotless and maybe, she was actually enjoying having something to hold over the snobby prodigy. As she moved around though, she had to keep pulling her shirt down as it kept riding up, something she discovered when she was too far from home to double back and change. Her mother was a tall woman with a very slim build, while she was shorter with a more stocky build. Thankfully, she had the sense to wear the oversized jacket to at least give her some sort of modestly and not leave her exposing her midriff to the student body...or was she more concerned about one person in particular's opinion?
 
Shikamaru heard Asuna come in before he had seen her face appear next to him as he cleaned. "I'm not," he answered her statement simply, his curt tone not directed at her but coming out curt all the same. "Bye," he turned to look at her finally as she left, sighing and shaking his head. He knew what scrutiny of his work felt like, and he also knew the standards that Asuna usually upheld when it came to cleaning and he wasn't exactly holding himself to that standard. For one reason, the school wasn't the store, so he felt no particular obligation to do a nice job. Another reason being he was just too tired to put more effort into any of his work, despite actually having slept well the previous night. Why did it always somehow seem to work out that whenever he got a good night's sleep, the next day he was even more tired and lazy than usual? That didn't make any sense at all.
It wasn't long before another person waltzed through the door--despite how Aku Mitomori was breathing down her neck the previous day, the purple haired female looked rather amused as she picked up a rag, wet it, and went to work lazily wiping down the blackboard. He watched out of the corner of his eye as he tails and ears flicked independently of her movements, and he reminded himself silently of his words the other day about demons and the rift. She was connected, somehow. That would play into her strange appearance, surely, but Shikamaru couldn't find that tie. That invisible string that followed a person through their lives as they tangled their own web, twisted, clean, or anything in between, that thread of truth was something that Shikamaru's intellect was usually good at spotting. That being said, it was as if Hanaru was the one exception. He was missing a big chunk of her backstory, and he was intrigued, but not enough that he risked a beating to ask.
"Take a picture, it'd last longer," her voice floated up from the front of the classroom, and Shikamaru looked down to his hands to find that he had paused his sweeping in order to stare at her. She hadn't been looking at him before, but as he looked away he could feel molten amber orbs sinking into his skin before they turned back around to the blackboard.
"What did Mitomori want with you?" She didn't pause in her actions, but her ears had flattened against her head at his words. "He doesn't normally go after anyone besides that blonde dobe."
All Hanaru could do was turn and look at the lazy male with a blank expression, "I have cat ears and a cat tail, exactly what part of me falls into 'normal'." Shikamaru blinked at her blunt statement before shrugging--she wasn't exactly wrong. That being said, he knew, instantly, that she wasn't telling him everything. After all, pointing out was was commonly known to be true was just a way to lure someone in to believe a lie. He wouldn't press any further--he wasn't in the mood to try and touch their resident cactus, but he was intrigued, even if only enough to keep his mind running while they finished up the room. He couldn't wait for Asuna to return, or for Choji to get to the school, but... the silence wasn't exactly uncomfortable. It was shared from a mutual perspective of "you don't disrespect me, and I won't disrespect you." And... well, he was perfectly fine with that.

---------------------

"Oh I hope Sasuke slept in so that we can do our detention together...!" Sakura was exclaiming dreamily as she walked towards the school, Ino begrudgingly following with Choji not too far behind (but not involved in their conversation, either).
"Even if he was, he wouldn't waste his breath on you, Sakura-chan," Ino snickered, before dramatically placing a hand on her chest. "He'd sooner spend the time with me! Besides, when it happens, he'll ask me out, I'll say yes (of course) and the rest will be history! Kinda like how your billboard brow is history, billboard brow!"
"Oh yeah, Ino-pig?!" Sakura growled--it was really easy to get them riled up, huh? The more Choji observed, the more he began to really crave popcorn. He needed some, considering he was still too young to drink, but he was considering how much adults consumed and it made sense now. "Well guess what, if he's going to date anyone, it's going to be me! You wanna know why? Sasuke walked me home yesterday~!"
"You little liar!" Oh great, more squabbling.
As they approached the school and entered the hallways, outside their homeroom they happened upon Naruto trying to explain something frantically to Kiba and Hinata. "Slow d-down Naruto-kun..." the shy female was saying, trying to get the blonde knucklehead to breathe.
"What were you sayin' about some thugs?" Kiba grumbled, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to pay attention, for Naruto's sake. "You were on your way to school....? And?"
"AND! I saw Ha-chan," Naruto took a deep breath before going into his story again. "We live in the same complex on the same floor, but she never waits for me..."
"That's because you never wake up on time," Sakura pointed outly blankly, a flat expression on her face with her and Ino's argument momentarily forgotten.
"Y-Yeah yeah, whatever," he sped, trying to hurry and tell what he saw before the bell for first period signaled. "So I was gonna call out to her, right? But then! I saw three thugs, all dressed in black, tailing her!" He looked between the small group that had gathered, but none of them seemed to share his reaction. "C'mon guys, that's so suspicious. And they weren't even sneaky at all, it was like they weren't even trying. Trust me, they were worse than ME at sneaking!"
"That's a first--and equally concerning," Kiba snickered, and Naruto glared and lightly punched his arm. "Alright, did she notice them? She had to--she's a cat. If she had sense they were a threat, she would have ran."
"Yeah, but...!" Naruto pouted. "Who are they? And what do they want?"
"Gee, why don't you go ask them?" Ino rolled her eyes, her arms crossed under her chest. Naruto's eyes seemed to light up at that idea, and despite how quickly he seemd to turn around Ino still managed to snag his arm and bark at him before he could go running off. "I WAS KIDDING!"
"Th-That's sweet that you're concerned, N-Naruto-kun," Hinata said shyly, speaking up with a blush. "M-maybe do some more observations?"
That seemed to strike a chord and Naruto grinned widely at the Hyuuga. "You're right... thanks for the idea Hinata-chan!" Sakura sighed--the poor thing looked like a tomato incarnate. "So... initiate plan 'Observe Hanaru-chan's Stalkers is a go!" Sakura sighed--this was ridiculous.
 
Normally, Asuna didn't hold grudges, there was no point in holding onto something that happened in the past. Today though? She chose to hold a grudge against Sasuke's actions the previous day. Once she finished with the blackboard, she leaned on the teacher's table, watching the revenette silently. She didn't need to say anything, Sasuke could feel her eyes on him and it was feeding more into his frustrations as he swept and swept and swept over the same patch of floor but somehow it was not looking as clean at the area beside it where she had so graciously 'demonstrated' the 'correct' way of doing things. "Knock it off, you're so annoying!" his face scrunched up as he turned to look at her. She looked at him the same way his father did and he didn't like it one bit. "Hmm, what happened to 'having school pride' and all that good stuff you were talking about yesterday?" The blonde didn't show it but watching the boy getting all riled up over something so small and insignificant as her opinion was highly amusing, "When Shikamaru doesn't put any effort into what he's doing and still does the job better..."
No, he was not going to be compared to that slacker! He was working his butt off and she had no right to compare him to that...that unmotivated sorry excuse for a ninja!
Before either of them knew it, Sasuke had thrown the broom on the floor, stalked up to her and was leaning over her smaller figure. One hand gripped her wrist while the other had taken hold of her collar, "Stop comparing us! I'm not Itachi!" he had yelled in her impassive face. He froze, he couldn't believe what he had just said, Itachi had nothing to do with this! Standing close, with his breath fanning over her face, his obsidian orbs caught a glimpse of something under the turtleneck and he quickly let go of the black fabric, horror and disgust flashed in his eyes. The bruises Mitomori had left looked bad...really, really bad and it made his stomach knot. Sure, he'd taken a fist to the gut, but he had recovered. By the looks of things, the blonde was going to be wearing neck coverings for a while all because she didn't give up anything about Hanaru or Naruto.

Asuna remained passive even as the Uchiha tried to intimidate her with his size, it wasn't hard really, she'd faced off against worse, but his choice of words were odd, "Uh, Duh. You can be my fairy godmother for all I care, but you're still doing a shitty job after I told you how to do it right." She was being deliberate and enjoying it and obviously not pushing him on why he'd think she was comparing him to his brother. She wasn't an idiot, he obviously had issues in his family, it wasn't her place to ask or ever get involved. This room, this detention sentence, that was her business, "Pick up the broom and do it like I showed you. If you're really some hot shot prodigy, then it shouldn't be so hard to sweep the damn floor."
Letting her go, Sasuke clicked his tongue and found the discarded broom. No one ever talked to him like that and it was weird, mentally he applauded the balls she had to address him like he was a toddler. Asuna was hot on his heels, now fully scrutinizing him over his shoulder, constantly making little remarks like "You're pushing too hard" and "Your grip is laughable" and "Wrong, try again" until he shoved the broom in her hands with a "Do it yourself then!" and stormed out. Her apathetic look dissolved into a very satisfied grin as he left the way most employees that she didn't outright fire left.

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Sasuke was done, he did his best and his best wasn't good enough, or at least she didn't want to accept that she was the one that was wrong because he knew he was doing a damn good job. He entered the classroom where the others were, spotting Hanaru by the blackboard. Instead of actually helping, he leaned against the wall, watching them, anger still prickling just under his skin. Subconsciously his glare followed the Nara boy until he finally acknowledged him, "Your little girlfriend is a real piece of work, no wonder you always look the way you do."


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"I'm sure there's a logical explanation for those three guys you saw," Sakura tried to reason, thugs blatantly following someone in broad daylight without trying to hide themselves sounded really strange, "I mean, if they were trying to rob her or something, don't you think they'd be more...inconspicuous?"
"I'm telling you what I saw! They really looked like thugs!" Naruto said clenching his hands, what they wanted with Hanaru he didn't know but he was going to stop them no matter what! "I'm not saying that I don't believe you, I'm just saying they don't sound like very smart thugs if they really are thugs," Sakura could tell that the blond had made up his mind and he was going to be stubborn about it, "We shouldn't jump to conclusions and assume they were up to no good."
"Maybe they were salesmen trying to hawk some stuff?" Ino tried to offer her support, Sakura was annoying but they were still friends to an extent. "No, no, no, they weren't salesmen! They had the suits and the hair that goes like this..." Naruto gestured with his hands, "And one of them was like, really really short and one was really tall and one guy was really fat!"
"Relax, we can check them out, maybe there's something to it," Kiba grinned, "If it turns out to be nothing, then Naruto's buying us lunch for a week!"
"H-HUH?!"
"You're either telling the truth or trying to get back at us for trying to prank you, either way, we'll get to the bottom of this," Kiba said as he swung his arm over Hinata's shoulder, giving the blond a thumbs up.
 
Shikamaru scoffed as Sasuke walked into the room, his panties in a twist. He didn't correct him on whether or not Asuna was his girlfriend--if he had the time to get bent out of shape over something that trivial, then how could he be known for keeping a constant cool/level head? No, Sasuke could assume whatever the hell he wanted. "Just because she knows how to clean a floor and you've never known an honest day's work doesn't mean you get to rip on her, Sasuke," Shikamaru couldn't help but smirk. "No wonder she got rid of you. Asuna may seem like some slacker, but it looks like you can take that title if even she can clean a room better than you can." Something about taking the piss out of the Uchiha prodigy was incredibly cathartic for the young Nara. Of course, with his high and mighty attitude, there was no way Shikamaru was going to let an opportunity like this pass him by.
Hanaru was paying attention to the conversation, one ear pinned in their direction, though if she cared one way or another on either side, she didn't vocalize her thoughts. She continued to clean off the blackboard without another word. "I guess I'll trade places with ya; doesn't make sense to keep so many of us in one place, anyway." Shikamaru haphazardly tossed Sasuke the broom he had been sweeping with, walking out of the room without another word. He had nothing more to say to Sasuke--especially not when the male was part of the reason Asuna was targeted the previous day. Yes, he wasn't exactly responsible for it, but Shikamaru wasn't about to forget that the incident happened, either. Making fun of him in any capacity regardless was entertaining. As Shikamaru walked though the hall, he waved a lazy hand in greeting when Kiba called out to him, but other than that he walked over and into the other classroom silently. By the time he'd gotten there, however, there really wasn't much left to do. He was greeted with a sparkling classroom, and the thought crossed his mind that maybe it hadn't looked this clean since it was built. A low, steady whistle left his lips as he glanced around, leaning against the wall by the door. "I'd offer to help you, but ah... I'm afraid I'd ruin whatever you've got going on here." That, and let's be honest, he wasn't entirely keen on the whole "cleaning detention" thing. Luckily, after this week was over they would no longer have to do it.
Speaking of helping.... Shikamaru nearly groaned out loud at what his father had informed him of that morning at breakfast. Did Asuna know? Had her father spoken about it to her already? Well, Shikamaru supposed he would find out eventually, so he might as well ask for the Takanashi girl's opinion on the matter. "So... apparently your dad and my dad spoke," he started out slowly, his dark gaze following her movements as he tried to gauge her reaction to his words. Honestly, though, part of what intrigued and endeared Asuna to him was that while she did wear her emotions on her sleeve, it was always... difficult, to get her to admit what she was really thinking. She was like an open book, if half of it was written with invisible ink. She fed you what she wanted you to know, and kept the rest of her secrets for herself. When she didn't respond, Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head. What a troublesome woman--it was part of what made her so troublesome, too. At least Ino was simple.
"Apparently they both agreed that it would be a good idea to help out around the Shuffle of Things. Like... as in an 'internship' or whatever," he brough his hands up for air-quotes before he brought them back down to cross them over his chest, his gaze drifting over and out to the windows. "I have no choice, so uh, in other words... I guess you're stuck with me?" He didn't know how else to approach the topic. On one hand, it was cool that Mr. Takanashi was looking out for him in some regard. "At least it's a better offer than the beating he offered me in the car..." he muttered out loud, not entirely meaning to, but he couldn't help but shiver at the memory. "I forgot how scary your old man can be."

------------------------

As Shikamaru left, Hanaru was nearly finished cleaning the blackboard. However, his words had clearly amused her, the way her tail flicked back and forth playfully. Still, she didn't speak up, focused on at least finishing her task properly (and not catch her sharp nails on anything--that was a feat in and of itself). Once she was done, she tossed the rag back into the bucket, and her gaze drifted over to Sasuke. The half demon briefly remembered at that moment how he had pulled her close under the umbrella to make sure she hadn't gotten wet... Her face slowly started turning pink and she turned her head away, smoothly so as to not raise suspicion, but she was internally cursing herself. Why was she thinking about that of all things? It wasn't as though she liked...
No. Absolutely no way. She tolerated his presence, at BEST. There was absolutely no way that she liked the Uchiha. She liked Naruto well enough, 'but it's not the same, is it?' that nasty little voice in the back of her head said. She sneered at herself. No, there was absolutely nothing to that. Sasuke was her rival. Her top competition. ''If you really believed that then you wouldn't have told him everything.' there it was again, being a nuisance. Hanaru snuffed that voice out faster than she could bat an eye--there was no need for such useless thoughts to make her angry so early in the morning. Besides, she'd sooner die than see herself become one of his lovesick fangirls. Even the mere thought made her want to hurl. No, instead, she pushed all of that away--like she did with most people and things she didn't want to deal with--and walked over to her things, pulling Sasuke's umbrella out.
"Here," she mumbled, holding it out awkwardly for the Uchiha boy as her ears started to heat up in embarrassment. "Th... thanks. For yesterday..." Hanaru hated how the words struggled to come out, but swallowing her pride was not exactly an easy feat. Complex golden irises glared at him in a halfhearted attempt at maintaining her composure. "Don't... tell the others. They don't need to know anything, and uh... I wanted to give this back before one of your crazy fangirls saw me with it and tried to kill me for it. Defending myself would get me in even more trouble, so..." she trailed off, breaking eye contact as she felt her fur fluff up. God, why was this so embarrassing?! Her stomach fluttered and she hated it.
 
"Whatever," Sasuke turned his nose up as Shikamaru left, these posers have been acting all big and tough since the inspection. What did he care whether he met the standards of some middle class chick and her lazy companion? They were what was wrong with the shinobi community, slacking off at every chance they got then being all high and mighty when they did one thing one time. What would they know about hard work anyway. Cleaning the floors was beneath him, the only reason he put up with this detention was because he had his school pride and he wasn't going to lose points for not showing up for his so called 'punishment'. He had chores, of course, he helped with dishes...sometimes. He caught the broom nonetheless, glaring at the offensive piece of wood. He could clean the floor damn good if he wanted to, he just...didn't feel like it right now...yeah, that's it. It wasn't hard to do, in fact anyone could do it! Gripping the broom tightly he set out to prove that there was nothing too sweeping, it was so simple a task he should easily be able to dominate it right? That blonde was just...throwing off his game. The scrrshh-scrrsh-scrrsh of the bristles being dragged over the floor was hard and aggressive.

Sasuke hated being shown up by someone, anyone really, even more so when anything he did was compared to someone else. He worked hard, everyday, to be the best, the creme de la creme. He pushed his limits, fought tooth and nail and studied hard. Having all of that hard work be disregarded really rubbed him up the wrong way. Then there was the conversation with his father that morning. He honestly expected Sasuke to just sit quietly by like that? What would have happened if he hadn't gone back to look for Hanaru? Mitomori obviously knew who she was and was trying to rile her up or break her down, anything to get a reaction. The school, Lord Sarutobi, all of them would have probably been annihilated by the man if he could prove anything he was accusing her of! DId his father know about her, and what did he know? If he did he wouldn't have been so angry about him punching that guy in the-

"Here."
He blinked, being brought from his thoughts at the sound of Hanaru's voice, his eyes caught sight of the umbrella and for a millisecond he forgot he'd even given it to her. His anger ebbed away as he looked at her, "Sure, whatever," he said as he took the item, trying to keep his cool composure. There weren't going to be more inspections, so he could go back to being himself and not feel so weird around her. "Tch, they can try," the words tumbled from his mouth before he could even register them, he didn't even recognise his own voice, so protective and ready for action, it didn't sound like him at all. "Y-you'd mow them down easily anyway. They could use a culling," he quickly tried to cover, turning his head away so he wouldn't have to look at her all fluffed up like that. Damnit, that sounded so stupid! She was trying not to hurt anyone! Stupid! The sight of her all puffed and fluffed, soft kitty, warm kitty...he almost expected her to purr...NO! STOP IT! He glanced at her, her eyes were diverted and with the early morning light bouncing off of her face like that, they looked even more captivating. He couldn't stop himself, his body was moving and his mind was blank. Slowly his hand reached up, he wanted to do it...just once...just once and he could go back to being a grade A asshole. "Hanaru...sorry..." he said quietly and if she was anyone else he'd think they hadn't heard him. Ever so gently his fingers brushed her ears; once, twice, his fingertips grazed the flicking appendages and a third time, but with a little more confidence. It was enthralling to say the least, the way her soft ears could move so independently and they were even softer than he imagined.

The sound of the bell broke the spell and Sasuke coughed awkwardly, quickly retracting his hand and shoving it in his pocket. "Don't just stand there like a loser," he said, squaring his shoulders, bumping her slightly as he passed her to try and forget what he'd just done, but there was no hiding the blush that spread over his feature even if he tried.


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Pride, that is what the blonde kunoichi felt as she glanced over her hard work. Either you did something all the way -the right way- or you didn't do it at all, there was no in-between in her eyes...besides when it came to actually finishing her homework, regardless, she puffed out her chest as Shikamaru whistled his approval. Asuna didn't look at him as he spoke, but a grin tugged at the corners of her mouth, praise coming from him sounded really good, too good...so good she had half a mind to propose a wager, not just against him but the entire detention squad as if he hadn't bested her before. Gathering up the cleaning supplies, she waited for him to continue, her father talking to his didn't exactly sound suspicious. Eiji couldn't resist spending hours upon hours of talking about everything and nothing at the same time, even if he was with a complete stranger he'd still act as if they had been best friends since the dawn of time. Talking with someone he did know? Please, there was nothing weird about that at all, but that opinion quickly changed as he fleshed out about the topic of conversation. "He what? He can't do that! Ugh, that's not what I meant when-..." she groaned loudly but it trailed off very quickly into a frustrated sigh as she leaned on the broom and placed her head on her hands. Did she say too much to her old man, ugh, why did he go and do that?

"I wouldn't have said anything if I knew he'd do something like this," she grumbled before straightening up, "I'll talk to him, I know the last place you would want to be forced into servitude is that stuffy old store," she sighed and shook her head. That would teach her to compliment someone. Her tongue kissed the back of her teeth as she threw the rags into the bucket, a hand running through her hair, "He was going to beat you?" it wasn't that strange to hear, he threatened most males that got too close to her, but why threaten him now if he was so willing to let them spend the day together? This sounded very odd to her, but she wouldn't be able to figure out what he was scheming, but she had a hunch. Gathering everything up she shook her head, "He can't hire you all willy-nilly anyway, I have to approve and I won't." There was a pang in her chest as she looked back at him, "It's not because I don't think you're not good or because I don't like being around you," her expression became somber, her eyes not looking at him, but through him, "...you deserve better." The floodgates of her mind were wide open, her sides debating whether she was pushing him away because he was too close or if she was actually talking to herself. He was more capable than anyone she could think of, so the last thing she wanted was for him to be stuck in some pitfall because her father threatened him into it.
 
The purple haired half demon wasn't sure what she had wanted from Sasuke out of the exchange, but his words were strangely... comforting. "True, their brains could use a good thrashing, if nothing else than to put them out of their misery," she mused thoughtfully, trying to distract herself from being embarrassed over her previous words (or to keep her from reading too much into Sasuke's words). "Still, even if I wanted to, it's a bad idea." That was the understatement of the year. It would likely be some time before she was fully trusted by more than just the Sandaime and Kakashi. Even Gai-sensei was beginning to warm up to her--or so she thought, it was incredibly hard to read that man. Was he a fool on purpose for the sake of lowering other's defenses or was he truly that eccentric? The world may never know.
Too distracted in her own thoughts, she barely heard Sasuke call her name, though her ears flicked in response, much less his apology until she froze. Her golden hues widened in surprise, looking to Sasuke as her face slowly became red, her ears heating up in his hands as he touched the soft, fluffy appendages. What...? Her mouth opened and closed in confusion a few times, words failing to come to her as he pet her ears. She had frozen like when that other classmate had touched her tail, except, while unexpected, why wasn't she immediately disgusted? No, instead a noise she hadn't heard in many years rumbled through her chest, and immediately her face seemed to turn an even darker shade of red (if that was even possible). Was she...? No... she was... purring?! Embarrassment flooded her bones deep into the very core of her being. This was it. This was how she was going to die, spontaneously combusting on the spot from both embarrassment and shame (or was that some other feeling that was churning deep down somewhere?).
By chance or by some divine intervention, keen on keeping her on this plane of existence, Hanaru found herself brought back from the pits of damnation by the ringing of the bell, and the departure of Sasuke's hands. "R-... right..." she mumbled at his words, moving automatically to her seat. His words sinking in, she opened her mouth again to argue, but rather than get into anything, she let out a loud sigh and planted her face on her desk.
Students slowly filled up the classroom, and a poke to Hanaru's shoulder had her lifting her head, and intense glare upon her features as Naruto yelped slightly, shuffling away. He must have remembered the strength of her fists from Gai-sensei's game the other day, but seeing as she wasn't lashing out, the blonde haired male approached, albeit cautiously. "H-Hanaru-chan! I just wanted to tell you something!" The half demon rose an eyebrow but didn't speak, wishing he would continue or shut up. Preferably the latter. "I'll protect you, okay?"
...
She was silent for a few moments before her eyebrows furrowed. "Hanh? How's a weakling like you going to protect me? And from what?! You really are a knucklehead."
"You're so cruel, I'm trying to be cool and manly here," his eyes flooded with crocodile tears as she kissed the back of her teeth with her tongue, sounding a 'tch' as she sneered at him. She wasn't sure what he was going on about, but her words stood--he may be a jinchuuriki, but he was completely untrained. There was no way he was going to be doing any rescuing or protecting. Not any time soon, anyway.

------------------

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head as he pushed off from the wall. He didn't quite understand where Asuna was coming from when she said she thought that he deserved better. How? And in what way? As far as he was concerned, Eiji, in a small, round-about way, was doing him a favor by letting Shikamaru hang around. If that crush of his still persisted, then at least he could talk to Asuna instead of letting all of his usual nap-time be wasted thinking about her. 'Is it really wasting time if you enjoy it so much?' damn voices were annoyingly accurate. He sighed and looked to the ash blonde. "If I want to show your father that I'm not some idiot hormonal teenager I'm going to have to do as he asks." Shikamaru wasn't sure what was more embarrassing, the fact that he let Mr. Takanashi intimidate him, or the fact that the thought of Granny Fu talking more... indecent things about the two of them was actually entertaining to him--even if it was embarrassing in the moment.
"Besides," he continued, rolling his shoulders, before shooting Asuna a grin. "If I don't do it I'll get my ass handed to me by my old man, and wouldn't that be embarrassing?" Not really, considering Shikaku was a strong shinobi with years more of experience on his son. But it was still an encounter Shikamaru didn't want to have. "So I think it's best if we just... go along with it. Besides, my winning of that bet shows that not only can I keep up with you when I so desire, O Lady of the Broom," he teased, lazy grin refusing to leave his features. "It also shows that you are capable of recognizing cleaning talent within others. That and maybe I could actually help around the store in ways that could make things more profitable for your family. There's some stuff in the store that has been there since before you or I were born. I bet you I could get them sold." He'd be lying if he said since his father proposed the idea that he hadn't thought about what he could actually do to help. And he did have a few plans that might just bring some more customers in.
The bell rang for class, and Shikamaru sighed--another day of hell awaited them. "So, into the unknown depths of hell we go, eh, 'Suna-chan?" His smirk faded to that familiar look that said he was distinctly unimpressed--the one he put on for most people. "It had to start at some point, I guess." He motioned for Asuna to follow him, and he took the broom from her, putting it away in the classroom's supply closet. As students filed in for class, Shikamaru lead the way back to their own homeroom, his hand grabbing Asuna's wrist witha a surprising amount of gentleness. He tried to tell himself that it was so they wouldn't get separated in the sea of students, but really it was totally an excuse to sort of pseudo-hold her hand. He dropped it nearly immediately when they returned to their own homeroom, and Shikamaru took his spot as did the rest of the class.
The final bell rang and Iruka-sensei stepped behind the podium at the head of the classroom, a smile on his face as he greeted the class. "Good morning everyone," a half hearted chorus of various versions of 'good morning' was all he got in return, and the brunette sighed, shaking his head. "I understand you all are probably exhausted, what with the events of yesterday..." his gaze slid over specific students as he spoke, but he said nothing. "That being said, this homeroom time it has been decided that a few squads shall meet with their sensei's. If your squad is called, please report to your sensei in the hall. The rest of you, the time is yours to do with as you wish, but you must be working on homework or doing something productive." A collective groan from the majority was heard and Iruka sent them a narrowed gaze. "Unless you prefer a pop quiz for those who remain?" That got everyone to shut up quickly. "Now," Iruka began to call a few different squads, including team 7, and Shikamaru watched as Naruto and the others stepped out and into the hallway before finally "Team 10. Please proceed as you have been instructed."
Despite all the time they spent together yesterday, Asuma-sensei still ended up being a sight for sore eyes. The man greeted them all with a close-eyed grin and a wave. "So, what are we here for...?" Choji asked, munching on his choice snack, barbecue flavored potato chips.
"Well, I just thought that it would be good to do a little bit more squad training before we leave for our important mission," Asuma nodded to the group, before crossing his arms over his chest. "We are all only as strong as our ability to work together, using each other's advantages and protecting our weaknesses. Besides, that Ino-Shika-Asu-Cho formation needs a little bit of work, and it just so happened that enough ripples happened yesterday to where I could pull you out of class without too much grief from Iruka." He chuckled at that. "But don't tell him I said anything."
"Training? I guess it makes sense, considering the mission seems so important..." Ino mused, placing a finger on her chin. "Alright, lead the way, sensei!"
 
A small smile fell on her lips, one of amusement at Shikamaru's persistence of helping around the shop, "Hm, do I sense a little challenge there?" she teased, but he was right, there were things in the shop that had withstood the test of time. A little something here and there from every generation dating all the way back to its origins, "I should show you what we've got in storage if you think that's all we have on display." Her father had tried to throw the old things away numerous times, but they somehow always found their way back, no thanks to her grandmother. "Imagine a hoarder's chocolate coated wet dream come true," her amused smile only widened, her mouth ends pulled down as if resisting the moment her teeth would break through, "The day the torch gets passed on, I'll digitize all that damn admin work and then...marketing," she motioned with her hands, almost dropping the supplies in the process, as those two simple things were some complicated witch craft. To her grandmother, that might have sounded exactly like it. In her hands, The Shuffle of Things would be the ushering in of a new era and lots of changes would come along with that. Word of mouth was the only 'marketing' Granny Fu believed in because it's what her grandfather and grandfather before him did, just the mention of bringing in a computer into the shop was to unleash a hell bat on the world. In the house though, ol' Nana could adapt to the luxuries of the modern world if and when it suited her. Somewhere, rotting away in storage, were old collectors pieces and somewhere out there in the world were weirdo's looking for them. Eiji tried, his extroverted personality had secured him connections who themselves had connections, so through the grapevine he heard of people and the things they or were interested in, then off he went on week long business trips.
​
"Not that I'd ever want the shop," Asuna quickly said as she caught herself fantasizing about all the things she'd do and change in the shop, expanding and growing it to its full potential. The most negative thing about the shop? It was where dreams died. She could embrace the life of a business woman, but then her dream of being a kunoichi would have to be discarded. If she wanted to fully focus on being a kunoichi, then the calling of The Shuffle of Things would have to go unanswered. Juggling both was already hard enough. Eiji wanted to turn it into an antique store of sorts and her mother had suggested bringing in her herbalist expertees as that was her passion, both those dreams died too as everything started falling apart. "Hopefully, today's better," she shook away the dark thoughts that crept from the abyss, turning to her attention to the warmth that permeated through Shikamaru's hold on her wrist. So quickly and so easily had they fallen back into the old habit of touching in some way or another, a week ago this was still some unspoken taboo, now all she wanted was this closeness. Just when had she become so dependent on him? The thought made her cheeks flush red and her chest flutter, but there was some twinge of guilt mixed in. What if the crush didn't go away on it's own, or he found someone better suited for him? She didn't want that, but pursuing someone in a more romantic way took too much time and energy, which was why she thought that her crush on the Nara boy was because of proximity. Of all the boys she knew, she knew him the longest and at some point in their life they were actually very happy together, maybe she just wanted that again. It was in the past though and she should try to move on from it, things were different, they were different, but that was essentially like glueing a ball to your hand and then trying to throw it.

"Oooh don't you look cute," Ino said waving her over as they all took their seats, "That shirt's a little tight though, are you trying to show off for someone?" she wiggled her eyebrows and Asuna groaned internally, her hands subconsciously finding the jacket's zipper to hide away from Ino's eyes, mumbling a "Yeah, your dad." The blush on Asuna's face only became more prominent as Ino's face twisted in disgust, "Ew, don't say stuff like that!."blonde Then don't assume I'm dressing up for someone," Asuna retorted, but then sighed as she sunk into her seat. Technically, her father had asked her to wear it therefore yes, she did dress up for someone. Iruka arrived, thankfully, and the awkward tension dissolved between the blondes as their attentions were diverted to the podium. One thing Asuna didn't appreciate though, was the lingering look Iruka gave her before his eyes locked onto someone else, "Can't we just bury yesterday in the past and stop bringing it up?' she asked quietly to no one in particular.
"The teams who were called, please make your way out, the rest of you better take out something and start being productive," Iruka waved the teams off and warned the rest of the class, Asuna was both curious and anxious wondering why the squads were being sent out.In her secret heart, she hoped it wasn't because of Mitomori.

The building anxiety though, ebbed away as they met up with Asuma, that relaxed aura he seemed to emit soothed the sandy blonde's nerves somewhat. He wouldn't be so cheerful if they were about to receive any bad news.Asuna hummed in agreement with Ino, she'd missed so many team trainings that this was actually a great idea to get reacquainted with their team dynamic. As they left for the training grounds, something soft but cold slipped into Asuna's hand and she quickly jerked away, her head snapping in Ino's direction as a devious grin crept onto her features, "Sorry, is Shika-kun the only one allowed to hold your hand now?" her words made the Takanashi pout, the kind one would expect from a defiant 4 year old, "Psh, your hands are just cold!" Tentatively her hand took hold of Ino's fingers in a halfhearted There-are-you-happy-now move, it didn't feel the same though. "You should really use more hand lotion, it'll make your hands softer," Ino teased and Asuna tried to not react and give her the satisfaction. "If you don't like holding my hand then don't."
"I bet Sasuke's hands are really soft though," Ino sighed giving the hand in hers a squeeze, "Hey, Asu, you were here for after school detention right?" her tone had gone from love struck to serious, "Did you see him, when he left I mean?"
Asuna pondered for a moment, even if she had, she really didn't remember much after her training with Kurenai, "I don't know, maybe?" Everything else felt like a fever dream, she remembered but it was hazy at best. "They were at it this morning again," Choji said nodding at Ino, "Sakura said Sasuke walked her home."
"Well did he?" Ino glared at Choji for a hot second for his choice of words before turning her gaze on the blonde, her hand clamping down more and more around hers. "I don't know, most of the afternoon was a blur and-" Asuna freed her hand, "-this is why I don't like holding your hand."​


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Sasuke quickly found his seat, his arms crossed over his chest. He could feel the thump thump thump against his ribcage, hammering against the side of his arms. This was all so troublesome, his entire being felt like it was waging war against itself, doing things and saying things and...feeling things...he would never even have given a second thought about. It was ruining his image. His fingers still slightly tingled from where he had touched Hanaru's ears, and that sound...
"Morning, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura quickly slid into the seat beside him, her eyes lit up and sparkled as he cracked an eye open and glanced at her, "Thank you for walking me home yesterday." He grunted in the back of his throat and turned his gaze to the window as the pinkette started talking about how Ino thinks she has a chance with him. How many times did he have to tell them he wasn't interested for them to stop pursuing him? "-and maybe...we can walk home together after detention today?"
"No thanks. I have better things to do," he said coldly and the pinkette deflated, "T-that's ok! I know you're really busy," she said quickly, the disappointment and pain of rejection rolling from her lips so delicately. Sasuke steeled himself against it though, if he gave the girls a hand they'd end up taking his entire arm and then some. GIrls were just a distraction, he needed to cut them all off, including whatever that was with Hanaru, if he was going to pull himself together and focus on his studies.

His onyx gaze traveled around the room, everyone was visibly more relaxed and the air wasn't nearly as tense as it had been with the increased jonin patrols. That didn't mean there was no tension at all. Mitomori's presence still lingered, even if he wasn't there. Naruto came into his view as the blond pestered the half demon .Quietly, Sasuke scoffed as Naruto tried to act all cool, he was too much of a blundering idiot to be considered anything else.
"C'mon, Ha-chan, think of all the stuff we've been through! I'm totally capable of taking care of you!" Naruto said, trying to recover from her harsh words. He didn't like the look of the thugs that were tailing her that morning, even if they were comically terrible at it, there was always the possibility that they really meant to hurt her and that he couldn't have. "I'll show you I can protect you, just you watch!" he declared with determination, "And then everything will be alright. No one will bother you any more." Remorse still weighed on his heart for what had happened with Mitomori, if he had just been there then Hanaru wouldn't have been targeted. He couldn't wait for danger to strike, not this time, he'd be there and he'd be ready. Hanaru was a very private person, everyone was kept at arm's length, but that didn't mean he couldn't feel her pain. It was subtle, not something she wore on her sleeve, but that didn't mean he didn't catch onto it.

Sasuke averted his gaze, what did he care, the half demon was fully capable of taking care of herself and if she needed protection...well, she'd sooner turn to him than to Naruto. He was even more capable than the blond, hands down! He didn't take notice as Iruka entered the room or his concerned gaze that flitted to and fro from one student to the next. When the teams were called, he remembered the sight, the slight peek under that annoying slacker's collar. He didn't really care about anyone, he barely cared about his team or at least that's what he told himself, but something like that shouldn't have happened. Maybe that's just what she needed to see that this was not a lifestyle that was meant for her, a sweep suited her better. Yes, he was still bitter about her pushing his buttons, who wouldn't be?
"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura was the first to greet their teacher as the team joined up, "What's going on?" her eyes silently trailed in the direction Team 10 was heading in, most likely to meet up with their own sensei. "Oh nothing much. I'm glad to see you all looking rested," Kakashi teased, they looked a lot better than they had yesterday. "I dunno, I could use a couple more hours," Naruto complained, bringing his arms up and behind his head as he tapped his foot on the floor, "Couldn't we get another kind of detention? Cleaning really sucks."
"Well, you should have thought of that before you snuck in here," the silver haired male quickly retorted, his singular visible eye looked between the Uchiha boy and the golden eyed half demon. They seemed to be holding up despite the previous day, "I've been scouting a mission for you, something a little different than you're used to," he spoke, but he was careful not to give them any details, "Why don't we go somewhere a little more private for the briefing?"
"Are you serious? I-is this like a real mission?" Naruto was practically vibrating with excitement, but a swift smack upside the head had him hunched over. "Keep your voice down you idiot," Sasuke threw a glare at him as they walked, "If it is a real mission, then it's supposed to be confidential."

"You don't have to hit me, y'know!" Naruto grumbled, but quickly he fell silent and went rigid as two figures approached, "What's old man 'Nashi, doing here?" In record time he buttoned his lip as the blond drew closer, a chunin hot on his heels, obviously failing at trying to escort the man as he jogged to try and keep up with Eiji's wide strides. Sasuke didn't know him, but the longer he looked the more he could piece together who it was; the dark, sandy, swept back blonde hair and green eyes, definitely a close relation to that Takanashi girl, probably her father or uncle or something. There was something about him though, his long strides, his shoulders squared and slightly hunched forward as he walked, that just screamed 'Stay-out-of-my-way'. Beyond the green in his eyes, there were smoldering embers and Sasuke could almost feel the flames of the inferno the man tried to set ablaze with his eyes alone.
"Morning, Takanashi-san. Everything alright?" Kakashi greeted, putting on a smile even though it was hidden behind his mask, the man on the other hand only raised his hand in a curt listless wave followed by a grunt. He said nothing else as he passed the group, disappearing down the hall. "Man, and I here I thought he was scary when he was normally angry. Wonder where he's going?"
Kakashi only glanced at the four students by his side, his gaze lingering a little longer on Naruto who had asked the question. "I'm not much of a betting man, but I'm sure he's on his way to see Lord Sarutobi," he said seriously. Aku surely couldn't have predicted this? Any parent would have been outraged with what had happened, but of all the parents he could cross, why did it have to be that man? He was not afraid of going to the extreme if he had to and should he pull his daughter from the shinobi course and word got out, they would see an increase in parents doing the same. Hopefully, Sarutobi could keep him calm and rational.

Sasuke could tell something was up with their sensei, they had been around him so much that the subtle creases around his eye was enough to clue him in that something was amiss. As they stepped into an empty room, he leaned against a table, hands stuffed deeply into his pockets, "So, what kind of mission do you have for us?"
"Well," Kakashi drawled out, "It's not a mission yet," he said watching them all deflate, "We're still gathering intel, but as things stand now, we could be deployed at a moment's notice." That seemed to bring a little life back into their faces. "A gang has been shaking up the streets of Kabukasu and it's not anyone of the gangs who've made that their turf either. If we don't act fast, we could be facing one of the largest gang wars that area has ever seen. It would be a massacre," the mission hadn't been officially drafted, but he was quick to volunteer his team. "Wait, but wouldn't that be an A ranked mission or higher?" Sakura asked, worry was clear in her voice. Yes, they had taken on missions and they had taken a turn for the worse before, but they were still genin.
"Only if we allow it to escalate. From what we've been able to gather so far, this gang is pretty small and they're trying to make a name for themselves. The leader however, used to be part of a larger, more dangerous group, but they've been disbanded. Now he's trying to make a comeback and reclaim his territory."
Sasuke could feel the adrenaline ready to kick in, this sounded like a real mission, a dangerous one where they could really put their skills to the test and let's face it, out of all the other teams theirs had the most 'Real Time' combat experience. They'd taken down a yakuza gang before, so this would be a walk in the park!
 
If there was only a single truth about Shikamaru, it was that he didn’t wish to put time and effort towards something (or someone, more specifically) that he didn’t respect. There were plenty of teacher’s whose classes he merely slept through or only paid half attention only because he already knew the subject. Iruka-sensei was kind of a pushover, Mizuki-sensei was clearly someone you couldn’t trust, and Gai-sensei… well, let’s just say the eccentric male was a giant question mark. Their squad leader, on the other hand, was a different story. It was the way that Asuma held himself and acted no differently around them. He didn’t look down on them for being genin, though their relationship was still that of students and teacher. But regardless of his relaxed attitude and how he could never beat the Nara at Shogi, Shikamaru understood their sensei. He respected him. In fact, how he played Shogi spoke a lot about Asuma-sensei as a person. Rather than change up his strategies, Asuma was fond of the front-and-center “Climbing Silver” strategy, which reflected his decisions, how he spoke to others, and his preferred choice of combat. Asuma was a people-person, and in that way, not only did Shikamaru respect him, but he was also slightly jealous.
So was that why he was so eager to work in the Shuffle of Things? Out of respect? Well, he’d have to figure out just who it was he respected, for that to be true, although internally, he already knew the answer. It couldn’t have been Eiji. No, the old man was a perfect duality with himself, on one hand threatening Shikamaru for being too close with his daughter, and on the other helping him out with his own familial issues by giving him an internship, but at a cost. He was far too troublesome, and though he knew Asuna loved him, the man was by no means a great father. Not from Shikamaru’s perspective. Asuna was the one he respected—despite her mother being in and out of the hospital and her father’s (seemingly, from his perspective) lack of care surrounding the family business, the Nara knew that it was Asuna keeping everything afloat. No wonder she needed to sneak out every once and awhile, if for no other reason than to escape the constant thoughts and responsibilities that plagued her on a daily basis. Of course, being near her at the shop didn’t hurt, but just because Shikamaru wasn’t entirely the most attentive or productive individual didn’t mean that he couldn’t find ways to make himself useful to her.
He wondered, if but for a moment, that maybe the reason why he had started to gain these feelings for the ash blonde haired girl, wasn’t because he respected her strength first. Maybe not physical strength, or ninjutsu abilities, but her strength of character.
Shikamaru had been following the girls but he wasn’t paying attention, and Choji walked alongside him, crunching on chips before he turned to observe his best friend’s face. Shikamaru was lost in thought—Choji could tell. When a lot of people thought that Choji might have been stupid or only thought about food, he spent a lot of time observing those around him, specifically his friends and teammates. He had known Shikamaru way too long to be able to understand that whatever the male was thinking about was important. Holding out his bag of chips to the Nara, Shikamaru blinked and was brought out of his thoughts as he turned his head to look at Choji. “Wanna chip?”
Shikamaru opened his mouth to decline, not particularly hungry since breakfast really hadn’t been that long ago, but despite that he caught himself. Choji didn’t share his food with just about anyone, and he had been thinking about respect. It only seemed natural that they would respect each other, and this was one of the small ways that showed that his best friend was thinking about him—concerned for him even. “Thanks, Choji,” Shikamaru nodded gratefully, taking a single chip from the bag and popping it in his mouth. Now clearly wasn’t the time to get so caught up in what the future might look like—they had a mission to think about, after all.
Now, Asuma didn’t quite understand Ino’s Uchiha-crazy stage, but he knew better than to get in the middle of any argument involving Kakashi’s students. That was just too much of a headache. Instead, he’d gotten rather good at diverting their attention back to the task on hand. “It shouldn’t rain so I signed us up for the 8th training field inside the forest.” Yes, Konoha had a small forest that backed up to some cliffs, considering the placement of the school was towards the back of the city (well, really north, but the city entrance was due south from the school—I’ll make a really crappy map of how it works in my head :>). “Let’s go, we can talk more there.”
Thankfully the walk there wasn’t very long, and it was done in relative silence, despite Ino pestering Asuna a little more about various things, but Shikamaru, again, wasn’t paying attention. Arriving at their assigned area, all four students lined up in a small semi-circle around their sensei, and Asuma stood with his hands casually placed on his hips as he looked to them with a grin. “Alright, so as I mentioned before, we need to work on our teamwork, so I want to know what kind of drills we should run to better suit us for our mission.” His gaze swept over the group before settling on the young Nara.”Shikamaru, since you’re our main strategist, what do you suggest we do if say we’re trying to capture, not kill, a fleeing individual?”
A concentrated look appeared on the male’s features, and he slid into his ‘thinking’ pose with ease. “Our team dynamic is best suited for capture anyway, considering most of our strongest ninjutsu deals with detainment or control.” Between Ino and himself, they were good at subjugation, they just needed to get close. “Choji’s abilities would be good for funneling our enemy towards us, and Asuna’s earth release can slow them down by making the terrain more difficult to navigate, leaving the capture up to Ino or I using our clan jutsu.” Asuma nodded along with his words.
”Fair enough. Anything else for anyone to add or disagree?” their sensei asked as Shikamaru straightened up. “If there are no objections, I’m going to act as the target, fleeing from you into the woods. You must capture and detain me somehow.”

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Hanaru mostly followed along silently as they slipped into the empty room, seating herself down on top of a table as her ears flicked to show that she was listening, though in reality… well, let’s just say that she was trying to forget what had just happened before the bell rang. (She wanted to strangle her subconscious, but other than that she was fine). Kakashi’s news got her excited, a mission did sound like a good idea, though she didn’t show her excitement outwardly like Naruto did. She didn’t let a lot of things show… if any at all. Maybe that was why she was so worked up over showing Sasuke so much… weakness. Especially all in one day. If Hanaru’s dark past had taught her anything, it was that she shouldn’t trust anyone. Yet look at her now, dancing around with ninjas, pretending to be a kunoichi. Her past-self would have laughed at her.
Maybe… that was a good thing.
Still, she hadn’t been able to go ‘all out’ since she got to the academy, so going through some wannabe mafia thugs sounded downright therapeutic to her. The more she thought on Kakashi’s words, the more his intel seemed to remind her of her encounter the other day, and her golden eyes narrowed slightly. “Uh… Kakashi-sensei?” the silver haired jonin looked down at her without a word, waiting for her to continue. “Could I talk to you for a moment?”
His singular orb narrowed slightly, and he nodded as he motioned toward the door to the hallway. “We’ll be right back,” he turned to look at the other three students, giving the universal “I’m watching you” signal before turning and following Hanaru into the hallway, the door clicking into place behind them as Kakashi looked down at the half demon. “What is it? Does it have anything to do with what happened yesterday with Mitomori-san?”
She sighed in response, shaking her head. “No, it’s not that. In fact, it’s probably nothing. I just thought you should know that yesterday after school I was approached by some… thug on my way home. He had my bingo book entry. Said his ‘boss’ was looking to hire me.”
”Oh…?” the silver haired scarecrow placed a hand on his chin in thought as Hanaru continued.
”I told him to buzz off…” in a a more… aggressive manner, but that was clearly not the point. “And he left, but said that it wasn’t the last I’d seen of insert-crappy-sounding-mafia-name-here. Lil… lil something? I don’t care to remember, it was pretty asinine,” she shrugged.
”You know…. This could be a golden opportunity to use your past for good intentions…” Kakashi mused, his gaze sliding back down to Hanaru’s. The eyebrow raise was enough to tell him to continue talking. “It hasn’t escalated to the point where we’d need to, but to know that they want to recruit you is valuable information. I’m not against taking advantage of the situation.”
”You want me to double agent?” Hanaru asked, finally catching on. “And do what, exactly?”
”I don’t know—as I said it hasn’t come to that yet, so we’ll just have to keep our eyes open. Maybe mention being interested if they try to make contact with you again, but don’t accept anything or go anywhere with them. We don’t know what kind of thugs they’ve hired already, although to me it sounds like they’re pretty clumsy.” Hanaru nodded in agreement as she remembered the ridiculousness of her encounter at the bus stop. He was a mess. Her ears swiveled as shuffling sounds just behind the room door caught her attention, and her gaze narrowed as shadows moved under the door. Kakashi could merely sigh, shaking his head. “Speaking of clumsy…” Opening the door abruptly, out tumbled both Naruto and Sakura, squabbling on the floor before looking up at their sensei and teammate in embarrassment. “Shouldn’t you try to be more stealthy of you’re going to eavesdrop?”
”Naruto!! I told you not to, and you still got us in trouble!” Sakura growled, looking ready to beat the poor boy senseless before she pushed herself to her feet and attempted to dust of her dress before bowing apologetically to Kakashi. “I’m sorry sensei, I tried to stop him!”
”Nuh uh, you were curious too,” Naruto pouted, pushing himself up to sit cross-legged on the floor in the threshold. “Besides, it’s not like we heard anything!”
Kakashi could merely sigh and shake his head, “I suppose it doesn’t matter, everyone inside again,” and with a wave of his hands he ushered the squad back inside. “Needless to say, we could all use some improvement.” Though he addressed them all, Kakashi’s piercing gaze mostly flickered between Sakura and Naruto. “That being said, after talking briefly with some of the other squad captains, we all agreed that our teams still need to work on their team-building skills. So I thought I’d pull you all out for Ramen at Ichiraku’s during lunch—” Naruto cheered and Kakashi’s glare singled him out, causing him to deflate quickly out of fear. “If you can prove to me you deserve it. We’re going out to spar two against two, and then we are going to do the bell exercise like from the beginning of our training.” Sakura and Naruto groaned. “Sasuke and Hanaru, Naruto and Sakura. We spar to understand our peer’s abilities. Hopefully you can learn something about each other that will prove useful to you when you eventually face off against me to try and get the bells.”
By this point Hanaru had been standing relatively near the black haired Uchiha, and her arms were crossed under her chest as she let her eyes slid over to his. “Looks like you’re getting that rematch sooner rather than later.”
 
A cool smirk tugged at Sasuke's features, this mission sounded interesting and worth their time. It was easily a C-rank with the seductive promise of turning into a B or even an A ranked mission if things escalated. Then again, if the gang was idiotic enough to roam around in and pick fights with other gangs they didn't sound too intelligent. He didn't say anything as Hanaru asked for a private audience with their sensei. Curious.
"Aw man this is so cool!" Naruto beamed, hardly able to contain his excitement, "They've finally realized just how awesomely strong we are!"
"Please, you're not that strong," Sasuke quipped with a scoff, trying his best to revert back to his 'usual' self. "I'm strong enough to kick your butt! And Hanaru's way stronger than you!" Naruto pointed an accusatory finger at the ravenette, but he chose not to show just how much it riled him up. He wasn't going to have two dumb blondes have the pleasure of getting under his skin in one morning.

He tried to ignore his two teammates, it was futile but he strained his ears to try and see if he could hear what was going on behind the closed door. He played it off though, seemingly uninterested, but he couldn't help but wonder what Hanaru could possibly be talking to Kakashi about that she couldn't say in front of the rest of the team. He didn't have to wonder long though as he came to the answer quick enough, or at least what he thought could have been the answer, perhaps it had something to do with her past. Naruto and Sakura didn't know anything, so it would make sense for her to speak with their leader, hm, maybe she heard of the gang before? Not that Kakashi had given it to them yet, a privilege that was being denied until more information came to light and probably until the mission was formally a go or-
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura's voice made the ravenette crack an eye in their direction. The boy in question was leaning awkwardly against the wall while also trying to push his ear against the door. "Shhh! What does it look like? I'm trying to listen!" he hissed and Sasuke could feel all intelligence drain from the room. Trying to spy on an ex-ANBU and a girl who could literally hear a pin drop?
"You can't just listen into other people's conversations like that! It's rude!" Sakura scholded, but curiosity was perched on her shoulder and whispering suggestions in her ear. "They've been gone for a while, c'mon, I know you're curious too~" Naruto had a grin on his face, that fox like grin whenever he was up to no good, and with a sigh, clearly fighting with herself, Sakura gave in and tip toed closer, "Ok, but I tried to stop you!"
"They won't catch us, we're ninjas!" Sasuke rolled his eyes so hard he gave himself a minor headache at Naruto's words and the stupid pose he pulled. Ugh, sometimes he acted like a five year old.

Yes, Sasuke was curious, but after what had happened that morning, he thought it was best to keep his distance, afraid that his body and mind would betray him. He'd die of embarrassment if anyone had caught them 'in the act'. No he couldn't risk it, not in front of the team. A soft click sounded as the door was opened suddenly sending half of Team 7 crashing to the floor. Sometimes Sasuke wondered what he had done in his past life to have landed him on a team with those two, maybe he was some kind of thief and he stole something, like a chicken, but even then he felt this was too harsh of a punishment.
"Hm, what are we waiting for then?" Sasuke said as his gaze met with Hanaru's, "Don't get too carried away now, you two," Kakashi said, "I just said we spar to understand our peer's abilities, not to try and throw every jutsu we know at each other until you end up in the infirmary."
Sasuke made a 'Tch' sound, where was the fun if there wasn't a little bit of danger involved? As they left the classroom on their way to the training grounds, the faint echoing of someone angrily barking somewhere, where exactly was hard to pinpoint as it was muffled, but it was definitely not from this hallway. It went ignored though, the Uchiha had better things to wrap his mind around. Sparring as a team meant they weren't under the strict 'no ninjutsu' rule that Gai sensei enforced in his classroom and the 'not on each other' rule in ninjutsu class itself.

The day looked promising, the clouds had all but disappeared leaving the brilliant blue of the sky open and unblemished. As it was still early, the temperature was just right. Most of the trees were either becoming very bare or were still vibrantly coloured; red and gold and orange, but here and there a stubborn leaf and evergreen refused to shed their green hue. Autumn was reaching its midpoint, but the weather was still rather temperate. Winter was coming, but right now, one wouldn't think so.
"I've been looking forward to this," that was an understatement as Sasuke could feel the fire of excitement igniting his body. He pulled a kunai from his pouch in a back hand hold as he stared at Hanaru, his heart was already racing, but he credited that to his excitement, "I've been practicing since last time," the smile on his face didn't falter one bit. "Sasuke, Hanaru, don't over do it now," Kakashi called from the sideline as he perched himself on a tree branch, the latest copy of the Icha Icha series in his hand and begging for his attention.

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"Ino," Asuna whined as Ino had wrapped her arms around her own arm to keep her from escaping, "No! Not until you tell me!" Ino was persistent, that was a fact and Asuna couldn't always say no to her either, "I told you, I didn't borrow it. It's from the lost and found! I...claimed it when no one else did," Asuna sighed, the blue eyed blond had been pestering her over the jacket she wore, something that clearly didn't belong to her and was 'too stylish' to belong to her father, but also finding it in the lost and found sounded off too. "Alright, keep your secrets, but I'll find out whose it is and then you'll have to spill the beans!"
"Ino."
"Asu-na," Ino mimicked the sandy blonde, but she knew when to stop pushing her buttons, "I'm mad at you," she said changing the topic, "You still haven't told me about your date~" she purred and looked over her shoulder. Her words had elicited a groan from Asuna as the sandy blonde tried to pull away from the inquisitive Yamanaka, "I-it's not, we're just going to...hang out for a bit."
"I've known you since we were in pre-school, you don't just 'hang out' with someone these days, so it has to be more than that!"
There was no point in arguing with her, the only person Asuna knew who was more stubborn than Ino was her father. Sighing Ino's name in defeat was all she could do before being bombarded with more questions that made her want to turtle into the oversized jacket. Somehow the intrusive line of questioning took a left turn into what she would do if -and when- Sasuke asked her out, so as Asuma spoke up, Asuna mentally thanked their sensei for making it stop.

There was a distinct smell of wet earth as they arrived at the training grounds. Wet earth and dead leaves, the smell of Autumn sure was sweet. Asuna shook her head, having escaped Ino's clutches as they surrounded their team leader. A heavy pressure rested on her bosom, sprouting from deep within and nurtured by the coaxing voices of her mind into budding. Anxiety and fear started prickling on her skin, gripping and twisting her insides, but she wouldn't dare show it in front of her teammates. Not now. This was just a team training session, there was nothing to be so anxious about, but remembering just how long it took her to actually form the proper seals was eating at the corners of her mind. She tried to focus on what Shikamaru said as he spoke, trying to keep herself grounded and steady. 'I can do this, it's just training,' like a record on repeat, the thought became a mantra. Everything would be fine.
"Asuna, try and keep Asuma-sensei from going too far into the woods. Choji, you try to cut him off, if you two bottle him in, Shikamaru and I can take him," Ino was quick to take charge of the group once Asuma started moving into the trees. There was a moment of silence as Asuna shifted nervously, she wasn't sure if that would work, the terrain was rough enough with all of the trees and knowing Asuma-sensei, he'd use it all to his advantage. "Well? He's getting away! Let's go!" Ino ordered and with a look in the direction Asuma was moving in, Asuna took off after him, keeping to his far right.

In her mind, she chanted the seals, Tora-U-I-Inu, a simple wall that wouldn't eat too much of her chakra. Her hands followed, one seal after the other, but not nearly as fast as she wanted to make them, she jumped between the trees, hands first as the surge of chakra burst through her arms, deforming and reforming the earth. A stretch of wall raised from the ground, curving slightly to the left to deter their sensei from moving in that direction, before she took to the trees again in pursuit. It was rarely a good idea to keep still and in one place, every attack gave away your current location and that could be dangerous if you didn't know what the 'enemy' was capable of. She had to get closer, Asuma was moving fast and further away from them, from the corner of her eye she could see Choji coming up, right, now to try and drive him towards the boy. Once more she said the seals in her mind, a rock trail would force him closer, she thought as she made the seals. This time they were even slower, Hitsuji-Tori-Mi, and down she dove from her perch with her hands to the ground, but the rocks that emerged were slightly off, she'd forced too much chakra into the ground and so they shot from the ground in inconsistent bursts and sizes.
"Hey watch it! You almost speared me!" Choji called out, his words sent her heart racing. Focus, she needed more focus or someone was going to get hurt. "It's ok, I'm going to get him from the other side and chase him back this way!"
Asuna chewed her lip, her hands were shaking, she wasn't just worried about actually pulling off the jutsus any more, but now she was more worried of accidentally hurting her teammates. Taking to the trees again, she reached for her shuriken instead, it wouldn't be as impactful, but she at least trusted her control over the throwing stars more at the moment.
 
After everything that had gone on the day prior, Hanaru was feeling pent-up and stir crazy. There was no way she was going to let an opportunity like this slide—Kakashi understood, at least, that changing up their partners would accomplish nothing. Hanaru would gain nothing from Sakura regardless of how much Naruto would wish to fight the dark haired Uchiha, and Sakura wouldn’t actually fight against Sasuke, even if prompted by the male himself. That being said, the silver haired jonin could only sigh and hope they don’t kill each other as he turned the pages of his favorite novel series.
”Not as much as I have...” Hanaru chuckled, ignoring Sakura as she warned her not to touch Sasuke from the background. Naruto was whining but she couldn’t be bothered to care—this was between her and Sasuke. “Not sure how a little target practice is going to help you against me,” her tail flicked behind her as she unsheathed her wakizashi, using her free hand to casually flip her hair over her shoulder. “But you can try~!”
If Hanaru thought back to the very few moments that she had been happy in her life, she would have recognized that those moments had been occurring more and more frequently since arriving and attending Konoha Academy. And, beyond that, a lot of those instances occurred around a certain prodigy. Now, she would be far too stubborn to admit it, but it was most definitely the truth. Her pulled her real self from the depths of her being, whether either of them knew it or not.
It had been so long since Hanaru could just be herself that she had nearly forgotten…
Kunai thrown in her direction were redirected using her short blade, or merely stepped around, though Hanaru hardly gave up ground. “If you wanna fight you’re gonna have to get closer,” she taunted, a jeering smirk upon her features as she waited for his approach. Kunai met blade in a clash of steel and wits. The purplette never claimed to be smart—in fact she was, more often than not, rather stupid and impulsive. All of her actions were usually reactionary and based upon the core make-up of her being: animal instinct. She wasn’t incapable of forming plans and being methodical, but that took her a lot of brain energy and prep. In fights, she moved and flowed with her instincts, a deadly dance of tooth and claw. Sasuke had talent—when she had first arrived she had heard loads about the Uchiha prodigy, a chakra user well ahead of his classmates in terms of both skill and useability in battle, but it wasn’t until they had started their rivalry that she had been able to see that drive. That drive to win and succeed and train until they passed out. Now that was what she found attractive.
Wait… what?
As Hanaru startled herself with her own mental dialogue, a well-placed swipe upward knocked her wakizashi out of her hands, and the half demon blinked, before her smirk returned quickly to cover up her surprise. “Not bad.” She hadn’t yet cracked open her chakra, but she was waiting for the right moment. Due to her nature, and her ability to channel raw chakra, Hanaru didn’t necessarily need handsigns to funnel her usage. She could use that to her advantage—those handsigns were a beacon of what jutsu a ninja was using, and when they were going to use it. She waited for Sasuke to get close again and she let the chakra pool in her fingertips, a green miasmatic haze coating her nails and dripping to the ground, scorching the dirt as if it were acid. She swiped at him but only caught his sleeve as he moved his arm out of the way.
”Careful!” she all but purred, her tail flicking behind her indicating her playful nature. She was… having fun. “I wanna see if I can block one of those fire jutsus of yours with my chakra skills.” Hanaru could do releases—water release and earth release came easier to her than anything else, but that was so boring! This special ability of hers… the raw chakra manipulation? That was exciting.
”Now now, remember what I said,” Kakashi warned them, not even looking up from his book. “Sakura, Naruto! Stop gawking and spar. You two need the most work, so you’d better get moving if you want ramen for lunch.” Sakura took the outing as a potential date with Sasuke, and Naruto, of course, was easily persuaded with the thought of ramen, so they did fight, though theirs wasn’t nearly as intense.


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”Alright, let’s move,” Shikamaru nodded to Ino and Choji, before looking to Asuna and offering her a small grin. They could beat their sensei, he was confident. In the blink of an eye, Shikamaru had jumped up and into the branches, using them like springboards so that he could move quicker than Asuma could run on the forest floor. Trees whipped past him as he kept an eye on the progress of his teammates down below, but his gaze lingered more on Asuna than the others. A part of it was because he was curious to see her in action—yes they sparred and whatnot in classes and had missions where they were pushed to fight, but… he couldn’t recall seeing too much of the blonde’s jutsu use. He knew her earth style, and knew that she was a capable kunoichi, but he supposed he was mostly concerned after how hard she pushed herself the other day. The last thing they needed was one of their teammates falling during training because of exhaustion.
He watched as her wall curved Asuma’s trajectory, and Shikamaru adjusted appropriately in response. Good, it looked like their plan was working out. However, as that thought crossed his mind, jagged stones appeared the next time they tried to curb off Asuma-sensei’s escape, and he was able to use a lower rock as a jumping point to break through their line. Ino was not too far ahead of the Nara, and she growled as Asuma slipped through their plan. “Asuna, can you soften the ground or something under him?” she called out to her friend, gritting her teeth as she continued to run. “Just slow him down!” Her gaze then turned to Shikamaru, and he winced at her grating tone. “What are you waiting for, Shika?! Get ahead of him!”
”Geez, quiet down will ya’?” he called back. “If we were trying to capture a scout you’ve just let the whole forest know we’re here!” Not like they couldn’t hear the sound of earth moving, but still. It was the principle of the thing, and Shikamaru didn’t want to have to listen to her yap any more. “I’m getting there!” The dark hared male raced forward, his eyes narrowed as he tried to double his speed in an attempt to catch up to their sensei. Asuma was fast, though he wasn’t putting on his full speed, and Shikamaru could tell.
”Take us seriously, dammit!” he growled, watching Choji cover for Asuna as she did her handsigns again, Asuma throwing kunai their way as he ran. That gave him ideas though—Asuna may not have felt confident in her abilities, though her jutsu was strong. That being said, she might not have been as fast as she could be. If they were to utilize a strategy like this in a real battle, Choji and Asuna covering for each other wasn’t a bad plan. At least this way Choji could make sure that she was able to perform her seals uninterrupted, and Asuna could concentrate all of the chakra and effort into what she was doing. Shikamaru would remember this. He ran, continuing to attempt to push ahead of their sensei. “You got this, Asuna—” Shikamaru called out to the blonde. “You’re crazy strong, just apply it…!” It was true—Asuna was a powerful fighter, and if confidence was something she lacked then Shikamaru was more than willing to spare some of his—within reason, of course.
 
Why? Why did she feel so afraid and anxious? Something that never really bothered her was suddenly making her hesitate, losing her focus and allowing her chakra to leak out. They hadn't been at this nearly as long as she had practiced with Kurenai sensei and she wasn't being nearly as intense either. Two jutsu's in and she was ready to give up using ninjutsu completely. Why though, she couldn't exactly say and it frustrated her to no end. It wasn't so hard, Earth Style in general wasn't so hard either, unlike something like Lightning or Fire release where her body had to form the element with concentrated chakra, Earth Release was just that...reforming the endless supply of earth beneath her feet. From her training with the older kunoichi, she knew she could do it, but now suddenly with her teammates around a choir of small nagging voices in the back of her head kept whispering in her ear: 'What if you forget the right order?' 'What if you over do it?' 'What if you forget that's your sensei and you crush him?' 'What if you hurt someone?' 'What if you're not really that good?'

"Don't give up now, c'mon we've still got to catch Asuma-sensei!" Choji said over his shoulder as he passed her, jumping from branch to branch, "I've got your back so do what you gotta do!" he flashed her a quick thumbs up as a string of projectiles came their way. She fretted, her eyes growing wide but to no one's surprise Choji was able to deflect them. Right...they weren't five year olds playing ninja, they were actually training to become ninja: to track, to fight, to capture, and every single one of her teammates were very capable, possibly even more than herself as they actually trained regularly. All the time she'd been spending at home around her father and grandmother, seeing her mother every other night, their fears of what this path could lead to had somehow rubbed off on her.
Asuna's dull gaze trailed up to Shikamaru, right, her team was there she should feel more confident as they were there to watch out for each other. They could look after themselves if she trusted them to. 'Alright, head in the game,' she pushed the negative thoughts down, she'd never be able to completely stop them, but right now she needed to focus, Asuma was getting away from them.

As she landed on a low branch, she almost lost her footing, everything was still wet from the heavy r- "Choji, we need to get closer!" Why hadn't she thought of this before? Idiot! Puddles of water were everywhere, the ground was wet and mouldable. "Right! How close is close?" Choji nodded as they quickly picked up their pace. She might not have had the right combination of elemental release to use mud style jutsu techniques, but if the ground was already wet... "The closer the better!" It was one thing to form a defensive wall or dome but to fluctuate the ground and move it was a different story, for one it needed a lot of chakra. "Think you can throw me?"
That was not the strangest request Choji had ever gotten but it was definitely up there, "W-What? Throw you?" he turned to the blonde, tempted to ask if she had lost her mind, but no, she had a very serious look on her face, "Alright, alright, give me some room." He couldn't believe he was going to do this. They stopped on a higher branch, his hands forming the seal for his partial expansion jutsu and in milliseconds his arm was as thick as a tree trunk and looked like he could lift a decently sized vehicle. Carefully he scooped the blonde up, launching her like a human bullet before he released the jutsu and took off after the jonin once more.

The feeling was incredible, the rush of wind in her face and the blur of colour as she flew through the trees immediately became her new favourite thing. There was the added danger of just what might happen if she hit a tree that made the experience even more exhilarating and easily topped skinny dipping in the school pool at the most ungodly hours of the morning. She was gaining on the jonin at an alarming rate, but she was also losing altitude, that was fine though as she braced herself for a crash landing. The look on Asuma's face was worth it as she surpassed him, a quick tuck and roll as the ground came within touching distance, unfurling and sliding on her feet, quickly her hands came together and touched down on the ground beneath her. Now was the hard part as she released her chakra into the ground, moving the softened earth around her and rippling it towards the jonin creating an offshoot of the Earth Style: Mud Wave technique bastardised with the Earth Style: Mud River, creating a sloshing mudslide, rising up and down like waves and gaining traction in a ever growing cone area in front on her.

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"You can do it Sasuke!"
"Ha-chan! Ha-chan! She'd the man!"
There was a very clear divide in opinion when it came to this match, though Sasuke didn't really care much as he could really do without the cheering all together. "Target practice is always better with a moving target you know," there was an odd playfulness to his tone, though it wasn't something he picked up on. Fights with Hanaru always promised to be entertaining and challenging and he didn't have to worry about 'being too rough' at all. It was something he looked forward to almost every day, whether it was a sparring match like this or even in Taijutsu, she was the only one that could actually take him on and make it...fun. With a flick of the wrist, kunai were sent flying her way, all of course were quickly sent flying away by the quick swipes of her blade. He didn't actually think he'd hit her, he wasn't planning to, truth be told the way she handled the wakizashi was so elegant in his eyes. The dancing glimmer of the blade as it was so expertly wielded was something he could watch all day. Not many girls could hold a short sword and look attractive at the same time.

He shook his head, trying to chase away those thoughts, "Hm, with an invitation like that, how am I supposed to turn you down, Ha-chan?" Sasuke wasn't one to use nicknames, but if he could push some buttons then he would, just this once. Lithe fingers reached for his kunai pouch and quickly the weapon was in his hand and poised for attack. So the dance started, as he closed the gap, the clinking and clanking of their weapons meeting each other quickly filled the air and just like that the world outside ceased to exist. All that was, was in that moment, Hanaru and Sasuke, side stepping and moving back and forth in a flurry of attacks and parrys. He watched and waited, observed and learned and when the time was right a quick upward strike sent the short sword flying, "Hn, you should pay more attention to me," he said smoothly, taking a step to the side, picking up the short sword. "I like this, if there was ever one thing I'd give you, it's that you have good taste," he said as he felt the wakizashi's weight, his grip tightened on it as he stuck at Hanaru, but the glow of her claws screamed for him to get away and he nearly missed being clawed at. The sleeve of his shirt wasn't so lucky though. Tch, that was closer than it should have been.

Something about the way so so playfully purred her mock concern sent a shiver down his spine and he gripped the sword tighter. "Hmph, you couldn't handle my fire style the other night though," he teased before discarding the short sword, if she wanted that then he would absolutely oblige. He had been practicing especially for her after all. Wait...no! H-He wasn't trying to show off -er, wait, no, yes he was, but he wasn't practicing it for her, just to beat her...that's it. His ears were hot, he couldn't deny that ever since she had shown up he felt more driven to improve and grow his jutsu range for no other reason than to 'beat her', but was he actually doing it to show off? A flash of movement past his face quickly pulled him from his thoughts, Hanaru had moved in and almost caught him off guard, much like he had previously.

"Tch, you're so impatient," he said with a smirk as their dance quickly picked up again, fists and knees, kunai and claws, when she stepped forward he stepped back, maintaining a short distance between them. She had landed a few hits, while he had barely grazed her. The longer they fought the more intense they became until he jumped back and put quite a distance between themselves. His hands came together and his chakra focused and pooled together "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" and from his mouth the flames erupted.
Kakashi had been trying to read his book, but with Sasuke and Hanaru increasingly becoming more and more lost in their own little world he sadly didn't get much reading done.
 
As a team, they were supposed to be there for and support each other—it was an undeniable fact and one of the very first (if not the first lesson that Asuma-sensei told them. Shikamaru was certain that he could trust anyone on his team—yes, even Ino was reliable in battle—to have his back no matter what. A common phrase floated amidst the jonin, and was passed on to the genin in their training. Those who broke the rules were scum, but those who turned their backs on their friends were even worse than scum. Now, the Nara was more likely to trust his squad than some of the members on the other squads, but even in all his stubbornness, he knew that this rule was universal between their class. They always were lumped together anyway, they might as well treat each other with the same respect.
Even if he was still semi-pissed at Sasuke for his attitude and his lack of sensitivity. He was strong and if Shikamaru needed to rely on him to accomplish a task, he was 97% certain that the Uchiha would do it (if that task had something to do with Hanaru, or helping the school that is).
Focusing back in on the present, he watched Ino as he attempted to pick up speed, the gap Asuma-sensei had on them widening as he seemed to pick up speed. Now he was hurrying? So much for running at his all from the get-go. ‘Idiot,’ Shikamaru immediately berated himself for his foolishness. ‘He’s hoping to tire us out and play the long game—of course he’s not going to sprint right from the start! He’s even accounting our small statures in comparison to his…’ So… maybe Asuma really wasn’t planning on going easy on them.
Just as Shikamaru was about to rethink his strategy, a blur shot past them, and he blinked in shock, his eyes wide. Of course, he hadn’t stopped running despite his surprise, but that being said, he still almost smacked into a tree. Was that… Asuna? Choji was still behind him, so the male could only come to the conclusion that she had been thrown by the young Akimichi using his expansion techniques, and the thought of something so ingenious brought a legitimate smile to his face. Damn! Why didn’t he think of that? He shook his head and continued to race forward as Asuma could only stumble as the mud around him began to swirl.
Asuma knew that Asuna didn’t exactly have mud-style jutsus up her sleeve, but with he ground as wet as it was from yesterday’s storm, the outcome was inevitable. He couldn’t help but feel a swirl of pride curl through his being while witnessing the tactics of his squad. “Asuna, that was clever—getting Choji to throw you,” their sensei grinned as he slipped through the mud. Rather than fight its slippery nature, Asuma did his best to skid along the surface of the mud as it molded to Asuna’s chakra structures to the best of its abilities. Almost like wake boarding, Asuma rode the mudslide to the best of his ability, but it still slowed him down a considerable amount. His direction brought him straight towards the Takanashi girl.
”Asuna, look out! Sensei is gathering chakra!” Ino called out, her eyes wide as she stopped in a tree near their position. Of course, Asuma-sensei was smart enough to know that Ino’s perception would pick up on this shift, and rather than pull out his Chakra blades, he resorted to taijutsu, throwing a kick in Asuna’s direction.
”Choji, let’s go,” Shikamaru nodded to his friend, and they both joined the mudfight, dirt and water splashing everywhere (somewhere behind him he could hear Ino complaining about her outfit and her hair) as they jumped into the thick of it, finally catching up as Asuma began to fight Asuna in hand-to-hand. Choji joined in the fray, and Ino did her best to get closer but she was held up by the mud more than the rest of them. Ne. Shikamaru’s hands formed the rat seal and his shadow stretched out beneath him, reaching towards their sensei, but the man dodged his abilities. Shikamaru glared, focusing harder. “Hold him down, or at least push him into my shadow,” the young Nara instructed, chasing after their sensei with tendrils of black.


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Hanaru had long since blocked out anything else aside from her opponent in front of her, and her eyes narrowed as Sasuke tested the weight of her weapon, before he came at her with it. Moving in what felt like slow-motion, Hanaru ducked and brought her claws up, deadly chakra-miasma swiping past the male a little too closely for his comfort. “I know I have excellent taste. How astute of you to recognize it,” she continued to tease. Why was she like this? This playful nature only seemed to appear when they were sparring. And only Sasuke. It was… odd.
She scoffed at his use of Naruto’s nickname for her, her eyes narrowing as her tail continued to flick behind her playfully. “As if I could look away, duckbutt hair,” she snickered at the nickname. His hair was fine, but it was so amusing to see how riled up he got over such a childish nickname. When he teased her about whether or not she could handle his jutsu, the female scoffed, her eyes narrowing. “As if! The other night was VERY different than this moment.” And that was true. As a human, Hanaru was a lot weaker than she normally was. They’d all have to find out eventually, better sooner rather than later so that she didn’t surprise them on some mission sometime with her sudden vulnerability. There was no way in hell Hanaru was about to let them down in that way. That being said, finding a time to talk about her demonic heritage wasn’t exactly on her to-do list at the moment, and she was still surprised that she had even bothered to tell Sasuke.
Before, she had built up enough of a reputation where she didn’t have to worry about training her human form, considering most were too terrified to bother her (and there was some dumb rumor about her devouring her victims on the night of the New Moon, which she found hilarious). Now that she had responsibilities and obligations outside of just herself, she would have to be a lot more careful. And that was another reason why she wasn’t entirely keen on telling them her exact day of weakness. After all, the less people knew, the less likely anyone… unsavory… was to find out about it too.
”Of course, I like you best up close,” she snickered, releasing the chakra from her fingertips so they could exchange in hand-to-hand without the immediate fear of Hanaru putting a hole through the Uchiha. Kakashi, of course, was groaning to himself as he was torn from his precious romance novel in order to make sure they weren’t killing each other, but he found their dialogue in between blows incredibly cheesy.
’Kids… they don’t even realize how close they are.’ He pondered if somehow Hiruzen foresaw something like this happening… but one could never be sure what the old Hokage was thinking when he did things. All they could do was trust the fact that he had not lead them astray, and his decisions were almost always seen through with some reward for the trials it put his ninjas through.
”Can’t keep up with my pace?” Hanaru grinned, pushing forward to get in Sasuke’s face with a genuine (albeit cocky) grin, moving to try for a gut punch that was only a fake-out to distract from her real objective—a kick to his side.
 
Kakashi watched from his perch, he'd normally leave the teens to do as they pleased but he wasn't a negligent team leader either. He knew just how frustrated his students must have felt and this was a rather productive outlet for them. They could let loose but also learn and grow their own abilities, but two of his students sometimes abused this free for all that he granted them. His gaze traveled over to his other students, Naruto and Sakura were fighting as well, though not nearly as intensely as Hanaru and Sasuke. Naruto, he knew, wouldn't take out his full frustrations on Sakura, while the pinkette had no problem going all out against the blond. Sakura's gaze kept drifting over to the other duo, her expression dark, before taking it out on Naruto, obviously affected by the playful and cheesy banter that so seamlessly flowed between the half-demon and the Uchiha.
"Take me seriously Naruto!" she growled as she threw a punch at the blond who only held up his arms to defend, "But Sakura," he whined back. He could, if he wanted to, take her down easily. That wasn't him though, he was what some people would say 'too nice', that didn't mean he didn't spar with her in earnest. He just didn't spar with Sakura the way he would spar with Sasuke as he couldn't bring himself to actually try and hurt her.

Sasuke on the other hand had no issue with hitting Hanaru with all he had. In his eyes, she willingly wanted to be a kunoichi and if he went easy on her just because she was a girl then there would be no point in it. So he fought her as hard as he would anyone else, not that she needed to be treated with kiddy gloved in the first place as she very easily kept up with him. A jab to the ribs, a kick to the thigh, like some masochist he kept going back for more, staying within her bubble to keep her on her toes. They kicked up grass and dirt as they fought, his heart thump thump thumping loudly in his ears, 'I like you best up close', his heart nearly skipped a beat as it sped up. Silently, in the furthest corner of his mind, he agreed. It was odd how hard he tried to keep her at arm's length, only to quickly succumb and find himself being drawn ever closer to her.

"Please, I can keep up with you any day!" Sasuke didn't try to resist as she pushed forward against his defense, breaking through with that grin on her face. A part of him wanted this, to have her be this close to him, to have her smile and have it reach her eyes...those glistening golden orbs, warm like honey and hard like steel, it sent a wave of warmth through him. Distracted much? Maybe. He realized too late that the punch wasn't going to land as her leg suddenly swung up and around in a blur of movement and made contact with his side. There was no time to block, he was too close to her to get away and with no resistance her shin crashed into his side. He grit his teeth and hissed, refusing to let a yelp even dare try and rip through his throat. "Sasuke!" Sakura had abandoned her fight with Naruto to come running, placing herself between Hanaru and Sasuke. The raven haired boy blinked in surprise, he'd long forgotten that there were others around, "This is suppose to be sparring! You're not actually suppose to hurt him!"

"Out of my way!" Sasuke barked as he straightened himself, "I'm not done," he pushed past Sakura, or at least tried to, but she was standing firmly in his way, "No, Sasuke, you can't. I won't let you!" Sasuke's eyes narrowed into a glare as he opened his mouth to retort, "Alright, that's enough for now. Let's move on to the next part of our training," Kakashi called out before any of the venomous words could leave his mouth. His glare turned and fixed itself on Kakashi instead, "What? Why?" he demanded, he hadn't beaten Hanaru yet and he was still standing so they could still keep going! "Because we only have so much time right now. You two can continue your fight later," there was a warning tone in Kakashi's voice, one that clearly stated that he was the boss and what he said went. Sasuke huffed, crossing his arms defiantly, but not speaking out against the jonin. Kakashi looked over his students, Sakura was glaring at Hanaru and Sasuke was glaring at just about everyone for not getting his way, "Now, let's work on your teamwork. Always remember that out in the field, your survival depends on your ability to work together." He remembered the first time they had taken the bell test, they were nothing more than naive young children, hopefully they've learned since then.

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A soft smile played on Asuna's lips at their sensei's praise, she wasn't sure if the idea would have worked but she was glad it did. Her makeshift mud style though was not as effective as she wanted it to be, but what did she expect really? Most shinobi learned at least two elemental natures and at times like these Asuna wished she'd spent more time learning another one to compliment her earth release, but she was taught that age old belief of 'rather do only 1 thing and do it well than do 10 things and do them poorly'. It was enough though, their sensei was being forced to slow down and allowed the rest of the team to catch up. "I had a good teacher," It wasn't a lie. Asuma was a good teacher, but she'd also learned a lot from her teammates and perhaps even put them on a metaphorical pedestal sometimes, not that she'd ever say that out loud. Her arms prickled and thingled, the lack of practicing was starting to seep through, she was using too much chakra and by that extent it was being wasted. At Ino's warning she released her jutsu, her hands were shaking slightly and already she was starting to feel tired. Asuna barely missed their sensei's attack as she rolled out of the way, standing up on shaky legs. She was a lot more confident in her taijutsu abilities even in this state.

Asuma was by no means a small man, he had both a height and strength advantage over Asuna and as a cherry finish he knew what they were capable of. The blonde was very aware of that as well and in an earnest fight she knew she couldn't beat him, but she could stall him. She did her best to doge and defend against the jonin's attacks, keeping herself grounded as she endured, only resorting to a quick attack here and there to keep his attention. "That's a nice shade of lipstick on your collar there, Asuma-sensei," she said as she blocked a high kick, the force behind it was enough to make her slide a little to the side. She tried to think up anything that would keep his attention and to try and get her out of that situation, "That's a really complimentary red," unfortunately she was out of any good ideas and resorted to poke at him instead.

"Ack! Ew! I'm not going in there!" Ino complained loudly as she caught up with them, the boys had already jumped into the fray, "C'mon, Ino, you wear mud masks all the time!" Choji called back up to her and she bristled, "It's not the same thing! Ugh, and I even did my hair this morning!"
"Looks the same as it always does to me," Choji mumbled quietly as not to enrage the blue eyed kunoichi hurrying to offer some relief to Asuna who was starting to slow down, being forced to keep up defending as best she could. His taijutsu was somewhat stronger than Asuna's, mostly because he could put a little more weight behind his punches. They did their best though, Asuna was able to catch a couple of breaths of air with the Akamichi there...until Asuma withdrew his blades.

'Yay, how fun,' Asuna thought to herself, taking a step or two back to keep out of the range of their sensei's blades. He was dancing around them, keeping out of Shikamaru's shadow. Ugh, this man knew them too well. Slowly though, they were being pushed back into a clearing and even as Ino finally joined them, now that there was a lot less mud around, that posed another problem...the range of Shikamaru's shadow out in the open like that. Shit. Shit. "We can't let him keep pushing us back like this!" Ino said as they regrouped. She had a strong jutsu, but it was dangerous and required her opponent to stay still. Asuma, was not going to oblige to that any time soon. "Ngh, I shouldn't have used a big jutsu back there," Asuna sighed in frustration, if they could just corner him in some way for Shikamaru's shadow to grab him. Three walls would have done the trick, but she wasn't sure if she could put up one rightnow without either her or it collapsing.
 
Hanaru narrowed her eyes as the two of them fought, losing themselves in their own skirmish, as they couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to Naruto and Sakura. The blonde looked troubled, his eyebrows furrowed as he blocked one of Sakura’s punches, narrowly avoiding a swipe from her kunai as the pink haired kunoichi growled to herself.
”I-I’m sorry Sakura, but I don’t wanna hurt you!” he continued to speak, avoiding her more as he looked between the pinkette and Kakashi, as if asking him if he had to fight Sakura, though clearly their sensei’s focus was on the other fight. He whined through his own skirmish, but fought Sakura all the same. Just… with kiddy gloves on. There was no denying that of the four, Naruto and Sakura were on the weaker side, but the difference between Naruto, Sasuke, Hanaru, and then Sakura were starting to become apparent to the female. She pouted in frustration, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to concentrate. She was smart—she knew everything on the tests and studied super hard, but… in the field and in execution, she wasn’t exactly the strongest ninja. But she hadn’t thought that the disparity was this big!
Grass and dirt flew about in clumps as they went at each other hard, Hanaru holding back for the sake of Kakashi’s narrowed gaze. “Oh yeah?” she grinned widely. “I’d like to see you try, ‘cause I’ve yet to,” she couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at her own (admittedly mediocre) diss, She grinned triumphantly when her leg landed against Sasuke’s side, though it was gone as quick as Sakura had ran over, her eyes narrowed at the purplette as she held Sasuke back. “So, in a real fight are you just going to run and hold him back if he were facing an enemy?” Hanaru sneered, unamused by her actions.
”W-well, no, but that’s… different…!” Sakura stammered, looking to Sasuke with hurt in her eyes as Kakashi broke them up. Hanaru scoffed, shaking her head, her tail going from bouncy to spiky in a display of her clear annoyance.
”And now we gotta do this fricken thing again…” Hanaru muttered under her breath, her eyes narrowing at their sensei. “Fantastic.” Her enthusiasm was… lacking. But the first time they tried to get the bells from Kakashi, none of them worked together. Sasuke was going after their sensei on his own, Sakura was too busy trying to follow Sasuke to help Naruto, and Naruto was an idiot. Hanaru…? She didn’t participate. That was back closer to when she was first pulled out of her life… and she didn’t want to have to deal with any of them. And she was still a little bit… uh… murderous. That being said, now that they knew the importance of teamwork and the relevance of teamwork to the exercise, but that didn’t mean it was going to be any easier.
”Yo I’m dumb as shit when it comes to teamwork, how are we doing this…?” Hanaru blatantly spoke up, turning to the others as she casually placed a hand on his hip. Behind them, Kakashi retrieved the bells from his pocket, four pretty, shiny bells dangling from small strings as he held them up teasingly.
”You’ll have to figure something out—” Kakashi shook his head with a sigh. “Now, you remember the rules—you have until lunch to try and get these bells from me. The only difference, you’ll notice, is there’s four. Four, because one of them is fake.” He shook the strings so the bells jingled lightly. “But that’ll be up to you to decide which one is fake. It’s a type of disguise, an offshoot of genjutsu, considering all of you except for Sakura were pretty stuck in my genjutsu the other night.” Sakura, who had previously been moping, perked up at that, a haughty smirk appearing on her lips, only to get the metaphorical rug pulled out from under her with the scarecrow’s follow up sentence. “And then immediately lost, even with Ino’s help, to an attack by one of my clones.” The students looked to him with determined faces. “Work together, you each know your strengths—and remember, lunch out is riding on your success!” And with that, he disappeared in a poof of smoke, causing Hanaru to focus in on her senses. Where was he going…?
”We have to get those bells so we can go to Ichiraku’s, dattebayo!!” Naruto chanted excitedly as Hanaru rolled her eyes.

---------------

”Keep it together, you’ve got this,” Shikamaru moved closer to Asuna as Ino and Choji began to engage their sensei in combat. The sound of metal scraping against metal rang through the clearing as they fought kunai against kunai. “If you have to take a step back in order to conserve your strength, do so. The worst thing you can do for yourself and the team is knock yourself out due to running out of chakra.” It was a little harsh, but Shikamaru was in no mood to play around when it came to not just Asuna’s health, but the safety of the team as well. When it came to the “leaders” in their squad of four, it definitely came down to Ino, and Shikamaru when he wasn’t being lazy. He had a lot of things to keep track of when it came to making sure the team was working as well as it should.
Losing a team member because of unconsciousness meant that they’d have to worry about them getting hurt further, and carrying them out of harm’s way etc. It was a lot to think about and process but all important. No one was going to be left behind, if he had anything to do about it, that was for damn sure. And he wasn’t going to let Asuna exhaust herself either. “Again, I need him close so I can capture him in my shadow, if you can funnel him towards me without using your chakra, that’d be ideal.” He knew that Asuna didn’t particularly enjoy taking orders, but he hoped that it made sense as to why he needed them to follow everything he said.
That and he was the strategist of the group. So uh… he hoped that it at least accounted for something.
In the meantime, Asuma was keeping up with both Ino and Choji, fighting 2v1 and winning, for the most part. As Shikamaru tried to follow their sensei with his shadow technique, it was interesting to observe Asuma as he did his best to give them a hard time. Shikamaru’s eyes were nearly closed in concentration as he tried to follow. It was hard, though, with how Asuma-sensei was struggling to keep track of both of his students, maybe he was beginning to tire? “Guys, we’ve almost got him, press him!”
 
It felt like they had been out there for maybe an hour but it had been much longer than that. Asuma had dragged out their exercise as much as he could, a real opponent under pressure to get away from them wouldn't give up easily and do everything they possibly could to escape, this was but a taste of an endless string of possibilities they could face one day.
The sun climbed higher and higher into the sky, the shadows were shifting and becoming smaller while the forest was alive with the sound of fighting. Metal on metal, the thud of projectiles missing their target and hitting the surrounding trees, the heavy panting of the group of teens.

Asuma danced just barely out of Shikamaru's grasping shadow, but it was getting closer and closer with each passing second. They would have to end this soon or they'd all end up collapsing. While their sensei didn't show it, he was reaching his own limit trying to dodge and weave around his team, but they weren't about to give up just yet. Between trying to push Asuma into Shikamaru's shadow and relieving each other when they got tired a makeshift plan was formed. "Asuma-sensei knows us too well," Asuna complained as she tugged up the muddy sleeves of her jacket, it was true, he knew their capabilities, but that in itself was a challenge. Their plan wasn't exactly one of the best they'd ever came up with, an upscaled version of the childish game of Cat's Cradle with trip wire wasn't very promising, but it would be unexpected and would at least provide the Nara's shadow to creep over the forest floor even as the shadows around them retreated. "We've almost got him, just keep pushing him back!" Ino encouraged, keeping up their regular banter, a clone had slipped out of the battle during one of their brief relief sessions and had been hard at work in the background.

All they needed now was for Asuma to step into their trap and be ensnared. "Ino, I'm ready!" Asuna said loudy, putting her hands together in the bird sign, though her words were aimed more at the clone and quickly the team fell back and away from their sensei. She didn't have much in the way of chakra, but that wasn't the point as she wasn't actually going to cast a jutsu, "Earth Style: Falling Earth Spears!" she called out and Asuma braced himself to dodge the attack from below, but instead a shower of shuriken burst through through the underbrush. As expected though, Asuma was quick to try and dodge the oncoming projectiles. In his peripheral vision he could make out something coming at him, a flash of black and yellow, Asuna was on the attack and he side stepped only for the empty jacket to fall on the ground.
A silent swoosh cut through the air as the wire trap ensnared his leg and only seconds later the trap didn't matter. Shikamaru's shadow had him.

They knew better than to celebrate, they were all tired and in the off chance that Nara's jutsu reached its limit they had to be prepared. With Shikamaru to his back and Ino to his front, Asuna and Choji flanked the jonin, cutting off all means of escape. "We've got you, Asuma-sensei! There's nowhere to run to now!" Ino smirked triumphantly as she held up her hands in the Yamanaka's signature style. "The Ino-Shika-Asu-Cho wins!" Choji looked equally pleased, Asuna just nodded along silently taking a quick moment to pull down her shirt.

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Tension in Team 7 hadn't been so high in a long while. The abrupt halt in their fun little tussle left Sasuke feeling unsatisfied as there was no clear winner and they could have gone on for so much longer. There was also frustration, in his mind he must have looked very weak for Sakura to have stepped in even though that was a regular occurrence whenever they were out on missions. He wasn't the only frustrated one though, the disparity between the team members and herself was eating at the pinkette and Sasuke's cold attitude when all she wanted to do was to help wasn't helping either. Her downcast look didn't go unnoticed by their sensei, but there was truth to what Hanaru had said no matter how harsh it sounded.

She was a capable kunoichi, she was smart and learned quickly, but she was so love struck that she didn't allow herself to really bring out her potential. Maybe it was a little unfair to compare her to her teammates; a Junchuuriki who had yet to learn how to properly use his power, a half demon with a record and skill that could easily land her a position in the Black Ops and a prodigy of possibly one of the strongest clans in the city with his own obsession to become the best. Comparing her with her other peers would be slightly harder as Kakashi hadn't personally worked with many of them often enough and teachers tended to dote on their teams and sometimes had very biased opinions.

As Kakashi left the quartet to devise a plan, an argument almost broke out over how they'd retrieve the bells. Naruto wanted to do a full frontal approach and test his skills against the jonin, Sakura disagreed immediately and silently agreed with whatever Sasuke said even though he hadn't voiced his own plan yet. "C'mon! We can totally take him!" Naruto pushed determined to show how much he had improved since he started training with his godfather. "Yeah, because that worked out so well the other night," Sasuke crossed his arms, his mood was already sour and now he was starting to become impatient as well. He thought about using hit and run tactics to keep their sensei on his toes while putting to use Hanaru's -aghem- past experiences to snatch up the bells, but that was immediately shot down by the blonde because that sounded too complicated and "Why is Ha-chan the only one that can fight Kakashi?!"

"Stop arguing! We're a team and we're not going to get anywhere at this rate!" Sakura tried to mediate between the two males and while she didn't exactly understand the faith Sasuke had in Hanaru she had already agreed to his plan. It wasn't long before they found their sensei lazily reading his book out in the open, much like he had done the first time they took this assessment, "It's nice of you all to show up. Here I was starting to think you didn't want to go out for lunch," he said glancing up at Naruto who stood out in the open. He could sense Sakura and Sasuke behind him, but he couldn't pick up on Hanaru's position, which had him on alert.

"Not a chance I'm missing out on free ramen!" Naruto said as he brought his hands up and created several clones who acted as the vanguard in the first attack wave. Not that they were much of a match for the experienced jonin. As they fought with Kakashi, Sasuke moved in closer to the skirmish and waited until the clones had almost all disappeared before using his Dragon Flame jutsu. Naruto had fallen back and joined with Sakura, waiting for the right moment before they charged at the silver haired man.
 
”Heh… what can I say, you kids are pretty good,” Asuma-sensei grinned, panting lightly as he stood with Shikamaru, their shadows connected. All of the students were dripping with mud, and sweat, and they were panting pretty heavily. “Now, if I was more desperate to escape, you might be fighting for a longer time period. Shikamaru, you can release me now.” The male nodded and did as he was told, taking a deep breath as he slowly lowered his hands and released their sensei from his shadow possession jutsu. Asuma cracked his back as he pocketed his kunai, motioning a hand for all of his students to gather around for a debriefing.
”Good job,” Shikamaru grinned, nudging Asuna as they moved to huddle up. Looking over her face, his eyes narrowed in concentration. “Hold on… you’ve got a little mud…” he leaned forward. It was splattered all over them, but there was a particular fleck on her cheek that he went for, a hand coming up to gently wipe it off of her cheek. “Got it.” He realized only after he had done so how close their faces had gotten in his concentration, and he immediately backed up, fighting for his life against the blush of embarrassment that threatened his cheeks.
”I liked your plan, you had a definite idea from the start, and you played with each other’s strengths well,” Asuma-sensei grinned, and the others seemed to puff up at his words of encouragement. “Of course, there are things we can work on as a team, but overall I’m impressed. Ino, I think you could have implemented your accuracy a little sooner—the kunai trick was good but if you had thought of something like that sooner maybe I wouldn’t have slipped through Asuna’s wall.” He turned to the ash blonde haired female, a smile on his features. “I talked with Kurenai-sensei about your abilities. I must admit I was a little concerned about you considering how much you exhausted yourself yesterday, but you proved me wrong. Make sure you get plenty of rest and sleep before the mission, your genjutsu abilities are completely integral to the success of this team. Also, make sure you don’t overdo it during missions as well. Pushing yourself past your limits only makes you a vulnerability to your teammates. Just remember that.”
”Dangit,” Ino was muttering to herself. “I’ll do better next time. I have to prove how strong I am to Sasuke!”
”Is that the only thing you can think of?” Choji rose an eyebrow, unamused by Ino’s ramblings about the Uchiha boy.
”Choji, that was so awesome when you threw Asuna, good work on that one, the two of you!” Asuma-sensei grinned, closing his eyes as he praised his students. Honestly, Asuma was so proud of his kids—there was a lot pride that senseis had for their students, and Asuma was no exception. How could he not grow attached to the squad? Each one was different and unique and each young student was his pride and joy. “I think if maybe you had used Asuna’s wall as a ramp you might have caught up quicker. Things to think about.”
Lastly, he turned to the Nara, and Shikamaru looked away, bringing a hand up to smooth down the hair that was pulled up into his ponytail. “Yeah yeah, I think I know what you’re going to say.”
”Then at least let me say this:” he continued, a serious expression crossing over his features. “Yes, relying on your teammates is good, but you’re going to have to train harder in order to fight in a one on one scenario. You can’t always wait for your opponent to step into your shadow technique. It serves its purpose well for now, but start thinking on how you want to train in order to move forward with your techniques.” Shikamaru nodded, it was the truth after all. He’d have to train harder if he wanted to be more of a force to be reckoned with on his own. Not that he wasn’t strong—but just that there was still a lot left for him to learn.
”Now,” Asuma-sensei looked over his muddy, messy students with a grin. “What do you all say to lunch on me? We can even go to Ichiraku’s or the barbecue place, if you’d like.”
”Ooh~ sensei’s sneaking us out of school!” Ino cheered, although her mood was immediately soured when she remembered her mud-soaked appearance. “Hey, wait a minute, can’t we at least go to the locker rooms and shower or something? I can’t go out looking like this!”
”Isn’t mud good for your skin or something? Who cares—Asuma-sensei said he was buying, we’re going!” Choji was always serious when it came to food. Shikamaru could only shrug and sigh, a mutter of ‘how troublesome’ sounding under his breath as he was cool to go along with whatever was decided. He glanced over at Asuna briefly, wondering silently if she was doing alright. He didn’t want to flat out ask her and embarrass her or hurt her pride, but despite what Asuma said about no longer being concerned for the girl, Shikamaru couldn’t help but worry.

----------------------

Hanaru watched them engage, her eyes narrowed as she slid between trees, her expression unreadable as she looked for her opportunity. Distracting Kakashi was an important part of their plan—after all, it didn’t matter which of the bells was fake if they got them all. They hadn’t decided who would bite the bullet on not passing, but Hanaru already knew that she’d pass on lunch so it should probably be her. After all, she didn’t eat as much as they did—she could be sustained for a long time on something small. The more she thought about it, the less she attributed it to her demonic blood, and more so to the fact that she had been in “preservation mode” for most of her life that eating regularly, despite having access to food whenever she needed it, just wasn’t something her body was capable of. She sighed—just what she needed, another thing on top of reading and writing to learn. Or relearn. Had she ever lived as comfortably as she had now? She couldn’t remember a time where her life had been this relatively peaceful.
Something sounded behind her, and the purplette’s ears flicked backwards, her eyes narrowing as the wind changed. “Guys, that’s a clone!” she shouted, knowing that it would give away her position, but it didn’t matter. Kakashi had found her before he had even spoken up.
”I hope this isn’t a repeat of what happened last time, Hanaru-chan…” Kakashi mused, dodging her reaction-punch as he narrowed his eye at her. “You’re not allowed to not participate this time.”
”Tch… I know that,” she seethed, tail flicking behind her as she did her best to keep up with him, sparring in taijutsu as she was forced to use more and more of her real speed and strength.
Naruto was wheezing, the clone having disappeared once Hanaru had alarmed them, leaving them to trail after the half demon and their sensei. “Geez, how are they moving so fast?”
”It’s got to be another one of Kakashi-sensei’s genjutsu, surely!” Sakura exclaimed, her eyebrows furrowing together as she tried to rationalize their speed.
”I don’t know about that…” Naruto mumbled doubtfully, before getting fed up. “Ha-chan, save some of the fight for us!! I wanna fight Kakashi-sensei!” Before he began sprinting after them again.
’I need to fall back, he’s toying with me… I knew Kakashi-sensei was strong but this is kinda ridiculous,’ Hanaru winced as she blocked one of his kicks with her forearms, being pushed back as the others ran up.
”He’s got clones all around us—I can smell them. A surprise attack isn’t gonna work,” Hanaru told the others, her gaze hardened as Kakashi pulled out his book, and she could just tell he had a smug smile underneath that damned mask of his.
”I think I have an idea,” the others looked to Naruto doubtfully but he held up his hands in mock-surrender. “You’re just going to have to trust me, okay?! I swear it’s a good idea!”
They huddled tightly together and Hanaru kept her gaze on Kakashi as he read his book, making sure he or any of his clones weren’t about to try something as they tried to focus on what they were doing. Basically, the gist of Naruto’s plan was centered around utilizing Hanaru’s speed. Of course, Kakashi lacked faith in their ability to fight as a team, so the idea was to play toward each others’ strengths, like he had said to learn and observe while they were sparring. “If you can use your fire release to chase him into me, that’d be ideal too,” Hanaru smirked, looking at Sasuke as a few of Kakashi’s clones showed up. “Or you’ll all just be stuck relying on my nose, to find which one is real.”
”Stick together, no matter what, that’s the plan…!” Naruto shouted as the Kakashi clones engaged. Hanaru turned to each one, flicking her tail towards clones so they could take them out. It was hard to tell which ones were real and which weren’t considering Kakashi’s scent was all over the clearing, but by getting close enough, she could figure it out. They would have to press him—he couldn’t last for long against all of them!
 
The moment Hanaru alerted them that the man they were fighting wasn't truly a man, the trio fell back as not to waste more energy than they already had. They should have foreseen something like this, Kakashi wasn't some inexperienced yuppie, but that didn't matter right now. "Oi, get a move on!" Sasuke called to his team as Kakashi flushed Hanaru out of hiding like a rabbit during hunting season. He was a little shocked but mostly awed at the speed and ferocity that the two were fighting, it was hard to keep up. The awe was quickly flushed out of his mind as it was taken over by an odd feeling of betrayal as Hanaru hadn't used that level of fighting when they spared. He wasn't jealous, what are you talking about! His feet hit the ground faster as he tried to catch up to them, 'Why can't you be more like Itachi?' Fugaku's words echoed in his mind. There was still much he needed to learn and that was evident.

"We have to get him! He's the real one so he has to have the bells!" Naruto growled out partially driven by the promise of free ramen and partially because he wanted to prove just how much he'd grown and try to take down Kakashi. "Ha-chan! Hey, you ok?" those two factors might have been a driving point in the back of the blond's mind but he also cared for his team and no matter how much stronger Hanaru was, he still wanted to protect her in some way. Sasuke's eyes flicked over her features, she didn't seem physically hurt aside from a small bruise or two, he wasn't going to voice his concern or relief though. Emotions on a battlefield were dangerous and even more so in the Shinobi line of work, your best friend today could be your worst enemy tomorrow and when it came down to making a split second decision in the heat of battle the slightest hesitation could end up a tragedy. If he could have a choice, he'd have gone solo from the very beginning, but teams were unfortunately a mandatory requirement.

"Tch, it better not be something stupid," he sneered as they huddled together to hear Naruto's plan, Hanaru acting as their lookout in case the clones decided to move in. It wasn't too bad of a plan, not for Naruto at least, but they didn't have time to refine as the group of silver haired jonin moved in. As they readied themselves, Sasuke couldn't help but glance at the half demon, they were suppose to learn from each other, but how could he learn from her if she didn't take him- wait. He watched her movements, the subtle changes in her posture, the way her ears swiveled around and her tail flicked almost as if pointing at something. His gaze followed the flick of her tail more closely, the man on the left, the one in the front...was she... "Heh, right," she was hinting towards the clones, "I guess I could lend you a hand."

Kakashi watched his students, their first plan was too predictable, now he watched curiously what they would do now that they were forced to fight out in the open where he had the advantage of the edge of the woods to his back. Surprisingly they were cutting through his clones quickly instead of trying to engage in full fights like they had earlier. They were moving together as a unit, much different than their first attempt and he was feeling somewhat proud of how quickly they had turned their scattered style into a proper close knit combat team. There was a flaw in their plan though and he could see right through Hanaru's little tail trick. Silently he slipped away, just what would they do without Hanaru's extraordinary senses to guide them?

"Ugh! Just how many of them are there?!" Naruto shouted as he dug a kunai into the chest of a clone making it disappear in a puff of smoke. "Don't lose your focus!" Sasuke growled back, staying close to the half demon, his red eyes carefully watching the advancing jonin, taking them out with as little effort as he could. They hadn't run into the real Kakashi yet, which was odd, but no sooner had the thought crossed his mind before a hand shot up from the ground, "Hanaru!" her name ripped from his lips as she barely missed the powerful uppercut. "He's here!" Sakura called to Naruto as they all quickly made to attack their sensei. He was fast though and he was focusing on trying to seperate Hanaru from the rest of them as the remaining clones all closed in on the trio. They couldn't let Kakashi slip through their fingers again, "Natuo, get ready to run, Sakura and I will catch up to you," Sasuke said as he started with his hand seals; Mi-Hitsuji-Saru-I-Uma-Tora, and unleashed a large stream of fire aimed at the clones. Fire release wasn't an easy style to master as it was basically super heating the existing chakra in ones body before expelling it, but it was the Uchiha's signature style and he had been schooled in the fickle nature release before most students even knew what chakra was.

Naruto broke free from the rapidly fanning flames and headed straight for Kakashi and Hanaru, summoning his own clones and they jumped at the man, not to restrain him but to grab at the jingling bells while the purplette exchanged punches. "YAAS!!" Naruto suddenly screamed out loud as he hit the ground face first, a first clenched in the air, "YES! I HAVE THEM! I HAVE THE BELLS!"

═══════ ≪ °❈° ≫ ═══════ ≪ °❈° ≫ ═══════​

The tense We-Mean-Business postures everyone had quickly fell as Asuma conceded to their victory. He had a point though, if he really wanted to escape then he could have easily drawn out their fight and slip through their openings, but Asuna still felt proud at their accomplishment. "Ne, sometimes I'm good at following orders," she chuckled quietly, plucking her jacket off of the ground and giving it a shake hoping to shake the mud off to no avail. Her attention was pulled from the sorry state of the material in her hands as a soft warm touch pressed against her face and her eyes quickly found Shikamaru's face. His brow was furrowed with concentration and his eyes were intensely focused where his hand was and Asuna couldn't even begin to describe what it stirred in her as she didn't even know herself. She wanted to hold his hand in place, the warmth wasn't at all unpleasant, and she wanted to lean and rest her head against his, but a lump was in her throat, one that she couldn't swallow down and her chest felt tight. She wasn't sad, which was what confused her so much as it felt like she could burst into tears...but at the same time not? Was a crush supposed to make you feel so...weird?

There was no hiding the red flush on her face as he pulled away, suddenly leaving a cold spot on her face where his hand had been, "Eheh, y-yeah, thanks. I..ah...I'd return the favour but," she raised a dirty hand caked with drying mud, "I'd...just make everything worse." While her mind was trying to process what just happened and what this confusing new feeling was, said dirty hand subconsciously reached up and grazed where his touch still lingered, "...ehg, like that..." 'Why? You dumbass!' her mind instantly screamed. Turning the jacket to find a moderately clean spot, she rubbed her face, joining the rest of the team in the huddle around Asuma.

Asuna tried her best to listen to their sensei's wise words, but she was distracted until Asuma's gaze locked with hers and the urge to bury her face in the jacket grew immensely overwhelming. Not trusting her voice, she nodded stiffly. A part of her felt that she'd done better the day before as she could barely pull off three jutstu's during their training exercise and yes, that did worry her a little, but maybe she just needed a little more time. The prickly feeling in her arms surely agreed with that thought.
"Well, if being strong for someone else is good enough motivation..." even if that person was a jerk and very full of themselves...that though Asuna didn't dare voice out loud. "Don't tell me you're on her side now?" Choji sighed as Ino perked up, "Of course, Asu's on my side! Always has been!"
"Yeah, after mercilessly bullying me onto your side..." the sandy blonde mumbled quietly, of course she was blowing things out of proportion and by the determined look on Ino's face she thankfully didn't hear her snarky comment.

The Akamichi boy beamed at Asuna's praise as he threw a thumbs up at Asuna, "Like a human ball launcher!" he grinned happily. His enthusiasm was contagious as Asuna couldn't help but smile along with him, her arms wrapped around her jacket, hugging it to her body to hide the quiver of her arms as Asuma wrapped up their training session with a little reward.
"Barbecue! Barbecue!" Choji chanted excitedly, it was after all one, if not his favourite place to visit. "Yeah...but it's not as casual as Ichiraku's," Asuna said looking at the boy, "We'd have to shower or at least get all the mud off first and then call a cab and try to beat the lunch rush traffic," not exactly, but she the last time they all went together Choji wasn't too shy about finishing their barbeque pieces either. At least if they went to Ichiraku's there was a guarantee they'd at least get their own bowls of food. Choji seemed to consider it for a moment, looking between the two girls, he really didn't want to wait for an hour for them to get ready, "You make a good point. Ichiraku's here we come!"

"We'll we're not going looking like this!" Ino quickly protested as she motioned to herself, "I can't be seen in public like this!"
"It's not like Sasuke's going to show up or anything. A lot of ninja stop by there right after missions and look like crap, so no one'll even notice," Asuna was going to fight for this, even if she had to tie Ino up and drag her there, luckily it didn't take much to convince Choji and once he made up his mind then that was the end of it.
As they moved back towards the building, Ino and Choji were debating over at least washing away the worst of the mud before they left. Asuna walked a little behind them, lightly bumping Shikamaru's shoulder, "Thanks, for before," her expression was soft as she looked up at him for a brief moment, "Y'know, for getting me out of my head." Again her words seemed to disappear and rearrange themselves before they passed her lips, 'Thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself'. Asuna wasn't a timid person by nature, she had her moments of shyness which was brought on by embarrassment, but for the most part she was sure of herself...she had to be.
 
Hanaru wasn’t exactly happy that Kakashi was focusing on her—he must have realized that she was alerting their squad to which ones were his clones. With their plan up in the air, they’d need to win a fight against their sensei, a trained jonin and one of the youngest members to ever join the ANBU black ops, aside from Itachi Uchiha, of course. The Copy-Nin was certainly no one to take lightly. “I’m fine, just don’t lose focus!” Hanaru gasped, blocking another hit that had more power behind it than she initially thought.
”Don’t go soft on me now, Hanaru,” Kakashi grinned behind his mask, making the poor girl growl in irritation.
”Shut up, old man…!” she bit back, biting her lip as she snarled in annoyance. Kakashi feigned a look of hurt, further mocking her as they fought. Of course Kakashi wasn’t exactly old, but getting him to slip up wasn’t an easy feat, and the purple haired half-demon was more than grasping at straws. He kept pushing her back, further and further from the group. That was definitely a strategy that their enemies could employ. As a former criminal, they might think that it would be the easiest to take her out first… either that or they could go for the opposite and focus on Naruto (who didn’t have control of his incredibly powers) or Sakura first. This was honestly something that Hanaru had never thought to think about before, and she was mildly impressed with the way that Kakashi chose to teach them all. He could flat-out tell them what he wanted them to know, but unless he pounded it into them physically, it wasn’t going to stick with say, Hanaru or Naruto.
Still, she was going to have trouble if they didn’t take out their sensei soon. She could hear Sasuke barking out orders from somewhere behind her but she wasn’t about to pay attention—she was mainly trying to keep Kakashi occupied. After all, that hopefully gave Naruto the opportunity to do the deed… Heat spanned out behind her as Sasuke used his signature fire release, Naruto using the flames as a cover to leap through and create clones, jumping their sensei as Hanaru grabbed Kakashi’s fists in her palms, grunting at the pain and strain that it took in order to do so. Naruto’s success rang in her ears, and Hanaru bounced back to put some distance from them in case Kakashi decided to retaliate.[/pindnet]
He didn’t, however, instead standing up straight and blinking. Turning over to look at his blonde haired pupil, Kakashi chuckled to himself. “So you have… now, have you thought about who you’re going to give them to?”
”I… uh…”
”You only have three,” as if to prove his point, the genjutsu on the one released, turning into an acorn attached to a piece of string. “You must choose who succeeds with you.” Hanaru scoffed, what a joke.
”Go ahead and give them to Sasuke and Sakura,” Hanaru motioned, turning around flippantly.
“I don’t eat lunch anyway, remember?” She was tired after running about, actually panting for once while trying to keep up toe-to-toe with their sensei.
”But you did so much work distracting sensei, Ha-chan… that’s not fair…” Naruto pouted, looking between his teammates. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Sasuke was a huge help with his fire cloud, and Sakura helped to launch him forward all while keeping the clones off of their backs with her kunai skills. And he already mentioned Hanaru having the most difficult job—keeping up with Kakashi. After a moment of harsh thinking (Hanaru could have sworn she was smelling copper from his brain melting) Naruto got a devious grin on his face. “I’m not giving them to anyone.” Sakura looked about ready to object loudly and Hanaru rose an eyebrow curiously. “I have the bells, so I make the rules now! And I say we all get to go to Ichiraku’s together!”
Kakashi chuckled, leaning over and punching Naruto on the head. “I still make the rules,” and the blonde could only whine in pain and hold his head, though the bells were still tightly held in one of his hands. “But… I suppose I am rather impressed with how you all cooperated as a team. It is a vast improvement from the last time we did this exercise. Come along, let’s go.” Hanaru might have objected to going if not for Kakashi’s look, and she sighed, going to retrieve her Wakizashi where it had been left in the ground from earlier sparring, sliding it into the sheath on her back with ease. Her hands were still stinging from the force of Kakashi’s hits, and she wrung them out silently as they made their way to Ichiraku’s.

___________________


Shikamaru snickered, “I used to call you “Mud Queen” as a kid, maybe it was fate,” he pointed out, remembering how many times they had gotten in trouble over splashing in puddles and running around getting incredibly dirty. The Mud Queen moniker wasn’t the only thing he had called her over the years, but it was definitely one of the more memorable nicknames. “Or do you prefer Mud Lord?” He pushed her teasingly, having completely missed her blush, thinking it was just a side effect of her being tired. She had used up so much chakra—he’d never seen someone exhaust themselves like that before, but he just assumed that because she had pushed herself so hard with Kurenai the day prior, she was still recovering. He worried about her… it was hard. Did crushes usually fill up your every active waking thought? Of course, that was an exaggeration, but Shikamaru couldn’t help but notice his brain strayed toward Asuna more often than not.
It was a problem… but not a problem. He didn’t quite know how to explain it, even to himself.
”What can I say? I’m persuasive?” Ino chuckled with a grin, shrugging her shoulders. Beisdes, being strong for others really was a good motivation. Even if it was for someone as lame as Sasuke. Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head at the thought of going out. Wasn’t that breaking rules or something? He was surprised Ino was rather gung-ho… despite, well, all the mud. They began walking back toward the school, Choji and Ino arguing about at least rinsing off, Shikamaru blinked, feeling Asuna nudge his shoulder. He turned to look at her, his gaze unblinking for her words.
”Anytime,” he said honestly, his gaze sliding back to in front of him as he shrugged. “I mean, you’re strong. If you don’t know that already, you know that now. We need you as a part of the team dynamic, trust me.” He looked up at Ino with a dead-pan, unblinking. “I mean, your chill energy definitely undoes whatever stick is always up Ino’s butt.”
”Nara Shikamaru, I’m going to kill you one of these days!” Ino’s wrath turned on him for his comment, his words not exactly quiet. Taking that as her excuse to at least get some of the mud off, she disappeared into the nearest girl’s bathroom, Asuma-sensei sighing before moving forward and letting Ino catch up with them, handing the group handfuls of paper towels that she had quickly gotten in the bathroom. The students (and their sensei) wiped themselves off a little bit to at least look presentable, and get the mud off of their faces and hands, but they still looked pretty worse for wear after their mud tangling.
Ichiraku’s was rather close to the school, and got a lot of foot traffic from the ninja community. It was also known as the best Ramen shop in all of Konoha, despite it being rather hole-in-the-wall considering it was just a ramen bar, with a few tables with cloth umbrellas set up on the sidewalk. Asuma sensei got their orders, and they all sat around a round table with an umbrella, relaxing and drinking water. “The first bowl is on me, kids,” Asuma grinned, nodding to them. “For a job well-done today.” Of course, it was also the unspoken apology for the events of the previous day. Unfortunately, for all it was worth, the ninja schools needed to respect and respond to the government. It was their way of making sure their authority wasn’t overthrown by said ninjas. Most of the government officials were at least respectful about their money-grubby power-hungry ways, but Mitomori Aku… was a different story entirely.
”Here you go,” Ayame, Teuchi’s daughter chirped happily, plating their bowls of steaming hot ramen before them as she smiled. “Enjoy your meal.” When the students and their sensei, relatively covered in mud, had shown up, Teuchi had merely offered a hearty chuckle at their appearances, welcoming them to sit wherever they’d like.
”Thanks, Asuma-sensei!” Choji grinned, digging in immediately, and smiling happily at the tast of his tonkatsu. If he wasn’t getting barbecue he was getting fatty pork!
Shikamaru was more simple, miso ramen with a balance of vegetables and meat, but with chili oil added on top—the calm and collected genin did enjoy some of the spicier things in life, after all. They ate in silence, their exhaustion and hunger evident in the lack of speech.

_________________

”Well well well, I guess we’re not the only ones who had this idea,” Kakashi grinned as he walked up to Ichiraku’s, a smile underneath the mask as he offered a simple hand in greeting towards Asuma-sensei and his students. “Tell Teuchi what you want, kids,” Kakashi stepped back, Hanaru joining him. Once they’d all ordered, Kakashi looked to Hanaru expectantly.
”What?” she asked, slightly annoyed as her tail flicked behind her. “I’m not hungry.”
Kakashi sighed, ordering his own bowl of ramen before leaning in towards Teuchi, being strategic in his whispering so that Hanaru couldn’t hear him over the noises of the kitchen. She narrowed her golden eyes as she moved back to sit at the table Naruto had picked out, the male waving excitedly at Shikamaru and Choji, who nodded back in greeting.
”Ha-chan, Ha-chan, sit by me!” Naruto chanted, grinning widely as she sighed and did so, knowing she might regret such an action. Round tables huh… it’d been so long since she’d been at a restaurant, even one like this.
”O-Oh, Sasuke-kun!” Ino grinned widely, before her face paled and she moved to hide behind Asuna. “WAIT! Asu… he can’t see me like this! I’m a mess!” she was whining, her eyes squeezed shut, as if just because she couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see her. A stupid, childish maneuver but she was desperate not to let Sakura have any sort of leg-up on her. “Why’d you have to go and jinx him coming here???!!!”
Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
”And here you are,” Ayame returned with squad 7’s ramen, a plate of raw salmon being placed in front of Hanaru. It was cut beautifully, probably from the sushi restaurant next door, but still. The thought was sweet, and the sight was… actually making her mouth water. Her tail flicked behind her playfully. Salmon… fish. Naruto was snickering at her reaction, and she growled, punching him. “Shut up!”
”O-Ow…”
 
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