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

[AwkwardSilence]

”Yeah, I think I’d like to continue being your friend,” Shikamaru joked, not afraid of implicating Asuna’s father as potentially getting violent considering his closeness with the man’s daughter. “That and I’d also like to stay alive.” He didn’t doubt that he was probably more physically capable than Eiji Takanashi, but he seriously didn’t want to push his luck. Not only that, but he really did value Asuna’s friendship. That was the main reason that he really didn’t want to talk about this crush that he had on her. He was more than certain that Choji figured something was up, and it was only a matter of time before his other friends did too, if he wasn’t too careful. He’d rather die than let Ino tease him about something like this forever, so he kept his feelings to himself. But he was incredibly grateful that he and Asuna seemed to get over their mutual silence. The awkwardness before they had been put on a team together had really felt… well, wrong. And stifling.
So needless to say, regardless of whatever he felt about the physical work that he had to do with this weird internships their fathers had set up, he was glad that he got this extra time to spend with Asuna.
Pulling himself out of his mind (something he had to do constantly), the Nara picked up some random trinket, eyeing the weird gnome with an unimpressed feature. “Honestly I can’t see how any of this kitsch-y stuff catches on as some sort of fad…” he mumbled, more so to himself than to Asuna, but he wasn’t exactly trying to be quiet. “I guess if you think about how Ino acts it kinda makes sense.” Because of how engrained his family was in the Shinobi tradition, Shikamaru really didn’t have that many interactions with civilians. “I can only imagine what a group of civilian girls must be like when they pick up a trend, if Ino is any sort of marking indicator.” He shook his head. Girls were exhausting. Asuna was always not like Ino, and he was grateful for that. Picking up a few things, he began to go around filling in the empty spots with “new” old items to be put on the shelves where someone perhaps picked up another trinket or something. Meeko ran about their feet, dancing between their legs as they worked. “Your old man’s gonna really struggle trying to get rid of me,” he couldn’t help but chuckle, shaking his head.
When Asuna spoke of how Eiji wanted to upturn the shop, he nodded. He understood the difficulties that came with making such a decision as well—tourist trap-like things were common in the older sections of town, so he didn’t doubt that one here would draw a fair amount of attentions. “There’s something to be said about an old-fashioned antique shop, though,” he shrugged, setting a buddha statue in an empty spot on one of the many shelves. “You’ll find something here that you won’t ever be able to find again anywhere else.” A lot of the objects seemed a little pointless and inane to Shikamaru, but he figured that someone could find something they might treasure here. If they were going to find a little special item like that anywhere, then The Shuffle of Things was the best place to find it.
”Of course if they ask for flowers you send them to the Yamanaka’s,” he grinned, turning to look at Asuna as they continued to fill the gaps on the shelves. “There, I think that should do it…” he mumbled, before turning back to Asuna to observe as she expertly placed more items than he thought could fit on the counter.. He knew that Asuna was no slouch, despite whatever anyone said about her school attendance. Her family business and family matters came first, and it was something that the dark haired male understood and even commended her for. Asuna knew where her values were—a lot of them couldn’t say the same. Now, that being said, Asuna also wasn’t one to leave the team hanging. When it came down to it, she could fight and handle herself well. Her earth release was instrumental to a lot of Shikamaru’s plans turning out the way he wanted them to, so he couldn’t imagine her not going on the mission with them, especially considering the top secret and confidential nature of the mission details.
”I suppose our mission load will only get more intense from this mission forward. Of course, babysitting and other such jobs will break up the really hard ones in between. Asuma-sensei knowns not to push us past our limits too much,” Shikamaru mused out loud at a lull in the conversation. “And then I suppose by the end of the year we’ll be taking the Chuunin exams to see if we can’t move up the next level.” He thought on this for a moment, and on how his father thought he was capable of becoming a jonin already. Maybe skills-wise Shikamaru could squeak by at the bottom of the jonin category, but experience-wise he’d be at a loss. Not only that, but wasn’t leaving your team behind ridiculously bad? Thankfully they were a group of four, so he was in a unique opportunity to do so where the rest of his team could still be considered a team. Still… his dark gaze slid over to Asuna. He watched quietly as she placed more items on the shelves, and as she cursed at Meeko for nearly tripping her by scampering between her feet.
Yeah, there was definitely no way that he was going to just leave everyone behind like that. Morally, he couldn’t do it. And… he didn’t want to. For one of the first times in his life, Shikamaru could actually say, at least to himself, that he was alright with where he was at. He huffed softly, shaking his head; he was beginning to sound like an old man already, and that wasn’t a good sign. “What next, oh fearless manager?” His words were teasing, and he rose an eyebrow at her playfully.

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Oh great—leave it to her big stupid mouth to say even more stupid things. Hanaru’s face was flushed at the implications of not only her words, but his as well. They both refused to look at each other as they glared at nothing in opposite directions. Sometimes Hanaru’s bark was more than her bite, but she could definitely dish it out enough to match. “I didn’t say you were—ugh guys are so dumb,” she groaned, trying to cover up her own embarrassment with that prickly nature that everyone knew her for. “If I actually wanted someone to watch my ass more, I’d just hang around that stupid dog.” Kiba was just slightly notorious for being girl-crazy.
The more they walked, the more Hanaru found herself relax. It was weird, to not feel like she had to be entirely on guard while with someone else. At school, her anger and snappiness often came from a deep-stemmed unease of being around so many people at once, but that was beside the point. “He talks big but he doesn’t have the drive,” she sniffed, feeling a small rush of pride fill her system. Hanaru knew she was better than Naruto—that was a given.
Between their walking, and her attempts at reading, if Hanaru was any judge of her progress (and she really wasn’t) she would have thought that she was doing alright. So far she had missed a few kanji here and there, but the more she read, the more she understood. That, and there was the added motivation of wanting to show Sasuke up. What was better than kicking his ass? Proving that she could learn faster than he could physically improve (of course, she wasn’t even thinking about what that might say about her as a teacher).
As Hanaru crouched to read a sign from a new angle, there was a moment of silence between them. Once more, it wasn’t uncomfortable, and felt rather natural. The purple haired female couldn’t explain why she felt so comfortable around the Uchiha prodigy. Her brain, trying to rationalize everything, would probably try to tell her that it was a biproduct of letting Sasuke know about her past—him having that extra bit of trust despite their position as rivals. However, a weird voice in her head was telling her that there was definitely more to it than that, but for the life of her, she didn’t understand or comprehend what that would even be.
”Hm?” she hummed in response, still focusing on what she was doing as Sasuke broke their silence. At his words, her brain stopped working. ‘I… kinda like this. W-what…? What did that even mean?? Thankfully, he clarified for her, though she still felt that stupid pink blush rising to the tops of her cheeks and the tips of her ears. “Uh, yeah… it’s not so bad,” she nearly coughed, looking back to the sign she was reading, though now her brain was less focused on the task at hand. ‘Don’t just say things like that!!’ she screeched internally, unsure why she was so embarrassed.
”Tch… idiot…” she mumbled under her breath, though her tail once again began flicking happily behind her. Standing up, she read Sasuke back the sign, following along over the words in the air with her finger, but she was still getting it. Already, she seemed to have improved on signs—a lot of them had similar key words or phrases, and so the more she got used to recognizing them, the faster she became. As they began moving to the next sign a little way away, she finally commented on his previous words. “Since joining the Konoha school, I’ve been allowed to just… walk places. I still watch my back usually—force of habit—but… it’s nice not to have to be constantly moving,” she told him, the truth slipping into her words naturally. Her eyes trailed on their surroundings. “And this place… is nice.” Her ears flicked about as they walked, picking up the different noises, and her tail kept going back to lightly graze Sasuke’s arm. If Hanaru was doing it consciously, she would never tell, though she had told herself a few times over that sometimes her tail seemed to have a mind of its own. At least… she refused to give in to the alternative (that was definitely the truth, mind you) that it tended to show her true, inner feelings. Because according to her, that line of thinking was bullshit.

 

[Iron Mouse]

"He's not your type."
The words spilled easily from his lips, though dry and humorless, as if trying to impose his own thoughts through that simple statement. Even after he had realized what he had said, the raven haired male didn't even attempt to retract his words. "You'll be fighting like a cat and dog," he smirked, thinking himself very clever, but somehow the thought of the Inuzuka making derogatory comments about the purplette stirred something inside of him. The boy was nowhere near them, but Sasuke was irritated and ready to tell him off for something he was doing inside his own head. He tried to bring his focus back, leaning slightly over Hanaru's shoulder as she read the sign. What did it matter if dog-boy actually did try to put the moves on her? It's not like he cared!

"If you stare at that sign any harder it might just get up and walk off on its own," Sasuke said as she sat crouched on the ground. The more she revealed tidbits about her past, the clearer the image to the puzzle that was Hanaru seemed to become. The trauma, the pain, they couldn't be any more different in their upbringing and he realized just how much that showed, even with something as trivial as being able to walk around. His head tiled back for a moment as he thought about this, he'd never once had to leave the Uchiha compound or the city in general. Generations upon generations of his kin all lived and watched their children grow old in a never ending cycle of birth and death. For her, it was the opposite, she never had a home she could really go to, at least not for long. Her home today would probably be raided or burned to the ground by tomorrow. For so long, all she did was run, like the autumn leaves caught in the wind unsure of where they would end up. "Some part of me finds that idea appealing, traveling far and wide with nothing to your name but your name itself. Being stagnant in one place like this...it gets pretty boring," he looked around the park, he'd been there many times before and it was always the same. While he didn't hate the city, in fact he loved Konoha, but there were times where it felt grey and empty, full of life but at the same time lifeless, "Everything's always the same. These trees will shed their leaves and be barren come the first winter snow. They'll bud and bloom again in spring, and they'll rustle in the summer breeze, only to repeat the never ending cycle over and over."

"I guess it's something you can count on to always be the same, but, it's predictable and boring." Sasuke's gaze turned back to Hanaru, he wasn't sure where his ramble came from and it felt off to share such thoughts with her. They were the kind he'd only ever share with his brother and no one else, but for some reason, he couldn't stop himself. He felt too at ease and it was somewhat alarming. Again, the nekomata's tail brushed his arm making the boy wonder if she was doing it on purpose and again the urge to reach out and touch the offending appendage surged through him. Looking down at her crouching form he tried to decipher the motive behind the subtle touch but from the angle he was standing in it was hard to see her face. It had to be on purpose right?
Sasuke turned his hand palm side up, raising his arm slightly, waiting for the black tuft to swish past him. Once it did, he curled his fingers gently, catching the tip lightly. The fur was even softer than it looked. Quickly, he let go and shoved his hands into his pockets. There was no way the boy was going to apologize for that, she started it after all.

Moving on from the current sign, the duo made their way, "You think that snake'll show his ugly mug again?" Sasuke asked, glancing over at Hanaru, it wouldn't surprise him but the fact that he had said or done anything yet was a little troubling. Surely there would have felt the consequences for what they did or what he had done, but everything was quite regarding that matter. The Sandaime wouldn't let it slide under the radar right?

A scream cut through the trees and not long after was followed by a little girl running towards them. Her pigtails bounced and she looked frantic as she barreled right into them. the front of her dress was covered in a deep red substance, "Help me!" she cried, her eyes wide and wild, "M-Mommy! She fell, there's blood everywhere !"
"What? Where?" Sasuke made an attempt to crouch down to her level to try and calm her down, but the girl wasn't having any of it. She grabbed at Hanaru's arm, frantically tugging and crying, "In the bathroom! In the bathroom! Help me, please!" she tugged harder before letting go and hurrying down the path to the plaza.
"Hey wait!" but Sasuke's shouts fell on deaf ears, "stupid kid," he grumbled before turning to Hanaru, "Let's go, I'll call the ambulance if it's really that bad." Basic first aid was a staple for any aspiring shinobi, in most cases they might find themselves alone or on a ream without a dedicated medical ninja. Picking up their pace they followed after the girl, coming to a stop in front of the bathrooms, an audible sobbing coming from the women's side. "Damnit, no signal. Go see if she's alright, I'll try and get a hold of the authorities."

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"I use to try to understand the whole purpose of buying these things," Asuna turned a small ceramic statuette, "I mean, they sit on a shelf and collect dust and you take them home to put them on a shelf to collect dust." She had made sure to lock up the store room after they had left and returned to the display room, "I don't know, civilians feel like they're a completely different kind of human being. I see it with my family a lot too. Sometimes it feels like there's a huge disconnect or a rift between me and the rest of them," she shrugged before placing down the statuette. It was something she had noticed more and more over the years. While true that at most gatherings there was a clear divide between those who showed distinct characteristics of the Takanashi line and all those who didn't, it felt as if there was another unspoken divide between her and everyone else. "Their entire mindset is completely different. Sometimes I get it and sometimes all I can do is watch," looking over the counter, she moved some things around to make more space then grabbed a few more things, "There's always room for more."

Asuna nodded along with his words, trying not to let them get to her. More intense missions meant she'd have to push her training to the forefront in hopes to keep up with her peers. More training time meant less time somewhere else, which only lead down, as she saw it, dark tunnels with no good end either for her or someone else. She was trying to keep her mind on the now and in the present, her gaze now scrutinizing everything that passed through her hands. "Right...this year the Chuunin exams start for us," it had honestly slipped her mind. From what she had heard it was a serious and grueling test, mostly because of how unpredictable it was. The test changed every time, with new proctors and new passing ratings, it wasn't like any other test that had set materials to study, no, you only found out what you were going to do the day you walk into the exam hall unless you had an insider. So lost in her own head, mulling over the looming dread that was the most uncertain test she'd every have in her life, Asuna almost tripped over the black cat that was darting between the shelves, "AGH! CAT!" she yelled and stomped her foot on the ground, but the kitten wasn't frightened by the motion at all. Instead, Meeko arched his back and pounced on her foot, biting into the exposed skin and drawing out a colourful selection of words from the blonde.

"You're sleeping outside tonight, you little monster!" Asuna threatened as she picked the furball up, making her way back to the counter and plopping him down, "We cleaned around here pretty well yesterday. I've been planning on reorganizing the back, so why don't you start and I'll come check up on you in a sec."
It was the soft shuffling of slippers on the wooden floor that announced Granny Fu's presence before the door opened, "Asuna? There you are. How do I look?" she asked turning slowly to show off the very brightly coloured yukata. Asuna looked her up and down, crossing her arms as she leaned on the counter, "Like an old woman trying to look like she's in her twenties." It was a blunt statement accompanied with expressionless look, "It's not for me!" Nana quickly protested, but it didn't sound convincing at all, "I've been talking to that nice man I met while visiting the twins, he has a son a little older than you and I wanted you to look lively when they come over for dinner."
An audible and exasperated sigh forced itself out of the girl's chest and turned into a groan of disapproval, "No, I have plans tonight," she moaned, her face scrunching up in annoyance.
"Plans? What plans? You don't have plans? Even if you did it would be nice of you to take him with you."
"Yeah, let me drag some stranger along to see my dying mother. The epitome of romanticism," there was more bite in Asuna's words than normal as she straightened herself up.

It wasn't something new, her grandmother often brought along people she thought would make for suitable suitors and tried to force her to get along with them. It never ceased to irk the girl as it was only half of the time her grandmother told her before hand, then again, whenever she did Asuna would make herself scarce for the night. It didn't matter where she went, as long as they were gone by the time she came back.
"Sharing your sadness with someone can be a good way to bond." Whether old Granny Fu didn't pick up on her granddaughter's irritation or whether she chose to ignore her discomfort all together was hard to tell with the small smile on her aged features.
As if noticing Shikamaru in the storeroom for the first time, a surprised "Oh!" quickly turned into a delighted look, "My, what a handsome young man! Asuna, why didn't you tell me you were hiding hiding him back there?" She shuffled, beckoning the boy closer, "Did you come to fix the television?"
"No, Gran, he's not here to fix the T.V and don't pretend you don't know him, he was here the other night!" Asuna snapped as her grandmother had her hands around the teen's arms, sticking close to his side, "Oh hush, you spoil sport!" the little old woman quickly snapped back, "Come dearie, you can tell Granny if Asu is being mean. Has she given you anything to drink yet? Are you hungry? My granddaughter has no manners or etiquette at all, you'll have to forgive her."
Asuna could only sputter as her grandmother fawned and apologized for all of her shortcomings.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

She blinked in surprise at Sasuke’s quick dismissal of the mut, and she rose an eyebrow at him. Who was Sasuke to decide who was and wasn’t her type?! Her lips parted, ready for an argument, but rather than let whatever she had thought of fly from her mouth, she sighed instead, shaking her head and letting it go. She wasn’t too sure what would have happened if she had challenged him about it, but the whole obvious “cat and dog” bs was low-hanging-fruit in terms of jokes, and she made sure to let him know it with an unimpressed eyebrow raise. Turning away from him and back to her sign, Hanaru felt Sasuke’s presence over her shoulder. Normally she might have gotten annoyed by it, but… for whatever reason, this really wasn’t bothering her. It was… odd. Why was she so relaxed? Why was she so calm? It didn’t make any sense.
Focusing on the task at hand, she hadn’t realized she’d been glaring so intensely until Sasuke pointed it out, and her annoyed amber gaze snapped back to his face, more embarrassed than anything, Hanaru hugged. “I know, calm down pretty boy,” she glared at the sign again, standing up slowly and relaying her information.
She paused, biting back more scathing words at his idea of traveling sounding pleasant. “Traveling is different than running away, always having to look over your shoulder,” she said, voice softer than intended. Looking back to Sasuke, she began to understand him a little bit better. After all, here was a boy who was the top of his class (or at least toward the top) and he had only ever been in one place all his life. His life’s paradigm had never been shifted or realigned, and he was used to similar routines basically every day. Her lips pursed as she looked to him. “Someday… I want to travel to,” she told him, the amount of honesty in her voice reaching a tone of speaking that she wasn’t used to. “Traveling for fun… it sounds… nice.” Almost immediately after her words had left her mouth, her cheeks burned pink.
That’s it, there was clearly something wrong with her.
But she couldn’t help but find her tail brushing over his arm again, and this time, as his fingers grasped the furred appendage, she gently dragged it through his fingers. The small moment had her face burning, as a shiver ran up and down her spine that she tried to fight back. ‘What is wrong with me?!’ her internal lament went unheard, considering she had no answer for herself. At least… not the answer she wanted, anyway.
Grateful for the change in topic, though not necessarily pleased with the mention of the man who was the world’s biggest ass, Hanaru scowled at the path ahead of them. “If he does, I swear I’ll make him wish he hadn’t,” she growled lowly, her fists clenching. “That man is… incredibly dangerous. He knows way too much for his own good. He even--!” she broke off, stopping herself from saying it. If Sasuke had heard any bit of their conversation in the gym before he had rushed in, then he would have been able to connect the dots of how Mitomori was taunting her with the death of her mother. It was brutal, and it was sad, but something that Hanaru could never take back. The pain of that night would haunt her forever, so it was only fitting she had such a visible reminder such as the scar over her nose. The reason it even came to such drastic consequences in the first place… “Whatever he’s planning… he’s definitely not done.”
Wherever the conversation could have continued from there would remain a mystery for now, considering a scream broke their mutual silence, and Hanaru’s pupils narrowed as her ears laid flat against the back of her head. She was bristling and tense, watching the little girl come out of the woods, and she didn’t need to see the red on her dress in order to tell that she had been in and around blood. Sasuke knelt by the girl, but she made a beeline for Hanaru’s arm, and the female tensed even further as she was pulled along with her, not putting up much of a fight in fear of accidentally hurting her.
”How would falling in the bathroom cause this much blood…?” Hanaru muttered under her breath, her eyebrows narrowing in both suspicion and concern. On one hand, if the girl was telling the truth, then this was indeed serious. If she was lying… well, let’s just say Hanaru had a lot of trust issues and this wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried to trick her by playing to her one sympathy—kids.
”Right—you’d better be quick about it, duckbutt,” Hanaru teased lightly, though there was a sincerity in her gaze that he may or may not have missed before she quickly turned and chased afte the kid, following her stench and the smell of blood. In all honesty, she hadn’t gotten very far before Hanaru caught up, her inhuman speed easily outdoing the girl’s little legs. Swooping her up in her arms, Hanaru’s gaze narrowed. “Point the way, kid,” she instructed gruffly, following instructions and arriving to the public restrooms. Setting the little girl down, she motioned for her to wait outside.
The bathrooms smelled of blood alright, and Hanaru’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Ma’am…? Your daughter got me. Are you… uh… are you good?” The half demon wandered the stalls, looking for the woman—probably knocked unconscious from blood loss, if the amount she was smelling and the girl had on her had anything to do with it.

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”Everyone finds good fortunes in their own strange, little ways,” Shikamaru shrugged in response to her words. “You’re right about civilians thought, they’re totally different than shinobi families.” His head bobbed in agreement with his words as the young Nara continued along in his work. The shelves looked pretty full, but an expert like Asuna could still find room for things without making the whole place look completely cluttered. He supposed it would come with experience, though like Asuna said, there was no telling how long Mr. Takanashi would put up with him before he was fired. He would try to make the most out of the experience while it lasted, at least. “Civilians don’t have to worry about the same dangers we do all the time, it can’t be helped,” he shrugged again, watching as she set another item in an empty place that he hadn’t noticed.
With the two of them working, it really wasn’t long before the countertops were truly looking that perfect amount of “just cluttered-enough.” Wasn’t that the staple of a good knick-knack store, anyway? The Nara hadn’t really been into any other antique stores, but from what he could see through the windows of others that he had walked by, they were pretty much the same. And they all seemed the same—The Shuffle of Things was completely different, though. That tiny, irrational voice in his brain reminded him that it was because this was Asuna’s family’s business is why that was, but he squashed it as quickly as the thought came upon him. “It’s a lot to think about,” Shikamaru nodded to Asuna, crossing his arms over his chest as he sighed. “That’s a ways off though, so don’t go and already stress yourself out about it.” Some part of the black haired male, however, knew that it was already too late for that, and he nearly regretted bringing it up. “Maybe by then we can get your dad to be better organized,” he joked slightly, noticing the mess that the back was in before he ever got there. “You really should have a system for this,” he called back to her from the other room.
Having left her to fuss over the cat and it’s stealthy sliding across the wood floor, he heard vague conversation as he began helping the Takanashi’s create a better and smarter system for filing while he was taking everything out. How were they even supposed to find anything in here? It was a miracle they didn’t lose track of anything important! Shikamaru sighed, figuring he should probably ask the ash blonde a few things about some of the documents before making any assumptions and committing them to his system like he normally would. However, as he peeked out of the back room in order to ask, he was greeted by the sight of Granny Fu. He put on a small smile, though his face quickly morphed into a bit of a blushing mess as she immediately zeroed in on him. He didn’t know what they had been talking about, but all he knew was that he hated how the attention had shifted so poignantly toward himself.
”A-Ah, thanks Granny Fu, you don’t look a day over forty…” he mumbled in a bit of shock, his eyes slightly wide. “Asuna’s the proper amount of ‘mean’ considering she’s my boss, technically…” He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling slightly sheepish under the careful scrutinty of the older woman, however he refused to do anything unmanly like fold in half for the grandma. “Asu’s got manners, I just have to earn them first, is all,” Shikamaru stated blankly, trying not to sound too-indifferent, but he simply couldn’t help but come off a little coldly, especially considering if he hadn’t he would have been an absolute mess. “I’m fine, thank you Granny Fu.” His hands were held up in a mock-form of surrender as he looked to Asuna for help and all he received in return was blubbering and vague apologies. The boy couldn’t help but snicker softly—how could he not when she was acting this cute?
’Dammit heart, not now’ he scolded himself internally, forcing his pulse to remain beating at a regular rate. “You look beautiful ma’am… did I overhear correctly in that you were going on a date? He’d be foolish to turn you down if he does.” His smile was kind and genuine—he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen Asuna legitimately happy for a while, but there was plenty of ferocity in her words and actions as she never seemed to do anything she wasn’t fond of without putting her heart into it. “Don’t worry about us, we have jobs to do. Right… Asuna? Speaking of which, I just wanted you to clarify which documents were vital and which weren’t in the back. It’ll help me be able to reorganize by priority.”

 

[Iron Mouse]

"There was a system...for about two days, then my old man couldn't find something and now no one besides him can find anything in there," Asuna tried, multiple times mind you, to bring order to her father's chaotic ways but it always fell through and he'd revert right back to his way of doing things. She knew she gave the boy a near impossible task,but the way she saw it one of two things could happen: he'd find it too daunting and quit on his own or he'd actually pull it off and her old man would keep him around for a while. Yes, Asuna was a walking contradiction to herself, fighting with her father to not hire Shikamaru, but also hoping he'd stay for a while. She blamed it on the way her heart fluttered when he shot her that lazy smile of his.The shop felt less suffocating with him there. No matter how busy she could keep herself, there were always those quiet moments when her thoughts would catch up to her.

All she could do now was cover her face with one hand in embarrassment as her grandmother doted on the poor boy. "Such a nice young man, but I'm too old to partake in these date things like you youngins do nowadays."
"You know," granny started as she pointed an accusatory finger at her granddaughter who was giving them a half hearted glare from the counter, "She has quite a pretty face, if she'd smile more often and if she wasn't such a mule she'd be a catch, hmm?"
Asuna could feel her face heating up as her scowl deepened. Why of all the days did her grandmother decide that today was the day she was going to be like this? And with Shikamaru of all people? She fought to keep her heart steady but it was beating wildly in her chest. People's opinions mattered little to her, but for some reason, she anticipated and dreaded Shikamaru's opinion on her grandmother's remarks about her.
"You know what, yeah, I think I need to have a look at the old man's mess," she quickly pushed away from the counter, taking Shikamaru by the arm and dragged him away. Flustered and agitated, the blonde nealy slammed the office door shut after hollering for her father to mind the counter.

A hand ran through her blonde locks, tugging the ribbon out in an attempt to still her mind and calm her heart. "Ugh, she keeps doing this," she huffed, keeping her back to the boy as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail, "Trying to make me go out with random strangers, like I'd actually want any of that!" Her hands trembled, not out of anger, but something in the back of her mind. A memory, a nightmare, gnawing at her flesh like some phantom parasite. She had to remember to breathe, to remember she was not alone, to remember that she hadn't told him...anyone the full extent of her venture to The Hole. Instinctively her hand reached into her pocket, but found it empty, the residue of burnt tobacco that clung to the room would have to surfice. "I tried to colour code them," she motioned to the shelves, "to keep everything together. Red's critical, blue's important, green and yellow isn't as important." Moving to a pile of boxes, she hauled them to the table, "These aren't sorted. I'll start with these."

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There was something in Hanaru's tone and that forlorn look on her face as she confided her desire to travel, not to run, but to see the world. Whatever that something was sparked it's own desire in the back of Sasuke's mind, a desire to say 'I'll take you someday', but the words never formed on his lips. It wasn't a promise he could make, not with his own plans laid out for him after graduation and he wasn't sure why he even thought of it in the first place. They weren't friends, but he felt so comfortable with her that it was driving him insane, not even with Sakura, who he had known since preschool, did he feel this relaxed to even so much as talk to her. Then again, the pinkette could never stop talking whenever she was around him, which in itself was annoying. He honestly didn't care about who was seeing who or why or her opinion about it.

As the words caught in Hanaru's throat, Sasuke clenched his fist, "He doesn't know what happened. He's just twisting his words to make it sound like he does, like those fake psychics on those TV shows." He knew Hanaru's side of the story, the incident with her mother and brother. A part of him tried to warn him that there was a slight possibility that she could have fabricated the whole story, but the pain in her eyes when she told him...no one could fake that. "We'll be ready for whatever he throws at us next," he tried to sound as sure as he could, but even he couldn't predict what that man was planning. What he was sure of though, was that he wouldn't let her face it alone, for the sake of the team if nothing else.
But there is another reason...
He mentally shook the thought from his mind, no, that wasn't possible. He was doing this all purely for his own benefit and not because he cared. Looking out for his teammates was just the right thing to do. Yeah, that's it. It wasn't because of the fluttering feeling in his chest when she was this close to him and acting so familiar.

His train of thought was completely derailed by the little girl, frantically trying to get their attention. "Duck? We don't have time for this!" Sasuke quickly said, covering up just how much that new nickname threw him off. He didn't have a duckbutt, what was she talking about? Holding his phone out, his brows knit together, his phone's signal was non existent. He held it to the left and to the right and he raised it high into the air. No go. It was odd, he'd never had any issues before, but of course that was Murphy's Law at it's finest. As he walked off with purpose, he kept his phone in hand scanning around for any bump of the bars. Subconsciously his free hand raised up to brush the hair on the back of his head, adamant that there was nothing wrong with the way he wore it. It did not look like a duck's butt.
"Why now?" he grumbled, whipping his head around, nothing seemed out of place, so why was there a knot forming in his stomach?
He took to a side path, the leaves crunching beneath his feet as his brisk walk turned to a sprint. If memory served his right, there was an old pay phone at the south entrance, whether it was just a relic or whether it actually worked he wasn't sure, but it was all he could think of right now as he didn't want to cause too much panic by asking a civilian for help.

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The little girl stood by the door, her form trembling and her eyes wide, "Mommy?" she called, but silence was her only answer.
The bathroom was relatively clean, the only source of light though came from the high set windows. It was much cooler than outside. Hanaru's voice echoed ever so slightly as she stalked the stalls. The first was empty, the second as well, the further she ventured the more things seemed in place, that is, until she reached the last stall. The door was ajar and the lock seemed to have been broken out forcefully. The stench of iron was strong and with a soft nudge the door opened to a visage from a horror movie. Even from her distance, it was clear that no, a mere fall hadn't been the cause of the red painted walls.

The door creaked and shadow appeared for a moment, blocking out the light before the door creaked closed. "Lookit tha mess, tch, and such a purty face too. Whatta shame," a voice rumbled from behind her.
A short man leaned up against the wall, peering from under his fedora; his suit jacket was missing, his arms disproportionate to his body, knuckles bruised and bloodied. His face was void of any remorse, his tone dry and thick like stale molasses.
"Gave my boys a real run around, but 'ere you are," he raised his hands as he spoke, "Sorry ta cut yer date short, but tha boss wants a word wit' yous."
The door creaked open again and a lanky figure stood in the frame, the girl in his grasp and one hand over her mouth, "Come quietly or lil' pippy longstongs o'er here's gonna look like mommy. Whaddaya say, hah?"

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Granny Fu was certainly a… um… spritely woman, for her age. The elderly in the Nara clan were very composed—his grandparents had been rather old fashioned, and so his grandmothers were never really the type to speak out this way. Either that, or before their passing he was too young to comprehend what was going on around him (and when he said young, he meant it. They had passed long before Shikamaru started training). That all being said, Granny Fu made him genuinely confused—he had a silent war as he struggled with whether or not the eccentric woman’s words would make him laugh or get a form of second-hand embarrassment for the poor female. Thankfully, before he could even have to come to some sort of a conclusion, they were distracted by the absolute
Shikamaru couldn’t help but sigh at Asuna’s words—no wonder Mr. Takanashi couldn’t find anything in this store… After all, the back room of The Shuffle of Things appeared to be a loose representation of the older man’s headspace. Shikamaru could have never been able to deal with something so messy. “Great, so if we organize, he’s just going to throw it all to the wayside? Man… how troublesome…” he finished muttering under his breath, resisting the urge to roll his eyes something fierce. “Oh well,” he spoke up, louder this time, and with more intent as he moved to stand next to Asuna. “Maybe we’ll actually be able to get something fixed. If we’re lucky it’ll even last the week.” The Nara couldn’t help the sly smile that played on his lips as he turned to the female.
He noted which ones that need reorganizing, he began pulling boxes down, listening to Asuna gripe. He couldn’t help but shrug at her words. Shikamaru wasn’t exactly an idiot—he could sense that there was something deeper there that he wasn’t seeing… that Asuna wasn’t allowing him to see. That being said, he wasn’t about to go prying into her life, as much as he was curious pushing Asuna was only going to push her away. She was just the kind of person that seemed to curl in on herself the more you asked about her, and he understood that aspect at least. “Well, at least you know she means well by it,” he pointed out blankly, going through the box of files that she had directed him to. “I mean… if she didn’t care about you, she’d just leave you alone, right? And while the potential suitors sound… annoying,” Shikamaru couldn’t even hide the way that his jaw clenched at the word ‘suitors’, the very thought leaving a foul taste in his mouth, “she’s doing it because she wants to look out for you. And she’ll probably continue to do so until you get into a relationship or something.” Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head. “I guess… I’m kind of a hypocrite in that regard. My dad keeps wanting to push me further into the Shinobi world faster than all of my peers.” He paused, his hands resting on the cardboard of the file box. His eyes narrowed slightly at some dust that was gathering in a corner. “He wants me to move up and leave all of you behind but I… I can’t do it. I know he wants to push me because he thinks I’m capable of a lot, but it’s frustrating. It gets us into a lot of fights actually. And then my mom usually resolves the issue by threatening the both of us,” he couldn’t help but sigh, shaking his head. “It’s a lot, and it’s annoying… but at the end of the day, they just want what’s best for us.”
As he finished his thought, he turned toward the ash blonde haired female with his signature lazy grin. “But man… family’s so troublesome, right?” They cared about you, so they pushed you, but it only helped in pushing you away further. Isn’t that the odd dichotomy of it all? Shikamaru couldn’t think of a time where he wasn’t frustrated by his own family, but he also rationalized that they did it out of concern and not cruelty. And yet he couldn’t help but to lash out at them for their concern. “it’s really kind of a joke, when you think about it.” Shikamaru couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought. “But let’s get back to business. Otherwise this mess will never get done.” He turned back to focus—after all it wasn’t his intention to start some sort of therapy session with Asuna. Not that he minded, but he figured this was probably the last thing she wanted to talk about.
As he was rifling through some of the files, one labeled with the important red color stuck out to him, and he opened it, only to find a bunch of pictures of Asuna as a child. He snorted, noting one where she was running, crying, from a butterfly. “Your dad’s funny,” he commented, turning to show her the red file. “Marked a bunch of photos of you as “critical.” He couldn’t fight that shit-eating-smirk off of his face. “I’m particularly fond of this one—” he made sure to point to the picture of her crying.

____________________________________________________​

Hanaru turned back to look to the girl. “Stay outside!” she didn’t mean to sound so harsh and scary, but whatever this was, this amount of blood couldn’t mean anything good. Her eyes narrowed as she found the stench of it all, her eyebrows furrowing darkly at the horrid mess that painted the stalls, the poor woman’s mangled form enough to make any normal person gag. Bile built up in her throat. “This… you killed her to talk to me?!” Liquid rage pooled in her gut like a building inferno, her lips curling back in a sneer. Her black ears had fallen flat against the back of her head, her golden gaze narrowing into slits.
This was why she didn’t get close to anyone.
This was why she didn’t have relationships.
This was why she kept herself closed off from the world. Because humans were cruel, and vile creatures.
She turned her head to face the man, his appearance revolting her. “And they call me a monster…” her words, though sarcastic, held no humor in them. Nothing was worth this. She immediately thought of the little girl that she had left outside, and her eyes widened as another figure arrived, the poor little girl in his boorish arms. “You let her go now!” she growled darkly. She couldn’t do anything while they had a hostage. “I’ll… I’ll go with you, but not if you carry the kid! You have to leave her behind!” Hanaru was more than willing to go with them if it meant they left the kid alone and unharmed—she didn’t doubt her own abilities to escape these Yakuza thugs, but her + a hostage meant things were about to get complicated.
She didn’t even correct him on him calling whatever her and Sasuke’s lesson had been as a “date” (that’s not what it was, clearly, because she kept telling herself that it wasn’t). ”Okay? Geez,” her tail lashed out behind her, showing her clear agitation. Sasuke was out there. Hopefully, he’d be competent enough to remember the direction they went in. Any way you looked at it, this situation was bad. And Hanaru, having the excellent skill of always planning for the worst, knew that someone would eventually try to turn around and pin this gruesome murder on her. “Seriously I’m not taking a single step if you don’t set her down. You can’t hurt her either, because then there’s nothing stopping me from killing you both.” She flexed her claws, her eyes narrowing into dangerous flecks of steel. This was bad… this was why she didn’t go out, either. Sasuke… what was taking you so long…?
Needless to say, Hanaru watched the man holding the child carefully, her claws flexing as she narrowly controlled her own acidic miasma from pooling under the appendages as she let them lead her away.
As they walked, she stuffed her hands in her pockets, and that was when she remembered the flat, cracked screen in her pocket. Right! Her phone. She never used it. When she first started at the academy Kakashi had recommended they all get a “group chat” and Naruto abused it so much that she finally begged the pineapple one to show her how to mute it (after she had, of course, tried breaking it. Hence the cracked screen). If only she could instigate a call or something… trying to be inconspicuous, averting her eyes to the ground and avoiding eye contact, she tried to use the device out of the corner of her eye. Damn, it was so hard reading normally—this scenario was even worse! Any time she felt they were getting suspicious, she’d glare at them in order to make them turn their gaze away. She’d almost figured it out… making sure the noise was turned down all the way, she recognized the only other number that didn’t say anything in the group chat as Sasuke’s (because at least Sakura had responded to Naruto to call his texts annoying, or at least that’s what Hanaru assumed was said, and to hit on Sasuke too) so that had to be his. Hitting it, she watched the phone dial—if hers was working (or at least if it was working now) then why hadn’t she thought to give it to Sasuke? She was an idiot.
She couldn’t risk looking at it anymore, only hoping that Sasuke could have picked up his phone and that he’d have cell service again. “Where are we going, exactly?” she growled, her eyes narrowed. “And why’d you have to…” her gaze trailed to the man holding the poor child. “Why’d you have to do that to her mother—if you came to me yourself in the first place maybe we could have… avoided all this mess.” She was trying to appear unsuspicious, or at the very least sympathetic to them. Long enough for Sasuke to figure something out and/or go after them.

 

[Iron Mouse]

The short man watched Hanaru for a moment, "My boys tried to talk to yez the nice way," he motioned to the lanky goon. Thick fingers reached into his pant pocket, pulling out a cigar and lighting it up, "She ain't dead," he smirked as his eyes dragged over the bathroom stall, "Not yet at least." Her sarcasm rolled right over him, and he shrugged uttering a rough, "Business' Business," and it echoed ever so slightly off of the cold bathroom walls. The fabulous pompadour stood off a little to the side, keeping the girl close, his large hands keeping her from seeing what had happened in the stall. He shifted his weight, clearly not comfortable about the scene, but he stood firm, "I ain't hurtin' no kid but can't be lettin' run free."
"Nuff wit' tha sap, grow a spine. Yous scared of a lil' blood now?" the short man growled, but his lanky companion didn't dare say anything, "T'as what I thought. Get 'er to tha car!"
The short man's attention turned to Hanaru once more, "We dun hurt tha kid, you keep yer nose down," he swiped at his nose, nodding for her to follow as they made their way back out into the late afternoon sun.

The lanky man had picked up the girl, albeit awkwardly, as he led the way down the path. "Boss ain't gonna like t'is boss," he grumbled, the girl clung to him fearfully. "Where's my mommy? Wh-where are you taking me?"
"Dun be askin' no questions," the lanky man cautioned only for the brute to sneer, "Mama's a bit tired an' takin' a nap." He glanced behind them, making sure Hanaru was still following them. The big boss had praised her skill to almost no end and was really adamant about hiring her, why the brute had yet to fully comprehend, she was just another child to him.
"Where? Where d'yah think? Lil' Larry Lil' Fingers, tha boss dun like being kept waitin', 'specially not by a broad," he chuckled as they approached the exit, the black car sitting idly, waiting for their arrival.
"Alright, set 'er down,'' the man waved at his lanky companion before opening the back door for the nekomata, "Get in, girl goes free."

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"Seriously? Who the hell steals a payphone?!" Sasuke growled as he reached the south gate only to find that the old phone had been ripped off its cord. It was an antique! It was part of the city's history and someone had the audacity to steal it. Why?! Who were they going to talk to, aliens?
He was forced to take a moment, he didn't know if they actually needed the emergency services, but there was a gnawing pit in his stomach and a prickly sensation on the back of his neck. What if it was nothing? What if it was something?
There was a ring, it caught him off guard, the soft vibrations from his phone made him scrunch his face up, why was it working now?
The number wasn't familiar in the slightest, but he answered it nonetheless, "Moshi Moshi?" he quickly answered it, not hiding his annoyance in the slightest. At first it didn't seem as if there was anyone on the other side, but then he heard her, "Where are we going exactly?"

Hanaru? Where did she get his number? He didn't have much time to ponder this as he heard the rough grumble of a man. He listened for a moment longer, before turning around to sprint back to the plaza.
'Damnit, why did I leave her alone?' he cursed at himself, if he hurried he might catch up to them but...
He came to a skidding halt as he neared the bathrooms.
'Shit, what now?' he was at a crossroads, he either ran after Hanaru or he went in to try and help the woman as best he could. 'Damnit!'

Mind reeling, heart racing and the rush of blood deafeningly loud in his ears he turned towards the bathrooms and barged right in. At first there was nothing out of place, until he ventured in further. Bile rose from his stomach and his body forced him to turn around. He wasn't sensitive to blood, not in the slightest, but...from her face alone, he'd never have been able to guess that the person propped up so carefully against the wall was a woman. His phone was out in seconds, his fingers desperately typing away at the screen before he brought the device to his face.
It rang once...
It rang thrice...
Another two and he hung up, his fingers seeking out the number again.
And again.
"Kakashi-sensei!" he almost choked on his words as the silver haired male finally answered and before the man even had a chance to respond he rushed to debrief him of the situation in short brief bursts, every second he spent talking the woman's life was fading away.
"I didn't go after her," he admitted as he turned back to the woman, swallowing hard but the lump in his throat wouldn't go down. Crouching carefully at her side, he checked for a pulse, it was faint but it was still there. Barely.
"We have an idea where they're going, stay where you are, Sasuke."
Kakashi's words were final, but that didn't mean the boy felt any better about it. He couldn't bring himself to look at the woman's face, sure, he'd faught tough opponents before and he and Naruto or even Hanaru would constantly fight to the point where someone needed a nurse. But this?
"Alright."

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Keeping herself busy was the only way to keep her mind from dwelling on unwanted memories. Asuna's eyes scanned over the documents one by one, those she deemed important she set to one side. Every now and again she'd pause, studying the paper for a bit longer before making her decision. She spared the boy a glance, catching the sly smile aimed her way, and quickly looked back down at the box that sat on the table desperate to escape the swirling butterflies in her stomach and the toxic thoughts in her mind.
A soft scoff fell from her lips, "Yeah well, the road to hell is pathed with good intentions," he was right of course, Granny Fu was just looking out for her and the family albeit in an annoying and old fashioned way. It was still embarrassing, "I don't like having people over, y'know. She tried to pawn me off to Iruka-sensei when he last came around to talk to my dad about my grades." Her face heated up, it was a morifying memory, on the bright side teachers didn't pay house visits any more, instead they called her father out to the school instead. Still, the concept was terrifying and how casual her grandmother went about it was no better.

A wave of guilt crept over her being, here she was selfishly griping and bemoaning her family for wanting her to settle down early and live a quiet life when Shikamaru's family tried to push him to the forefront of the Shinobi lifestyle, uncertain as to whether he'd actually come back from a mission or not. There was no doubt when it came to his abilities and sheer mental prowess, "Well, I mean, he is right about one thing at least...you are capable," Asuna's shoulders raised in a small shrug, "but I wouldn't...we wouldn't want you to. I think we'd be pretty lost without our fearless leader. I don't think I'd last too long with Ino as our team leader, she's great and all but I...guess I trust you more." Again with her utter selfishness, they've only gotten back into the swing of things so the last thing she wanted was to let him go.
The sound of a snort caught her off guard and she turned to look at him, was he mocking her? "Yeah, he sometimes thinks so," she said cautiously, but her curiosity peaked as the boy kept his gaze on a certain file. Stepping closer as he turned to show her the file, Asuna could feel her soul leaving her body.

"N-Nande," she groaned staring at a much younger version of herself running away crying. Hand written on the old polaroid were even the words she screamed 'They're going to eat me!'. "Why the hell is this in here?" she attempted to mask her embarrassment with annoyance as she stared at the photos, "Give that here!" The file was swiftly taken out of reach, "Don't look at them!" she tried to plead, reaching around him to make a grab for the photo file, but curse her short ass stature as his limbs were ever so long enough to keep it out of reach. "Shika...nooo," she whined in defeat, not that she had put up much of a fight, but in her struggle to grab the file she had kicked over a neat stack of papers that was sitting on the ground and had managed to invade his personal space. Half draped and half clinging to his side, the file was still a safe distance away from her grabby hands, "Dude...not the baby pictures, you can't do me in like that!"
​

 

[AwkwardSilence]

”Still, only a savage beast mutilates someone like that,” she glared, her eyes narrowed as she continued to walk with them, her hands in her pockets as she did her best to keep a low profile. “None of you are exactly subtle.” The jab was fueled by thinly veiled poison, and amber eyes glinted like flints as she was more than happy to give them a piece of her mind. “I hope your boss runs things better than this.” Her nose was in the air in a sense of haughty false confidence, her eyes narrowing at the thugs around them. Her gaze briefly slid over to the confused and rightfully scared little girl—Hanaru blinked slowly, attempting to exude a bit of calm for the girl. She would be the first to tell you—Hanaru was quite certain she sucked at dealing with children. Or comforting them. She just wasn’t exactly… “soft” enough. But this little girl certainly didn’t deserve the trauma this whole incident would bring, and Hanaru could relate to that at least.
When they made it to the car, Hanaru glared at them. “You let her go—right now.” The half-demon moved over to the car, and her eyes narrowed lightly as she kept glaring at them. She allowed them to open the door, and she slowly moved to get in the car, her gaze sliding over to the girl. She nodded encouragingly, silently urging her to run as soon as they set her down.
”Now will you tell me where we’re going?” she asked once she was seated in the back of the car. She was eager to rip them to pieces but remembering Kakashi’s words of warning. The goal was to see what they were planning on doing in Konoha before taking them out—after all it only makes sense to do reconnaissance first. That didn’t mean, however, that she had to like doing it. “Discretion is the name of the game, what are you all, beginners?” she sniffed, turning her head to gaze blankly out of the window as they began to move.
”For a dangerous broad, youse sure talk a lot,” the man from before spoke, not answering any of her questions. Of course, it wouldn’t be that simple. “Let’s get one thing straight, you’re gonna work for the boss, or else.” She resisted the urge to scoff openly, choosing instead to be silent and hope that she could keep her temperament cooler than normal so as to not blow her cover… or slip back into old, dark habits.
”It’s not a long drive, y’see? We’ll get there shortly,” the other one said, and Hanaru exhaled slowly through her nose, her mind drifting back to the woman left in the bathrooms. Hopefully Sasuke found her… if not there was no guarantee she was going to live. And what of the kid? Her gaze darkened again, and she glared lightly at the buildings they drove past outside the darkened windows.

____________________________________​

”S-she tried to… on Iruka-sensei?” Shikamaru couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought, only being able to partially imagine a flustered sensei as he tried to explain to the old woman that he was there for grades and not Asuna’s hand in marriage. Ordinarily a spark of jealousy might rise in the back of his throat, but with Iruka-sensei the whole idea was improbable, not to mention how funny it was to imagine how Iruka-sensei would act in response to such words. Controlling himself, the Nara heir shook his head, continuing to work on organizing the mess that was the Shuffle of Thing’s files.
Shikamaru shrugged when Asuna talked about his capabilities of being a good shinobi—sure Shikamaru had the skills and abilities but he wasn’t ready to move on without everyone. He opened his mouth to explain that further, but closed it immediately as Asuna followed it up with a sweet sentiment. “Glad to know at least you think I’m irreplacable,” he sent her another smirk, the smug grin used to keep his cheeks from tinting a light pink out of embarrassment. Biting his lip as he turned back, her couldn’t help but shrug, trying to play off the praise. “Well, Ino would be good as long as Sasuke was neither around nor mentioned. After all, her brain turns to mush at the thought of the edgelord.” He snorted, almost wanting to see Ino try to lead their team successfully when she had such an obvious weakness.
Showing Asuna the photos that he found, Shikamaru couldn’t help but laugh once more, looking at her mortified expression at the discovery of such innocent childhood photos. When she tried reaching for the photos, Shikamaru was quick to tauntingly hold them over his head. “Clearly they were filed away for a reason! I don’t know if I should let you have these,” he teased, that lazy grin returning to his features. Caught up in their little game of keep-away, he ignored the spilled papers. “Asuna you’re gonna have to grow if you want to get at these!” The dark haired boy continued to hold them out of reach, lording his height over her. “If I give these to you, you’d make sure they get lost—or worse, you’d try to burn them with your lighter or something. It’s my duty, then, as an employee to preserve the files that your dad deemed important.” It was a load of bull shit, but honestly seeing Asuna riled up in a huff was definitely something he couldn’t afford to pass up.
”If you promise to leave them filed as they are, you can see them,” Shikamaru nodded, smiling down at her. The position they were in was quite… precarious. Hopefully Asuna would relent before her grandmother or, lord forbid, her father walked in on them despite how they were simply messing around. “Put your lighter on the counter so I can take it and then I’ll give them to you. Equivalent exchange.” Once making sure that Asuna had set her lighter down, Shikamaru gently brought the folder down, eagerly awaiting the expressions she might make once she saw that the file was full of just pictures of her. From when she was a baby to about 5 or 6, from what he could tell. “You were a cute kid—geez what happened?” he went back to teasing, elbowing her lightly as he leaned over her shoulder as she shuffled through the different photos saved. “These would probably look better—and preserve better—if they were in a photo album. Making you could do that for your dad? Might make him go easier on you if you wanted to convince him of something. Like a bribe the next time you wanna go out past some sort of curfew or do something dumb.” It was actually not a bad idea. “I don’t even know if my parents kept baby pictures of me.” Actually, his mom probably had them stored in the attic or something. His nose scrunched lightly as he thought.
There weren’t a whole lot of things that Shikamaru kept out of pure sentimentality, but he could remember something that he still had that had to pertain with the photos of Asuna and that he still had in his closet or something. “Do you… remember when we were younger, that they used to take photos of us, and you like… got a few wallet-sized photos for free despite how many pictures you bought, and we used to trade them like Pokémon cards?” He couldn’t help but chuckle, shaking his head. Of course he still had hers—he just didn’t have the heart to throw them out. That being said, he wasn’t about to admit that out loud to her, not if he didn’t have to. Maybe if she ever ended up snooping around in his room at some point in the future she’d find them, but until then he wasn’t going to say a word.

 

[Iron Mouse]

"Shika, you can't," the blonde whined, reaching for the file as if her arm would magically grow longer. They stepped around each other, Asuna desperate to save face. Those photos didn't belong down here, what was her old man thinking keeping them with the work stuff?
"I remember a time when I was taller than you!" she huffed trying to clamber over him for the file, tugging at his apron, baby photos were embarrassing enough on their own, but what if there were naked baby photos! She'd die if Shikamaru saw them and knowing her father, there was at least one or two peppered in there.

At his proposal, she untangled herself from him, giving him a questioning look, "My lighter?" she repeated keeping her gaze hard on him, did he really think she'd burn them? Well, that thought might have crossed her mind but doing it was a different story. Defeat was inevitable though and with a sigh she drug around in her pockets, placing the item on the counter only to have it scooped up and slipped away into his pocket for safe keeping. The file lowered and instantly her hands made a grab for it, almost expecting the file to be whisked out of her reach once more, clutching it to her chest protectively, but curiosity got the better of her.

The file opened as she peeked inside, her nose scrunching up as dull eyes were assaulted with her younger self, bright and happy, smiling toothily at the camera. Memories of a time long gone, oh how the years have gone by. Time's arrow stood still for none, matching ever forward. They were out of order, seemingly placed randomly without any rhyme or reason, why she couldn't fathom as she looked down at the two year old crying because her hand was 'stuck' inside the pickle jar refusing to let go of the pickle holding her captive.
She hated pickles.

Life happened.
I grew up.
I happened.
All answers, bitter on her tongue, fueled by the haughty whispers in the back of her mind.
"Yeah? Right back at you," she hummed nudging him in retaliation, it was such a long time ago and so many things had changed, a part of her felt estranged, this couldn't have been her, but it was.
"This is why we're friends," she said cheekily, but he had a point. The photos would last longer if they were in a better and safer place. "It's weird looking at these," she motioned down, "I remember, but they don't feel like my memories. It's like having someone else's memories of being a dumb kid because there's no way you're that dumb kid." It was an odd thing to try and explain, the feeling even more surreal as her eyes looked down at her younger self striking a stupid pose for the camera, wearing her mother's heels and father's hat and glasses.

"I'm sure your mom has them stashed away and she looks at them every now and again. I don't really think parents can throw baby pictures away. Wouldn't you prefer Crybaby-Asu over...this?" she waved her hand up and down her length, "I think they'd all prefer if we'd stay babies forever."
A groan left her as her eyes found something most horrific, "Ugh, of course." There she was, almost one year old and dressed in an orange dress, the photo so lovingly titled: Daddy's Pumpkin Princess. She tried to shield the photo from Shikamaru's view in vain, "My dad...liked matching outfits for the family," her face burned in embarrassment, why was she even showing him?! "I stopped that shit pretty early. Being a princess wasn't ever my cup of tea."

Asuna closed the file, she couldn't bear looking at anymore photos. It gave her an odd feeling of disenchantment comparing what was and what is. It made her eyes sting. She wasn't that little kid anymore, free and afraid of everything, without a care in the world. The world was such a beautiful place then. She knew better now though.
"Hm?" his question brought her back to the now and she snorted quietly, "Yeah, I remember. I also remember putting one of Naruto up on the Missing Kids Christmas Tree one year," it was funny back then, now that she said it out loud, she actually felt somewhat bad for doing that. "I still," she took a moment to mull over what she was about to say, sizing up the consequences, "I still have some of them pinned up inside my closet." Asuna didn't look it and she knew she hardly ever acted like it, choosing to rather turn her back on the past and pretend it was some far off thing never to be minded again, but there were things that she kept, small mementos collected here and there. A box of memories, not that she could remember the contents of said box anymore.

"Hey Shika," she called, turning her head. Slowly she leaned closer until her nose barely brushed against his ear, "Give me my lighter and get back to work before I fire you." She followed up with a playful nudge to the shoulder and moved to the mess of papers on the floor, picking them up and giving them a once over as she reorganized them. They had been keeping busy for a while before the door opened and Eiji's form filled the frame, though looming he wasn't threatening. Instead he eyed the teens silently, glancing around at what they were doing and keeping whatever comments he wanted to make to himself for the most part, "Hm, busy little bee today, hu?"
"Busy e'rry day, old man. What do you want?" If she wasn't his daughter, Eiji would have given her an ear beating for addressing her senior with such disrespect, but it had become par for the course over the years. His face quickly scrunched up into a smirk as his eyes found the Nara boy, "Eh, just looking for someone for a quick, uh...quick errand run."

"Shikamaru's busy, he's not going to go to the store to buy you a pack of sticks and the daily gossip," Asuna was quick to shoot down her father's hinting, but the elder man slid into the room fully, undeterred by her demeanor. "I also need someone to go see old lady Lang, neh, Pumpkin~" although his words were directed at the glaring blonde, he slid up right beside the boy and rested his hands on his shoulders.
"No, we're busy. You can literally just walk down the road!"
"Neh, Princess," his stupid grin didn't falter as he poked Shikamaru's cheeks, obviously goading the girl with his onslaught of endearing names that she seemed to bristle at. His arm slid around the boy's shoulders as he bent down slightly to actually address him face to face, "I'll let you ride the bike~" and for emphasis he produced a pair of jingling keys from his pocket as if it would persuade the boy.

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There wasn't much for him to do.
There wasn't really anything that he could do.
Sasuke had called the authorities and stayed with the woman, moving her in a way to administer what little first aid he knew. He never had much of an interest in medical jutsu and focused all of his time and effort in becoming stronger, but what good was all of that power if he couldn't save just one life.

The medics were the first to arrive and within minutes the police were flooding the area, a civilian outfit though, as there was no proof yet that would have the special police involved. He was questioned, naturally, and he was compliant, providing as much information as he could. The park was simply bustling now, police and medics combing the area, ninuken were brought in and little by little masked shinobi arrived.
Sasuke was seated on a bench as the police tried to ward off the media who were now circling around like vultures. There was a sliver of relief that ran through his body when he saw the little girl in the arms of one of the medics. She looked shell-shocked, which was understandable and expected, but otherwise she was physically unharmed.

If I had stayed, if I hadn't left, I could have saved them both.
The thoughts plagued his mind as the scenario ran on repeat over and over again. Hanaru would have still been there. It irked him that all he could do was sit and wait for Kakashi. It made him feel so useless.
What could a bunch of wannabe thugs want with her? Sure, she had a checkered past but still!
The more he thought about it though; the more sense it made, the more reason he could think of wanting someone with her skills, the more things he could think of that someone with those skills could do.
The more his thoughts wandered, the darker they became.
"You're still here," a voice broke through those dark thoughts, "I was worried you'd do something reckless"
Kakashi was peering down at him through one eye and the boy all but scoffed in response.
"It's quite a predicament, I didn't think they'd pull something like this in broad daylight."
Sasuke didn't answer him, turning his face away from the older man. It had been such a good day.
"Don't worry so much. Hanaru will be fine-"
"How can you be so sure of that?" Sasuke snapped, "You didn't see what they did to that woman!"
Kakashi took a seat beside him, "You should have more faith in your comrades. Hanaru is by no means a push over, she's a smart and resourceful young woman. If anything I think it's the thugs who should be more scared."
The lighthearted attempt at lifting his spirits only made Sasuke more sour, "I know damn well that she's good, but that still makes me a shitty person for not going after my teammate."

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The lanky man looked over to his short counterpart waiting for some sort of signal before he placed the girl down on the ground. Kneeling down to her level, with a hand on her head and his eyes on Hanaru as she slid into the car, he whispered "Yous gonna run, lil' gal? Ya better and if you tells any coppers 'bout us, yer gonna be in big trouble."

The black car pulled away slowly, tinted windows blocking the late afternoon sun. Sirens screeched in the distance, curious faces turned towards the sound and the black car seemed to go unnoticed like a phantom in plain sight. Patrol cars flooded the road, red and blue lights flashing wildly and white coats dotted the scene. It was loud, for a moment, but the noise faded as the car pulled onto a main road and sped off, leaving the park behind. The building blurred by, the silence in the car was loaded and for the most part, Hanaru went ignored. The giant man beside her, taking up the majority of the back seat was making idle chatter with the lanky lad in the front seat, discussing various musicians as if it was just another ordinary day.

The factories dotting the horizon grew closer, they'd left the city proper, and one could almost smell the burning fumes on the wind as it whipped past the vehicle.
The car slowed and turned into a street, decorated by large red pillars and a sign with golden writing "Kabukasu City". The district was colorful and lively, bustling with laughter and movement, but there was an air of danger as if the shadows themselves were watching and waiting.
The car slipped off of the man decorated road and into a side road, zigzaging along the outskirts. Away from the bright neon lights, and the brightly colored advertisements, and the disorienting amount of decorative lanterns, flowers and intricate ornaments that seemed to line just about every inch of the 'city', the grey brick underbelly painted a different picture all together. A repurposed twilight zone, hiding its bones in the dark.

The car came to a stop before what looked like an old warehouse. Uncomfortably close to the industrial area of the city, there was an abundance of old abandoned or repurposed buildings. The sidewalk was wet, with what no one really knew, a mixture of sewage water, factory waste and probably unspeakable and unsavory things. One thing was certain though, the smell was enough to singe one's nose hair.
The three men stepped out, motioning for the girl to follow, "Whatcha lookin at? Ya lookin fer trouble, hah?" the short man snarled at a group of people standing on the street corner, all dressed in black with white masks on their faces. It wasn't uncommon for the residents to wear them, they were a symbol of mockery in these parts.
"Fuckin' kids," the short man huffed, leading Hanaru into the the old building. It was dimly lit, the majority of the light seeping in through the high set windows.

A knock, a second knock and the short brute opened the door revealing a man furiously scrubbing at a table. He was short, but taller than the brute, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his hair slicked back.
"We got the broad, boss," the big man said smugly, throwing his thumb in Hanaru's direction. His superior didn't seem to pay him any mind muttering about how filthy everything was. Unable to get the smudge out of the otherwise pristine table, the man threw down the rag in frustration and turned to his guests, "Am I a joke to you?" he asked and the brute seemed confused but didn't voice it. "Inconspicuous, did I not say that?!"
Lil' Larry was fuming, his face turning red as he yelled, baring his teeth, as he grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on and threw it across the room at the other man, "Get out! Illiterate moron!"

The brute quickly scrambled out of the room leaving Hanaru alone with Larry. He ran a hand through his hair trying to calm himself, "It's so hard to get good help these days," he sighed motioning to a lavish looking leather chair, "Have a seat, Dollface, kick off your shoes, take a load off, just keep your pants on. I don't need more shit on my plate right now."
He moved around the room, turning on the TV as he poured himself a drink. It hadn't happened too long ago, but already the media swarmed the park trying to get the police on site and medical officials' take on what had happened. "What a mess. You know how unprofessional this makes me look?" he lamented placing down a bottle of milk and a shot glass on the table. "I remember when we had it big and everyone respected the name of Lil' Larry. Yous still look the same, Dollface. I hear you're trying your hand at that straight laced bullshit?"
He watched her over the rim of his glass as he took a drink, "I got a job for you, something you're really good at..." he seemed to mull something over and he added, "the position of my right hand man just opened up, I could use someone like you."

 

[AwkwardSilence]

It was fun to watch Asuna try to reach for the folder of precious photos. Shikamaru had a good handful of inches on her, and his arms successfully kept his prize out of her reach. It almost reminded him of when they were younger, and games of keep-away were much more commonplace and innocent in nature. Now he was fully aware that such times had long since past, but it was nice to keep the memory alive every so often. That and he found it… well, quite frankly adorable at the way that Asuna reached up to grab for the folder, the smirk playing on his lips a glaring reminder that he felt completely at ease when around the sandy-haired blonde. He had little to no regard for her embarrassment, unfortunately. This situation was completely in his favor, and the Nara wasn’t about to give up his ground until he got what he wanted.
Thankfully it didn’t take too long for her to bend to his wishes, the lighter placed on the counter going into one of his pockets as his eyes narrowed, gently laying the folder in her hands as he made sure her ill-intent towards the folder was overridden by her curiosity for its contents. He couldn’t help but look over her shoulder, and observe some of the images that he maybe hadn’t while going through it himself before bringing its existence to her attention. “There are some good ones in there—” he couldn’t help but comment, snickering. Unfortunately, Shikamaru wasn’t always the brightest at sensing the situation, for all his brains and abilities, and so he missed the dull way her eyes glazed over at the images of her more-innocent self staring back at her. He also missed the bitterness with which she disregarded the happier expressions, but he didn’t miss the way that her words were almost half-hearted in their dismissal of him as she nudged him back. Sensing now that something was bothering her, Shikamaru’s eyes narrowed slightly. He wanted to bring it up. He wanted to ask her if she was okay, but his own doubts wormed their way into the back of his mind. Were they close enough for that to still be an acceptable answer? Would Asuna even take him seriously if he asked? Tucking these thoughts away, the dark haired boy backed away from her slightly, only to listen silently as she spoke of the past.
”We were all stupid kids back then…” he nodded, chuckling lightly. “We all did dumb things and look back on them now, seeing that they were dumb. It’s… I dunno, a right of passage, I guess.” Shikamaru could go all edgy and talk about the cruel mistress that was time, but he saw the way that Asuna groaned at something in the book. “I’m sure she does, I’ve just never seen them,” he said distractedly, eager to look over her shoulder to see what she had found. She was shielding it from him, though, and he didn’t fight very hard to get a glimpse. “Matching outfits?” He couldn’t help but snicker at the thought of a grown-up Asuna, dressed in matching outfits with her crazy father and grandmother, and he shook his head. The picture was, admittedly, adorable. “I’m not surprised he kept this—Pumpkin Princess is something to treasure,” he teased lightly, enjoying the look of discomfort on her face, knowing that she was simply embarrassed. “You try so hard to get out of that stereotypical girl bs, but I’ve never thought of you that way.” The words just slipped out before he could even comprehend what he was saying. Shikamaru felt his cheeks grow warm, it turning into his turn to be embarrassed. “I mean… to me, you’ve always just been Asuna. Not some copy and paste of all the other girls.” Trying to recover quickly, he grinned. “I mean, you recognize that Sasuke’s an ass, and not someone to be worshipped like a lot of the other females.”
As she closed the file, and they spoke of their school pictures, Shikamaru nodded at her words, a snort leaving his nose at the memory. “He was so confused—but then I ended up feeling kinda bad because he was happy that someone remembered to put his photo up at all.” Naruto was a knucklehead, and he made himself into the school nuisance… but it wasn’t entirely unwarranted. His adoptive father was gone more often than not, and while he couldn’t imagine that kind of life, he knew that it was difficult on the dobe.
Both broken out of their reminiscing, Shikamaru looked to Asuna with a dull blink, before he groaned inwardly. A part of him had wanted to keep the lighter, to try and help her in getting out of that horrible habit. Shikamaru was no stranger to cigarettes and the like, but something about knowing that Asuna also used the horrible cancer sticks made him want to quit, and to help her do so too. Of course, he rarely smoked, but the habitual action of lighting up after a particularly stressful day occurred every now-and-again. He was no idiot, too—he knew the consequences. So why was he so hypocritical when it came to the ash blonde haired female? Well… it could only be one thing. He wanted to look out for her: both as a friend, and as that deeper voice wanting to do more than just care for her as a friend.
But that was information that he kept to himself, of course. He tucked that away deeply and didn’t let it out. After all, they had just returned to being friends after a long “friendship hiatus,” there was no way he was going to ruin anything by scaring her away in admitting his feelings out loud. Plus, that was far too embarrassing.
Realizing it must have been awkward with him standing there, he coughed lightly, and nodded, handing her back the cylinder and going back to work. They were left in a fairly comfortable silence, working at putting the filing system back in order by the time Eiji came in to check on their progress. Shikamaru continued to work, rather than get distracted, until he felt the older male’s gaze on him. Putting up another box of properly-filed folders, the Nara turned, crossing his arms over his chest as he rose an eyebrow. He remained as he stood while Eiji pestered him, clearly giving Asuna a headache as he tempted Shikamaru into escaping the dusty, dark storage office hybrid. “If it’ll make you stop poking my face,” he said nonchalantly, taking the keys from Mr. Takanashi before shrugging. “It’s not that big of a deal, Asu. I’ll be back shortly.”
Shikamaru discreetly pulled himself away from the older man’s form, not looking back as he raised a hand in farewell, noting how Meeko batted at his shoes as he moved toward the front of the shop. “Don’t let him mess up the files we just organized!” he called over his shoulder, knowing that Asuna would rather die than let her hardwork get all messed up, but still feeling the need to say it out loud anyway.
The errand really didn’t take that long at all, and aside from the mild uncomfortable comments about how Lady Lang didn’t know that “Ol’ Eiji had someone so handsome working for him,” he didn’t mind the bit of fresh air. He even got some mochi out of the deal, figuring he’d bring the sweet treat as an apology to Asuna for leaving her alone to finish filing (and to deal with whatever her old man wanted while Shikamaru was out). Parking the bike, Shikamaru stepped into the shop, the bell on the door ringing. “I’m back,” he announced casually, setting a bag of items down on the counter that Old Lady Lang had given him to give to Asuna’s dad, carrying the mochi into the back room.

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Hanaru strode after the thugs, her tail swishing in an agitated manner behind her as she lifted a hand to her nose, the rank smell that permeated this section of the city making her eyes water. Truly, these thugs did not know what they were getting themselves into, and her eyebrow twitched in annoyance as she was greeted by the male who seemed to be their so-called ‘boss’. Resisting the urge to cause a lot of damage without finding out what reason the thugs wanted her assistance, Hanaru stepped in, but didn’t respond to the pet name. Were they truly this idiotic? Unorganized, sloppy, ridiculous… all of these were words to describe these wannabe gangsters, and yet they’d still managed to nearly kill a civilian just for an audience with the infamous None. They truly were stupid—every last one of them.
Once they were left alone, Hanaru stepped forward, keeping her inward rage in check—barely—but refused his offer of a seat. His vulgar manner of speaking had her upper lip curling in annoyance. “Very.” She agreed with his words, noting the lack of professionalism in his organization. After all, if one couldn’t even control their lackeys properly, how the hell would they control a full-blown crime syndicate when the going got rough. Hanaru had seen the lives of many more powerful men than him fall for lesser crimes. “Am I supposed to remember you or your name?” she sneered as he turned on the TV, upturning her nose at the milk he put out. What an ass-most cats were Lactose Intolerant and shouldn’t actually drink milk. Hanaru wasn’t, but the principle of the matter was the lack of his research and the uncaring manner in which she had been so rudely “summoned” to this dark abyssal hellhole.
When he flat out offered her a job, she couldn’t stop herself from laughing, the loud guffaw something that she hadn’t felt in a long time—the audacity of someone beneath her offering her a position, as if he was doing her a favor. Holding her stomach as she did her best to catch her breath, the female wiped a tear from her eye. “Y-You… You want me to join this shitfest of an operation you got here?! You heard it yourself,” her expression grew dark as the mirth left her features, replaced instead by a molten golden gaze. “I don’t do this kind of shit anymore. And even if I did, I wouldn’t work for someone who can’t even control your own lackeys. I don’t remember who you were, and more importantly, I don’t care.” The snarl in her throat became audible as her words took her closer to the table. “You’re going to regret this meeting, and sending your men to stalk me so obviously in broad daylight, and you’re going to regret hurting that girl’s mother, because I can return that pain ten-fold!” As she reached the table, a simple flick of her wrist sent it flying to one side of the room, the shot glass and the decanter of milk shattering at the impact.
The loud noise caused the guards outside the room to run in, shouts of concern for their boss leaving their lips as they rushed Hanaru, no doubt attempting to subdue her. “You obviously know about my abilities, so I wonder how dead you realize you are?” a purr left her lips as she dodged a jagged knife aimed at her back, the weapon catching her hoodie and ripping the sleeve. She tsked, her tongue clicking against her teeth as she narrowed her eyes. “Damn, I liked this hoodie, too.” Her gaze darkened.
Gripping the wrist of the other male, Hanaru used his momentum against him to swing him around and into the other male, her eyes narrowed as they both fell over each other, groaning in pain. “I’m so tired of being contacted by people who just want to use me,” she sneered, golden gaze looking towards the boss with malcontent as one of the males called for backup, a stirring sounding in the base. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t come back to this city at all,” she growled, eyes glowing as she used the knife that had been dropped to the ground to throw into the tv as an extra measure of “f-you”. She had so carefully measured her bloodlust while being conscripted into the academy’s ranks, offered a chance at a life that she’d never had. A chance to spend her time where she didn’t have to look over her shoulder constantly, every second of the day confused with what might be her last. Demonic miasma poured from the tips of her nails and as more thugs began to poor into the room to protect their scrambling boss, Hanaru began to cut them down. Her demonic aura dripped over the room like a fog, eyes glowing in the now-dark space as she dodged bullets and knifes grazed her skin. Was it so wrong to say she felt alive in the instant? No… she was a shell of her former self. This was for protection—of the city that had adopted her, of the home that she had been given… and this was revenge for a little girl who would forever be scarred by their actions toward her and her mother. She was no longer motivated completely by evil.
A shot rang out in the complex, and she grunted as a bullet lodged into her shoulder, hissing in pain at the sting. “Hah, take blessed silver you demonic freak!” Some thug shouted, and Hanaru lunged toward the sound of his voice, slicing off the barrel of the pistol in his hand, acid eating the metal like fire eating paper, and her opposite hand swiped up to slice long claw marks along his chest, the man screaming in agony. Her ears flicked at the sound of the boss, blood soaked face turning to see him attempting to escape. Not on her watch—the purple haired female launched herself forward with inhumane speed, and she growled loudly, landing on his back as he groaned. “You may think me a monster… but only in physical form. I am still half human, and yet I am still more humane than you and your men. Funny thing, isn’t it?” she growled in his ear, rearing a fist back and punching the man unconscious.
She hadn’t killed anyone, but the wounds might be fatal if not properly treated. Hanaru groaned, her outfit covered in blood, and more than a few new cuts (including the bullet lodged in her clavicle) making her stiff and adding to her numerous scars. She was used to fighting recklessly, but it had been a moment since she had participated in a full-blown fight like this. She was… impressed at her ability, despite her anger, to hold back. Exhibiting restraint had never been one of her strong suits, and she closed her eyes, wheezing lightly in pain, before grabbing the boss and walking back outside the building, throwing him on the doorstep, and sitting on top of him in case he decided to wake up sooner than the ANBU could track their whereabouts. Breathing a heavy sigh, she closed her eyes, hoping silently that Sasuke got to the mother in time to save her life. If only she’d had someone like him back when her own—she cut off her train of thought. If Sasuke had been there when she was younger… when she’d killed her mother… he would have died too. At least in this regard Hanaru could get that young girl some revenge, even if it was tied to a selfish part of her to still get revenge for her own childhood pain.

 

[Iron Mouse]

Even in the dirty back street, where red brick bones of the suburb jutted out like open wounds, the loud, drunken clamouring from the main street could still be heard. The masked youths were still in the same place they had been earlier, though squatting on the ground and playing with what looked like marbles as if Hanaru's presence or the fact that she just threw a man out on the street was no big deal and nothing new to them.

It was neither the time nor the place to let one's guard down and the feeling of eyes on her form had Hanaru scanning the area from corner to corner and alley to alley. In one of the windows, looming high above, she caught the glimpse of a man leaning out. The smoke from the cigarette in his hand curled up and disparated, the thing was burning out as he continued to watch her, study her intensely. There was an odd smell that came from seemingly nowhere, one that permeated through the stench of raw sewage that bubbled up from the open drain pipes.

The sweet smell of burnt wild spice.

It grew stronger, warmer, overpowering, but it's source was unclear. Suddenly it vanished without a trace as a group of masked shinobi dropped down beside the girl and the back alley smell returned tenfold.

One of the masked people looked between Hanaru and the man unconscious under her, "This your doing?" her voice was muffled by the monkey mask on her face.
The street was eerily quiet, the youths had taken to running the moment the ANBU showed up and the lost souls wandering about had made themselves skittish, even the man who had been watching her seemed to have retreated back into the building as the window he occupied was now empty, safe for an odd small object that sat on the windowsill, glinting as the rays of sun caught it.

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The police did their best at keeping the scene calm and orderly, most of the people started disbanding once the ambulance had left the park, but there were still plenty of people moving about trying to get close to the restroom. A morbid curiosity, Sasuke had decided, death was something that drew crowds together all in the hopes of catching a glimpse of a cadaver. It was a strange fascination, the people came closer knowing that they'd be shocked and still the sight of blood would send them into a frenzy. Maybe it was the cold reminder of just how fragile and mortal everyone was, as if death was some myth or legend, to squelch those thoughts of 'It would never happen to me'.

He was unsure of what kept the people's attention, the woman didn't die and the medics had assured him that she would be just fine. She wasn't there anymore, but that didn't stop someone from hopping over the police tape.
He looked over at Kakashi who was talking with one of the officers, another Uchiha, and he just knew that he'd be questioned later by his father.
If the man even cared.

"Well, the good news is they found Hanaru and she's safe," the silver haired man said as he ventured back to the boy.
"And the bad news?"
Kakashi tilted his head a little, "Well, she single handedly detained and disbanded the thugs."
Sasuke stared hard at the man, how was that the bad news? That's what they wanted right? "And that's bad because?"
"It's not necessarily bad, but she acted on her own. There'll be some questioning, but I'm sure things will be fine."
As reassuring as Kakashi tried to sound, it didn't ease the boy much. Questioning, what for? They were on standby for the mission anyway so it shouldn't be such a big deal, but there was a sinking feeling in his gut that told him otherwise. Kakashi wasn't letting anything slip, if he even knew anything that is, "You'd best be making your way home. I don't think they'll let her go just yet," the man spoke quietly, glancing sideways at a masked shinobi in the shadow surveying the area, "Too much happened for a certain someone to not try to raise a stink."

At those words, the Uchiha boy stiffened, catching onto his sensei's meaning. "Tch, those thugs attacked someone and you're telling me Mitomori-san will somehow try to pin it on Hanaru?" Kakashi had to raise a hand to keep Sasuke from drawing attention as the boy's voice climbed higher, "Calm down. There's no saying what he'll do, but rest assured that the Sandaime will handle it if things were to come to that."

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Asuna hadn't taken the boy's slip up to heart, not that she fully registered is words anyway as her mind was drowning itself in thought as dark and inescapable as tar. She dismissed what he had said with a light nudge and a playful smirk, but the peace was short-lived with Eiji's presence. Somehow, somewhere along the line it had become the norm to try and rile each other up, something she wasn't sure if it was exclusive to their relationship or if it really was just another 'Takanashi' thing.

She groaned as Shikamaru gave into her father's will and the man seemed very thrilled about it too. "He'll be out on the streets again if he does!" She called after Shikamaru and eyed the cat wearily as it scampered and batter at the boy's feet.
The girl turned to her father expectantly, but Eiji just stood there with that stupid grin he always had. The old kawasaki vespa sputtered to life, an unmistakable sound as the thing was just like everything else in the Shuffle of Things: Ancient.
"What?" Asuna crossed her arms, looking at her father who still hadn't said a word and she heaved an exasperated sigh when he shrugged, "Just needed someone to run an errand. It's nice to know our new face is so willing."

"Uh-huh, sure."
Eiji looked offended as she turned around and worked through more filing, "What? You don't believe me?"
"I know you better than that dad, you just wanted to put some distance between us."
Well...she wasn't completely wrong, the 'father-of-a-teenage-daughter' part of Eiji had been on alert after they had closed the door and the sounds that came from beyond had him tapping his foot impatiently.
"No, no, you've got it all wrong, pumpkin! See, Shikamaru and I...well, we had a little heart to heart as men, so we understand each other."
"You mean, 'I threatened him so I'm just checking to see if I need to do it again' ?"
Eiji neither confirmed nor denied her accusation, they both knew the answer, so he left her with a pat on the head to take up his perch by the counter where the daily newspaper sat abandoned. Glancing down at the black printed article, one of the big clubs was temporarily closed under suspicion of being involved with not one but multiple missing persons cases, as a father how could he not worry?

The roaring purr of the old bike engine pulling up next to the shop almost went unnoticed as Asuna stacked and repacked the last of the files. "Prrow," Meeko commented from atop the girl's blonde mop of hair.
"The prodigal son has returned!" she heard her father call out and for a split second she was confused until Shikamaru's form filled the doorframe.
"Oh, hey. Almost done," she hummed "The little shit decided to help," a scratched up hand motioned to the furball sprawled out on her head, "I said no way and that hell would sooner freeze over." When she turned to face the boy, it was evident that a great battle had taken place in his absence as small scratches marred her hands, arms and face, "He took exception to that."

The girl shrugged though, the scratches weren't deep and honestly not the worst injury she'd ever had. Meeko started pawing at her bangs, those wide unblinking eyes set on the mochi offering with interest. "What's this? You shouldn't have," she said with a soft smile threatening her empathetic look as they cleared some space for the treat. Asuna reached up to pluck the cat from her head and it was quite willing until it realized it was going straight to the floor, at which point Meeko started flailing about and meowing frantically, grasping towards the table, "Ngh, it's like he knows," she grumbled lifting the kitten back up. The muffled sound of her grandmother calling her from upstairs made her heave a heavy sigh as the small elderly woman was struggling with the television and asking when the repairman was going to come and take a look at it. "It's not broken, Nan, I'm coming," she yelled back up and motioned for Shikamaru to come along with the mohci.

"Every 4/5 times she can't get the thing to turn on. Do you know how many times she's called the technicians?" Asuna lamented as they ascended the stairs to the living area, "I swear she does it on purpose sometimes." She didn't complain much more after that as she assisted the elder Takanashi with the remote and in just a few seconds the T.v was on with the news anchor going on about supposed crop circles and other such fake news. It at least provided some background noise as the girl found some small plates and pulled out some juice.
"Well Shika, imagine this, but every day for as long as my old man sees fit, you sure you don't want to run yet?" she teased.

"And in other news, a serious development has occured right in our own city which begs the question: are we safe in our own homes and when will you be next? We warn the audience for what they're about to see."
Asuna rolled her eyes at the news anchor, "That's two questions." The footage cut away to the live cam and she immediately recognized it as Imabetsa park behind the brunette woman, "Huh, that guy in the background kinda looks like Sasuke."

 

[AwkwardSilence]

The smell was particularly odd—it filled Hanaru’s senses and made her a little bit woozy. It wasn’t something that she was used to. Sure, a lot of criminals smoked various legal and not-so-legal substances, but this scent didn’t seem to strike a chord with her (not that she tried to remember ever scent she ever came across—that would be just asking for a headache). Still, it didn’t matter, as no matter how hard she glared at the silhouette of the man, she couldn’t make out his features, her semi-night vision limited in the weird lighting of the back alleys of the Red Light district. He faded back into obscurity, and the female turned her head to glare at the ANBU that caused the individuals on the streets to scatter like rats. This area was shady enough as it was, but add a couple of high ranking intelligence assassins, and that was about the worst melting pot in the city.
Asking if the man underneath her was her doing was a formality. Hanaru knew that, which was why she didn’t bother to answer the monkey-masked woman. She knew already. “The kid’s mom,” she countered, her yellow eyes narrowing slightly. “Is… is she gonna make it?” There was no telling how much time it would take for her to recovery if she had narrowly avoided death (at least the half demon hoped she had), but surely she would have been able to identify some of this guy’s lackeys as the ones who jumped her. It had been so bloody… and so unnecessary. All to try and get Hanaru into their little crew? How asinine. Her eye twitched, an odd reflection causing the orb to water slightly, and she turned her gaze back to where that man’s silhouette had been, remembering the smell of wild spice but not being able to catch a trace of the scent despite its recent occurrence. How had that been possible? The sight of something sitting on the windowsill caught her attention, and as she stood up to turn over the wannabe squashed under her heels, she stepped over to see what was on the windowsill, pocketing it curiously and reminding herself to look at it later. The ANBU watched every move, one even with a hand on their kunai pouch, leaving the purple haired female to roll her eyes indignantly.
Sandaime’s orders or no, she wondered silently whose power overrode that of Old Man Hiruzen. He was convinced of her intentions, but these shinobi were still ready to end her life in a matter of seconds. She wanted to be angry at them, but then again… it’s not like Hanaru could blame them for their caution. As far as they were concerned, she was still a criminal, technically on probation. She would be a metaphorical feather in anyone’s stupid pride cap if they were responsible for taking her down—even those Jonin from the other day had told her so. She grimaced as her muscles ached in protest, following an ANBU who motioned her forward, the others beginning to cart out the lackeys she had taken down. Feeling more eyes on her as more were brought into the streets with varying levels of injuries, and Hanaru shrugged, becoming defensive. “They attacked that lady, threatened her kid, and tried to convince me to join them. I said no, and they took offense to it.” Silence followed and she couldn’t stop the growl from leaving her throat. “What?! They’re all still alive.” Another was dropped into the street by an ANBU, a weak wheeze leaving his lips as one administered emergency Medical Ninjutsu to some of the worse-off ones. “… Mostly.”
One ANBU placed their hand on her shoulder—the injured one—and she hissed lightly, but refused to flinch away, what with them all on edge. No need for them to think she would attack them. She knew she’d probably get into trouble over this but she didn’t particularly care. If anything, if it was somehow already back to Mitomori, then it showed that he had moles at the school and in the higher ranking ANBU members, which threatened to make Hanaru even closed off than before. Her eyes closed as she yawned. Exerting this much energy was beginning to make her feel exhausted. She wanted nothing more than a quick, scalding shower, and then to curl up in a warm place.
Her mind unexpectedly asked her what falling asleep on Sasuke’s lap might be, and that nearly startled her into being fully awake again. ‘Where the hell did that come from?!’ she wondered silently, tail flicking in irritation behind her.

__________________________________________________​

Shikamaru could barely hold back a chuckle of mirth, seeing the war that Asuna had clearly lost written all over her body, as Meeko played with her ash-blonde bangs. “Someone’s already become far too spoiled,” he commented, helping Asuna clear a spot of on the counter, only for their momentary dessert session to be interrupted by Granny Fu. He sighed, but it wasn’t one of exasperation, for once. Believe it or not, the dark haired male found that he actually quite liked the loud, familial feeling from the Takanashi family. Maybe Eiji was convinced his intentions with Asuna were somewhat nefarious (which couldn’t be further from the truth) but the way things worked made it feel like The Shuffle of Things was a proper home. Sometimes the Nara compound was a little… much. It wasn’t like the Uchiha’s massive clan home. Rather it was his house on the same street next to the rest of his family, but with his father being a busy Jonin, and his mother running their clan affairs, it meant that the times of family dinners and laughter long into the night had grown fewer and far between as Shikamaru had grown up.
It wasn’t something he could be sad about, though. It was just how they’d progressed, and he’d grown up not minding the loneliness that came with the quiet home when he arrived home from school. But Asuna’s home (and the shop via extension) felt… warm. And cozy. It was hard to describe as anything besides “comfortable” and “homey.” Which was a good thing.
”Have you ever thought of getting her one of those universal remotes with the huge buttons?” he questioned, only half teasing. It seemed ridiculous, but so where the challenges that came with aging until you experienced them yourself (as said by his own father). Following Asuna, and Meeko, up the stairs, he watched Asuna set up the TV for her grandmother, a small smile on his face that quickly switched to a passive indifference as she returned after snagging some plates. The juice was appreciated to, and he nodded his thanks to her. Taking a sip, he couldn’t help but grin slightly, raising a pointed eyebrow at her. “Y’know, Asuna, if you were trying to get rid of me yourself you could have just said so.” Letting his words sink in, he chuckled softly, before shaking his head slightly and letting his eyes wander over to the tv absentmindedly as he continued. “Nah, it’s not so bad.” Eiji was intimidating, and SHikamaru wasn’t about to take the old man lightly, for what it was worth. That being said, he also wouldn’t let Asuna’s father bully him into quitting this part time, like he maybe thought he might. And at one time, maybe Shikamaru would have quit at any chance he had, but then he remembered how he had seen Asuna after her training with Kurenai-sensei. She had been trying so hard to make up for whatever mental block she had that kept her from using the power of the ninjutsu that he knew she had, and she nearly beat the crap out of herself trying to train. Shikamaru wasn’t about to be undone, even in such a domestic standing. “If I can stick by this without quitting on you, then you can be prepared for whatever missions come our way.” It wasn’t really a challenge unless she wanted to take him up on it, and it wasn’t something he was going to force out of her too. He knew she probably still had a lot to talk about with her dad when it came to shinobi things. He just had to keep reminding himself that Asuna didn’t come from some deeply entrenched shinobi family. Her family was made up of civilians, and the life-or-death aspect of the career choice she had chosen might always be a struggle to bring up with her particularly protective father.
The mochi that the old lady had given him was particularly good, and he hummed in muted contentment, liking the treat even if he wasn’t overly fond of sweets. Brought out of his musings by Asuna’s attention to the TV, and he rose an eyebrow as Meeko moved to curl up on Asuna’s shoulder, not unlike a parrot. At the mention of Sasuke being on the TV, Shikamaru’s eyes narrowed, “How much do you wanna bet it is that porcupine?” He continued to eat silently, watching the news with slightly more interest knowing that something had occurred with their classmates involved.
The news anchor continued, her tone serious and Shikamaru processed the information while also silently noting how annoyed news-anchor-cadences were. “Whispers of nefarious plots too close to home… a woman found in critical condition has been rushed to the hospital, the only eyewiteness at the time have been our very own Konoha shinobi. Of course, no information beyond this has spread. An anonymous source has announced the possibility of a very notorious criminal being responsible. The criminal known as None has been reportedly spotted, though the credibility of this anonymous tip is under question. Please, make sure if you are on your own to stick to highly populated areas, and be aware of your surroundings—and the people in it—at all times.”
Shikamaru snorted—he’d heard of None before—they were prominent in the bingo book, though he didn’t know too much beyond that about them. The usefulness of the news anchor, however, was questionable at best. “That’s someone just trying to stir up the public,” his eyes narrowed slightly, wondering what someone would have to gain by throwing such a name to the media so casually. “If they’re anonymous it probably means that they’re wrong. Or they seek to gain something by name dropping. Perhaps a syndicate trying to show their strength to the other lowlifes around here?” He was talking out loud, but he shrugged, a sigh on his lips. “It doesn’t matter. We need more dirt before we can arrest most of the entrenched criminals. And that’s what the secret police is for, not genin like us.” Hopefully his words would ease any nosy grandmothers… or eavesdropping overbearing fathers. Not that he was concerned for them, but more so for the fact that Mr. Takanashi was already hesitant with his daughter’s shinobi career. Yes, what they did for a living (and just school, even) was dangerous. But he wanted, inevitably, the choice to be Asuna’s. He wanted her to pick what she wanted to do, and not have to worry about her father fretting over her (although Shikamaru doubted that would ever happen).

 

[Iron Mouse]

"I can't give her that much power. You know the old saying: with great power comes a great electricity bill," Asuna teased the boy back, "And I'm scared of all that power going right up to her head, y'know, and she turns into Lex Luthor or something." It was her belief, and she stood by it fiercely, that Granny Fu knew more about electronics than she let on, only 'remembering' how things worked when it suited her. She had chalked it up to her age and the need for some love and attention, not that the elderly Takanashi didn't receive plenty of that already, but it was something that the blonde had noticed in general. The conclusion she had come to was a sad one, that old people were often neglected or pushed away because they no longer had much purpose and it had made her wonder what things would be like when, or if, she ever reached that age. Would her children put her in a home? Would she still be lucid enough to do things on her own? Would she even have anyone around to take care of her? The questions were haunting and so she did her best to aid the ageing woman with whatever she needed, even if she grumbled about it.

"Just making sure you know what you've signed up for," she'd be lying if she said that she didn't enjoy his company and felt more at ease in a way. She didn't show the relief at his words, that he wasn't ready to run for the hills just yet, she didn't even know she dreaded the possibility that he would throw in the towel.

The mochi was sweet and chewy, just the way Asuna liked it, and in her opinion Ol' Granny Lang made the best mochi in the city, though not something she'd mention to her own grandmother lest she start a mochi war, "but I'll take you back. Hm, your offerings please the beast," unable to resist the wide eyed little monster purring on her shoulder, she held the mochi up for Meeko to taste. "My dad's been weirdly chilled with you, I honestly expected him to vulture you all day long," the girl stated, it was a minor observation and she honestly wasn't sure what to make of it. He had left them alone for quite some time before barging into the room and hadn't even yelled at them for closing the door while they worked. It was perplexing and suspicious, completely out of character for him. The thought was churning around in the girl's head as they ate, their eyes turning towards the T.V and it quickly had their full attention.

"Yeah, side's, this None guy can't be all that notorious, I've never heard of them in my life," Asuna shrugged with a mouth full of mochi, her eyes still scanning the background trying to confirm whether she really did see Sasuke back there. "Was probably a mugging gone wrong," it was only wild speculation, but it wasn't out of the ordinary for the media to take small incidents and blow them out of proportion, but then Granny Fu turned to look at her, "Ohhh, no, it must have been a crime of passion. Yes, yes, I heard it was a lovers spat that turned violent and then tragic."
"They just announced it, Nan, you couldn't possibly have 'heard' any stories about it yet."

The news anchor attempted to interview some of the police on the scene but they all gave her the same response of 'no comment', "Young man! Young man! Excuse me!" she all but shoved past the police and stormed up to a very familiar raven haired edgelord, "Can you tell us what happened?"
"Oh shit, it is Sasuke," Asuna said with mild amusement as he visibly bristled at the woman shoving the microphone into his face.
"No comment," he growled out, something the blonde was sure was the police had told him to say if the media tried to push for any details, "You were the first on the scene and effectively saved the young woman's life. Tell us, what were your thoughts when you rushed the scene?"
"No comment."
"Is it true that the notorious None had a hand in this brutal attack?"
"I said no comment! Get that camera out of my face!"
None of this should have been amusing, but watching the boy get so worked up as the media hounded him brought a lopsided grin to the girls face, "I know it's serious and all, but I kinda like watching him squirm."

With no actual witnesses to contribute any juicy details, the reporter filled up the runtime with random interviews from the park goers, all of them either not knowing anything or having crazy conspiracy theories about the lake monster and aliens, which ultimately cut the report short with a final word of warning to all the viewers. As the news turned into what Asuna liked to call dribble she ventured up to the roof to check up on the plants while Eiji had swooped Shikamaru down to show him the dried herb cabinet. What started off as a lesson on how to mix them together to make herbal teas turned into Eiji ranting about the various properties of said herbs, some sounding more like the fantastical claims of a salesman trying to make a sales pitch.

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

Sasuke kept to himself as Kakashi was called away, every now and again an officer would come to ask him questions but other than that the scene was dying down. The media vultures had been circling the park for a good long while now finally swooped in to interview the police, but when one woman barged right up to him, he was a little surprised. He knew the drill of course, he wasn't to comment on anything unless it was something the police had greenlighted and with the ongoing investigation, that meant he was to say nothing at all. The media had a way of twisting people's words with clever edits and footage cuts, this much he knew, and the last thing he needed was to incriminate himself.

Something about the woman and the camera in his face made the boys irritation rise as she bombarded him with questions, even as he refused to comment she kept persisting with even more. It wasn't until she mentioned None that he finally snapped at her. Where did they even get such an idea? Hanaru had nothing to do with any of this or at least he could vouch that she wasn't the one responsible for the restroom scene. Their date was going so well, why did it have to come to- he mentally shook his head as if to banish the thought from his head, this wasn't a date, he was only holding up his side of their deal. Nothing more. Thankfully an officer came to his rescue before he could do anything to give the media any reason to pursue him further.

"Come, one of the ANBU has reported back, Hanaru's being taken to the Lord Third as we speak," Kakashi motioned for the boy to follow him and he did so eagerly, yet his stomach was doing flips and knotting up with anxiousness. If the media was already sprouting out that None had been involved, that Hanaru was the cause of all of this, then Kakashi's hunch wouldn't be too far off that someone would try to pin this on her.

The sinking sun cast the world in a red glow, shadows grew longer and somewhat more ominous. As they headed to the Sandiame's office, Sasuke tried to stay calm, why he was suddenly feeling so anxious he wasn't sure.
'Oh but you do know, you're worried about her, worried she's hurt' the voice in the back of his mind whispered and he could feel his face turning warm. No! That was ridiculous, he wasn't worried about her. Hanaru could handle herself just fine! As if to taunt him, his own thoughts started to loop, replaying his previous actions and inner dialog. He refused though, Hanaru was just a teammate, so maybe he was a little concerned, but it wasn't like he was overly worried about her. That didn't stop the relief from washing over him as he saw her standing in the hall. Their eyes met and it was as if he could read the questions swimming those golden pools, "She'll face a lot of therapy down the road, but she'll live," he said as they grew closer. Dark eyes took to scanning her form, fixating on the dark patch on her shoulder where the hoodie seemed to have a small hole.

"You did well, I hear you brought the whole building down," Kakashi said, "But it was dangerous taking them on by yourself." A hand rested on her head affectionately as he smiled behind his mask, he wasn't here to break her down and reprimand her.
The door opened and Kotetsu beckoned them inside. It was only a briefing, Kakashi had thought, but looking around the room he could tell there was more to the summoning than just a 'mission complete'. There were one or two ANBU standing in the corner, the chief of the special police Fugaku and two more Uchiha officers and idly stirring a cup of tea was the man that could so easily get under his skin, Aku Mitomori.

"Well, well, isn't this a party?" the blonde man said much too happily for anyone's liking. "Mitomori-san, Uchiha-san" Kakashi greeted stiffly before turning to Sarutobi with a slight bow, "The mission has been completed." The statement was aggressively forced, but he felt that it needed to be made clear that his team had been contractually obligated to disband the thugs. Sarutobi nodded, "Yes, and in record timing. I was right to assign this mission to you and your team."
Sasuke's eyes were locked on the blonde man with a heated glare, unconsciously placing himself between Hanaru and Mitomori.
"Yes, you did well. I must commend you! Taking out the thugs with excessive violence, destruction of public property, oh yes, and the brutalized civilian. Very good job indeed!" Whether Mitomori was being coy or sarcastic was unclear as he folded his hands together, "But who will take the responsibility for all of that collateral damage, I wonder?" his eyes flicked over to Sarutobi, "Will it be you Sarutobi? These were your subordinates after all." His gaze traveled over to the police chief, "What about you Fugaku? Will you be responsible as your 'special police' weren't able to keep the city safe in the first place?"

"With all due respect, Aku, I believe you came for your own reasons and as this is in my jurisdiction I will decide what happens from here on," Sarutobi said calmly, but his posture screamed that he was on alert.
"A woman has been brutally attacked, the public wants answers."
"And we will address them once we have those answers, but you cannot honestly expect us to point fingers at our students."
Mitomori didn't answer, unfolding his long legs he stood up and walked to the door, "Uchiha-san," he called and Fukagku turned to Sasuke, "Come, boy." As they stepped out of the room things felt lighter as if some unseen pressure had been lifted and the two remaining officers started delivering their report.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

”I’m pretty sure that’s not how that goes,” Shikamaru commented, only half-heartedly correcting her as a smirk played upon his lips. The sweet mochi was a nice treat after spending the majority of the afternoon working for the Takanashi’s. In all honesty… Shikamaru didn’t mind the work. It wasn’t as though it was particularly hard (aside from organizing the office, but hopefully that was something they’d only have to do the one time, fingers crossed). It was work that he didn’t mind, and he just moved along with whatever Asuna told him to do. Plus, the little bit of friendly competition between the two didn’t hurt.
And hanging around Asuna more didn’t hurt either. That was a boon and not a bane in this workplace.
”Seeing your grandma go all DC-villain on the world would certainly be a sight to see,” the black haired male nodded, the grin refusing to leave as he shook his head with a chuckle. “I’m pretty sure that people would actually pay to see that happen.” Granny Fu wearing a cape with a universal remote in and was certainly a mental image to behold, and he made a note mentally that maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn the woman’s birthday, or maybe sneak her one for Christmas. If nothing else than to stew the unbridled chaos that such an act might cause—sure Asuna would probably know it was him and could definitely beat his ass over it, but he decided it was almost worth it for the entertainment value alone.
”Hey, I’m lazy, not a quitter,” he made sure to point out. She’d have to do a lot more if she truly wanted to get rid of him, and there wasn’t much then that would actually do the trick either. Of course their friendship had been pretty strained (or more like non-existent) these last few years, but it was so easy, and oddly comforting, to slip back into the old routine once they had become squadmates. He rose an eyebrow at Asuna’s comments about her dad being “chill” with him. If that was chill, then maybe Shikamaru didn’t understand the definition of the word. Still, he shrugged, unable to provide her with an answer or a reason as to why it was. “I dunno… maybe it’s because you’re old man and my old man became friends when we were kids.” From the interaction they’d had the other day, it seemed to make sense to him. Certainly something like that must have happened when they were younger, considering they used to practically be attached at the hip. If he remembered correctly, they used to be drinking buddies, although he didn’t really pay attention to who Shikai hung out with—it wasn’t his business and he didn’t particularly care what his father did in his off hours so long as it wasn’t lecturing him about applying himself more.
”None’s in some bingo books,” Shikamaru stated, not wanting to freak the girl or her family out. “Seen them show up in my dad’s research. Honestly not too much is known about them, but their calling card is a clean slate.” Purposefully leaving his words vague, his gaze strayed back to Asuna before his eyes narrowed at the TV again. “But they’ve been pretty nonexistent these last couple months—who knows what happened.” The TV anchor began calling out to the young man, and Asuna was right, it was Sasuke. “He seems grouchier than normal. I wonder what he saw… not like he’d ever tell us, anyway.” Shikamaru snorted at the blonde’s observation, nodding in agreement. “Yeah it’s kinda nice seeing something human on the robot’s face—at least aside from that stupid cocky smirk he wears most of the time.”
The news became less interesting as they sat in silence, finishing off their mochi as Meeko padded absent-mindedly at Asuna’s hair. He rose an eyebrow at the animal, wondering how it had wormed its way into Asuna’s heart so quickly. If he knew his feelings any better, he might have recognized the tinge of jealously that came with the observation, but it was there one moment and completely gone in the next as Asuna got up to go check on something. He wasn’t on his own for long, however, as her father swooped through t drag him to the dried herb cabinet. “So you use these for… teas…?” was basically the only question Shikamaru got in before Eiji began ranting, not allowing the Nara boy a word in edgewise. Still, he stood and listened, though he couldn’t help but think about how troublesome this was. His brain still stored and filed the information away for later, wondering if this information would at all be useful to him in the long run but still storing it anyway. “Have any of these claims been scientifically studied?” Shikamaru finally asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked to Mr. Takanashi. “I’m just curious, not questioning the validity of your words or anything.” He didn’t want to backtrack but he also hadn’t meant his words as an insult.
After the lecture about the herbs, he had been given an outdoor broom and was told to go sweep the front entry way, and then the doorstep. The clock dragged on, and pretty soon Shikamaru was pretty sure that his “shift” was over. His stomach growled and he turned away from sweeping to look back into the shop. Did he want to do this? To stick through working at The Shuffle of Things? He contemplated the idea in his mind. Sure, the work was mundane, and kinda boring at times, but there was so much about Asuna, and coincidently her family, that he realized he didn’t know. As a kid you’re pretty blindsided by what’s immediately in front of you. Tunnel vision had prevented him from taking in more than what had immediately interested him as a kid. Now he kind of liked the off=hand information gathering. By merely sweeping outside, he had learned some of the habits of the nearby shop-owners, as well as where they lived and how they got along with their neighbors. It wasn’t a bad way of gathering intel either (although what importance this intel had didn’t seem to be that much, it was still interesting). Besides, he wasn’t about to quit—he’d told Asuna that much, and didn’t make promises he didn’t intend to keep. Not without good reason, anyway.
Walking back inside, he put the broom away. “Hey Asuna?” he called out, searching for the blonde in the backroom, intent on saying goodbye before he returned home for the evening.

______________________________________​

The longer Hanaru sat in silence, the more she began to notice that some of her wounds were aching. Most of them she didn’t feel, as her body had become so accustomed to such small and minorly inconvenient wounds that she no longer felt most of them. But, in particular, the bullet grazing from that one individual who said he’d had blessed silver bullets (she had no idea where the hell he got his hands on such a thing) still stung, and were taking longer to heal. Particularly, the one bullet that was still in her shoulder. Usually her accerlated healing would force the intrusive piece of metal out before closing the wound, but whatever aspect of holy energy there was had messed with her demonic aura and it stung. She straightened up, however, when Kakashi and Sasuke arrived, refusing to show any discomfort to anyone, despite how her claws itched to dig the bullet out of her shoulder.
Expected to be scolded, her ears flicked up in surprise at the gentle hand on her head, and she opened her lips once or twice, before finally deciding what she was going to say in light of the slight shock of the action. ”Sorry,” she mumbled softly, black ears flicking in annoyance as she looked away, her golden amber gaze meeting Sasuke’s onyx glare before turning her head away. “They threatened the girl… they hurt her mom. I should have killed them.” But she didn’t. She had showed self-restraint, which in and of itself should have shown how she had grown in the months being accustomed to the shinobi way of the Hidden Leaf. She had broken her perfect record of leaving none alive. The name didn’t hold meaning to her anymore.
When the door opened, Hanaru’s ears flicked up to hear better, her gaze moving to Kotetsu as he welcomed them into the Hokage’s office, and she moved calmly to stand in front of the large desk, her tail flicking behind her being the only showing of how nervous she was. Mentally reminding herself that she was the one who had done them all a favor, she steeled whatever nerves reeled their ugly heads as she stood in front of the Lord Third and anyone else present, silently taking note of Sasuke’s father, and doing her best not to look at the stupid blonde-haired snake that stood beside him.
She didn’t speak unless spoken to, her arms moving to cross just below her breast, wincing as the movement flared up a heat in her shoulder. She felt the tension in the room—a palpable disgusting feeling washing over her. She was so focused that she didn’t even realize Sasuke had silently placed himself between her and the sleazy government official. “You don’t honestly believe I hurt that woman, do you?” Hanaru couldn’t stop the words from leaving her mouth, her eyes narrowed as her tail flicked in more annoyance. “I would have kept a low profile but they threatened to hurt her kid. I couldn’t just walk away and let them do whatever they wanted.” A single galre from an official was enough to have her gritting her teeth, but she remained silent after that.
She turned her head to watch Aku walk out, followed by the chief of the secret police, and then finally Sasuke as he was summoned. Her gaze lingered on the Uchiha boy for a moment longer, before she turned her gaze back to Lord Third, Kakashi placing a comforting hand on her good shoulder, though it did little to ease her anxieties. “Now, Hanaru,” Sarutobi focused on her once the ANBU had finished their report. “Why don’t you report everything that happened since you arrived in the park.”
So she told them everything. Well, almost everything—not the part about her and Sasuke’s deal. That was one less thing she could be ridiculed for, or maybe they’d forbid it, keeping her in the dark about written anything for the sake of protecting themselves. The absurdity of the idea nearly made her scoff out loud, but she refused to let that slip. She told them about the car ride, and the offer, and how she had trashed the place, managing to leave the thugs half-alive in her destructive wake. “The warehouse was clearly abandoned, too.”
”How could you possibly know that?” A council member snidely commented, making her bristle in anger. Kakashi’s hand on her shoulder became a bit of a harsher grip, reminding her to remain calm as she breathed steadily through her nose before responding through clenched teeth.
”It smelled wrong,” she stated plainly, rolling her eyes at the look of confusion on the man’s face. “Usually when people live or work in a space for long periods of time, they smell like them, or the place takes on their scents. It smelled of must and stale, old air. The only new smells were that of this war lord and his goons, so it had been abandoned for some time.” The ANBU murmured some things with the elder and with Sarutobi before they seemed to come to some sort of agreement—the ANBU left the room with the elders, leaving her, Kakashi, and Sarutobi by themselves.
”The reporters had None’s name when they were doing interviews,” Kakashi was the first to break the silence. He had an air of nonchalance about him, but Hanaru knew he cared more than he was letting on. “Something tells me that our friend Mitomori-san’s presence here was no accident. I just wish we knew how many jars this man has his fingers in.” Sarutobi nodded in agreement, a hum on his lips as he lit a long cigarette, smoke trailing from the burning end as Hanaru’s nose scrunched up in annoyance at the smell.
”We shall tell the media as much as they need to know,” which was practically nothing, “and make sure they inform the civilians that they are quite safe. Now Kakashi, I suggest you get your student to see Lady Tsunade.” Kakashi nodded, bowing. Hanaru observed, remembered her manners briefly to offer a head bow to Sarutobi, before leaving the Hokage’s office, biting her lip as they stepped out into the lobby. A tension was there that Hanaru recognized, once again her fur standing on end as she looked between Aku Mitomori, Fugaku Uchiha, and Sasuke. She had no idea what had been said, but the way that Aku turned to her with an unnaturally sweet smile, one that made her skin crawl. It reminded her vaguely of how an overzealous owner might look at their prized pet, and the very thought had her eyes narrowing. Thankfully Kakashi stood by her side, unwavering.
”Excuse us, gentleman, I need to see my student to the infirmary,” Kakashi stated, his singular eye narrowed slightly.

 

[Iron Mouse]

Sasuke followed his father silently. He held and air of authority that wasn't easy to resist no matter how much Sasuke wanted to. There was something more though, something he couldn't place and if he didn't know any better he would have thought he saw fear in his father's eyes as they followed the blond haired man out of the room. His eyes were glued to the blonde's back, glaring daggers at him.

"Now, Uchiha-san," Mitomori started once the door had been closed behind them, something about his demeanor had changed, "What happened today was unacceptable."
Sasuke stood silently as his father bowed respectfully, "You have my humblest of apologies, Mitomori-san."
"Your apologies won't help that woman in the hospital."
Even Sasuke flinched at Mitomori's words. It was evident in his tone that he was forcing himself to be civil about this. Mitomori turned and pinned Sasuke with a heated look that out matched the boy's glare, "And you. I hope you're satisfied with the outcome of your actions."

Sasuke blinked, unsure of what the man was talking about. He flinched when he felt his father's hand grab the back of his head and force him down into a bow, "My son is very sorry for all the trouble that's been caused," Fugaku said sternly, keeping his eyes on the ground. "I don't think he is, in fact I don't even think he fully comprehends what is even going on!" Mitomori's voice strained as if he was trying to suppress an outburst of some sort.
"Who do you think those thugs were after? They were after that villainous scum you seem so eager to be around. None of this would have happened if you had just stayed away," Mitomori took a hold of Sasuke's chin and forced him to look up, "Those men worked for me."
"What?! They attacked a defenseless woman!" Sasuke growled as he pushed back against his father's hand until he was able to stand up straight and look the blond man in the eyes, "You ordered them to attack her? Why?!"
"Tut Tut, I ordered no such thing. I merely said they worked for me. Trust me when I say this, boy, the world is a lot bigger than you. Sometimes a few pawns must be sacrificed for the greater good," Mitomori turned to look at Fugaku, "Pray you're not that pawn Uchiha-san."

Sasuke wasn't sure what to make of any of this. He looked at his father hoping the man had answers that would clear things up, but that's when Sasuke realized something that made his blood run cold. Mitomori controlled the special police force.
That's where the media had gotten None's name and linked it to the attack.
He was dumbstruck.
What was he supposed to do?
What could he do?
He couldn't exactly turn on his clan.
Was...
Did Itachi know? Was he another pawn too?
Sasuke stood unblinking as his mind raced and his world began to shatter.

"What's wrong, boy?" Mitomori asked in a somewhat mocking tone, "Mmm pussy-cat on your mind?"
Sasuke didn't miss the obvious innuendo that the man was going for and he would have absolutely punched him in the face again if his father hadn't quickly interjected, "Mitomori-san, please, the boy is still just that, a boy. He's still just a genin, they aren't usually exposed to missions such as this."
Mitomori shrugged as he stood up, "That doesn't matter, if he wants to be a big boy and get involved with low lives such as None then I have no qualms with treating him as a man. This is your only warning, Uchiha-San, if he keeps meddling on the wrong side of the law, well, I needn't remind you of what happened to traitors to the leaf."
Sasuke wanted to protest that he didn't do anything wrong, that Hanaru hadn't done anything wrong and that it was Mitomori's thugs that caused this mess but his father's grip tightened on his shoulders.

The door suddenly opened and Hanaru stepped out with Kakashi on her heels. Sasuke felt his stomach drop through the floor as he looked at her.
He had promised to fight with her against people like Mitomori-san but he hadn't realized that half his clan was going to be part of that fight. What was he supposed to do now?!

"Hmm, you best," Mitomori said in an overly friendly way as he waved at the duo leaving down the hall to Tsunade's office. "Uchiha-san, I bid you a good day. Try to keep your son in check. We wouldn't want any more accidents."
Mitomori took his leave and Sasuke felt his father's grip loosen, "Come boy," he said as he led him out of the school.

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"Scientifically studied?" Eiji looked at Shikamaru then tilted his head back as he though, "Weeelll, some of it definitely is scientific, but the rest, heh, well, I'm not the one claiming those things so," he laughed it off as he continued to teach the boy about the teas. Once he was all done he set the boy to sweeping up the front while he went about his usual business.

The late afternoon ticked on as by the time Asuna had finished taking care of the rest of her chores it was already time to close up. Her head perked up as she hears Shikamaru call out before he stepped into the back room where she and her father were shifting the boxes around, "Oh, it's that time already?" She actually sounded disappointed, whether is was because it meant he had to go or because she had to leave the boxes where they were to lock up could be disputed. "Well, your first day down and you have no warnings or citations," Eiji said as he placed a box down in the corner, "Hm, guess I was being to easy on you," Asuna joked as she went to lock the front door. "Well, there's always tomorrow! Hah? Whaddya say, new employee of the month," Eiji elbowed Shikamaru lightly in an oddly playful way that made Asuna raise her eyebrows in suspension. "I'm running over to Ino's, I lost track of time," the blond girl sighed as she looked out of the door as if debating whether she really wanted to go there right now.

"I can take you and drop off your little friend," Eiji started but Asuna seemed to tense up as she shook her head, "I don't want you to go with me."
Eiji was silent for a moment before he turned to Shikamaru with a strained smile, "Well, guess it's just us again, huh?" he gave his daughter a long look as she quickly said her goodbye and left the store.

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Eiji didn't give Shikamaru much of a choice as he pulled out the old car and insisted on driving him home.
Most of the ride was quite, except for the occasional profanity the elder Takashi shouted at other drivers on the road. He pulled up in front of the Nara household before he turned to look at the boy in the passenger seat, "You lasted longer than expected," he said patting him on the shoulder, "And you kept your hands to yourself. Keep this up and I might actually trust you one day." The obvious dad mode was still active, but luckily he didn't threaten or impose himself as they got out of the car. "Hm, I hate to say it...but I think Asu liked having you around," he was silent for a moment, "Take the day off tomorrow, think of it as a little reward for all your hard work today." Eiji knew where Asuna was going, she was going to see her mother and he knew what a toll it took on her mental and physical well-being.

He knocked on the door and once Shikaku opened it he was all smiles and praise regarding Shikamaru's excellent work performance.

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Asuna was a little relieved when Ino wasn't at the Yamanaka flower store, not for any ill reason though. She always felt so tense on nights like this, the less people she saw and interacts with the better.
With a bouquet of sunflowers in her arms she forced her feet to move in the direction of the hospital. It was hard, her chest tightened with each step as she knew what awaited her. It was dark by the time she arrived and for a good 10 minutes all she did was stand outside trying to work up the courage to go in.

When she finally approached the front desk it happened, the thing she hated most...that look the receptionist gave her like she was some lost and kicked puppy on herast legs, "Oh, I see. You may proceed but visiting hours will end in about 10 minutes," the receptionist said with that overly friendly and concerned tone. That tone of pity.

Her footsteps echoed down the pristine white hall. That chemical disinfectant smell hung in the air. It stung her nose. It made her eyes water.

Room 506.

Asuna stared at the small plate on the door, she could already hear the machines in the back of her mind and it made her clench the flowers tighter as her hair stood on end.

The door slid open soundlessly and she stepped inside. The room wasn't too small or too big, it was a private room that, much like everything else, was pristine and void of any color and emotion. Hospitals felt more like the foyer of limbo, Asuna had come to think, as everyone who entered seemed to teeter on the brink between life and death. Quietly she walked to the small table and set the sunflowers in a vase along with all of the other flowers she and her father brought to give life to the room a little.

Her mother had always been so full of life, so colorful and vibrant that Asuna couldn't bare to see her now, hollowed out cheeks, sunken eyes and so unnaturally pale. It was frightening, it was upsetting, she didn't really know what to do as she sat in the chair beside the bed and held her mother's cold and boney hand. The machines beeped rhythmically, the pumps wheezed in time with every breath the elder Takahashi took. Asuna always felt this strange disassociation whenever she sat there, as if the machines synced with her own breathing instead of her mother's, as if they were alive and whispering.

"Hi mom."

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"Do you understand me, Sasuke? You will not disobey me again!"
Sasuke's jaw clenched as he balled his fists. His father had been lecturing him all night.
"Why are you just letting him get away with any of this? A woman almost died today!"
He had repeated that question several times that night, each time louder than the last. Now he stood toe to toe with his father while his mother begged them to stop arguing.

"You're clearly too naive to understand what is going on! There are things in this world too big for you to wrap your head around and Mitomori-san is one of them," Fugaku said as he tried to calm himself down, but he was done with trying to make his son understand. He was doing this for the good of the clan. "We're done, Sasuke. Go to your room."

Sasuke glared at his father before he turned and stormed out, slamming every door on the way to his room. He was furious that his father was following Mitomori's orders like some well trained lap dog. The man couldn't have been that powerful! They were the Uchiha clan, one of the oldest and strongest shinobi clans in the entire country! Who was that man to think he could subjugate them?

Sasuke's fist collided with the wall several times before he calmed down enough to lay back on his bed.
It plagued his mind all night long and even when he woke up the next morning his kind went right back to trying to think of why his father and the rest of the special police allowed Mitomori to walk over them. He ignored his father blatantly as he ate breakfast and left for school. Most of the day went by in a blur as he snapped irritability at everyone who approached him to question him about what happened in the park.

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"Asuna, you're late for school!"
Asuna laid in bed staring blankly at the ceiling. Meeko was curled up against her neck and purring his little heart out. All she could think of was just how soft and warm he felt. There was a knock on her door before it opened and her old man filled the door frame, "You going to school today or not?"

"No. I have some stuff to do here," she said not looking at him. She didn't really have anything important that needed to be taken care of but she couldn't bring herself to care enough about school today to bother getting out of bed, not with Meeko's small and warm body lulling her back to sleep.

"I signed your thing...for that mission," Eiji said as he turned to leave. He waited for a response but he received none, "Your little friend Ino is waiting for you, I'll tell her you're not feeling well today. I already told Shikamaru not to come around either, but I'm sure a little company would do you some good."
Asuna didn't respond as her father turned to leave. She felt nothing but the soft kitten nuzzling her face. It was that numbness that followed whenever she saw her mother, when she wondered if that was going to be her in a few years. Did her mother even realize she was there?

She didn't do much for the morning, only checking her phone around noon, sending a few generic responses here and there as she fabricated some work to try and keep her busy and to keep her mind active. Meeko of course helped, jumping around her feet and inventing his own little games, soaking up all of the attention the girl was giving him.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

It wasn’t the first night that Hanaru had spent in the hospital, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. For far too long Tsunade spent poking around at her wounds as most of them healed in no time at all, it was only the wound in her shoulder that was causing such a fuss. She even went so far as to ask Kakashi to pull some ancient-looking scrolls from the locked section of the library, the works on demons and the like not being allowed to the general public. “So a blessed weapon left you with a hole that won’t heal…” the blonde woman was humming as Hanaru winced, feeling the tongs a little too much as she fished for the bullet.
”Yeah, the guy shouted some nonsense about the bullets being ‘blessed’,” the purple haired half-nekomanta grimaced, doing her best not to lash out at her doctor. “Can you please just find the damn thing already? Seriously, it can’t be that hard.”
A strong hand smacked the upside of her head hard enough that if she wasn’t a half-demon, Hanaru was positive it would have given her a concussion. “Shut up and let me concentrate! Kami, you’re such a brat,” the woman growled, and Hanaru bit back a scathing retort that might have gotten her throttled. As much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, Hanaru begrudgingly enjoyed Tsunade. She was incredibly strong, for a human, and didn’t care about other’s opinions. Hanaru respected that. Once the bullet was out, Tsunade dropped it into a glass of water before disinfecting and bandaging her wound, forcing (with some struggle) her arm into a sling due to the break of her collar bone. “Hold out your hand.” Tsunade returned with the clean slug, and Hanaru rose an eyebrow at the request, though did as she was told. When the bullet was placed back into her hand, Tsunade watched her expectantly. “Feel anything?”
”It’s…” her ears flicked as she closed her eyes. “It’s hot to the touch. Even after sitting in cold water.” Her amber orbs were filled with curiosity as she looked to the older woman. “Why?”
”It’s a theory… but I think because you are half demon, that which was meant to exorcise your demonic half is keeping your body from healing quickly, like it normally does.” Tsunade sat back, taking the bullet back from the student. “If a weapon burns, and you know it’s not poison, I’d be careful if I were you. Blessed weapons make your wounds more human.” Hanaru thought about that for a moment, opening her mouth to argue initially before clamping her jaws shut. It made sense—why her shoulder was so sore, why the hole wasn’t trying to close over the bullet. “This can’t get out to the other shinobi. I’ll talk with Kakashi about it, and the Sandaime should know, but that’s it. There are too many damn idiots who would love to use this information against you.”
”Right, whatever,” Hanaru growled, her eyes narrowed as she bit her lip. This really was the worst thing—she’d never been hit by blessed metal of any kind, so to find out that it put her at that much of a disadvantage? What if she didn’t even recognize it? What if she kept fighting like normal, through mortal wounds? She’d die before ever getting her revenge… Her gaze darkened and she shook her head as she got up to leave the infirmary. “I’m going for a walk.” And she didn’t mean to return. If Tsunade had any objections, Hanaru didn’t stick around long enough to hear them.
Hanaru didn’t attend classes. At least not like normal. She stuck to the back of the class and growled at anyone who approached. She did her best to hide the sling, but there were various observant eyes that noticed regardless of her defensiveness. Hanaru couldn’t help but notice that Sasuke was acting similarly, though she didn’t fully understand his anger. It wasn’t his ass that was on the line, after all. Her tail flicked in annoyance as they were let out of their final class. She had bags under eyes from lack of sleep the previous night, and her shoulder was throbbing in a dull ache. Annoying.
If this was what normal humans felt when they got injured, she wanted nothing to do with this. Getting up from her seat, she noted Kakashi had texted them to say that they weren’t going to train today, and so she figured she probably had more explaining to do with the events that had happened previously. Seeing as how he had yet to get up, and thankfully his sour mood was enough to even keep Naruto far away, Hanaru strolled up to his desk, angling herself away from him (again trying to hide that sling, poorly) as she looked down at the Uchiha. “Oi.” Her eyebrow raised. “What’s got you all wound up today?” She knew it had something to do with the previous day’s activities, but it seemed like there was something even bigger behind that. Her eyes narrowed. “I’m going home but I’m not going to stop you if you follow if you have something you need to get off your chest.” A sigh left her lips. “It’s not like I can tell anyone.”
He could stay here and mope, or he could follow her back to her apartment, she didn’t care what he did… well, that was a lie to herself, she kind of cared. Whether the purple haired female wanted to admit it or not, somehow, in some way, the Uchiha prodigy had worked his way into her heart. What that all entailed, however, remained to be seen. Her cheeks flushed a soft pink and she kissed the back of her teeth with her tongue, turning around. Her tail, ever with a mind of its own, flicked his nose as she turned. Hanaru pulled her bag over her shoulder—the good one—and still winced at the action, her ears flattening on her head in annoyance. What a nuisance.

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Shikamaru could only guess what had happened with Asuna, but when Ino told him that she had purchased flowers for her mom when he, Ino, and Choji had lunch together, he finally understood. Unfortunately, the two had grown apart over the years so he really wasn’t aware of all of the details, but he knew it was nothing good. In fact, when he thought back on it, there were numerous times that he could think of where Asuna had been absent, and Ino reported she had seen her either that morning or the evening prior buying flowers for her mother. She was… sick? In a coma? Shikamaru felt guilt edge into his being when he realized he didn’t actually know what was wrong with Mrs. Takanashi (though in his defense, the doctors really didn’t know either). What kind of friend was he if he didn’t ask Asuna how her ailing mother was?
Then again, that was something they didn’t really talk about either. In fact, he could also remember a time where Ino used to ask regularly and Asuna would brush the question off and either change the subject or let uncomfortable silence abound in its absence, so it wasn’t like she was particularly open about talking about it either. She was much more… secretive, now. The Nara could distinctly remember a time where he could read Asuna like a book, though the last time she wore her heart on her sleeve had been when they were children. Now it was guarded, tucked in and away far from where anyone could see it—even Shikamaru’s brain couldn’t always decipher the impassive expressions she held on purpose.
After their classes were over, Shikamaru was walking home with his hands in his pockets. Not wanting some sort of conversation with his father over why and how he was home and not at his ‘internship’ (it was easier not to explain) he found his feet trailing his old childhood haunts. The park where they often played as children, attached at the hip, and the stores they used to dash in and out of, driving the owners crazy. A smirk tugged at his lips as he thought about how much simpler things had been back then. Nothing to worry about—no missions or problems or parents worrying over them or anything. Just a couple of kids ready to take on the world…
Granted… he was a little young to be feeling so reminiscent, but he simply couldn’t help it. Shikamaru didn’t like it when Asuna wasn’t in class. Something just didn’t feel right. Without her there… well, he told himself that they needed her for all of their squad strategies, and he told himself that her laissez-faire attitude really rounded out their team. But if he were to take a deeper look into his feelings—those things he didn’t like looking at too closely—he’d find a simpler answer. He missed her. Shikamaru liked having Asuna around.
Not only that, but Shikamaru loved Asuna. He just didn’t know it yet.
The young Nara hadn’t even realized where his feet had taken him until he was standing in on the top of a grassy hill in a nearby park. This area of the city held a little bit of a higher vantage point, and the park was fairly big, so the hill allowed him to see a decent ways down and into the residential district, the business district behind him. In truth, he wasn’t all that far from The Shuffle of Things, but this had always been where one could find him daydreaming. Especially when he was skipping class—it was far enough away from the school that at this point the shinobi didn’t bother coming after him.
Taking a seat in the grass, he sighed, a cooler wind stirring up the leaves of the trees that rested to his left. Cold wind was usually seen as a bad omen by those with superstitious beliefs, but honestly Shikamaru just saw it as a reason to remember to wear a jacket over his fishnets. If one spent too much time trying to interpret how the natural world affects the self, they’d have no time to realize anything crucial internally. Leaning back, he looked up at the clouds. It was sunny, with fluffy, non-threatening tufts of white floating through the sky. It was quite nice out, if not for the wind. Pulling out his phone, he flicked through his messages, ignoring most of them, but seeing Asuna’s name in his recents made him pause. Maybe… just maybe he should check on her.
Another thing he did without realizing it—dialing her number. He hadn’t realized he’d acted on his stray thought until the tone was ringing, and by then he was panicking. What was he supposed to say? Somehow ‘hey I’m sorry about your mom’ sounded fake. And insincere. So caught up in his internal struggles, Shikamaru didn’t realize if Asuna had picked up or if he was sitting in silence duing the message recording, and he coughed slightly to clear his throat and gather himself quickly. “Hey, uh… just thought I’d see how you were doing. Not that there’s anything wrong,” he mentally kicked himself, closing his eyes at his own lack of tact. “Just… well, I suppose I was wondering if you needed someone to listen to you. I know how that is. And your dad gave me the day off so we wouldn’t be skirting duties since we’re not on the clock…” there was more silence and Shikamaru wondered if this happened to anyone else; he wanted to crawl into a hole. The wind blew and he shivered. “I think you’ll know where to find me if you need to. You always used to find me when I slipped away as kids. Oh, and if you are going to come, can you bring a blanket? I’m cold.” And without waiting for an answer, he hung up.
He could have sworn his forehead was bright red with how hard he facepalmed, definitely feeling the urge to chuck his phone down the hill. The only thing that stayed his hand being his own laziness and not wanting to inevitably retrieve it at the bottom. Looking back up to the sky, Shikamaru sighed to himself, once more getting lost in his thoughts.

 

[Iron Mouse]

The hours blurred by as Asuna completed one monotonous task after the other. Most of her morning was filled up like this with fabricated tasks to keep her hands busy. Between doing unnecessary laundry and crunching away at figures, she tended to the counter and stray customers with blank indifference. Dull eyes followed the browsing figure, flicking down to the open file in front of her and back up again as her fingers typed away at the calculator. She watched the figure moving between the shelves with the same thousand yard stare as the kitten hanging from her shoulder, wishing they'd just hurry up and leave. She honestly didn't care if they took something or not, she just wanted to get back to the task at hand,:balancing the sloppy ledger.

It was just another day.
By the time the afternoon rolled around, she sent out another round of generic texts to those who kept bugging her, so mainly Ino, to assure her that everything was fine. Everything was fine on the surface, at the shallow end of face value, Asuna was as she always was: neutral and indifferent. Yesterday was yesterday and tomorrow hadn't come. She kept herself in that moment, she kept her focus on turning out all of the pockets on the winter jackets before she threw them in the wash. Below the surface, behind the passive glances at the cat wrestling with a piece of lint, was a torrential storm of 'what ifs' and negative thoughts. The black sludge of emotions were kept down, suppressed with the frustration of finishing up her chores and packing for the mission. Ino was very insistent on having a sleepover the moment Asuna let slip that she would be joining on the mission.

The pale green jacket was next, it was her old man's but he hadn't worn it in a couple of years. She had almost forgotten he had it, but she was thorough when she cleared out the closets. "Mroew." the kitten commented as he weaved around her legs before climbing up onto the counter of discarded items Asuna had removed from the various clothing. There wasn't anything unusual, some small change, crumpled slips, buttons from Kami knows where, but Meeko was more interested in the girl's phone that would light up with a 'bzzzt' and a 'ping' every now and again. "Break it, and I'll disown you," she half heartedly threatened as she searched through the jacket pockets. Her fingers brushed against something, something oddly cylindrical shaped. She pulled it out and stared at the tube of lipstick, her mother did always like to make herself pretty whenever she left the house, but that's not what made her brow knit together, it was the colour...

"Prrrow," Meeko started spitting and pounced on the phone as it started vibrating and chiming, by some miracle the furball had managed to throw it off of the table. The old phone clanked on the ground, forcing Asuna's attention away from the dark rouge, she stared at it in silence as Meeko the device with his back arched.

"Hey, uh… just thought I’d see how you were doing. Not that there’s anything wrong..."

She stared at the phone perplexed as Shikamaru's voice poured out of the receiver. Did it even ring? There was silence again for a moment and she was almost convinced that she had lost her mind and imagined it, but then he spoke again, something that confused and intrigued the kitten, and Asuna quickly made a grab for the phone. It was too late. He had hung up.
"No, stop that," she scolded the furry little creature as she shooed it away and picked up her phone. She simply didn't have the time to run around because he went out unprepared, there was too much still to do. The work seemed never ending as she finished stuffing the winter jackets into the washing machine. Of course that line of thinking didn't last for too long, not with the big mission on the horizon.

About half an hour later Asuna left the Shuffle of Things with a blanket over her arm. "Going out, Pumpkin?" Eiji peeked over his newspaper in surprise as she left, but he was only met with a hollow look.
The park was deceptively green despite autumn visibly taking a toll on the surrounding foliage. It hadn't changed much since she was still a child, it was somewhat morbid thought but at the same time comforting, as the park still stood unchanged by time after all these years. THe upside was that she could navigate her way down the winding park path and to the hill in her sleep. The hill, proclaimed by Naruto to have been the biggest hill in the entire world when they were all still played together. There were bigger hills, but for some reason this hill was 'the' hill, perhaps it was the unobscured view of the surrounding stores and houses or the big ancient trees that provided a cool place to play during summer, it never really crossed Asuna's mind before, but it held so many memories of a bygone time.

Shikamaru's form was unmistakable, even from the path at a distance, there was just something about the way he reclined back with his hands behind his head, one leg propped up and the other resting on it's knee. One part of her wanted to turn around and leave, but she pressed on, walking up the gentle slope.
"You're pretty stupid for a smart ass," she said as she threw folded up blanket onto his stomach, "I had half a mind to just let you freeze to death." There wasn't much life in her voice, as she looked down at him, "Wouldn't want you getting sick before the mission," she finally said, taking a seat on the grass beside him. In the distance she could make out the old shop, it stood out like a sore thumb between the newer buildings. She was silent, unsure of what to say. Her hands were in her pockets, turning the cylindrical tube between her fingers aimlessly.
The day had been so busy, that now things felt slow and out of place sitting there on the hill, like something was wrong, though stubbornly she was unwilling to admit it.

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Tsunade had called for an emergency meeting. It was early, too early for anyone sane to still have been awake, but when Kakashi finally stepped into the Sandiame's office, he knew it was something important. The room was filled with silence, it beared down on their shoulders as the medic placed a small glass container with a single bullet down on the table.

"We need to talk about Hanaru," Tsunade stated seriously.
"I assume this was the bullet from her shoulder, it seems ordinary but I expect you to tell me otherwise?" Sarutobi said as he looked at the container. All eyes were on Tsunade as she folded her arms under her chest, but her words were worrisome, "No, not exactly. It's a standard handgun bullet." She scowled a bit at the small metal object,
"The problem isn't the bullet, it's what was done to it."

The pensive silence continued as Tsunade explained her findings, "It's an old belief, something straight out of the dark ages. There was never any real recorded proof, but our ancestors believed that all demons could be purged with divine weapons blessed by the holy"
"You're not actually suggesting that..."
"The man who fired the gun claimed that the bullets were blessed. I don't know where or even how he knew about it, but if word gets out then Hanaru will be in more danger than she's ever faced. That wound of hers isn't going to heal like the others, she's lucky it didn't hit any of her organs."

"No one outside of this room may know about this. I don't want that kind of information falling into the wrong hands. Keep it out of the records," Sarutobi looked between Kakashi and Tsunade, his eyes dark as he mulled this all over. It was no mere coincidence, yes, there were people out in the world who still clung to the old ways and lived off of the stories that their families had passed down through the ages, but for something like this to come up so suddenly...
"I doubt that man carried blessed bullets for luck," Kakashi added, seemingly able to follow the kage's train of thought, "Hanaru had said something interesting about the building, that it didn't smell like they had really been there that long. They were waiting for her, they knew she would come alone," his panged with guilt, sure she was capable and she had made it out alive, but still. Things could have gone far worse.

"Perhaps, but I doubt our dear friend orchestrated it," Hirozen said as he folded his hands together. If Mitomori had known that the old wife's tale of blessed weapons had some grounds in reality, he would certainly not sat on that information so idly. He would have certainly used it, but who else would have known about the mission? That Hanaru would be there? These things were kept secret. "I think we are dealing with someone else, someone who knows about what lurks within the rift."
There weren't many who remember what it was like when the rift was more like a gaping chasm, bleeding miasma and fearsome creatures into the world. It was so long ago, even in his old age, Hirozen had only heard about it from his grandfather, but it wasn't common knowledge among the people, not even among the shinobi.

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"Sasuke!"
The boy didn't so much as flinch as Sakura called him. The whole morning all she did was cling to him and it was really annoying. He wasn't in a good mood to start with and he hadn't gotten much sleep as his mind was too preoccupied with the bombshell that was dropped on him. His father had always told him that Mitomori was a powerful man, a man all shinobi must fear. His whole life he was led to believe that this was political talk as Mitomori walked the line between civilian and shinobi. He was made to believe that he was to respect him as he was the only thing keeping the peace with the public. His whole life felt like a lie. How could he respect a man that was the indirect cause of a family almost being torn apart?

"You're really quiet today, Sasuke. Is it about what happened yesterday?" she asked. He wasn't sure what he said but it was enough to get her and Naruto off of his back. That was probably what pissed him off the most, all the questions about the incident, what happened, why was he there, it was no one's business and it irked him that he seemed to have even more attention from the giggling gaggle of girls.

The day couldn't have gone by any slower as he sat staring out of the window. Just how many people were in Mitomori's pocket? He wasn't a shinobi, yet he seemed to strike fear in even his father. Was it blackmail? Threats? The raven haired boy honestly couldn't really imagine his father or family having done something that could have been used as blackmail. They were one, if not the most, powerful clans so a measly threat wouldn't be able to bend the great Fugaku into submission. It just didn't make sense. None of it did. The special police force was there to serve and protect, but from what he could tell, they were covering up yesterday's incident. The three thugs that were following them vanished without a trace. What bothered him the most was the motive, what did they want to achieve? What did Mitomori want, sure he was always going on and on about the safety of the students, the well being of the city, while hammering down on Naruto and now Hanaru too. Neither Naruto nor Hanaru posed any kind of threat to the public, as far as he knew, for Mitomori to be so concerned. What did he want?

It angered him. It crawled under his skin and burrowed into his bones. Why was his father allowing that man to just do what he wanted to do?

The final bell couldn't have rung sooner, but he still sat in his chair as he waited for the majority of the foot traffic to decrease. It seemed like not everyone got the message he had been broadcasting the entire day as he caught movement in his peripheral vision. He scoffed, ready to tell them to go away when she spoke. It was Hanaru.
Obsidian orbs trailed to the arm that she was trying so hard to hide, it was odd, he'd never seen her wounded for so long but he was sure he had caught a glimpse of a sling or some kind of support. "Hmpf, give me that you idiot," he huffed as he stood up and took her bag from her. He didn't know why he did it, but he wasn't going to let her carry it when she was grunting and hissing in pain. It would annoy him, yeah, that's it...it would annoy him.

"Here I thought you were some invincible demon," he stated as he found himself walking with her through the hall. Most of the students had already left, aside from those who were still attending after school clubs. He vehemently refused to hand her bag back to her as he slung it over his shoulder with his, "You're not going to get better if you act like a dumbass and try to man your way through the pain. Just give it a rest."
A part of him knew why he was doing this, or at least guessed at it. In some aspects he'd come to care for the half nekomata more than just another faceless person who happened to be on his squad. He refused to dig deeper into those feelings though, afraid of where they would lead him.

He silently mulled over how he was going to tell her about what happened, he wanted to word it carefully as he knew he could lose her trust if he just blurted out 'oh yeah, so Mitomori controls the special police and by extent my literal family.' He wasn't even sure if he wanted to tell her, at least not until he had figured out just how deep it all went, maybe it was just a handful of task force members? Maybe it was just his father? But what if it was everyone, including Itachi? He would be putting himself and her at risk if not the rest of the team as well. Thankfully, the latter would be returning home from his mission today and he would be able to talk and gain some clarity. At least, that's what Sasuke hoped.

The raven haired boy decided to be selective with what he shared, "Mitomori, seems like he has a hand in just about everything," he said with frustration, "Those thugs in the park were in his pocket." He adjusted the bags on his shoulders a little as they walked down the street, it was a pleasant afternoon. The sun was warm and the clouds dotted the infinite blue sky like tufts of cotton. The light wind was rather chilly, but he enjoyed it, having been drawn to the colder seasons naturally ever since he was a kid. "There were some other things, but...I'll tell you later," he didn't give a reason, the less he said the better he thought. He had to get his story straight first.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

He wasn’t quite sure how long he’d been there until he finally heard footsteps approaching him. He didn’t look—he didn’t need to in order to know that Asuna had been the one to approach him. Most people left him alone when he was cloud watching like this, probably assuming that he was asleep (which he was grateful for). He let out a quiet “oof” when the blanket was tossed at his stomach, her words having more truth than being scathing. “I waasn’t thinking about coming out here, and then I just… was,” he told her honestly, shrugging his shoulders. When the blonde haired female sat next to him, he turned his head and blinked a few times, his brow furrowing as he scrutinized her. Asuna looked tired, that much he could tell. “Let me guess, instead of getting rest before our mission, you worked yourself half to death today.” He didn’t wait for her to respond before he unfolded the blanket, making sure to cover the both of them with it. It wouldn’t do their team any good if they were both to get sick. “Well, fall asleep, talk, it doesn’t matter to me.”
He couldn’t help but to think of all the history on this one hill, together with Asuna in this way. This was fairly close to the park that had that incident the other day, but instead the vantage point was a lot higher. You could see into the city for miles, and he thought of how he and Asuna used to try and play I-spy to try and trump one another up. “Hey, ‘Suna,” he mumbled, speaking before even realizing it. He had been doing that a lot more quite frequently now (and especially around her) and he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it. “We’ve spent a lot of time up on this hill, huh?” His gaze was still on the city, observing it as it moved around them. It was almost as if they were stuck in one particular moment in time, and the world continued to move along around them, out of time. He blinked lazily, his gaze sliding upward. “We seem to be growing up so fast… I don’t miss being a dorky kid who couldn’t do anything, but I miss how easy it was to be a kid…” Looking back to Asuna, he rose an inquisitive eyebrow, “Right?”
There was a lot to be concerned about, and a lot that they didn’t necessarily know, and while he was internally eager to get down to the bottom of what was really eating at Asuna, he knew it would do no good (for either of them) if he were to pry. Maybe at one point she might have told him every secret ever uttered to her, but now that they were grown up, Shikamaru wanted to respect her boundaries. Besides, it wasn’t like he had been particularly close to her mom. Mrs. Takanashi was such a fleeting memory in his mind, he felt bad that he didn’t have a strong connection to the woman, especially since she was Asuna’s mom. “I know you’re dealing with a lot right now…” he started cautiously after another small bit of silence, “but I’m really glad you’re going with us on the mission. I’m not sure what the Sandaime said to your dad in order to make him change his mind, but I’m glad he did. I need you.” He paused, it really sinking in what he had just said before he tried to play it off casually. “I-I mean, nearly half of my strategies require your Earth release, so that’s one thing. Plus… it really throws the team balance off when you’re not there.” He shrugged, looking back up to the sky. If she didn’t want to talk, that was fine with Shikamaru, but he didn’t mind filling up the silence with his ramblings. In fact, he really didn’t talk that much around everyone else. Of course he talked with Choji, and he’d even argue that Naruto and he had some rather interesting conversations (when the blonde male wasn’t being a complete idiot), but he felt so naturally comfortable around Asuna, thanks to their unique experience from their closeness in childhood.
And she was an excellent listener, of which he appreciated.
”Sasuke actually snapped at Ino and his fangirls today,” he made small talk, chuckling lightly at the memory. “She was convinced he needed cheering up and tried to give him her dessert, but I guess that piece of plywood doesn’t like sweets because he told both her and Sakura to ‘get lost’.” He shook his head, a sigh on his lips. “I know we’ve talked about it before, but I seriously don’t understand what any of those girls see in him.” If he remembered correctly, there was an independent study ninja student who dabbled in art that Ino had her eye on as well, but Sasuke was always her first and foremost thought. He sighed—it didn’t make sense at all. “If I was a girl I’m sure I’d find Naruto attractive before I’d ever say the same about Sasuke.” A ridiculous scenario, but the imagery brought a smile to his face. “And no, that doesn’t mean I’m going to attempt Naruto’s stupid female transformation jutsu. That idiot… of course his one good disguise only works on a very specific demographic.”
The wind blew and they fell into another silence. It wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable, but it didn’t fill him with ease either. “Whatever happens on our mission tomorrow, just make sure you stick close to me, okay?” Something about their mission made him feel a little uneasy. This “Rift” as their sensei had called it was certainly a big deal, considering the need-to-know basis of its existence. If there were more creatures like the Nine Tails that had attacked Konoha some 17 years earlier, then it was only natural that it was regularly patrolled by strong Shinobi. “You can do that for me, right?” When he looked to her with a sincere expression, he wasn’t sure what kind of look she could offer him back, his gaze firm.

___________________________________________________--​

An amber gaze glared at him half heartedly, a low growl under her lips as he easily lifted her bag from her. “H-hey, I can carry my own bag!” she reached for it, but Sasuke kept it just out of reach, and straining any further put unnecessary pressure on her collarbone, which in turn made her whole body flinch. Sighing, she gave up, shaking her head and muttering under her breath just loud enough so he could hear it, “It’s not that big of a deal. The bullet was fricken blessed. I guess it affected me weirdly.” She knew that Tsunade had said to keep it secret, but Sasuke already knew everything else. It was only a matter of time before he found this out too. And most had already left, so it wasn’t as though there was anyone in the vicinity to hear her words. “Besides the hag spent her sweet time digging around for the dumb bullet, so now I guess I’m just sore.”
She was grateful for Tsunade, however, as she might have struggled even more without the help. Hanaru had spent many an evening doing her best to patch up with worst of her wounds. That being said, in the past if it wasn’t significant, then she usually hadn’t bothered to try, considering when she woke up most wounds were usually healed. That being said, she had began to wonder if with Tsunade’s help in the past, if her body would have had a smaller collection of ugly scars. The others by now had seen her arms, and that reaction had been bad enough. She was far more nervous to show them her back. Sasuke had seen a few more, but he hadn’t seen… well, all of it. Not that she wanted anyone to. It made her feel vulnerable. As far as she was concerned, women were supposed to have been like her mother. Soft, sweet, mild mannered, and gentle. Hanaru was none of those things, despite her mother’s wishes. Sasuke’s words kind of spoke to that, but if she was crazy she’d almost think he was concerned for her wellbeing.
Upon realizing she wasn’t going to get her bag back any time soon, Hanaru began to wander out of her school and toward her apartment complex, Sasuke walking alongside. It was odd just how… normal this felt. It calmed her nerves and ignited them all in the same breath, and she hated not knowing the reasoning why. Maybe she was just eager to hear what had been bothering him, and she blinked, when he finally began talking.
”I… I’m not surprised,” she finally said after a moment of taking in Sasuke’s words. “A man like that is far too dangerous when left to his own devices. Of course he’d do something like this, the bastard.” Her gaze narrowed as she thought of his smirk, and the way that he tormented her with memories. “I don’t even know how he got to know about some of the things he knows about…” like how he knew about how Hanaru murdered Izami. Her own mother was precious to her, and he dared to bring up the words that echoed around in her mind, speaking them into consciousness.
A breeze through the streets caught her hair, tugging it forward and past her face. Hanaru sighed, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it. If it comes up, it comes up,” she shrugged—it couldn’t have been anything worse than knowing that Mitomori was actively trying to bait her into being the villain he claimed she was.
Hanaru had done bad things and she wished that she could always claim they were for the better, but she couldn’t. There was a very dark period in her life that she was still paying the price for. It didn’t take them too long to get her apartment building from school, and outside a group of cats were waiting for her, like they usually did, meowing at her arrival. “Not again…” she muttered, her gaze narrowing at the fluffy feline creatures. “Just because I look a little like a cat doesn’t mean that I need to be around them constantly.” Her tail flicked in annoyance as they rubbed around her legs, before sliding over to Sasuke and doing the same, meowing up at him. “I swear someone is feeding them… never feed stray cats. Don’t name them either.” Yet as she said this, a white cat with bright blue eyes meowed up at her, and she sighed, a more gentle expression appearing on her face. Bending over, her tail flicked lazily as she scratched the behind the ears, like she knew felt good. It was instinctual. Realizing what she was doing, the female coughed slightly, straightening up and blushing. “A-anyway, let’s get upstairs before more show up expecting something.”
Hanaru lead her way up toward her apartment, unlocking the door for him and leaving it open as she stepped through. It was… empty, to say the least. Jiraiya had tried to get her to decorate the place on a few occasions, but she always shot him down with a simple “why bother?” Not a lot in the purple haired female’s life had been permanent, and she didn’t think she’d ever bring anyone besides herself there. “I uh… can make something if you’re hungry.” At his blank stare she couldn’t help but blush. “What?! Just cause I don’t eat as often doesn’t mean I can’t cook!”

 

[Iron Mouse]

"Blessed huh?" Sasuke said, his interest well hidden behind his nonchalant expression, "That sounds like some Castlevania shit." He didn't even know blessing weapons were a thing and who in their right mind would go around to temples to have their weapons blessed anyway? It's not like demons were an everyday occurance, so it was odd that whoever was wielding the gun had those so readily on hand. Were they some kind of vampire hunter on the side?
He scoffed at that thought, it was ridiculous, the only real explanation was that they were waiting for Hanaru. They were trying to hire her so it wasn't at all that strange.

Sasuke might have been aloof and he didn't really like to show that he cared, because that's how he gained such a following, but he wasn't a complete asshole. He quietly carried Hanaru's bag, walking her home. He told himself it was because if she kept the weight off of her shoulder she'd heal faster so they can get back to training. They didn't have any training that afternoon and the weekend was upon them, so Hanaru could at least take it easy. He mentally shook his head, why did he suddenly care so much about her well being. Ugh, stupid.

"He probably has sleeper agents all over the place," he said and his grip on the bags tightened, "What I don't understand is just what does he have on them? The yakuza I can understand, money, political power, but clearly he has some shinobi followers. I just can't imagine what he could possibly offer them," he wondered out loud. It's not like he could really throw money at them, the hazardous circumstances of the shinobi career, not just the missions but the dangerous and rigorous training, made it a very lucrative profession once you got into the ranks. Naturally the higher the mission raking the higher compensation for completion. As Genin students they didn't really qualify for such perks, but once they made Chunin they were officially on the books and considered real shinobi and a world of opportunity opened up.
"It's not like he can offer them hidden ninjutsu arts, since all of that is strictly under the kage and clans' control."

"I want to get my facts straight...it could have some repercussions on our-..." he paused for a moment, he almost said relationship, but did they really have a relationship? They weren't friends, they just shared a common enemy, right? "-team."
He felt so dumb for saying that. It sounded so lame and forced. Ugh! What was with him!.

The apartment complex was a huge building and Sasuke knew for a fact that it housed a mixture of ninja and civilians. Naruto lived here, so he knew his way around the area pretty well. It's not that he chose to know where that dunce lived, but more because he forcefully dragged everyone out to come have movie nights with him.
The raven haired boy was somewhat amused by the clowder and of course Hanaru's reaction to them, "Friends or family?" he asked teasingly as he bent down, holding his hand to allow them to sniff at him. Once they started rubbing against him, he started scratching behind their ears and under their chins. "I don't know, I think I see a family resemblance, is this your cousin or your aunt?" he asked as he shot her a playfully mocking look. "Someone's definitely feeding them, there weren't this many when I last saw them."

Sasuke enjoyed the company of cats more in general, dogs were too clingy and people were worse. He fed the old cat that wandered the Uchiha compound. With a final skritch, he left the cats and followed after Hanaru, entering the building and up the stairs. He wasn't sure what to expect when she unlocked her apartment door and for a second he was a little apprehensive about going inside, but the Uchiha entered when she motioned for him to follow. The apartment was...sparse, to say the least. There wasn't much in the way of decor and it looked like she only had the bare minimum when it came to furniture.

"Sure," he nodded as he set their bags down, "As long as you're not going to slap a frozen fish on a plate and call it sushi."
He didn't wander around too much, not wanting to seem rude and intrude on her privacy more than he already was. The apartment was tiny in comparison to the compound he had grown up in, but he found it somewhat cozy. "Hm, the minimalist look suits you," he said trying to compliment her small living space, "Some people take decor too seriously. What's the point of having it if it's only purpose is to collect dust."
While his home was much larger than hers, it was just as sparsely decorated, the painted fusuma being about the most decorated features around the compound, not that anyone actually noticed. That's just the way they were.

He walked over to the window and looked out, the cats had scattered but he could still see a few moving around down below, "When I little," he started, unsure of why he was telling her this in the first place but he couldn't stop himself, "My brother use to take me along when he ran errands for old granny Nekobaa, but I got bored, so he had me try and get all the pawprints from the cats around Sora-ku." He shrugged, but a fond smile tugged at his lips, "A paw print encyclopedia...it sounds so childish now, but heh, maybe I should add yours to granny's collection." It was a light hearted joke, but he knew if the old woman would get a kick out of Hanaru's half nekomata side.

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"It was just laundry," the sandy blonde said as she adjusted the blanket around her, "and some chores." There was something about his words, he didn't pry or poke at her, and it made her feel more at ease, or perhaps it was just his presence in general. She appreciated that. She sat staring out over the horizon, it had been so long since she had been up on the hill, or even in the park in general. It felt like their own little slice of the world, preserved in time. She hummed, signalling that she was listening to him as he reminisced, "Yeah...I miss that too. Tch, we haven't graduated and I'm already sick of being an adult. I feel like a forty year old woman in a seventeen year old's body," she clicked her tongue as she leaned back a little, looking up at the white cotton clouds as another silence fell over them. The girl tensed a little, expecting him to tell her that she could open up to him or something like that, the way Ino always did, but no, his words trailed off to their mission and she felt...something...stir inside her when he uttered those three words. There was some unseen weight to them, something that made her feel heavy and light at the same time. It made a lump form in her throat, "Thanks, Shika," was all she could manage. Maybe she was reading too deep into the meaning of his words and she was making herself feel things she shouldn't, it's not like he'd like her back and it's not like she needed all that extra emotional baggage and stress to haul around. For a moment though, a small fraction of a second, up on the hill in their little corner of the world, she let herself wonder about the 'what if'...

A small smile cracked her emotionless shell as Shikamaru shared the daily gossip. She knew Ino meant well, she always did, but sometimes she was a little too forceful in her methods. "Naruto, huh? Interesting choice...you have a thing for blondes now?" it was a half hearted joke, she hadn't felt tired before she had come up the hill, but now she was tempted to lean against the boy's shoulder. Things felt different and not just because they were different, it felt different in a way that Asuna couldn't put her finger on. Dull green eyes met his gaze and held it silently, before her hand reached up and she held her pinky to him, "Yeah, sure...I promise." Something about his words made her feel uneasy. Was he worried about the mission? It was their first B ranked mission, something usually only Chunin were qualified for and while it didn't guarantee that their lives wouldn't be at risk, there was no guarantee that they were going to be safe either.

Asuna held his gaze for a moment longer, it felt so odd, they were themself but at the same time they were almost strangers. They knew everything about each other, but at the same time they knew very little about one another. She blamed herself for a large part of that, she did break away from him first and then she pushed everyone away. He was smart, but it's not like he could read her mind. As a nervous gesture she wet her lips lightly as she debated with herself if she really wanted to make the leap. The girl withdrew her hand and looked back out over the city, raising her knees up and wrapping one arm around them as the other reached into her pocket and handed the cylindrical tube to Shikamaru.
"When things got bad...when my mom couldn't breathe on her own anymore, shit got really bad," she said as her other arm joined it's twin, holding her legs against her chest, "My old man really got into gambling." She snorted slightly at that, "Well, gambling among other things. He'd say he'd be off to work, then go on a week long drinking binge." Aside from her previous reaction, she remained stoic through the rest, her body unmoving as the wind played with her hair. "You know how I found out? Some guy called the house one afternoon, said my dad left his keys on the counter of his 'establishment' and I had to take a bus all the way to Tanzaku Town."
"I guess it was his way of coping, but yeah, shit got worse, we fought more, had the neighbors call the cops on us so much they actually made him sleep in a cell for disturbing the peace," she shrugged and chuckled, though it wasn't out of amusement. People actually thought during that time that Eiji was abusive, which he wasn't. Whenever he came home from a binge he'd stumble through the house and then she'd wake up and they'd start yelling at each other while he fumbled around, somehow that all got twisted into how he'd lay his hands on her. "I don't know, we just couldn't talk to each other without yelling. It's better now, it's been pretty good these last couple of years."

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air, "He's not a bad guy. A little zealous, but..." she turned her head to Shikamaru, dull empty eyes looking down at the small tube of lipstick she'd passed off to him, "My mom hasn't been home in four years, she never wore dark colours and I still somehow found that in my dad's jacket." She leaned back, stretching out her legs, looking up at the sky, "It probably won't help if I asked your opinion, but do you think...if you found something like that in your dad's pocket, he was...?" she left the question hanging as she tilted her head to look at him. Asuna was torn between believing her father was innocent and believing that he was seeing someone else on the side.
On one hand her father always went on and on about his younger days when he as a young man made it his mission to score with as many girls as possible. He had a wandering eye and didn't exactly hide it either.
On the other hand, he had always been a family man and she was always grossed out at just how lovey dovey her parents were, being unfortunate enough to hear them through the walls of the house.
On the other other hand, it's been six grueling years since her mother got sick and four since the last time she was home.

Having said it all, the black sludge of emotion churned in her chest, she took the chance and lowered her walls ever so slightly, but now she wished she hadn't said anything at all. Reaching out a hand, she took the tube and shoved it back into her pocket, "Forget it, I kinda wish I hadn't said anything now." She had shared the deep intimate workings of her household, but now she felt exposed, like everyone was looking at her and seeing a broken family barely holding it together. It's not them that she was worried about, it was Shikamaru.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

”Yeah, something like that,” she mumbled, commenting on the blessed bullets. “He’s probably just a superstitious nut with an old family or something. I haven’t really run into blessed weapons before, so Tsunade told me to be more careful.” Hanaru didn’t want to think about what might happen to her if she got smacked with one of those weapons. If the blessed weapons had anything to do with Mitomori… well, Hanaru shivered to think what that might mean. After all, she turned to look to Sasuke with a calculating eye. “I think it’s less what he can offer, and more like what he knows. Everyone has secrets, regardless of who they are,” she sighed, closing her eyes. “Mitomori has already shown that his information-gathering and knowledge base is far more expansive than what it should be. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knows quite a bit of Konoha’s dirty laundry.” She nodded in understanding at his words, unsure why she felt a prick of annoyance somewhere deep within at the word “team”. Why couldn’t boys just say what they meant (although… Hanaru was a hypocrite in this matter)?
With cats around their feet, and Sasuke’s snarky comments in her ears, the purple haired half demon rolled her eyes, “Oh ha ha, you should consider giving up being a shinobi and become a comedian instead.” Whether he was any good or not wouldn’t matter, his numerous fangirls would fill the seats regardless. “That’s my niece actually,” she sniffed, playing along for variety’s sake. She patted a tabby before leading the way into the building—if Sasuke had been to Naruto’s he might have recognized her apartment being literally down the hall from his (something about having powerful ninja nearby to keep an eye on her…), and she lead him into her apartment without too much of a fuss.
The apartment was small—a kitchenette that had a little bar-seating area with two stools, a kitchen table, and then a living room that lead out to a sliding glass door with a balcony. She had a plant on one wall. It wasn’t catnip, though Naruto had tried to convince her to grow some to which she vehemently refused. She didn’t know what the notorious “cat-drug” would do to her, and she wasn’t about to find out any time soon. “HA, seriously, a comedian,” her laugh was humorless, but the smirk that she couldn’t fight off her lips spoke worlds otherwise. “Just for that, I’m gonna prove to your pompous ass that I can cook well enough. Tch, ass.” She sniffed incredulously, rifling through her pantry for the right ingredients as she let Sasuke do as he pleased in her apartment. She was ready once she had washed her hands, ingredients laid out on the counter as she called over to him. “Let me know if you need something. There’s bottled water and other crap in the fridge.”
She didn’t know why she felt the need to impress him. Or more like, she was lying to herself about the reason. Surely it was because proving him wrong and proving herself as the superior opponent on every field was something worth doing, right? But she couldn’t deny that there was another reason entirely for her actions, and she refused to think too hard about what that might be. Once she had a dough made and portioned into small circles, Hanaru began browning minced meat and a few different veggies together in a pan, tail flicking behind her as she couldn’t wait to show him up, maybe a little too giddy as she put a large pot of water to boil, only wincing slightly at the strain on her shoulder. The stuffing of the pasta was the most difficult part, but she stubbornly refused to ask him for help. As she steamed the Gyoza she heated up a pan with some oil in it, humming softly, under her breath, as if he wasn’t there at all. If Sasuke had been watching her, it had all looked practiced—and it took no time at all, even with her injuries.
As he inspected her apartment, he might have noticed one of her only piece of decoration was a picture frame, but it was lying face down on a desk, a few pieces of attempted homework beside it with chicken scratch kanji written on top. “I could never waste time and effort on something so meaningless,” Hanaru told him plainly, not even bothering to look at him as she sighed. “I never knew how long I was going to stay in one place, so I didn’t decorate or become attached… it’s just what comes naturally now.” Which was the truth. When he started talking about the cat encyclopedia, Hanaru couldn’t help but snort, shaking her head. “That’s… surprisingly cute. For you.” She didn’t look back at him—she couldn’t, not with how bright her face was. Imagining a younger, more innocent looking Sasuke running around trying to get a bunch of different pawprint prints in a little book. “Well, it’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon,” she raised a hand up, on her current good side, showing him her palm from over her shoulder.
Once the Gyoza were good and browned on the bottom, she plated them and snagged some chopsticks, bringing them over to the couch near where Sasuke was. “Here. Now you can never say I can’t cook, duck-butt.”

______________________​

”Just laundry,” he imitated, scoffing softly, “and that was probably a lot still, not counting the chores you did afterward.” He turned to look at the ash blonde haired girl, slowly scrutinizing her. A voice in the back of his head told him how beautiful she looked, even when she was tired, but he tried to shake the thought—she had enough going on, Asuna didn’t need to think that Shikamaru was just trying to get back into her life only to hit on her. What kind of a man would he be if he let that implication happen? A shitty one, that’s what. Gone were the simpler days where multiplication was their only nemesis—either that or curfews—and the days of summer seemed to stretch on and on forever. Now that they were older, time almost seemed too fast, and the Nara heir couldn’t help but sigh sofly. “Man, getting older is such a drag—we deserve a good break every now and then.” And that was truly how he felt, even though he knew he’d get far too bored if he had the reverse problem—too much free time would mean too much time over thinking everything, which he also wasn’t about to do. Her soft words brought him out of his thoughts and he nodded, turning his gaze away. “No problem…” He did mean it, whether he fully understood himself and his own reasonings was another thing entirely, but he did mean that he needed Asuna.
”Tch, and what if I do? What are you gonna do about it?” he challenged, though there was no real threat, and he narrowed his dak eyes at her playfully. “Blondie~.” he didn’t know why he did that, but it seemed to have made her smile, and he much preferred that look upon her face rather than the soft melancholic look that it had replaced. He didn’t think much about their years-long-separation from being friends, not now that they were in the same squad together. If Shikamaru spent any more time thinking on the past then he would have no more energy to use to run toward the future, and that would mean he was wasting his own time. “Thanks,” he murmured, turning to look at her with a small smirk again. “You’d make my job as leader of team 10 that much easier.”
The sat for longer in soft silence, until Shikamaru blinked as a cylindrical object was laced in his hand. He blinked curiously at it, undoing the lid only to realize that it was lipstick. Asuna didn’t wear lipstick—or at least, he really couldn’t remember a time where she had. He blinked, trying to think about what this meant, until she started to to explain everything to him. It all clicked into place as his mouth opened and closed, not finding any words to say. He knew that Mr. Takanashi was a bit… eccentric. And definitely different in comparison to a lot of the old-shinobi-family tropes that he was used to seeing, with all the different clan heads (not unlike his own father), but he never took him for a gambling type. That being said, Shikamaru wasn’t one to judge. They all had their own vices—they just became mature as they grew up, and Asuna’s dad was no exception. There was still no need for a screaming match, in his opinion. Shikamaru rarely ever raised his voice, unless he did when he was calling out squad formations or in training, but that’s not the kind of person he was. His father could yell, and so could his mother, but they were level headed and it was only usually after he said and or did something stupid, to which Shikamaru usually blew them off only to apologize in some roundabout way later. He felt bad for stirring them up like he did, but most of the time they effectively needed to “chill”.
Once she had pulled back into herself, he shook his head. “Nah, I’m glad you said something…” he responded honestly—it couldn’t have been easy putting everything on display like that, but he appreciated it all the same. “My dad drink himself stupid sometimes—it’s usually after hard missions. And he smokes, which is why I’m used to the smell of it, but I really have been trying to get him to stop. Can’t imagine how hard the missions must be that it makes him drink to want to forget.” He shrugged as Asuna took the cylinder of makeup back from him.
Turning on his side, he looked at Asuna, scrutinizing her face once more as his gaze narrowed slightly. Shikamaru was seriously most of the time, but this felt a little different. “Whatever it’s worth for me to say this… your dad loves you too much to do that to you. You and your mom both. I’m sure there’s some sort of weird explanation for it.” He sighed and turned back onto his back. “For now, let’s just sit and enjoy the sun. If it weren’t for the breeze, it would have actually been nice without the blanket.” He sighed, before another gust of wind rolling by had him unconsciously shifting even closer to Asuna. His brain tried to rationalize that it was because she was his squadmate. Or because he had some sort of petty school-boy crush on her. But in his heart deep down he knew that there was a deeper care there than what he was willing to admit out loud. “Thanks for covering my ass. Literally and figuratively. Life has a shitty way of bringing us together, but that doesn’t mean I’m not grateful for the time.” Which was the truth, every word of it. Shikamaru closed his eyes—he probably could have fallen asleep in her presence if he let himself. “Our mission will go smoothly, and then maybe Asuma-sensei will take us to that new Barbecue place that Choji’s talking about wanting to go to.” That sounded nice. Despite how loud and annoying Ino could be, dinner or lunch, or really just gathering with their squad was something that Shikamaru really looked forward to.
It was the reason why he didn’t… no, couldn’t move up in the Shinobi world to fast. He refused to leave this—his team, and his friends--behind.
He refused to leave Asuna behind.

 

[Iron Mouse]

It was somewhat comforting to hear that it wasn't just her old man that got up to no good. He wasn't the only one, of course, every family had its own vices and problems, "I don't mind when he's out doing his thing, as long as he just comes home, y'know?"
"It just pissed me off that people would get the wrong idea about it," she sighed as she closed her eyes, "We're Takanashi, we're loud and we get angry, but somehow people think that translates into violence." It was stupid, in her mind at least, at how quickly people judged her situation. That was part of why she didn't pay any attention to them anymore, people could think what they wanted and she wasn't going to spend unnecessary energy trying to fight the opinion of strangers.

Shikamaru's opinion, however, was different. She told herself the only reason his opinion mattered was because his opinion was unbiased and logical. He looked at the situation from all angles before he cast his judgement. There was that soft voice in the back of her mind telling her his opinion mattered because she liked him, she cared about what he thought of her.
Asuna didn't answer him, instead she rested her head on her arms and turned her face to him with a soft expression. She was mulling his words over, maybe she was too quick to jump to a conclusion, but she couldn't think of any other explanation.

"Hm, I didn't come out here to sit and do nothing," she said pointedly, but there was an obvious misalignment in her actions as she laid down beside the Nara boy on the grass, "I have things to do and Ino's coming over tonight." Despite this, she was making herself comfortable, blinking slowly up at the clouds and leaning her head against his arm, "I might not always act like it, but I do care about Choji and Ino...I care about you too, even if things can't go back to the way they were." Unlike the hill, people weren't spared from the march of time, they changed for better or worse and the Takanashi girl was torn between wanting to hold onto those old memories and letting them go to accept the present.

It was easy to forget just how tired she was. Asuna couldn't remember what time she had come home, after her visit to the hospital she wandered around for a while. She couldn't go to her usual spot, Kakashi-sensei had no doubt had the nightly security raised, so the school's pool was off limits for a while. When she finally made her way home, her father was already sawing logs and the stray kitten was curled up on her bed. Still, sleep didn't come easily and she was awake, staring at the ceiling long before anyone in the house woke up.
Now though, laying on the grass in a public park beside the black haired boy, sleep was threatening ever more to take over. The cold wind was a bad omen, as her grandmother would say, then again the old woman said many things, not that Asuna believed in any of it, but the way it was rushing through the grass was pulling her closer and closer to sleep.

"And we'll order too much food...but somehow Asuma-sensei will still let us get dessert," she said in an attempt to keep the conversation going in order to fight off sleep, but the wind stole her words away. gently shushing her as her body became weightless.
From somewhere down the hill a soft melody carried on the wind, but she wasn't sure if it was real or in her head as she teetered on the brink of the waking world.

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Sasuke had a bemused smirk on his face at Hanaru's reaction to his jabs, falling into a routine that he didn't even know they had. It felt normal. They had never talked before, aside from riling each other up, so the strange relationship they had formed over the past few days still felt odd. If someone had told him three months ago that he would be standing in the resident cactus' apartment while she cooked lunch he would have laughed in their faces and then sought her out to test his new jutsu. "Mm-hm, just don't over do that arm of yours," he sounded almost caring, so he quickly added, "I'll forgive you for skimping out on my training today, but if you're going to keep your arm in a sling for too long I'm going to think you're doing it on purpose." It felt so forced but he didn't want to sound too soft. He watched her as she rummaged for ingredients, "I'd offer you a hand, but I know your stubborn ass won't accept it."

He declined her offer for a drink as he glanced around the room again wondering if his father would let him move out. He doubted it, he might not have been the heir to the Uchiha clan, but his father wouldn't just let him up and leave the compound like that. He didn't need the lecture about strong familial bonds and all that crap. Leaving the clan grounds was essentially alienating yourself and as far as he knew it wasn't just his family that had that kind of mindset either. His eye caught something in his shot wandering. He looked down at the overturned picture frame. It didn't fall over, no, it was deliberately placed like that. While he wasn't exactly one to pry into people's personal lives, it was curious. Looking over his shoulder he watched Hanaru as his hand reached for the picture frame and he turned it over silently while she was preoccupied.

To say that the photo was old would be an understatement, it had clearly seen better days. The photo was of a woman and he would have mistook her for Hanaru on the night they had broken into the school if the woman wasn't holding a small child in her arms. This was her mother and a very happy little girl, a very happy little Hanaru. It felt like he was glimpsing into some forbidden part of her life and he silently turned the picture frame over once more. They looked so happy, he could see the unbridled love in her mother's brown eyes. They looked so alike he wondered how hard it might have been for her to look at herself in a mirror sometimes. He hadn't stared long enough to tell whether it was dirt or dried blood on the corners of the photo, but from how he knew the story ended, he could make an educated guess.

Sasuke was going to do something, he wasn't sure what at that moment, but his resolve to help the purplette fight back against those who wronged her, those who had hurt her, only strengthened. He would help her avenge her mother even if it meant leaving Konoha to do it. For now though, he had some work to do, he thought as he looked at her failed homework attempts. He didn't know why it was so important to help her read and write, but he was determined to get it done.
"Hm, I'll get it later," he said as he made his way back to the kitchenette, he stood beside her, wrapping an arm around her neck as he pulled her closer, "And don't ever call me cute," he warned as he quickly released her and helped take the Gyoza to the table. "How do I know you're not going to poison me?" he asked, but he still took the chopsticks and poked at the dumplings before taking one and trying it, "Hn, not bad. It's acceptable I guess..." No, it was actually really tasty but he wasn't going to say it in those words.

He ate silently, enjoying the Gyoza and how chewy the thin dough was. Some people tried to add sugar to 'balance the flavours' but he hated that. "This is weird, but," he paused and placed down his chopsticks, turning to meet Hanaru's gaze, "Mind if I stay a little longer?" Sasuke wasn't in the mood to go home and see his father, he'd rather wait for his brother anywhere else than back at the compound, but he also didn't want to overstay his welcome.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

”Yeah, I know,” Shikamaru nodded along with her words. And he did know, even if their situations were a little different. He didn’t care if Shikaku worked hard and had horrible missions that he drank to forget and smoked to remain calm from… just as long as his dad continued to return home to his mom at the end of the day. That his dad returned to him at the end of the day. When she spoke about her neighbors and their assumptions, he shrugged. “People will always stick their noses in places where it doesn’t belong. Neighborhood drama is the only thing keeping some of those nosy old crones going.” It was a little rude to talk of some of the older members of neighbors in such a crass way, but it had been a long time since Shikamaru had cared about that.
”Well I came out here to sit and do nothing,” Shikamaru couldn’t help but tease her, a smirk playing upon his lips as he eyed Asuna out of the corner of his eye. On their little hill, it felt as though they were on an island, floating adrift in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to feel a little bit of detachment from the rest of the world, even if it was just for a little bit. He didn’t say anything as she looked toward him, but he felt the tips of his ears slowly warm as he closed his eyes, attempting to calm down the pace of which his heart had decided to pound from the soft look on her features. Her words were also soft but he still heard them. “I think you have your own way of showing that, and that’s fine…” he nodded softly, turning back to face the sky again. “You’re never alone, Asuna. I have to remind myself that sometimes, too.” He didn’t know how much time had passed since she had come out to join him, but he was grateful for the breath that it seemed to return to his lungs.
Asuna was tired—he had already assumed that from the bags under her eyes, but her demeanor was doing that well enough to tell him besides that. He smiled softly, a grin on his lips. “Take a nap—I’ll make sure that you don’t miss your night in with Ino,” he pulled up his phone, setting an alarm for an hour. It wouldn’t be a long nap, but hopefully it would do her some good. “Besides, she’s a lot of energy, you’re going to want all the sleep you can get.” And it was true—Ino was a handful, and if Ino had found out that Asuna and Shikamaru had spent even a miniscule amount of time together outside of their squad, she was going to be nosy about it. He couldn’t imagine being her best friend, but he knew at the end of the day that the blonde Yamanaka was fiercely loyal, and she only ever had Asuna’s (and the rest of their) best interests at heart. “Go to sleep.” He hoped she would listen to him, Asuna didn’t put much energy into listening to others—or rather, she listened but that certainly did not mean that she actively did what was asked of her (for good reason, most of the time). “Choji will eat everything we can’t finish,” another breeze blew past them, and Shikamaru tightened his grip on the blanket. “And that’s whether we want him to or not.” He knew things could never quite go back to the way that they were. That was a given once he had confirmed his little crush as exactly what it was… a crush. But that was both a blessing and a curse, he’d miss their best-friend like dynamic from when they were kids, but he didn’t miss the grown-up scolding or the curfews or anything else. Now they were close, but he was scared to put a label on their friendship.
And yes, Shikamaru was scared. He didn’t like to be, but he couldn’t help it. The world was okay with him just as it was, but change was fast approaching, and he couldn’t face it head on without his friends at his side. Shikamaru closed his eyes—after everything that had happened… between the fiasco at the school, sneaking in, the creep from the government, and everything else, he was tired too. As she spoke, he could hear her getting sleepier, and Shikamaru shuffled closer again, eager to shield her from the wind alongside the blanket if he could as she struggled to stay awake. “I’ll watch the clouds.” As tired as Shikamaru might have been, he wasn’t eager to fall asleep, considering he promised he’d wake her up if she did. He also wanted to be alert. There was this inherent… need that he felt, despite knowing how capable he knew Asuna was, Shikamaru had to protect her. He needed to watch out for her, not just because Eiji had asked him to (while threatening the Nara boy himself), but for his own sake. There was something dark that he couldn’t quite put his finger on moving in place around the city and even in their school. He didn’t know what was happening, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to anyone—not while Shikamaru was vigilant. If he was truly as smart as everyone thought he was, then he for sure was going to use that to protect those he cared about.
Not quite sure if Asuna was fully asleep yet, the Nara sighed, bringing a hand to her forehead, gently brushing some of her bangs out of her eyelashes that might have woken her up if the wind had blown again. This peace was the reason he was still a shinobi—and he would fight to protect it.

______________________

”As if I could hurt myself doing something as mundane as cooking,” Hanaru was quick to scoff, ignoring the dull ache in her shoulder. However her tail flicked lazily behind her—the telltale (hah) sign of complacency. “Just you wait, you’re going to wish you hadn’t brought it up. Tomorrow I’m gonna kick your ass like I did during Chakra Control training.” He had yet to fully unleash her potential, but the more she watched him and Naruto train, the more she knew she would have to do herself. Hanaru hadn’t really had much need to train outside of her sword fighting skills. She always had the strength, the speed, and the stamina to get what she needed done. That being said, with the rate that Sasuke and Naruto were going, she couldn’t deny, as much as she hated it, the fact that they had the potential to surpass her, much less just catch up to her level. They were both strong, but Sasuke in particular had that drive to be everything and then some when it came to his shinobi training.
It hadn’t taken her too long to finish their lunch, and she blinked as he brought her closer, his arm around her neck as she narrowed her gaze. His threat didn’t scare her, but she blinked with her gaze narrowed. “I’ll do what I want,” she mumbled under her breath, taking a seat beside him in the couch. “Because poison is the coward’s way of assassination,” she blinked, her expression blank as she knew what she was talking about. “If I had truly wished to kill you I wouldn’t use poison to do it, talk about lame.” As if to prove a point, she snagged a Gyoza for herself, eating it as she looked to him expectantly.
”These are more than just “acceptable”,” she scoffed, a teasing glint in her eyes as she pouted. Hanaru wasn’t a big fan of sweets if they weren’t meant to be sweet, but things like chocolate were dangerous around the half nekomanta. She ate silently, not minding the quiet, as her apartment often was. When Sasuke spoke up again, she shrugged, nodding. “I don’t care. I’m probably gonna take a nap while the sun is still out.” There was something so calming about Sasuke’s presence. The distinct desire to kick his ass was still there, but after putting so much trust in him, Hanaru was relaxed in his presence. He knew all her secrets. He knew everything about her that she despised. There was something freeing about that, and it made her as relaxed as it made her vulnerable. “Leave, stay, you’re welcome to either. I keep the key under the welcome mat if you ever need a place to escape to.” She wasn’t sure what she was getting at. Did she actively want Sasuke around more than usual? Well… maybe. Her eyes narrowed at herself. “It’s not like it’s ever anyone beside me here anyway.”
Getting up, she left the dishes on the counter, Hanaru slid over to the opposite couch, laying on her stomach in the sun. “Goodnight…” It was actually a miracle, how quickly Hanaru fell asleep in the sun. She rolled slightly, her face peeking out toward the Uchiha as she mumbled something unintelligent in her sleep, lips parted softly. Every once and awhile her tail would flick or her ear would twitch. It looked… serene.

 

[Iron Mouse]

"Please, like you're in any shape to take me on," Sasuke rolled his eyes, "That would be like fighting against a kid who can't tie his shoes yet." He knew that was a bit of an exaggerated statement, but he was very confident in his abilities and was convinced that taking Hanaru on while she was injured wouldn't be a fair fight. If there was at least one thing he had learned it was to fight honorably. "I wasn't giving it my all that day," he shrugged, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself that Sakura's cheerleading had distracted him and not the way Hanaru moved so gracefully with her wakizashi,

He didn't actually think the food was poisoned, despite poison being notoriously known as a lady's weapon of choice, it seemed so inaccurate to try and rope Hanaru under that widely believed stereotype. "Tch, if you're going to attempt to assassinate me, at least make it look good. I'd like a more memorable departure from this world," it was a lighthearted statement but he knew that it would probably never happen like that. The life of a shinobi was uncertain, he could live to grow old or he could die tomorrow. Most Shinobi deaths weren't as epic or as memorable as people believed, that's why most strived to make some kind of name for themselves, to leave something behind to be remembered by.

it was morbid, maybe, but Sasuke had put some thought into how he'd like to go out someday. He wanted people to remember him, he wanted his name to still be mentioned several generations later, like Sarutobi Sasuke of the Sanada Ten Braves. It was the wrong way of thinking about things, as shinobi they were supposed to be like shadows, silently doing their missions and should they fail they should silently disappear without a trace, but it was some childish fantasy he had from listening to his elders regaling the old tales of war and heros when he was just a boy.

Sasuke raised his brow at Hanaru, "Isn't that a little obvious?" he asked in regards to her keys, "Not that I'm worried about you or anything," he added as he took his plate back to the kitchen. "Don't worry, I don't plan on making it a habit, I just don't want to be around my father right now." Something felt off though, something in his mind was fighting against that statement. It wasn't like he was actively trying to be around Hanaru more, this was just the way things happened to turn out and why couldn't he use her apartment as a second base?
'Would you do the same to Sakura? To Naruto?'
Well, no, Naruto would irritate him and Sakura would tail him everywhere he went and try to woo him, so no...absolutely not. Hanaru wasn't like either of them, evident by the way she was sprawling out on the couch in the late afternoon sun.

He wasn't sure how long he was staring at her, asleep Hanaru resembled the furry felines that had come to greet them even more. The Uchiha boy sat there awkwardly in silence fighting the urge to pet her. It would be weird, wouldn't it? He had done it once before...
Sasuke grabbed his bookbag, he could finish off his homework while she slept, but his eyes trailed over to the girl. He'd never seen her so at peace before, like the world had stopped existing around her.

How long Sasuke had sat there he wasn't sure, he'd made quite some headway with his homework, but that's when a soft sound caught him by surprise. It was soft chattering, not exactly human. He had heard it before but the sound was so unexpected it took him a few seconds to realize it was the same as the old cat back home and it was coming from Hanaru. He couldn't stop the soft smile that spread on his face, it took over his features completely. "Why am I not surprised," he said quietly to himself as he stood up and took a detoured route to the kitchen, walking around the table to gently scratch behind Hanaru's ears.

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Somewhere between lost words and the wind whispering through the grass, she had slipped from the waking world. The Takanashi girl had never had an issue with falling asleep, it came fast and sudden, like standing out on the frozen pond to have the ice give way without warning. That wasn't why she fought so hard against it, to sleep was to know peace, so the rush of the frozen water, the embrace of the world beyond was a welcomed one. It was waking up that was the problem.
Even so the dreamless lull left her blissfully unaware of everything around her. Sadly, even the soft brushing motion as Shikamaru moved the hair from her face was lost on her.

This wasn't something she did normally, in fact it was almost completely alien for the blonde to fall asleep at any time that wasn't in her designated sleep schedule, mostly because once she was out she didn't wake up until she was fully rested. It spoke volumes though, perhaps not to anyone who wasn't part of her small bubble, but it was not just her terrible lack of sleep over the past week that brought this on. There was a certain comfort, a silent and underlying trust that had encouraged her. Several things could go wrong if a young woman found herself asleep so openly in a public place, but much like in the comfort of her father's unwanted fatherly affection, she felt safe.

The peaceful afternoon didn't last forever though as soon Shikamaru's alarm went off. Asuna hadn't made any motion to indicate that she had heard it, probably because she hadn't and even the gentle shaking of her shoulder couldn't rouse her from her slumber. That was the last of Shikamaru's troubles however as a very white dog came bounding up to him, his owner hot on his heels. "Heh, hey man, funny running into you here," the brunet said with a smirk as he looked between the two, "Should I ask or...is it none of my business?" he asked ever so casually as he nodded to Asuna's sleeping form all but cuddling into the Nara boy's side.

Akamaru sniffed around the duo, his tail wagging excitedly, he 'Arf! Arf!'d at Shikamaru and proceeded to sniff at the blonde who continued to lightly snore unaffected by the dog's nose in her face.
"Just askin', I saw old lady 'Nashi up on the roof with a walkie talkie," Kiba hunched down in front of Shikamaru, a little more careful with his words as the brutal ear beating he had gotten when he had interrupted their last 'date' was still fresh in his mind, "No wonder this neighborhood doesn't have a neighborhood watch, not with all these old people around." It was a joke, but with the way the old ladies and shop keepers started gossiping so quickly over the incident in the park, it felt like there was some truth behind that statement.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

”As if I’d have anything anyone would wanna steal,” she mumbled, but it wasn’t as though she wanted to guess at what he was really talking about. The only ones she thought were interested in killing her had no idea where she was—she hadn’t seen her step-father or her half brother in years. She actually didn’t know why her half-brother didn’t kill her when he had the chance… it was curious. She had spent many a sleepless night pondering that.
Hanaru never really dreamt. I mean, sure she had dreams, but it was never anything worth remembering, and was usually gone by the time she opened her eyes while waking up. She, though Sasuke wouldn’t know it, was also usually incredibly uncomfortable sleeping in front of anyone else. It was a matter of survival, and instincts alone usually kept her vigilant and aware while in the presence of others regardless of how exhausted her body was. But with Sasuke hanging around—someone whom she should have felt this way toward considering their would-be rivalry—was somehow okay with her. Her conscious definitely wasn’t thinking her was an active threat—it must have changed somehow when Sasuke and her had that conversation about everything that had happened in her life. When she was telling him everything that she could without going into too much detail, Hanaru felt as though there was a weight taken off of her shoulders.
Hanaru’s dreams were fleeting, but they were soft. They gave her a sense of comfort. She was brought back to a time when she didn’t have as many cares. Maybe even back to before she had killed a bunch of people. In her dreams, someone was petting her ears, but it actually felt good, and it didn’t feel like her mother… it was a different force but again, still one that she was comfortable around.
Outwardly, Hanaru leaned into Sasuke’s hand as he scratched behind behind her ears, her tail flicking lazily as a sign of complacency. Her expression shifted slightly, but otherwise the motion didn’t wake her up. It started out quiet, but the more he pet her ears, the more he could hear a purr rise from her chest. It must have been rather odd, to hear such a sound coming from a humanoid figure, btu as she purred her tail flicked, and it was incredibly reminiscent of the cats that they had pet down on the first floor, outside of Hanaru’s apartment building.
There was no discernable amount of time passing, but for a moment all the trouble that they faced faded away outside of Hanaru’s apartment. As if they couldn’t be touched while in the safety of the space that had been created there. The world continued to move on down below them. Outside of the walls, there was peace.
That peace was interrupted by the door swinging open, “Who’s my favorite emotionally stunted kitty?” Hanaru’s ear flicked but it didn’t look like the abrupt entrance woke her up, having fallen into a deeper sleep than she had initially intended. In the door was a familiar white haired man, a wide grin on his face as he stepped inside, holding what looked to be a dress box. Upon seeing Sasuke next to a sleeping Hanaru, Jiraiya winced slightly, raising his hands up in an apologetic manner as he set the box on her kitchen counter. “Sorry!” he whispered loudly, grinning. “Didn’t realize she was taking a cat nap.” The Sannin tilted his head at Sasuke, a smirk playing upon his features. “The kitty stick her claws in ya? I heard what happened the other day. Quite a nasty bit of business. Thankfully I know a good kid when I see one.” His gaze slid back to the sleeping half-nekomanta and some sort of paternal instinct flashed through him—the same thing that he had felt the first time he had looked at Naruto, too. “A scared kid… but a good one.” Jiraiya then turned to look at the young Uchiha male, his serious look permeating the very air they were in. “What do you think, Sasuke?”
Without waiting to hear him answer, Jiraiya moved back toward the door. “I just brought a little gift—Sarutobi wanted me to remind her that the yearly formal is coming and she is required to attend to show how she’s integrated into the school and back into normal society~! Enjoy your date,” and with that he was gone, making sure to quietly shut the door behind him.
”S… Sasuke…?” Hanaru mumbled sleepily, sitting up slowly as she turned, only to realize how close he was. Practically nose-to-nose, she felt her cheeks heating up, and she slid back instinctively, turning her head away from him. “I-I uh, I heard the door close? Someone here??” She wasn’t going to say that she thought he left, nope.

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Shikamaru sat there for what felt like hours, but in reality the time just seemed to pass slowly. He was awake, and the world was quiet. Occasionally the wind would blow, and he’d fix the blanket to cover Asuna before she got cold and woke up, and sometimes someone’s car would honk in the city around them. Other than that, they lived in their own little world. It was definitely like taking a deep breath, not having to worry about anything for a change. The Nara thought about their mission, and the lowkey bad vibes he was getting from the whole thing, but he couldn’t allow that to bother him a whole lot. After all, they were a team, and anything that they were going to get through, they were going to do together as a unit.
Shikamaru was halfway through a few new ideas for different tactical formations for their squad when his alarm went off. A sigh left his lips as he allowed his dark gaze to slide over to Asuna. She seemed so peaceful, and to wake her up when she seemed to actually be getting sleep seemed like some sort of cardinal sin, but he shifted anyway, pulling the blanket off of himself. The alarm itself hadn’t woken her up, and he leaned over to push on her shoulder, a few gentle prods to start, and then something just a little bit more forceful. The black haired male sighed, rolling his eyes—Asuna slept ike a log, and she seemed to be snoring lightly, but he couldn’t help but feel as though this meant that she really needed the sleep. If she was truly this tired then maybe it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if he let her sleep a little more and just texted Ino to tell her what happened. Not that he wanted the prodding questions from Ino about what they were doing together and how Asuna fell asleep considering Ino thought every small interaction was some form of juicy gossip, but he decided that he’d do it for Asuna’s sake, if nothing else.
Just when he had about decided to pick Asuna up and piggy back her back to the Shuffle of Things, he heard footsteps—or really pawsteps. Instinctively tensing up as he let his hand slide toward where the clasp was on his kunai pouch, he let it drop as soon as he recognized Akamaru’s form. Sighing softly, he shook his head—of course, if Ino wasn’t going to be the one to ask questions, it’d be Kiba. However, as if by some miracle, the male seemed to understand that something delicate was going on, considering the lack of his usual teasing-edge. “It’s really not my business either,” Shikamaru shrugged, speaking at normal volumes. If Asuna woke up, then that’d be kind of a win-win for him, but she was also still out like a light, so maybe they could have been yelling at each other and she’d still be asleep.
Shikamaru put out his hand for Akamaru to sniff before scratching his head—he and Kiba were pretty good friends. Of course, they weren’t closer than he and Choji, and even Naruto seemed to be closer than he and the Inuzuka, but still. “They scouting for war or something?” Shikamaru joked, moving to stand up and stretch his neck, a crack sounding as he hadn’t realized how stiff he had been while sitting. His hands were in his pockets as he turned to look over the city. “Nah, this neighborhood is pretty safe, between the old people and all of the shinobi families that live around here, like the Yamanakas and the Akimichis.” Which was true—they were sprinkled in and around the normal civilian families. They stood in small silence, and Shikamaru couldn’t help but smirk as Akamaru sniffed Asuna’s face. “We have a mission tomorrow—it’s pretty high level too. Are you guys on an assignment this week too?” It was normal for multiple squads to be dispatched all at once, but he couldn’t think of the last time their entire friend group all had missions at relatively the same time.

 

[Iron Mouse]

"We have the usual, but Kurenai-sensei has some special training in mind for us," Kiba said, but there was a slight tone of pride in his voice. He looked around as if to make sure no one was listening in before he spoke again, voice low and eyes narrowing, "She got special permission for us to do an independent study at the scene in Imabetsa Park, something about tracking down cold trails." He shrugged and cast his eyes around the park again, "Not much of a mission since the police and ANBU pretty much have it all covered, but it still beats most D-ranked missions."

Kiba's eyes followed Shikamaru's down to the white pup sniffing curiously at Asuna's face. "It's kinda weird seeing her outside. The pool and now the park, I thought she hated leaving the house," it was a very generalized opinion, but there wasn't any malice in the Inuzuka's voice. His eyes flicked to Shikamaru as if trying to solve some kind of mystery, "Not gonna lie it looks super suss," he chuckled, "Does Mr. Takanashi know you're sneaking around with her?" he elbowed the Nara boy teasingly.

Something stirred, something had invaded Asuna's dreamless sleep, but she didn't wake up. Her brow scrunched up and she curled deeper into the blanket, but that was about the only motion her body physically made.
Kiba was a little reluctant at first but he relented and helped Shikamaru get the girl onto his back, grabbing the blanket from the ground as they walked down the hill, "I'm starting to think we could have just rolled her all the way there," he said as he eyed the blonde who was koalaing on the Nara boys back.

A very obvious silhouette in the store window quickly disappeared as they approached and once they stepped through the door, old Granny Fu was trying her hardest to look inconspicious and failing as she sat playing Go by herself while Eiji only peeked over his newspaper.
"Shikamaru! What a surprise, couldn't stay away could you?" the man started in his usual tone, but it trailed off as his friendly businessman demeanor slipped. Eiji looked at the boy carrying Asuna and his mouth pressed into a thin line, "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded, but he wasn't talking to the Nara boy. "Didn't I tell you to scram after last time?!" The man was very animatedly scolding Kiba who huffed and shoved his hands into his pockets, "That was like six years ago, old man," he mumbled under his breath.

"Out! I can't have you coming in here tracking mud all over my clean floors and breaking things!" he waved at Kiba to leave, he held a very clear personal grudge, though why was uncertain. The elder Takanashi turned to Shikamaru, "Why don't you go on in, Ma'll help you with her," his attitude had done a full 180 between scolding Kiba and addressing Shikamaru and then back to giving Kiba an ear beating.

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It felt like such a taboo. He'd only ever done it once, but at least Hanaru was awake then. Sasuke was careful not to wake her as his fingers scratched her soft ears. It was almost criminal how soft they were. For a second he panicked when her head tilted into his touch but she didn't stir, which at least offered him some relief. How would he explain this if she had woken up to him petting her like some kind of house cat?
'You were making noises so I decided to pet you without your permission. I'm totally not a weirdo!'

Sasuke had completely lost track of time, it could have been five minutes or it could have been five hours, but the odd purring that reverberated through the room made it worth it. It was curious at first, such a familiar sound but resonating from a different source, but as the sound grew it became more hypnotic.
There was nothing else that existed in that moment. All of his stress and anger melted away. He didn't know why he was mad anymore. In this moment he existed purely for the rolling purr, he existed because of the rolling purr. There was a part of him that wanted to give into the lulling sound and just curl up there on the couch and snooze.

All those thoughts and feelings flew out of the window, rolled around in tar and set themselves on fire as the door suddenly burst open.
In a flash, Sasuke quickly retracted his hand as the white haired Sannin burst in. The boy's cheeks flushed red as he made awkward eye contact, hoping that the old man wouldn't get the wrong idea about what was going on, he was a writer of trashy adult novels after all.
"We were just...doing homework," he said and he almost instantly regretted it as it sounded even more suspicious than if he had not said anything at all. The boy tried to cover up his mistake as Jiraiya fully let himself into Hanaru's apartment.

The elder man didn't give him much of an opportunity to speak, not that Sasuke minded as he took the time to clear his thoughts before he said something he'd regret.
"It's already that time of the year?" the boy muttered as the Sannin mentioned the yearly formal. Every year around this time they had a formal school dinner and dance, the first half of it was mostly lord Sarutobi and other board members talking about things that happened and events to come, after which the students were given full rein, supervised of course, for the rest of the night. It wouldn't have been so bad if his flock of female followers didn't bombard him on the days leading up.

"It's not a date!" his face flushed as he tried to protest, but Jiraiya already slipped out of the apartment. A frustrated sigh left his lips, why was everyone so convinced that he and Hanaru were dating? They weren't compatible in the least! Right?
”S… Sasuke…?”
Obsidian orbs slid over to the half nekomata as she stirred from her sleep. He realized just how close they were, he could feel her breath on his face, but she quickly drew away.
"It was Jiraiya," he said clearing his throat and standing up quickly to pack away his books, "He brought you something." The late afternoon sun was already dwindling into a cooler light as evening approached. "He wanted to tell you about our formal dance coming up," he didn't look at her, tying to hide his embarrassment from not just having been walked in on but also literally brushing noses once she had woken up, "And yes, it is mandatory for everyone, especially you. Something about showing how well you've integrated?"

 

[AwkwardSilence]

”She hates not having something to do,” Shikamaru corrected loosely—it was mostly true. He was sure that a part of Asuna’s need to constantly be busy was to keep her mind from getting ahead of her. Besides, Kiba didn’t really know the ash blonde as much as Shikamaru did if that was what he thought of her. She was a lot more hardworking than people gave her credit for. Maybe her grades weren’t the best in school, and therefor she got labeled as a “slacker,” but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The Nara knew what to look for when effort wasn’t being put into someone’s work and that’s what he saw with Asuna—he knew because that’s what he did more often than not. As Akamaru sniffed the girl, he sighed.
When Kiba finally helped Asuna onto his back, he shouldered her a bit to make sure that she wouldn’t fall off while she was sleeping, but he grinned at Kiba’s words. “If you want to wake her up and incur her wrath, be my guest.” Takanashi rage was not something to be trifled with—that was at least well-known in their friend group. Kiba could speak all he want while she was asleep, but he could be quite scared of her when she went off on him. They walked relatively silently to the Takanashi home, and Shikamaru was grateful for another break of sound. Kiba could have prodded him more about what they were doing together on that hill but clearly he thought better of it. That was good, it meant he could learn something new, after all.
Shikamaru shot Granny Fu a raised eyebrow, clearly not letting her obvious spying go without a look. Old people—they were so nosy sometimes. He didn’t personally talk with a lot of the elders in the Nara clan, though his dad was always talking about the “Clan’s expectations” of him and how important that was. Granny Fu, at least, wasn’t like them at all. She just wanted the best for Asuna. The Nara clan elders wanted security for their children’s children, and nothing short of proving their legacy would make that happen. He shook his head slightly, as if trying to physically shake off his thoughts. Shikamaru nodded to Eiji without really thinking about his demeanor, right now he was busy taking Asuna inside as he ordered, leaving Kiba to suffer the elder Takanashi’s wrath.
”Don’t let Akamaru down—I don’t want to know what he and Meeko would get into,” Shikamaru advised, snickering lightly at the uncomfortable look on Kiba’s face. Though he was being serious, considering the little kitten was kind of a menace, and Akamaru was… hyper. It was only natural he’d be as hyper as he was considering he was a ninja dog. Still, he and Meeko could probably destroy The Shuffle of Things in one evening. Shikamaru followed Granny Fu into the stairwell where they could reach the living quarters above the shop. Asuna had yet to wake up, but Shikamaru was silently grateful for that, not sure how red his face would get if she woke up to him carrying her piggy-back style just like he had done when they were kids. He let Granny Fu lead him into Asuna’s bedroom, where he felt a little out of space. As a kid he didn’t even think about it, but letting someone into your room was also a level of vulnerability that you revealed. It was your “safe space” and he felt a little bit like a trespasser. Still he set Asuna down on her bed, and as Granny Fu moved out of her room, Shikamaru couldn’t help but linger. Her face looked and achieved a level of calmness that was nearly impossible while she was awake, and he can’t believe the thought hadn’t crossed his mind earlier when they were on the hill, but his breath caught in his throat.
Asuna was really beautiful.
And not just the “oh I think she’s cute” kinda pretty. But the kind that steals your breath when you’re not paying attention, and he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. It was such a drag to feel this way about someone who was on his squad—its definitely not what Asuna wanted (or even needed right now) and it would only prove distracting moving forward. Trying to push away more of his thoughts, he looked back over her sleeping face, taking note of how her hair had fallen over her forehead oddly from the bit of jostling it had taken to get her into bed. He did his best to gently tuck it behind her ear, trying not to disturb her sleep as he did so. The least he could do, as her squadmate (he tried to convince himself) was to make sure that she actually got some rest before their mission the following day. It was all happening so fast, but he had faith in their sensei that in case anything went wrong (like the feeling in his gut was telling him that something would happen) that Asuma would be sure to take care of it. His chakra was strong, and he was more than capable of doing whatever it took in order to keep them safe.
That being said, the amount of secrecy that went into the briefing of this mission was definitely concerning. Especially considering the fact that their squad hadn’t even taken the Chunin exams, and yet they were expected to handle such a high-ranking mission. Obviously Hirozen thought of it as relatively standard—he wouldn’t have given them a mission that would get them killed. Still… demons and tears in this dimension all felt so farfetched, he almost didn’t believe it was real. That is, if the orders hadn’t come from the Sandaime himself, and if they weren’t as aware about the “Nine-Tailed Fox Incident,” Shikamaru might have laughed when the orders were handed out.
Leaving Asuna, Shikamaru stepped out of her room, only to blink as he watched Granny Fu less-than-conspicuously lean against the wall—he wasn’t surprised that she had been eavesdropping. “Can I help you with something, Granny Fu?” Shikamaru asked plainly, pretending as though he hadn’t seen her flounder to “act natural”. He didn’t know what she was up to, but her actions were amusing to say the least.

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If Jiraiya was suspicious of their actions, he didn’t show it save for the suave smile that always seemed to adorn his lips. “Ah, young love,” he mumbled, leaving quickly. He was definitely getting some great ideas for his next novel—the young prodigy and the femme fatale ex-con, strung along the string of fate in a twisting tale of murder, love, and intrigue! Sure, it was a little weird that his adopted-son’s squadmates were his inspiration, but he wasn’t necessarily writing about them (or at least that’s how he justified his actions). He closed the door to leave them be, knowing he could finally write a manuscript so that he might get his publisher off of his back.
”What did that crazy old bastard want?” Hanaru blinked a few times, trying to fight the furious blush that was rising on her cheeks as she focused on something else. When he mentioned the formal, the nekomanta couldn’t help but groan loudly, holding her head in her hands. “Dammit…! I don’t wanna go… they’re noisy and hurt my ears,” she whined, being a bit of a brat about the scenario but not really caring how childish her complaining was. “Besides who thought it was a good idea to stick a ninja in formal wear?! No one can fight like that.” She was trying to poke holes into the entire idea, but she knew that there was no getting out of this—or at least complaining to Sasuke wasn’t about to get her any headway into a proper argument against such frivolity. The purple haired female stretched lightly, a large yawn on her lips displaying her sharpened canines before she pulled herself to stand. “They can parade me around as a model student as much as they want, a lot of the Konoha elders and the government officials are never going to accept my presence as anything short of “criminal”.” Her gaze hardened as she looked down—Hanaru didn’t even realize she was doing it but her tail swept lowly against the floor, shoulders drooping.
A scent caught her nose—the lingering scent of pine that spoke of Jiraiya (he always smelled like he had been hiding in a tree somewhere, which Hanaru found creepy)—and her gaze tracked her apartment. If he had just left, the scent wouldn’t linger like it was… it was then that her amber gaze found the box on the table, and dread filled her stomach. She was hoping to get away without formal wear, but Jiraiya seems to have “solved” that issue. “Is that what I think it is…?” she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, calloused fingers meeting her scar in a familiar display of annoyance. Sighing, she stepped over to the table, but her walk slowed as her tail flicked behind her as, to Sasuke, she appeared to be stalking the table, or rather the dress box. It was nearly amusing, but she looked so focused, eyes narrowing as she dropped toward the floor, stalking toward the box, and reaching up to poke it, quickly withdrawing. Seeing as the box responded… like a box, She straightened up, realizing she had an audience, and coughed awkwardly, coving her face with a hand as she blushed.
Taking the top off, she spoke to distract herself. “I seriously don’t trust anything that perv gives me… he writes the smut that Kakashi reads, and I’m not interested in knowing wherever the hell he got this from.” Or, heaven forbid, whoever he got this from. No wonder Naruto was so messed up. Undoing the tissue paper, she was less timid about the reveal, blinking in surprise at the dress she pulled up. It was a navy blue satin with a plunging v-neckline, with straps crossing over the chest. She felt her eyebrows furrow as she turned it around, noting the sloping back, and all she could think about was how her scars would draw so much attention with the show of skin. Even if it was a little bit more modest than what she was expecting, it was still ridiculous. “Well… fuck. Maybe I can hide in a corner and wear ear-muffs.” She was visibly dreading the whole event.