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

To say Asuna was mad was not completely inaccurate. She stood in the door with a confused kitten clinging to her back, eagle eyes scanning the display room. An odd sensation spread through her body, her blood was boiling and running cold simultaneously. Boiling because she couldn't believe she was so dumb as not to have set any rules; and freezing over because he actually did decent job, which meant she lost...which meant she had to force herself away from the shop for a whole day. A whole day. "You!" she closed the distance between them, clearly wanting to call foul play, "You...!" she couldn't think of anything to say and instead opted to punch his shoulder, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to get a point across. There was nothing to do about it now, she made the bet, she was cocky enough to set the stakes that high and she dared to underestimate just what the Nara was capable of if he really put his mind to it. With an exasperated sigh, she leaned against the counter, there was no one to blame but herself. "Well, congrats on not half assing," despite being mad, she had to admit he did a good job, "You're a sneaky s.o.b, but with no rules established, I can't exactly complain about the execution. It was...a pretty good plan," she mumbled the last part, hoping he wouldn't hear, but he did.

Seeing him so excited about his victory made her anger ebb away, it was just a friendly wager and her dad would probably be just fine with taking counter duty. He'd probably jump for joy if she told him. "Alright, I hereby relinquish my Saturday to bow to your every command, Mr. Nara," she wasn't someone to go back on their word so she'd just have to deal with it. "I know someone who'll be elated to hear you've 'convinced' me to do 'normal' teenager things," she mused remembering just how many fights she and her father had gotten into over her workaholic habits, it made her scoff. "It's just funny," Asuna said seeing the look Shikamaru was giving her, "You're giving me that look again, the answer is still 42," she turned to look up at him with a sigh. Ugh, that look he had made her want to tell him about every little thought that crossed her mind.

"My dad," Curses! She was weak to the boy's gaze, "likes to grill me for not doing 'normal' things other kids our age do, then gets mad at me when I do." She pulled a stool closer and sat down, debating on whether or not to tell him as she hadn't told anyone about it before, "Snuck into a nightclub, it wasn't all that and a bag chips like people make it out to be." Copping an eye at Shikamaru, she couldn't help but chuckle at his expression, "Adventurous, I know, but I wanted to piss him off that night and it was the first thing that came to mind."
"I should have taken some friends along or something, but I doubt it would have changed much. The music was loud, they didn't have juice boxes, but the food wasn't half bad. A couple of hours later and the dancefloor looked like a snake ball while this guy kept slobbering down my neck trying to buy me drinks," waving her hand around slightly sounding completely bored, "Found myself in front of the school contemplating whether it wouldn't be better for me to just...give up shinobi training." The red ribbon around her arm had turned into the most interesting object in the room, granted the kitten thought so too. "I wanted to that night."

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Sasuke was stretched out on a bed, his arms behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. He felt a little foolish for being there, but the isolation made him feel somewhat normal. There was no fluttering in his chest, and his stomach wasn't doing the flips, everything seemed just fine. He could barely hear the women in the other room, well, aside from Tsunade's growling, but that ceased after a few minutes. For a moment he thought back to the sparring session, he could have taken Hanaru no problem, but she seemed to get stronger and stronger as they traded blows. He couldn't stand it, was she just that strong and she was treating him with kiddy gloves? Or was he really just that weak? What was up with her chakra? What kind of training did she do? How much more training would he have to do to beat her?! The thoughts ran ramped in his head and it only aggravated him. He was the strongest in their age group, he was the best, until that girl waltzed in. Was everything just a lie? Were the other students all in on it? Naruto? Sakura? The teachers? Were they just laughing behind his back the whole time and he didn't realize it?!

"Sasuke, are you alright? Do you need anything?" Shizune called into the room making him sit up on the bed. "Yeah, I'm fine," it must have sounded a lot rougher than he meant as the woman tilted her head, "Are you sure? Were you hurt?" she tried to pry. It was really odd for him to come in like this. Onyx eyes glanced at her before they fixated on his hands, "No, I wasn't hurt. I've just been feeling off today," he admitted. Shizune was definitely not the person he wanted to discuss his personal matters with, but on the off chance he'd caught some strange illness, maybe she could give him some medicine to make all the weird feelings go away. She waited patiently as the boy looked around, shifting uncomfortably under her gaze, "I've been...having weird palpitations and fluttering in my chest," Sasuke thought carefully, trying to remember the feelings that seemed to pop up randomly, "And in my stomach, like I want to vomit." Shizune blinked at him, this is why he came in? "Well, that could be a slew of different things, have you been feeling stressed lately? Unexplainable mood swings? Sweaty palms?" she could guess what was wrong with him, considering how his ears turned red, "Has it...only been happening when you're around a certain person? If that's the case you might just have a crush on them," she had to cover her mouth as not to giggle. Here he was, the child prodigy of the Uchiha clan experiencing what seemed to be his first crush.

"Don't be stupid!" Sasuke couldn't believe his ears! Was she really hinting that he might have a crush on a girl? He stood up and left the room, "Calling yourselves medican ninja," he ground out through his teeth as he slammed the door. "Young man, this is not your house! The slamming of doors is not permitted here!" Tsunade's mood was tipped again, but he wasn't paying any attention to the blonde woman and instead kept walking past Hanaru who was sitting on the ground and playing with TonTon. She looked almost cute. His scowl deepened as he felt his ears heat up, "I'm out of here." Those weren't his thoughts, Shizune had planted them in his head! He couldn't believe that she would even think that! He could have a serious health issue and not know it because the ditzy assistant mistook his symptoms as a silly school boy crush! Not having gotten too far from the infirmary, Sasuke stopped, it felt like he was about to explode and he did as his fist hit the wall with extensive and explosive force. He'd never been so disgruntled in his life. Taking it out on the wall was therapeutic, but it would earn him detention and a trip to the headmaster's office. Shoving his hands into his pockets as not to lash out at innocent and unexpected walls he stalked down the hall as the bell rang loudly above his head.
 
Shikamaru couldn't fight the smirk off of his features, even if he wanted to. The way that her gums flapped like a fish out of water was just icing on the cake. He could even see the metaphorical gears in her head, spinning violently as she tried to decide whether or not to congratulate him on being clever and outsmarting her (like that was ever brought into question) or to be upset that he had talked her into betting something as valuable as time away from her family shop. Ino owed him a few favors--even if Asuna was feeling trepidation about leaving the counter-running to her father, Ino had enough experience helping her parents run their own family business, the small flower shop (aptly named Yamanaka Flowers) just a couple blocks down. She would step in for him if he asked the right way (more like held leverage that he would tell Sasuke about how many weird creepy stalker-like photos she had of the onyx haired prodigy in her room if she didn't help him out).
Wincing on instinct even if her punch to his shoulder didn't hurt, Shikamaru rubbed the offended area as she congratulated him. "What's that? A legitimate compliment? From little Asu~?" He teased, raising an eyebrow as he poked the proverbial bear. The Nara, for his own sake, knew her limits, and he backed off rather quickly, more than content to have achieved a solid win against her in his own book. "You know that cat's really attached to you. Both physically and emotionally," he chuckled, helping to pry off the animal from where it had been clinging to her back. Giving it a piece of string that he had found while cleaning, he snorted, watching the black bundle of energy roll around with it as if it was the greatest toy in the world. Animals, sometimes, could be so easily occupied. He wished he had a cure for his own constant boredom like that. He grinned at Asuna as she repeated her own bet, nodding as she spoke, only to listen intently as the mood suddenly dropped.
Now, Shikamaru was no idiot, but sensing moods had never been his forte. He could guess, however, who she was talking about rather easily by the little subtle nuances, like the way she clenched her hand lightly and how her eyes couldn't help but drag back to the door that lead to where her father had disappeared. He looked to her, this time no longer smirking at her poor attempt to dissuade his silent curiosity, and his wish to understand her. Thankfully she was quicker to crack this time around, and he also pulled out a stool, copying her actions as he sat next to her. Shikamaru listened to the full story, and although he didn't show it externally, he was a little shocked. Straight-laced Asuna who put business before her very existence went clubbing? He wasn't surprised that she hadn't really found it enjoyable. He nodded respectfully, choosing not to interrupt as she spilled her guts. He winced, at a particular part, however, and found himself glaring at the counter. Why did just the thought of someone creeping on Asuna like that make his blood boil? It left an uncomfortable pit in the bottom of his stomach, and after that the more he spoke, the more he found he was annoyed.
After a moment of silence once she was finished, he watched her hand strangle itself with the red ribbon, his gaze almost harsh, if not for the concerned furrow of his eyebrow. "You don't need me to tell you that what you did was stupid," he slowly said, not being careful with his words, but moreso with how they came out. "But that was really stupid, Asuna." A bit irritated, he bit his lip, turning to look anywhere but her face. "Be a shinobi, quit and run this shop, quit and do whatever the hell you want. But seriously, sneaking into a nightclub? Alone?" His voice rose slightly. "What if you accepted a drink? What if you were drugged? Those places are crawling with yakuza and all kinds of bad characters. You..." he shook his head, unable to express what he wanted to. "Of all the dumb ideas..." he spoke through clenched teeth, his jaw tight. What if... she had planned on doing something stupid and he never saw her again? The thought made him want to vomit, a disgusting bile rising in the back of his throat. "We're friends, aren't we? If you need to share these things with someone, anyone, please..." his voice broke as he fully turned his back to her. He hated this... showing that he needed her around, in whatever capacity that was that he couldn't fully comprehend, felt like a weakness that he didn't need. And yet here he was. "Your dad cares about you, y'know. A lot of people do, so of course he'd get mad when you do troublesome things like that." He was mad, yes at her, a little, for doing something that dumb, but he was mostly afraid. Afraid of the what-ifs of if she repeated it."... if you wanna go clubbing, fine, we'll go together. If you wanna go break into some private property just for the hell of it, fantastic, we'll go together!" He finally turned and looked back to her, a complicated look upon his features. "Please... just... don't go alone."

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Hanaru hardly jumped when the door slammed from the resting area of the infirmary, having heard the muffled footsteps as her ears swiveled to capture the sound. Sasuke's face was red, and she tilted her head as he got mouthy and stalked off. "Geez, what a brat, right, pig?" she asked Tonton, to which the big only snorted in reply, and Hanaru sighed as she sat there, on the cold floor of the nurses office, pondering silently what might have happened if she wasn't able to let out some of that anger. What if she hadn't been partnered with Sasuke. What if it was one of her weaker classmates? What if she had done something worse than how she had sliced Sasuke's cheek? She looked down to her hands, her brow furrowed in silent contemplation, only for her thoughts to be interrupted as Tonton snuffled into her clawed hands, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. "Oh, pig..." she sighed softly, lightly patting Tonton's head as she shook her own. She was a right mess. Shizune and Tsunade were keeping to themselves, although the purple haired female could tell that Tsunade looked like she wanted to ask her more specifically about her encounter with the jonin that she had mentioned, though she was in no mood to talk about it.
The ringing of the bell brought her out of her musings, and she sighed softly to herself, slowly standing up and stretching lightly, a yawn on her lips. She could feel Shizune's gaze on her as she moved to leave the nurse's office, a casual hand raised as she bid them both a nonverbal adieu.
"I'd better not catch you or that Uchiha boy in here any time soon again, you got that?" Tsunade called without even looking up from her paperwork. Hanaru could only grin, a response of 'no promises' being closely followed by her exit. The blonde medical nin growled, holding a hand to her head. "I swear these dumb kids are the reason why I drink..." she muttered under her breath, moving on to her next report.
As Hanaru sat in their next class, some basic generals that they were required to take, she found herself distracted. Not just by Naruto, who was constantly trying to pass notes, but also by the glare from a whole litany of fangirls that were glaring at the back of her head. What had happened that got them all riled up? Her gaze wandered back to Sasuke, who's seat wasn't too far away from her own, and she gazed at his face briefly, her eyes finding the thin cut on his face. Oh come on! Was that why they were mad? Because she had hurt their 'precious Sasuke-kun'?! She (barely) resisted the urge to snort, though somewhere in some repressed side of herself, she still felt a little bit guilty. Her will to fight, her inner, driving, demon blood begged to be unleashed, and she held it back on a tight leash. She'd been doing so well, too! Sarutobi had even congratulated her on her progress of chaining up that unfettered beast that lay just underneath the surface... except unlike Naruto, who was merely a carrier and a savior to his people, though they were too stupid to realize that, Hanaru was the monster.
"You double crossed me, beast." Hanaru hissed as she felt a belt rip the skin, clothes wet and sticking to her back as she was held down in a dark room. "Your name in the bingo book is None. You're supposed to leave no one behind." The wannabe yakuza lashed out at her face, his knuckles racking across her jaw as she welcomed the dull, throbbing pain with a sadistic-looking smirk. "So tell me... why did you let the lady and the kids get away, huh? Too "tired" to chase after some weak-ankled housewife and her snot nosed brats?"
Spitting out a viscous red liquid on his polished shoes earned her another punch, and she grinned, a laugh bubbling up from her throat. "The arms dealer, and his highest buyers, are all dead. Your business is safe... for now. Until someone hires me, and next time it's your wife, and your kids that I debate whether or not to spare. I wonder... will I feel such mercy then?" In an instant the two rogue nin who had been holding her down were on the floor, writhing and clutching fresh wounds as she picked up her payment from the floor, the man cowering as she carefully counted the blood splattered money, some of it her own, some not. "Now, don't be such a coward. It's just business."
Hanaru never claimed to be a saint. But she refused to allow herself to be that same person... that monster. Though she could never truly get rid of it. Monster... she nearly scoffed out loud. The word had lost its meaning years ago, and yet the phrase continued to follow her wherever she went.
"I'm sorry, Ikama-san. Is there something more interesting outside than my class?" a voice called from up front, and Hanaru kissed the inside of her teeth with her tongue, biting back a smart retort as Mizuki's knowing smirk seemed to stare through her. 'I know what you are~.' his gaze always taunted her. Out of all of their academy classes, she hated him the most. Hanaru's gut intuition was usually pretty spot on, and she knew a rat when she saw one.
"... no, Mizuki sensei," she spoke through gritted teeth. They seemed to have a staring contest, and Hanaru's ears flattened against the top of her head, positioned forward in a pose of hostility.
"Then do try to pay attention, you wouldn't want to be a burden on your teammates," he then slid back into the lecture with ease, as if the conversation had never happened. What an asshole. At least the glares from the fangirls seemed somewhat satiated with her scolding, and she sighed, zoning out again, but this time looking down at the chicken-scratch she called notes. Hanaru was a better reader than she was a writer, even if both were abysmal for her age. That being said... even she couldn't read her own hand writing. She groaned internally--at this rate she was going to have to swallow her pride and do the unthinkable. 'But I don't wanna ask Kakashi for help...' she whined internally, pouting in her seat. 'All he's going to do is laugh in my face and say 'I told you so.' I also don't want to learn how to read using his pervy books...' she blushed at the thought. If not Kakashi... then who would she ask? No one in her class--that was impossible. She'd just have to think of the right person...
 
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"Yeah...I know," Asuna said as Shikamaru started reprimanding her behaviour. There was a weight to what he said, she knew just how dangerous and reckless it was of her to go to a place like that alone, moreso as she hadn't even told anyone where she was going, a little piece of information she opted to withhold as he raised his voice. She remembered spending a long time thinking about the worst-case scenarios that could have happened, the what if's if she'd accepted a dance or even a drink from the man that clearly saw she was not old enough to be there. She had long since beating herself up for neglecting to properly think things through. She could counter that she was angry that night, but, really, that was no excuse. While her father's actions and attitude rubbed her like sandpaper on occasions, they were all they had at this point in time. Nothing she could say would have made things better, or bring any comfort to the pineapple haired boy at that moment, so she leaned against his shoulder, "It didn't feel like we were friends anymore," she shrugged, for the longest time she was sure their friendship had fizzled down to nothing more than 'acquaintances'. "But here we are now," there was a warm familiar feeling in her chest "No more solo adventures down dark alleys anymore, alright?" She held up her pinky in a childlike manner, like they'd done so many times before.

There was a moment of silence before she looked up at him, "So...about breaking into private property..." quickly green orbs diverted their gaze. "The club...wasn't the most reckless thing I did that night," sitting up and leaning away from him, watching his brows furrow as if to ask 'there's more?'. "The school's not that hard to break into if you know where to go," Asuna didn't want to meet his eyes, her throat was feeling dry suddenly, "I, um, took a dip in the pool," her face was turning red again at her confession, "Nightswimming:" Laughing quietly at herself, today seemed to be 'Spill your guts' day, her palms were getting sweaty, "I couldn't stand the smell, it was like the nightclub followed me, It was clinging to everything; my clothes, my hair, my skin, it was smothering me, so I just..." her eyes were fixated on her hands, they'd untied the ribbon and were playing with it nervously. "I did it almost every week after, until Anko-sensei caught me," she hadn't gotten into nearly as much trouble as she had expected, apparently the embarrassment at having been caught red handed seemed to have been enough of a punishment. Asuna kept the fact that she still frequented the school in the dead of night almost on a monthly basis to swim a few laps. She was quiet for a moment, "Do you...want to?" she asked quietly, "I was planning on going tonight. Unless you're scared of the ghosts?" the gears in her head turned, as what her invitation seemed to imply clicked into place, "Normal...swimming I mean, not, y'know, agh, that made it worse," a hand came up and covered her face, she'd give anything to take all of that back. Hit reset on the day and just stay in bed.

Asuna couldn't look at him, and thankfully the door chimed, "Welcome to The Shuffle of Things," she quickly said as an old lady shuffled in. It was one of the regulars, Granny Lang, who'd been coming in everyday at the same time since the dinosaurs walked the earth. "Hello, deary, I'm just browsing," Granny Lang said as she started her rounds walking up and down the displays looking at everything. The sand-blonde focused on her, she'd come in, say she was browsing and move around for a while before coming to ask for some herbal tea mixes her mother use to make. She was a nice old lady, in Asuna's opinion, forgetful too as she still asked the same question every time she came in. If genies were real, Asuna would have wished for the ability to glimpse into the old woman's mind, so she could at least figure out who she thought the blonde was. She seemed to know who she was talking to at first, but then she'd become rerailed calling her by her mother's name or someone she didn't know, and sometimes she asked things that confused the blonde to no end, harkening back to what Asuna hoped were happier times. Turning in her seat, she opened the large storage cabinet behind her, pulling out a small wrapped package and placing it on the table, as the shuffling sound of slippers neared the counter, "Tell me, deary, does your mother still make those lovely tea mixes?"
"Yeah, she asked me to give you this," the girl had a smile, but it was empty as she handed the package to the frail old woman. "Oh how lovely! Will you tell Aimi to come visit more often? I miss seeing her and the baby." And now Asuna was lost again, having no clue as to who the woman thought she was talking to, "Yeah, I'll tell her." The old woman seemed very pleased with the answer as she took her package and bid them a 'lovely day, dearies,' as she left the two teens on their own again.

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The moment Mizuki turned his back on the students, a folded note appeared on Hanaru's table, Naruto smiling widely at her. He couldn't concentrate in class, it was almost more boring than Iruka's class, so he looked for anything to fight the boredom. Right now, passing notes to the purple haired girl had his full attention. The fight during their last class had already circled around and a myriad of possible reasons were spreading as well, all of them completely inaccurate. Somehow a lot of them revolved around Sasuke being the hero and Hanaru being the villain. She stole someone's cupcake, she pushed someone in the hall, she looked funny at someone and scared them and Sasuke came to the rescue. Others were of Sasuke trying to win over this or that girl in a grand display of affections that he most likely didn't have towards any of those people. It was no surprise who even started those rumors. But then there were those that depicted Hanaru as the hero and Sasuke being a jerk that was out to agitate the girl for his own sick twisted entertainment, riling her up then running with his tail between his legs. This was not a very popular opinion with a certain demographic (three guesses who!).

Deep coal eyes stared down at the words on the pages before them, none of the words were registered though as the Uchiha was far from actually reading the material. There was no point, he already knew the source material, but Mizuki would be on his case if he stared out of the window. He heard the whisperings, he was aware of the rumors going around. Surprised and somewhat taken back by how fast false informations spread like wildfire between the fight and now. All of them were wrong, and it was annoying having to hear how he tried to beat up Hanaru to get a girl's attention. He didn't want any girls' attention! He was not crushing on anyone, it wasn't possible! There was no girl in this school that could tip his interest, all the girls that followed him around were annoying, that Hyuuga girl was much too quiet and passive for his liking, that girl in the year above them, TonTon? No, that was the pig, ugh, whatever, that girl wasn't strong enough, then there's that weird blonde one, she was too much of a slacker. He glanced around the room, surprise surprise, she wasn't there! Then there was Hanaru...well, she wasn't quiet and passive, and she was strong and she was a real go getter even if her academic points were a tragic shipwreck. There was no way though, she was much too full of herself, 'even if she had nice eyes'. Where did that come from? Ugh, this was Shizune's fault, she planted these dumb thoughts in his head. Surely they couldn't be his own! He looked back to where the woman in question sat, hm, no he was absolutely mistaken, there was no way he was sane enough to think that she was pretty. 'Oh, now she's pretty? I thought it was her eyes?' he almost choked on air as his mind seemed to have detached itself from his sane reasoning and was mocking him.

There was some faint shuffling behind Hanaru, it was just another face in the crowd, but one that seemed to have taken quite an interest in Hanaru's transformation jutsu. "Hey, psst," he called leaning over the table, trying to be as inconspicuous as he possibly could. Dark eyes were watching his every move. "I just wanted you to know, your jutsu, it's really cool," the boy whispered close to Hanaru's ear, "You kinda look like those cat girls on those video games," his hands reached down and grabbed hold of Hanaru's tail, stroking it as the appendage twitched, "They're so real!"
The two black eyes on him had turned red, the Uchiha hadn't activated his Sharingan, but he was seeing red. Those that knew better, didn't bring up her cat like features, the same way they didn't pry about the scar on her face. He himself tried his best to ignore them and his urge to do what that dumbass kid was doing right now. It made him made, mad that he had audacity to touch her tail like that...in the middle of class! There was a cat that lived on the Uchiha compound and one of the earliest life lessons he had learned about his feline friend was that there were certain places you did not touch a cat. At some point Sasuke had fully turned in his chair, watching as the guy tugged on the tip of her tail then glided his hand down to the base, mere inches above her- The air around the raven haired boy screamed murder, rolling off of him in waves. It took every little bit of self control to not jump the kid, but he was clutching his forgotten book, shuriken weren't allowed in class, but the book would make a decent substitute.
"I-it's a pretty good jutsu..." the boy paled behind Hanaru, he tugged the tail this way and that, but it wasn't budging and the jutsu wasn't dispelling either. He was completely oblivious to the daggers being glared at him from the boy prodigy, "Heh...this...this isn't a jutsu...is it?" he stammered.
 
When she mentioned the fact that she didn't think they were friends anymore, Shikamaru couldn't help but feel guilty. After all, a lot of the reason why she had felt that way was his own fault, and he regretted not doing more to prolong their relationship. Anything, to have kept her from feeling like she couldn't go talking to someone. Anything to keep her out of nightclubs on her own. He felt responsible for her--he had ever since they were kids--and not in out of any sort of obligation or preconceived notion that he had to, he just... was. And he couldn't explain why, nor did he want to go into it with himself.
He looked deep into her eyes, as she held up her pinky. His gaze flickered back and forth from the offered pinky finger as if he was weighing his options. That being said, the Nara couldn't fight the smirk off his fingers, and after feeling as though he had made her wait long enough, he brought his own pinky to hers, locking and shaking on it. "Of course it's a promise," he stated, almost matter-of-factly. For some reason, such a childish act had brought heat to the tips of his ears, and made him feel slightly weightless. As if the simple promise made it seem as though they might be able to take on the world--as children they sure as hell had tried--the two of them together were a regular created what seemed to be a demon incarnate, and yet their parents had never once tried to split them up on their own. Shikamaru did vaguely remember, however, that he spent more nights with Asuna and her family than she did with his... now that he was older, he could guess the reason why and he simply chalked it up to another instance of his parents being too busy for their family. And yet somehow they always had just enough time to lecture him about their pre-planned ideas for his life. He sighed internally; why couldn't things go back to like when he and Asuna were children? Life had been so much more simply then--he knew it was a common thing to say, think, or feel, but that's probably because it was true.
"Spilling your guts, huh?" Shikamaru grinned, reluctantly (why did he not feel like pulling his hand from hers?!) releasing her pinky as he shook his head in a manner of mock annoyance. "You're such a troublesome woman, you know that?" He leaned forward to tap her forehead with his index finger. "At least breaking into the school for a little swim is more harmless mischief than actual breaking and entering." And he was glad she wasn't affected/didn't seem to know or care about that dumb rumor going around about a ghost. "Anko, huh...? Did she reprimand you at all? Clearly not enough if you're willing to go back and risk getting caught again." He hadn't had too much interaction with the Jonin, so he found her actions rather unpredictable (which also meant he found them annoying). She could have either wrung Asuna's neck for being in the school--the swimming pool, even--long after the school was supposed to be locked for the night. But Asuna was clearly here, and he was more inclined to believe the later, which was that Anko yelled at her for a bit, before hiding in tips and tricks to sneak in without being caught, and then threatened more severe punishment the next time she wasn't clever enough to be sneaking in. Anko seemed to do just about anything in order to "stick it to the man," so he wouldn't be surprised if that's the kind of discipline she had decided to take in terms of Asuna's "punishment."
"Sure, that actually sounds like fun," he grinned shaking his head at her following words. "Please, people are so quick to use superstition and paranoia to alter the mindsets of weak-willed individuals. There's no such thing as ghost," he stated calmly, not an ounce of arrogance in his words as he looked to her blankly. "W-why wouldn't we be talking about normal swimming, dumbass?!" He was sure he must have looked like a tomato. "I wouldn't have even thought of it like that if you hadn't brought it up!" Shikamaru wasn't really into girls--that didn't mean he was more into guys, quite the opposite. All it meant was that a girl had to have been pretty special to make a lasting impression on him, and most at the academy fell short of his expectations. They weren't exactly high or unrealistic either. All Shikamaru wanted was a brain. Not in a weird way, he just wanted a girl that was capable of some intelligent thought--looks were second to that of a person with a beautiful mind in his world, and most of their schoolmates did not fit the bill. Asuna was his friend first, so he got to know just how strong she was, both physically and intellectually from a young age. He had always seen her as an equal. Was that why he found most women annoying? Asuna was an exception to the majority of kunoichi at the Hidden Leaf Academy, and maybe he had built up his expectations using a model of someone who was outside the norm?
Thankfully his musing had brought down his embarrassed blush at her insinuations, and also thankfully, the door chimed, and Shikamaru pulled himself back and a little bit away from her. Their stools had nearly been touching as he had moved closer slightly when he was talking about their plans to go swimming. He watched the exchange with the old woman silently, taking in the small grimace of pain in Asuna's eyes at the mention of her mother and her mother's habits and little tea mixes. He didn't need to say anything else--there wasn't anything more he could say that the ash blonde didn't already know herself. "So..." Shikamaru finally broke the silence after the door had closed, looking back to Asuna as she got over the confused old woman's visit. He was eager to change the subject to something that wouldn't bring her so much grief. "What's the game plan for tonight." He leaned his head in a hand as he placed his elbow on the counter, seemingly bored but internally excited. "You're going to have to tell me in detail, point of entry, contingency strains, everything. Then I'll tell you a better idea and you'll thank me later." Strategy, whether he admitted it or not, was his best aspect.

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Hanaru had looked between the note and the blonde haired knucklehead, her golden gaze narrowed into a judgmental glare as Naruto shot her a thumbs-up. Sighing to herself, she slowly opened the note, only to become confused. Geez, if she thought her handwriting was bad, look at Naruto's! She couldn't have read that unless she had some sort of ninja cipher code in order to get it done. She rolled her eyes and swept the note into her bag, hoping that the blonde haired nin didn't have anything else to say to her for the rest of the class period. She knew the rumors but chose to ignore them. The other students could believe what they wanted to believe. Hanaru knew the truth of the matter, and that meant that everyoen else's uneducated opinions simply because they were stupid and didn't know what they were talking about.
Thankfully Mizuki had finished the lecture and had decided to 'generously' bestow them with some work time to work on assignments and he was occupied by students going up and asking him questions. 'What a rat...' Hanaru couldn't help but think to herself as she glared at him out of the corner of her eye before turning her attention to her work. Now... if only she could read... It took her a moment to get started, but once she did, she was making a surprising amount of headway in her work, rather proud of herself, and her tail bobbed behind her lightly as she found herself starting to swell with pride. At least her hard work and late nights was just now starting to pay off! Granted, it was a couple of months into the academic year, and she had spent many long, grueling study sessions to get here, but she was slowly starting to understand, and then maybe she wouldn't have to ask Kakashi for he-
Hanaru seemingly froze in place, her hands flexed into a tense position as she dropped her pencil on the ground. Slowly, from her collarbone and all the way up to the tips of her furry ears, was slowly turning red in a mixture of liquid rage and embarrassment. She hadn't even heard him when he had spoken to her before, her ears flicking dismissively as she mentally deemed the individual unimportant and continued to think to herself. But he was grabbing her tail... and PETTING it. Hanaru looked very visibly distressed. The last thing she needed was to have another outburst like during Taijutsu class, but this time she might actually kill this kid. Her breath heaved in her chest as she struggled to control her rage, gritting her teeth tightly as she shakily turned around to glare at him, pupils dilated in anger as her ears were plastered forward in that familiar show of hostility. As he tugged the tip of her tail and then his hand trailed down to the base, she actually squeaked, a rather girlish sound coming from the usually-abrasive girl as a shiver trailed from her toes up to the top of her head. "If you want to continue to exist, with your esophagus where it belongs..." she flexed and unflexed her hands as it took everything in her willpower not to jab her claw-like fingernails through his jugular. "A-ah..!" she winced as he tugged it different ways, closing an eye and panting heavily as the blush on her features refused to go away as embarrassment fought with pure, unadulterated rage. "Then... I suggest you stop...!"
"No." She growled darkly, an inhumane sound as her lip curled back in a snarl, snapping at him with her sharp teeth bared, "That is my very real, very much so born-with tail. And if you don't let go in five seconds, I'll show you exactly why even the jonin walk around me as if stepping on eggshells...!"
 
The whole class had cast curious glances at the very brave, but very stupid, boy who was tugging and playing with Hanaru's tail. Some even wondered why the teacher wasn't doing anything to stop it, but Mizuki had no intention to step in, at least not until things got out of hand. He watched as the girl's discomfort and anger grew, knowing perfectly well what she was capable of doing to the poor boy, but he was counting on it. Silently he started recording the incident of how the nekomanta spawn lost control and fatally injured a classmate. In his opinion, None had no right to be in the academy amongst the shinobi in training, and was looking for a reason to be the one to scratch her name from the bingo books. Unlike Iruka, he didn't care how old she was or of the possibility that she could still be swayed into doing the right thing. It was almost sickening at how much faith that man had in his students. His report would unfortunately wouldn't be any good unless she actually injured the student who was very clearly putting her in an uncomfortable position. It would only be a matter of time.

The boy stared at the wiggling fluffy tail in his hands, his mind racing as he saw his life flash before his eyes. As his blood ran cold he slowly looked up to meet the murderous stare of the cat girl...it was not a jutsu, but before he could even open his mouth to stammer out an apology, something hit him in the side of the head. A textbook ricochet off of his head before hitting the ground, a hand was wrapped around his wrist, the almost bone crushing vice like grip forcing the boy to let the kitty appendage go. Beside him stood Sasuke, his face was calm but the black tomoe swirled in his red irises. It was unsettling just how calm and menacing he looked, looming over the boy, who was expecting the Uchiha to say something along the lines of 'I am fire, I am death' before unleashing a fire jutsu in his face. When he moved, Sasuke wasn't sure, nor was he sure when he threw the book, but now he was staring down at the nuisance who was harassing his teammate. His grip tightened more on the boy's wrist, feeling the rapid thump thump thump of his pulse and the only thing he could think of was that he wasn't squeezing hard enough.

"You're not the brightest bulb in the box, are you?" Sasuke asked, the gruff undertone of his speech made his calm demeanor more unnerving, "I don't harass the girls on your team, so I suggest you keep your hands off of mine," the raven haired boy growled, whether he was being protective or possessive would spark another round of debates throughout the class, but he didn't care. All that mattered right now was that this twerp stopped touching Hanaru, her uncharacteristic squeak only spurred him on more. He was doing this for the team, no other reason. "Y-yeah Sas-Sasuke," the boy stuttered as the hand on Hanaru's tail tried to free it's twin from the bruising hold that the Uchiha had on him. "If you I catch you doing this again, I'll take your arm off....and beat you with it," Sasuke threatened, twisting his arm a little make sure his message was received loud and clear, "Otherwise, I'll leave you at her mercy and trust me when I tell you this, you don't want that." Roughly, he let the boy's hand go, it was already bruising and seemed to have an oddly shaped lump on the side. "Mr. Uchiha! Just what do you think you're doing?" Mizuki asked, the boy wasn't supposed to get involved!
Sasuke turned to look at him, "Your damn job," he spat out coldly, making the older man glower, "I'm sure your little girlfriend is much more capable of standing up for herself than you can."
Mizuki smirked as Sasuke appeared in front of him, bristling and ready for a fight, "She's not my girlfriend! But you're just turning a blind eye when she was clearly uncomfortable with that kid practically fondling her in class!" chakra was prickling at his arm as the teacher looked at him smugly, daring him to try something, "Well, if you feel so passionate about it...detention, Mr. Uchiha."


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"I'm not troublesome, you're the one who decided to hang around me all day, troublesome boy," Asuna tried to joke, forcing down the unpleasant feelings brought up by the old woman. She should have been used to it by now, but everyday was a new thing with old Granny Lang. Fishing out a paper and a pen, she drew some squiggly lines, "If I didn't know you half as well as I do, I'd call you arrogant," pulling her stool closer to his she pointed at the squiggles, "The front entrance is a no go zone. Only a dumbass would try a full frontal approach." The kitten had batted the string off of the counter and hopped closer to try and see what the girl was pointing at, "There's actually a little dip in the wall all the way in the back," he followed her finger, maybe there was something to eat at the end? "It's in the back by the training field. There's a lot of trees and low growing shrubs to use as cover and we can follow the wall all the way around to the back of the changerooms. Then we hop the fence and after that it's pretty much straight to the pool." Now, Asuna was no cartographer, but even a blind man wouldn't be able to navigate the map that had just been drawn (or any map the kunoichi made). The squiggles were all over the place, and there were odd drawings that looked nothing like what they were suppose to represent. "There's at least one jounin on patrol each night, but they don't really patrol this area, they're more focused on the main building," some of it she figured out on her own, but some of it was information passed on by Anko after getting a light scolding, "As long as we keep the noise down, whoever is on patrol won't come snooping."

"That's how Anko got me," looking over at Shikamaru she could see the mechanisms clicking into place as he took in the information. Sometimes it was frustrating, knowing just what he was capable of and yet he'd rather not put any of it to use unless it suited him. On the other hand it was also something she'd always admired about him, even when they were kids, he'd come up with best plans for fighting imaginary monsters or the fastest route to infiltrate the pillow fortress. She was always more than happy to follow along with any plan he had, even now when they were out on team missions. While Ino wasn't dumb and usually tried to take charge of the missions, Asuna couldn't fully get behind her plans. It's not that she didn't trust Ino, but she just trusted Shikamaru more. No matter how dangerous or complicated his plans sometimes sounded, she'd do anything and everything he instructed her to do with no hesitation and no questions.

Watching absently as his brows furrowed and his hands come together in their usual manner when he was thinking, Asuna took to petting the cat that was trying to wrestle with her hand. She attributed her unyielding trust in the man as having been rooted in the remnants of their childhood. He brought some form of balance to her life, she was always running this way and that, taking on as much as she could and then some. Her go to method for fighting off stress was with more stress, but Shikamaru was somehow able to make her slow down her fast paced life and realize that there was always another way, there were other people that existed outside of her bubble. Ino had tried to fill in that gap when things seemed at their bleakest, she tried to be that grounding rock keeping Asuna in the real world, but it didn't go down as smoothly as the blue eyed blonde had hoped. Asuna knew she wasn't always the easiest person in the world to deal with, and she was surprised that Ino had stuck it out with her this long.
 
Hanaru knew why Mizuki-sensei wasn't doing anything. Expressly for the reason because he wanted her dead--it wasn't hard to tell that the nin was a frequenter of the Bingo Book--she liked to call those who went for big name criminals "head hunters". Would he take her out then and there, if she killed this boy, in class? Would he eviscerate her in front of all the other students? If she smacked the kid across the room, keeping him alive, would Mizuki still plant a kunai in her forehead? She had so many questions, and she was tempted to find out--that sadistic smirk on his face that she could see from the corner of her eye told her all she needed to know about his priorities.
Thankfully, before she had to choose between a rock and a hard place (all the while her tail was kinda getting fondled), an unlikely savior came to her rescue. Things could have easily gotten ugly--she wasn't quite sure of how to handle herself without something horrible happening, and yet... a book was sent flying at the student's head. Hanaru's golden eyes widen in surprise, her lips opening and closing as words failed to form in her legitimate shock. A pale hand grabbed the unnamed male's wrist, tightly--it sounded like it hurt--and her gaze looked to Sasuke, caught by the deadly Sharingan that swirled in his gaze. He'd activated it? For... her? She didn't know what to make of any of this, but she could feel herself on the edge of her seat. His gaze had her fight or flight instincts on edge and he was helping her. The Sharingan was definitely not a force to take lightly. And neither was Sasuke, she realized. Heat wormed it's way up to the tips of her ears as another thought crossed her mind, and she struggled between wanting to wretch or curl into a ball and disappear. 'He... he looks... kinda cool...' the thought echoed in her mind, and she didn't even think it properly belonged to her.
It was because they were on a team. That's what he said, that was why he was helping her. Sasuke may not have known about her past or why almost every teacher was on edge around her, but he would have done the same if someone was harassing Sakura. He wasn't a pig, at the very least. And yet... why was her heart pounding? She hated it. She must have caught something from some dumb human, although she tried not to think about it, considering the part of her blood that was demonic made it nearly impossible for her to contract human diseases. Not for something like this anyway--if she got sick, which was rare, it was violent. She was distracting herself from whatever was fluttering in her stomach, and like all of her problems, she shoved it deeper into herself so that she didn't have to think about it anymore. Finally, the guy let go, and Hanaru let out a breath of relief that she hadn't known she was holding, moving to cradle her tail in her hands, gently caressing her fur as if to remove any "impurities" that might have been left behind, a troubled glare on her features. Was she... supposed to thank Sasuke? She supposed that was in order, but before she could he and Mizuki argued.
"H-He's not my...! Hey! That's bullshit and you know it!" she bristled, stalking up to the desk with a dangerous look in her eye. "You wouldn't let a different kid touch some different girl innappropriately and then give her rescuer detention!! How messed up is that?!" a growl was in her throat as she glared to at the teacher, Mizuki's smirk turning into a look of utter detest as he leaned forward to sneer down at her.
"You should have tried something--I would have liked to cross your name off of my list. Next time, you won't have your little boyfriend around," his smug grin returned and she wanted nothing more than to claw it off of his dumb, arrogant face. "If you want to be together that badly, then fine. Both of you, detention. The Sandaime will be hearing about this."
Clearly the fangirls in the room were confused, and also concerned for their Sasuke. The general consensus, unfortunately for her sake, became the idea of 'it's all Hanaru's fault,' as per usual. She didn't want to make friends, but all the BS that was constantly happening around her didn't help her or win her any popularity points. She spun around from Mizuki, glaring at the floor. Glancing up at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye, she felt another wave of heat rise to her cheeks and she skulked back to her desk, her head down.
"... Hanaru...?" An ear flicked up at the sound, and the purplette blinked in surprise as Sakura leaned in closer to be quieter from where she was seated in front of her. "I'm sorry, that seemed pretty unfair." What... was happening. Was the world turning upside down? Why was Sakura, of all people, being nice to her?! "Sasuke was so cool defending you!" Her smile became a deadly glare and Hanaru could only blink at the 180 turn. "So you'd better be grateful! You hear me?!"
In response, the half nekomanta sighed, leaning back in her chair with a nod and an exasperated expression. "I got it I got it, I'm forever in his debt, etc. Whatever floats your canoe."

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

Shikamaru looked at her blankly as she tried to deny her own troublesome nature. As if he didn't already know that! "You can still be troublesome even if I wasn't here," he mentioned blankly, choosing not to speak more on the subject. The interesting thing about Shikamaru's intellect was that he wasn't arrogant about it. He didn't want to show off, and only used it when he deemed an act necessary enough in order to use it. That being said, he appreciated the praise, and somehow coming from Asuna, it sounded a heckuva lot better than normal. Still riding that high, he nodded as she talked about his potential to be arrogant with a smirk--of course, thankfully, she knew his true nature. It was gone, however, as soon as she started to talk about their plan in order to get in. Of course they wouldn't go in through the front, that was dumb, and the most open floor-plan of the entire school, both in the courtyard outside, and the main foyer inside (AN: can schools have foyers? It's 1am). It was metaphorical suicide to go in that way. He did his best to follow her map, and while he got the jist of what she was putting down when she spoke about what she was drawing, he blinked, giving her a blank stare. "Asuna, just pull up a layout of the school on your phone--that stuff's in public domain," he said blankly, his eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly as he turned back to her... abstract artwork. "You draw like a toddler."
He was nothing if not [strike]brutally[/strike] honest.
"Normally," he spoke, folding his hands together as he thought. "I would check the main office to see which ninja is on duty tonight, but since we're currently not at the school building, it would be worthless to try and access the main building for that reason--we'd find out who it was, as we're getting caught." He pondered their options silently--he didn't need to pull up a map of the school personally, considering he had the layout fully memorized. if anyone knew how to sneak in and out of the school building, it was definitely Shikamaru and Asuna, the "Slacker Duo." He wasn't fond of the nickname, but then again, he didn't really care if that's what people called him either. Asuna, however, was not a slacker. She was a dedicated individual who was stretched too thin between her home life, family business, and school, and Shikamaru had watched her personal relationships suffer because of it. I mean, she had the squad--team 10 was her go-tos in terms of people she talked to. Then there was the Hyuuga girl, Hinata, right? She and Asuna talked, although fewer since her mom had the last relapse. He was getting distracted from his plan, however, and he made a small noise of frustration as his eyebrows furrowed lightly. Not wanting to be asked any questions, he clarified quickly. "Sorry, not knowing who's going to be on duty is troublesome because we can't plan for which jutsus to be on guard for." Nice save--he doubted she would have said something, but somehow getting distracted by her--when she was right there?! It seemed dumb. He noticed little things like that about her, though, over the years. Even when their friendship had seemingly all but disappeared.
"Alright," he spoke finally, after a minute of going through plans and contingencies in his head. "Here's what we're going to do." Using her map was going to be a nightmare, so he pushed it to the side in order to use marks in the old worn counter top as different landmarks and entrances. "We're ninjas--in training or no, scaling a wall shouldn't be too hard," he mumbled, pointing to the higher side of the wall (in his make-shift map on the counter, of course). "If I get up there, even if you need help, I can use my chakra strings to get the both of us up and over. A good shinobi would recognize the weakness in the school's defense, so the dip in the wall is also too obvious. You're lucky you didn't get caught more than the one time." He then drew a line through as he continued to speak. "The shrubs are the best point of cover, but if we're lucky enough, the fact that tonight is the night of the new moon, we should have enough cover in the dark to not have to hunch so much, considering moonlight and visibility will be limited." He then nodded, "the rest of your plan makes sense, but you haven't planned any sort of escape. If whoever is on patrol does come to investigate, then you'd better hope that this'll save your ass, okay?" He pointed to the locker rooms. "Don't go into the bathrooms, go into the locker rooms, from there you can give them the slip by luring them around in there like a maze. When we get to the pool, we should crack a few windows just in case they think to lock us in with them. It may seem a little convoluted, but I'm not about to get on classroom-cleaning duty again." He shuddered at the thought.
Shikamaru, however, couldn't help but grin towards the sandy blonde kunoichi, excitement running through his person--this was one of the best challenges he's had all year! It was like a heist. If anyone caught him and questioned him, he supposed he could just say he was merely researching for ways to better defend the school from the prospective of an evil entity or force, and so he was looking for weak spots and formulating how to fix them. That's his contingency, but what about Asuna? It was... a group project? No, that wouldn't fly, unfortunately. They'd be specific enough to ask around for that kind of project if it was more than one person writing a paper, considering joint-papers weren't common. He blinked, seemingly getting an idea. She wanted to come with because she wanted to know his techniques in order to better protect her family store. "If we get caught, I've got stories so all you need to do is go along with what I say, and it'll all work out just fine," he spoke confidentially, before a thought crossed his mind that had him wincing slightly. "Uuuuuunless it's Asuma-sensei, in which case, we are both royally screwed. But other than that, I think this is a fool-hardy plan." He nodded, bringing his hands down as he turned to her with a smile. "My heart is racing..." he grinned. "Such a heist for a bit of night swimming, but the thought is exciting all the same. It'll be just like hunting frogs as kids--all you gotta do is follow me, got it?" Some memories just never faded--he was quite fond of that one.
 
"My maps are amazing," Asuna said, folding the discarded piece of paper up, lightly tapping the boy on the head before sliding it into a drawer. No, they weren't, they were terrible. Even a toddler could draw better than her, but as long as she could make out what was going on on the paper, she considered it amazing even if no else could begin to fathom the illegible scribbles. As the plan became more and more refined, the blonde couldn't help the look of excitement and admiration, "You really do think of everything, huh?" Getting in and out of the school was something she took pride in. Of all the students that cut classes they were ones least caught by roaming personnel. She was aware of the nickname they were labeled with, at first it had bothered her. She tried to defend her reason for not being in class as much as she should but that all came to a stop rather quickly when she decided that not everyone's opinion mattered. There was too much pressure on her to worry about what the rest of the school thought of her. They didn't know her and she knew they wouldn't last long in her day to day routine. Unless it was actually someone who's opinion mattered, like her team and one or two other people that actually knew just a little about her, everyone else could go suck eggs.

"If Asuma catches us, then I was having a fight with my dad, he won't buy it but we could put on quite the act," she shrugged, "As long as it's not Anko. Then again it won't as bad. At least I'll actually be wearing a-" catching herself, Asuna gave a cough, turning her head away slightly, "Nevermind. The plan sounds good, I mean you are the one that came up with it!" she said quickly.
Seeing Shikamaru grin like that, was contagious, "It is pretty exciting," she could feel her face grow warm, "It's the same kind of feeling I get each time! Just wait till we actually do it and get away with it!" she could feel her body fill up with that all too familiar euphoria, only now she was sharing it with someone. It just made it all the better. Asuna couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of her chest, "Frog hunting? I almost forgot we did that! We were quite the little terrors," when was the last time she felt so genuinely happy? They had taken the frog home, wrapped in her yellow summer dress and scared her father half to death with it. He retaliated by chasing after them with said creature until her mother stepped in and saved all three of them. It was followed by a scolding for trekking mud and pond muck through the house. Some valuable lessons were learned that day, for one, kissing frogs did not turn them into handsome princes, "I remember it peed all over me! I refused to wear that dress ever again," it was also the last time she wore a dress unless she was forced into one. "You know I'd follow you to the end of the world and jump off if it was part of any plan you came up with," she said once the laughter had settled down. Her father use to call her Shikamaru's shadow even before the boy learned his family's age old jutsu. Everywhere the boy went she went, if he did something she would do it to. If there was something she was afraid of, all it took was for him to show a little bravery and she'd stop being afraid.

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"You shouldn't do things just because your friends do them. What if your friends tell you to jump off of a building? Would you do it?" Eiji had his arms crossed in front of his chest as dinner wound down and he waited for the little girl to finish her rice, "If Shika says so then I will! "
"And if he told you to jump into a volcano?" Eiji was trying to pass on some fatherly wisdom, but little Asu was proving to be stubborn. Like any other small child, she had told him everything about everyone in school, but one little boy in particular had been the center of all of her stories and it triggered some fatherly instinct.
"Um," the girl thought for a moment, "Yes!" she beamed at her father, but that wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, "No, you wouldn't because that would be bad! You'd get hurt!"
"No, I wouldn't. If Shika says so then it's ok!"
"Oh if he told you to show him your belly button, would you?!" He didn't like that his little girl was getting so friendly with the boy that she would so happily go along with anything he told her to do, what would happen if they were older and the little brat grew up to be a dirty little perv?! His question went right over her little head as she stared curiously at her father's annoyed face, "Why would he want to see my bellybutton? Don't boys have belly buttons? Do you have a belly button, Daddy?"
The stare off lasted for quite a few minutes as he was trying to formulate a way to back out, maybe she was too young for this conversation after all, but all too quickly the rice bowl was discarded as she ran to her mother, "Mama! Why don't boys have belly buttons?"
Eiji was even more displeased when little Asu came home the next day and proudly proclaimed that yes, boys do have belly buttons! And went into great length describing all the boys' belly buttons that was part of the little play group. "And guess what, Daddy? I know where babies come from! Kiba said when a mommy and daddy put their belly buttons together the a baby grows from it! One girl said they come from cabbages! Is that why some people have smelly farts? Because they come from cabbages? Did you come from a cabbage? Daddy, did I come from a belly button or a cabbage?" The Nara boy had instantly become the least of his concerns from that day on as he had a new target to deter his daughter away from.
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Sasuke too was bristling, fuming even, he could feel the chakra build up in his arm, crackling like lightning and itching to be released, hopefully in that smug look on the Mizuki-sensei's face. He officially respected Gai-sensei more than Mizuki-sensei and that was saying a lot. Gai-sensei might have had no fashion sense and would sprout nonsense lectures and flowery pep talks but he wouldn't just idly stand by as his students got harassed and then had the nerve to be smug about it and punish them for it! "Is there something else you want to say, Mr. Uchiha?" Mizuki stared the boy down, suppressing the fact that the boy was intimidating, something he attributed to the red eyes that were staring right through him. "Mark my words, my father will hear about this," the raven haired male said before stalking back to his chair, the Sandaime could hear some twisted tale from that lowlife, but he'd also hear the true story of how said lowlife neglected his duties as a teacher from the head of the Uchiha clan! Sasuke would make sure of it. "You do that, Mr. Uchiha, I actually look forward to it," Mizuki smirked, hoping that the boy would follow through on that threat. Under normal circumstances he'd be more worried, but there was no way that Fugaku Uchiha wouldn't know about the girl, her name and face was plastered in all the bingo books! He almost wished to be there when the father and son had that little discussion. Those who were informed of Hanaru's past were sworn not to tell the students so they wouldn't panic about having to share a classroom with a known murderer and it spared the old man from receiving concerned letters from parents who'd find out. All in all the less they knew the easier it was to keep her presence under wraps, but there was nothing against a student telling other students and rumors were so quick to spread. "Would anyone else like to join them?" Mizuki looked out over the students and was met with silence, "I didn't think so."

"It was so scary when he appeared like that," Sakura said as she leaned on Hanaru's desk, "But he was so dreamy too! The way he protected you like that! I always knew he cared about team but watching him in action and hearing him say it too! I actually envy you a little!" she almost squealed in excitement, "And he got in a lot of trouble for it, so you better remember it!" Before she turned back in her seat she shot Ino a dirty look as if she was trying to taunt the blonde on the other side of the room because Sasuke just declared that he cared about them...which meant he cared about her safety putting her closer to Sasuke than any other girl that was vying for his attention. Not just that but he displayed his dominance and proved he was capable of protecting them, every fan girl's late night dream. While they'd be giving Hanaru the stink eye, they all had a small taste of a fantasy they'd never be on the receiving end of, but heck, a girl could dream!
"I would have come to your rescue too!" Naruto affirmed as he leaned over, he'd been talking to Kiba when the incident happened and had only caught the tail end of the whole situation when Sasuke showed up, "He's just trying to show off and get some team points. I would have totally clocked that guy in the face!" While the fangirls saw Hanaru as the villian, many students all silently agreed that the kid should have gotten worse as he clearly broke the unspoken taboo and deemed him lucky that neither Sasuke nor Hanaru had actually hurt him. One thing though that would come out of it, was that the whole school would know by the end of the day that the scary walking cactus was not using a beast mimicry or transformation jutsu and that her kitty appendages were in fact real and that several bets had been lost on whether she really was a half demon or whether she was just really into the cat girl look.

Sasuke's gaze lingered back to Hanaru for a moment, he studied her assuring himself that she didn't look injured. May whoever was watching over them have mercy on that boy if he'd so much as injured her. He didn't care, no, it was for the team, he'd have totally done the same for Sakura...maybe not to that extent, but he'd still have stood up to whatever guy was unlucky enough to get handsy without permission. Something about the uncomfortable look, her silent plea to be anywhere but there, it just set him off. I frustrated him even more as no one did or said anything about it, and the teacher? The man whose duty it was to uphold and enforce rules, the person who was suppose to protect the students -not that Sasuke would trust him with something like that to begin with- was doing absolutely nothing to stop it! He felt the hair on his arm stand up as what if scenarios ran through his head; what if there was no one else around and that boy was doing more than just petting her tail, would Mizuki have stepped in to stop it? He was fully aware that Hanaru could take care of herself, but still.
His stomach turned as his thoughts turned down a darker avenue, one where he wondered if the man wouldn't take advantage of someone in that position? The boy tried to contain his disgust but his face was locked in a resentful glare. He never brought it up, but he'd seen it everywhere they went, the hateful looks that they sent towards the girl, it wasn't fair! They looked at her the way they looked at Naruto, but with more fear and abhorrence and he couldn't stand it. No one deserved that just because they were different, sure, she was evidently not human, but still!
Now he had detention, all because of some vendetta the slimley negligent teacher had, which meant that he wouldn't get to spar and try out his new technique against a worthy opponent. He grit his teeth, maybe he'd also tell Kakashi about the unfair treatment before he went home that night. They'd surely be missed at training. He looked back once more, past Hanaru to the boy behind her, giving him the dirities look he could muster
 
Shikamaru did his best not to laugh at her dismissal of his comment. Kids were pretty imaginative, but even he had seen some toddlers that could do a better job than what Asuna's map had turned out to be. "Of course I think of everything," again, if she didn't know him any better, his words might have come across as cocky or proud, but the Shikamaru it was just a fact. When there was something that he wanted to or needed to accomplish (that he deemed worthy of his time), then he thought of every possible outcome. There really wasn't any room for error in his plan, and as long as they followed it (and they were dealing with a regular Jonin and not some Secret Police or ANBU member, because he deemed those individuals too important to simply guard the school at night) they would achieve their desired results. And, in theory, sneaking into the school wouldn't be too difficult. It's not like they kept dangerous jutsus and scrolls locked away within the building, right...? Cause that would be dumb.
"Or I was fighting with my dad--that one's a little more believable," he chuckled, though there was little humor in his voice. He nearly forgot that Asuna didn't know that he spent more time away from his home than at home, but she had bothered to spill her guts to him, and he'd barely asked. If she pressed him, he'd tell her. Just maybe not... everything. It really was nothing new--the elder Nara had been trying to stop Shikamaru from being so lazy for years, it's just... it only intensified and got worse the older he got. Shikamaru loved his parents, and he knew they only wanted the best for him as all good parents did, but it wouldn't kill them to get off of his case for a second and let him do his own thing. He wasn't planning on being some bum living in their basement forever! He just... didn't have any plans yet. And they couldn't seem to accept that in a positive way.
"Of course we'll get away with it--this is fool proof. The only one who could possibly take a plan this airtight and ruin it would be that dobe, Naruto, but thankfully we don't have to worry about him," Shikamaru grinned alongside Asuna, the two revelling in their plan. Oh, the dramatic irony. When they reminisced on days long past, Shikamaru adapted a more calm, casual smile, leaning against the counter as he watched Asuna grin, remembering happy memories. "Haha, yeah I remember how you cried so hard when it did, too," he wheezed, shaking his head. "I think I tried to convince you , but you that cause your dress was yellow, you couldn't even see it! But you just kept crying harder." He hated seeing her cry. Even back then, he remembered freaking out and not knowing what to do. That's why seeing her with red, slightly puffy eyes, and seeing her dad have that stain... well, it didn't take someone with his IQ very long to figure out that they'd shared a tearful moment, and it made him upset that he couldn't do anything more than some stupid heist plan to make her feel better. And yet, despite all of his brains and wit, he still had yet to figure out why?! Again, the words 'friends' and 'teammates' floated around his head, but that didn't seem to fit quite right. He'd have to do some more thinking later and decide what was bugging him through all of this mess.
"So, at this point we just gotta wait till nightfall..." he mused, tilting his head slightly. "Do you want me to cook you and your dad dinner? I think it's only fair since I've shown up uninvited." Shikamaru was, of all things, a surprisingly good cook. He often missed meals to avoid awkward family confrontations, and so he had gotten quite good at doing so--besides, if you really thought about it, cooking was all just calculations. And those, he was good at. "Depending on what you have I could make gyoza, or even oyako-don..." he mumbled to himself, settling back into his "thinking" pose, before he blankly turned to Asuna. "Take me to your fridge." He certainly seemed to leave very little room for arguing.

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Hanaru was suddenly exhausted. Whether it was from her fight with Sasuke during Taijutsu with Gai, or something else that registered on a more emotional level, she couldn't be too certain. She just knew that she was tired, and a nap sounded really good right about now. Of course, she didn't trust Mizuki not to try something if she were to do so, and she didn't trust the others to see her while she slept. She couldn't wait to go home and ignore studying so that she could sleep and avoid the world, considering the night of the full moon marked her--
Wait. The night of the full moon was tonight.
Mentally kicking herself, the purple haired female groaned internally. How dare she forget something so important and sacred as the one time where she was particularly vulnerable to the world?! But she promised Naruto... and Hanaru would be damned before she broke a promise with the one ball of (admittedly dumb) sunshine that was trying to worm its way into her heart. She wouldn't let it, of course, but he tried. Which in and of itself was something that actually... deep down in her repressed feelings category of her mind... meant something. This was going to be hard to explain without revealing too much, and she silently thanked the world that in the library there most likely wasn't any material about half demons and the significance of the moon cycle.
Hanaru normally couldn't stand Sakura, but even though the female was being obnoxious over Sasuke (who had vocally expressed and physically shown disinterest multiple times!) she still managed to surprise the half demon by being on her side, rather than Mizuki's, or the other student's. Her tail slid into her lap and she pet it absentmindedly, working out any kinks or tangles in her fur that might have occured thanks to the unwelcome petting. She was not a petting zoo.
The thing about this whole scenario, though, was threat Hanaru was no fool. She knew Sasuke was the son of Fugaku, head of the main Uchiha branch and the Chief of Konoha's Secret Police. The minute he asked his father about why Mizuki didn't do anything about her harassment issues, would be the minute rumors would start. Would Hirozen lock her up or just kill her and be done with it? Hanaru didn't want to die. She'd spent such a long time fighting for one goal. For her revenge on the man that had basically turned her into a monster, and the reason her father died having to protect hers and her mother's flight from their home. Tsukigakure... she didn't even know what her birth place looked like except for in pictures and maps programs. Misinformation about her and her status as an excon would spread, and everyone, not just those Jonin from before, would either fear her or scorn her. Or even both. Her ears flattened against her head, changing into a submissive position as her gaze was rooted into her desk, her eyebrows furrowing. Though if anyone was looking, it looked distincly... sad. Why did she feel this way? Hell if she knew. Her grieving had taken up a lot of time in her life. It lead her to many discoveries as well, such as just how much alcohol it took to get her hammered--which was quite a bit. She could hold her liquor, but she hated the taste.
When the bell rang, Hanaru remained silently in her seat--they had detention so there was really no point in moving. She kept to herself, ignoring the world and Mizuki as she got lost in her own head. She did the worst damage to herself up there anyway, it felt like. No amount of scars on her form would be able to compare to the severity of the one one her heart--as cheesy as that sounded, it was true.
Apparently, Mizuki didn't like being ignored. He had been telling her and Sasuke about the rules of detention, being haughty and dumb about it the whole time as she blankly stared at her desk. With a growl, he disappeared, using his shinobi skills to appear next to her desk. At some point her tail had slipped from her lap and onto the floor, cause now he was stepping on it. Hissing, she grit her teeth, panting as she tried to keep herself in check, and as scoring deep marks into the table in front of her with her claw-like nails.
"If you don't like it, then listen when your superior is talking...!" Mizuki smirked, grinding his heel in. She couldn't attack him. Again, it was exactly what he wanted and she'd been through similar situations before, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. "You need to stay here for a half an hour. A mild punishment for a serious offense. You should be thanking me. Whatever you do, I will be nearby, so just sit quietly as I report to the Sandaime." And with a poof of smoke, he was gone. Hanaru quickly turned away from Sasuke, nursing her tail and wiping away any tears of pain that had sprung into her eyes. He didn't need to see her like this. She hated it. She hated Mizuki. Her tail stung.
 
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"See you later! Don't worry, we'll tell Kakashi-sensei what happened!" Naruto tried to reassure Hanaru as he took his things, giving her a wave as he joined the rest of the students in their departure of 'the boring work' to go training for the rest of the day. Sakura made sure to stop by Sasuke, "I'll see you later? It was really chivalrous of you to stand up for Hanaru like that," a faint blush covered her cheeks, but Sasuke was feeling miffed, "It doesn't matter, Sakura. Just go train," he said a bit harshly. The pinkette looked a little dejected as she made her way out of the classroom. Once all the students were out, Mizuki leaned against his table, looking smuggly down at them. "Well, I hope that your little outburst was worth it. I'll be informing the Sandaime and this incident will go on your permanent records," he sneered. Sasuke only glared at him, he'll get what was coming to him. "Now, I expect that you know the rules, there will be no talking, face forward and do your homework. I can always assign you more if you don't have any. No bathroom breaks, no snack breaks, in fact, if you so much as think about leaving this classroom-" Mizuki stopped talking, his eyes trained on Hanaru's form. Sasuke glanced back, she looked so sad and it made him feel bad. It was like someone had taken wire and wrapped it around his heart, squeezing and tearing into the organ. Was it because she was in detention? No, he doubted that. Was it because of what happened? Maybe, but like the look she had earlier that day, this was a different kind of sad, not something brought on by a recent event. This was the kind of sad look someone had as they remembered something unpleasant and the boy wanted to go against his very existence to ask her if she was alright, to try and comfort her in some way. Why though?! That question was so frustrating and it was eating at him.

Mizuki stalked past him, honing in on Hanaru, the look the man had made his hair raise, but all he could do was watch as the man aggressively stepped on her tail! His teeth dug into the soft flesh of his tongue, he could almost feel the pain searing through his own body as Mizuki leaned over her, digging his heel into the appendage. "Knock it off!" Sasuke had shot up from his desk, his voice cracking a little as Mizuki disappeared in a smoke screen. He stood frozen, watching her turn away from him. He couldn't protect her that time and the ever feisty girl didn't so much as put up a struggle! He was angry at her for letting the teacher do that to her! He was angry that he was too slow to shove the man off! His hands balled into fists, his teeth gritted, "Why did you just sit there?! Why didn't you stand up for yourself?!" he yelled, anything to release a little bit of the tension that was building up within him. Before he knew what he was doing, he was thundering over to the girl as she hunched over her tail, "Hey! I'm talking to you! Why don't you fight back, damn it?!" Grabbing her shoulder and forcing her to look at him he felt the blood drain from his face. Sasuke knew he was an ass, but now he felt like one as he took in her face; there was pain, there was anger, there were fresh tears in her eyes. It shook him. Hanaru was always so tough, so brass, she didn't take shit from anyone and nothing seemed to ever really get to her aside from riling her up. This though...this wasn't something he was meant to see, almost like walking in on your parents. It was a private moment, a moment of weakness and he just forced himself into her bubble.

"Tch," he turned his head away, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. He wanted to hit Mizuki-sensei and never stop. It felt like someone had rammed a chidori right through his chest, but what could he do? What should he do? He wasn't the best at social situations like this! What did you do to make a girl not sad?? "Here," he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, offering it to her awkwardly, "I'll...go get you some ice," he rubbed the nape of his neck, that seemed logical? He wasn't sure, his mind was throwing so many things at him he wasn't sure if he was even thinking clearly. Making a shadow clone, he sent it off to the infirmary while he waited in the classroom beside her. At least if Mizuki caught his clone he could say he hadn't left the room at all. The awkwardness could be cut with a butterknife as he sat on Sakura's desk, doing his best not to meet her eyes, "We're missing our fight," he said desperate to break the silence. While silence never bothered him, he was currently being smothered. His clone returned looking a lot worse for wear, but was at least successful in bringing an ice pack. "We might want to avoid Tsunade for a while," the clone said offering the ice to Hanaru before bursting into a plume of smoke.He watched as the purple haired girl tended to her tail, internally wincing at her pain. "We should double team him," it was meant to sound playful but on the other hand he really wanted to use the man as a new training dummy, "We can take turns beating him up."

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Asuna smiled and nodded along with the boy, her smile faltering for a moment when he let slip that he and his father were fighting. She tried to bite back the questions, trying to figure out if she would get involved and make it her problem. There was something about the way he said it, something about that bitter look in his eyes that made her stomach drop and knot in an uncomfortable way an she didn't need to think very long before deciding 'yes'. He'd been there all day for her, it would only be fair. If it was anyone else, a mildly curious stare would have been all they would get and if they weren't going to talk then she wouldn't ask, but the swirling feeling in her gut told her to at least be there for him the way he was for her. An uneasy feeling was crawling up her spine. Something that she learned early on was the fights she had with her family weren't the same as other people and theirs. It wasn't at all strange for her and her father to go from teasing to a full on yelling match in about five minutes and then quickly diffuse back to playful teasing. From what she knew some family fights lasted for decades, or they'd just silently hate each other pretending all was as it should be. Those ones often turned to broken families or worse and the thought made her heart lurch.

His proposal took her by surprise, "Excuse me? Just who do you think you are thinking I'd let you cook dinner in my house?" Her expression quickly turned to an unamused, deep set frown as her brows knitted together. Like two walls colliding, neither were giving any which way. Her stare was hard, this was not going to stand in the Takanashi household if she'd let a guest cook dinner! Glancing slightly past him at the clock on the wall, she bit her lip, she should have started dinner a while ago. It might have been an 'Asuna thing' or it might have been a 'Takanashi thing', but a set routine was favoured above all and sudden change wasn't always welcomed with open arms. It was evident in the way they still ran the shop, despite all the available technology, everything was still done by hand for the most part. Taking a sharp breath through her nose she did the unspeakable, "You can help me if you want to and maybe, just maybe, I'll let you make a side dish," her hard glare did not let up though, she didn't like this, but they were going to be there all day, "But I will not permit you make a full course dinner." Walking past him, she closed the doors, hanging a 'Back in 15 minutes!' sign in the window before nodding for him to follow her through the back and up the stairs. The kitten hopped after them, before pouncing on Asuna's leg, making the girl hiss slightly as it hitched a ride.

The stairs connected with the genkan of the house, her shoes already sitting neatly at the bottom of the step. A large open plan area greeted them, the kitchen and living room looking out through a window that stretched the length of the wall, overlooking the park on the other side of the street. The potted plants on the outside had long since overgrown and crawled along the railing and up the side of the house. Spring time was quite the spectacle as the flowers intermingled. In winter though, the sight was barren. Death crept ominously, unlike spring, but even now as Autumn crept on, the small potted plants still fought with all their might. The pastel wall colour had only faded slightly over the years, but it was as if time had hardly touched it, hardly, as the old children's toys were about the only thing missing from the room and the smell of cigarette smoke was a lot more prominent than it use to be. Small, almost insignificant changes but not enough for it to be mistaken. This was home. The kitten was quick to jump off and eager to explore the wide open world before it. "I was going to make nikujaga tonight," Asuna said, pulling open the fridge, staring blankly at all the leftover containers that were currently fighting for dominance with the neatly stacked juice boxes. From the looks of it, she cooked to feed at least five...in a household of two as her grandmother was currently 'on vacation' as she had put it. "Guess tomorrow's cooked leftovers...stuffed into pancakes," she mumbled to herself, eyeing anything that couldn't be frozen for later."You can help me peel the potatoes," that would keep him busy for a bit as she grabbed the carrots. She waited quietly, the rhythmic chluk chluk chluk of the knife filling the room. Dull eyes never leaving the chopping block, ears listening for the sound of a bell downstairs, "You've been fighting with your father?" her eyes trailed up to glance at him from the corner of her eye, before copping an eye at the cat who was investigating the gap under the sofa.
 
Her pride felt crushed (just like her poor tail). The half nekomanta's ears were flattened against her head in a look of despair, as she gingerly held her aching tail, a frown on her features as she winced at Sasuke's words. Furiously trying to blink back tears, she tried to think of something, anything that she could possibly say that would just get him to stop asking questions. She listened to him yell, shutting her eyes tightly as she tried to focus, and her words, when she spoke, were low, and breathy, all intimidating factors falling flat. "Don't---s-stop it...!" she tried to growl but the noise died in her throat and he spun her around and looked up at him, fresh tears turning into salty streaks, rolling all the way down to her chin, and she immediately felt a heat of shame rush through her being. Why? Why was she doing this to herself?! Was all this ridicule and shame worth it? She desperately wanted to live for no other reason than revenge but her stupid, dumb heart wouldn't let go of the fact that her mother would have wanted her to be happy, regardless of the blood on her hands and the horrible things that she had done.
Sasuke's anger melted into stoic surprise, but it wasn't him she was frustrated with. If anything, he was right, and that's what made her so frustrated. She held his gaze until he turned his head away, and she did the same, only in the opposite direction. Her mind was swimming with tumultuous thoughts, most of them weren't pretty, and she nearly bit her tongue so hard it bled. How could she have let someone like Sasuke see her at such a vulnerable point? How could she have let someone like Mizuki push her around so much? How could she tolerate it all? She shoved it away and away until she wanted to explode--there was so much pressure inside of her being. The silence was deafening, but when he awkwardly offered her his handkerchief, the purple haired female found herself looking between the outstretched hand and the face of its carrier, silently wondering what was going through his mind as her tears slowly, yet steadily, rolled down her cheek. Could she really trust Sasuke? He'd stuck up for her today, or was that just because they were supposed to spar later? She couldn't read his mind, and it got under her skin. She hated his fangirls and his cocky attitude--like he had never had to try hard for anything in his life. Though... she knew that wasn't completely true. hanaru was just too stubborn to realize that they were a lot more alike than either was letting.
Her breath wavered as she gently took the handkerchief from him and lightly, delicately even, dabbing at her eyes. As he mentioned getting her ice, she opened her mouth to remind him of their sensei's warning, but he had created a shadow clone and off it went before she could try and stop him. There was silence, and Hanaru left it at that. She didn't know what to say, after all. Sasuke would find out eventually who she was and she could just see it now--how he'd react. His hatred for her. She could already see it all. She lifted her head once more as the shadow clone returned, looking beat up--she resisted the urge to snort at the mental image of Sasuke, clone or no, pummeled by a raging Tsunade. The idea was gone as she bit her lip, taking the ice with a small nod before he was dispelled. She shivered, placing it on her tail as she offered him a small, quiet 'thanks,' her tears finally starting to dry up.
When Sasuke brought up tag-teaming Mizuki, she bit her lip again as she accidently squeezed the bag of ice too hard against her tail. "Please, and give him exactly what he wants? I don't think so," she scoffed, eyes angrily narrowed at her wounded appendage. "Every day... every time he opens his dumb mouth to jeer at me, steps on my tail, calls me out in front of the class... every day I don't respond is me kicking his ass. He's not going to get what he wants." What did Mizuki want? Her dead, of course. The only jonin that had ever been nice to her was Kakashi, and he was probably required by Hirozen to treat her just as normal as everyone else. "I just...-!" she cut herself off, refusing to look at Sasuke. Instead, she glared at the board ahead, her fingers absentmindedly traced the deep score she had marked into the desk. "... why?" She couldn't help but ask and be curious. "Why stick up for me...? You don't know anything about me... the things I've done, the person that I am... we do nothing but argue and I tease you and am an ass in general..." she trailed off, a complicated look upon her features as she turned to him with a watery gaze. She just... couldn't understand, no matter how hard she tried. 'i don't deserve it. Stop it, o-or... I'll seriously hurt you."

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Shikamaru would continue on, "operations as normal" for as long as he possibly could. Choji was, admittedly, his best friend, though he and Kiba were close too, but there were just some things that bros didn't talk about. The fact that he and his father hadn't been getting along well just wasn't something that he brought up, or felt comfortable bringing up. Kiba and Choji... well, they simply wouldn't understand. Kiba's always known that his beast taming jutsu would lead him towards a comfortable position in the near future (so long as he didn't start slacking off on his training to play video games all the time). Choji also had a family tradition that he could take part in, and that he actually enjoyed. Shikamaru wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do yet, but whatever his dad wanted him to do, he was nearly immediately turned off of the idea. Especially that of his old man's most recent proposition/scheme to get him to do whatever he wanted.
Shikamaru was grateful that she had ignored it, though he'd be a fool to believe that she hadn't caught his nuances or phrasing. Asuna was really smart--maybe not quite to his level, but she wasn't exactly a push over, and got quite a lot more than she often let on. She'd been running circles around Ino for years and the poor platinum blonde Sasuke wacko didn't even realize it. That being said, he was only slightly nervous by the prospect that she might bring it back up if he let her have the opportunity. Although, he'd also gotten her to spill her guts about her life, if she asked it was only fair, and he slowly and steadily realized that he'd totally played himself down to the inevitable. It felt just like playing a round of Shogi against Asuma-sensei. He knew he was working towards his inevitable defeat, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it aside from watch and see how it all unfolded.
He knew, though... he knew she wouldn't let him cook, and he groaned loudly, tilting his head back to blink up lazily at the ceiling. "Rrrrg... geez! You're so stubborn, you know that?" he whined, looking back at her as she moved to flip the open sign to "be right back" and suddenly he was being lead through the back and into their house. He couldn't help but let out a light chuckle as their friendly stray hitched a rather uncomfortable ride on Asuna's leg into the main house via the connected stairway. Shikamaru vaguely looked around Asuna's home, his gaze softening ever-so-slightly as fond memories of spending days and days with her here. This place was nostalgic for him due to absence, but he hoped that whatever "friendship slump" that they had been in had indeed ended, and maybe he could use her home as a secondary base of opeations in order to escape the lectures that always increasingly got longer and louder. The ash blond seemingly had a steady dinner plan, and Shikamaru didn't want to get in her way, so he merely let her do as she needed to, helping when she called him. Especially considering this was her kitchen, and the last time he was in here, he was far too short to reach most of the cabinets.
"Already on it," he muttered to himself, grabbing a knife and the garbage can from up against the wall behind him. Picking up the potatoes one be one, he began pealing them, being surprisingly delicate for a young man of his stature and build. Shikamaru wasn't necessary ripped, but his lean figure held a surprising amount of muscle. Peeling in silence, the pineapple haired male watched as the kitten rolled under their feet, seemingly chasing after some invisible something or other. He couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head--Asuna really needed to name that thing--it was acting far too friendly and familiar with their surroundings to be more than just some stray they'd fed a few times.
Asuna's question nearly had the knife he was using to peel potatoes to slide right through his hand, though he narrowly avoided doing so. He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again, trying to think of the easiest way to bring this up. Steadily the silence stretched, and he began to realize that there was virtually no way he was getting out of this conversation. "Ah, yeah..." he mumbled, starting off kind of disinterested before he sighed and set another successfully peel in a bowl. Picking up the next potato. "It's nothing that crazy. I don't even see him that much anymore, considering I spend more time with Asuma-sensei than I do at my own house," he shrugged, nearly done in his task. "He..." Shikamaru sighed, glaring down at the bowl in front of him. "He wants me to apply for a grade skip--he... he wants me to take the Jonin test." Mind you, that would mean skipping the Chunin test, and also would inevitably remove him from Team 10. "I don't want to for a variety of reasons. He screams at me, I ignore him, and the cycle kind of repeats. It's really a big deal,"
 
There was a pause in the chluk chluk chluk as Shikamaru spoke, before it picked up again, "Hmm," Asuna hummed as she finished up, mulling over what he had just unloaded. A swirl of emotion swept her mind; excitement on the boy's behalf, realization with a dash of melancholy as it dawned on her just how far behind she was in comparison, and an odd heavy feeling in her chest trying to imagine what Team 10 would be like if he left. The roughly chopped carrots were set to the side as she turned and closed the gap between them. "Well, if anyone can pull that off, it would be you," she said, plucking one of the potatoes out of the bowl and cutting it into rough quarters before handing back the knife. "It's a good opportunity. Anyone would call you an idiot for not taking your dad up on it," though the words were that of encouragement, her tone stayed monotonous, "I think you'd be an idiot for doing it though." It might have been some underlying selfish desire, but the thought of the boy going on jonin leveled missions...real missions with real danger, made her heart want to leap out of her throat. Coming from a non shinobi family, she'd had the talk with her parents before. Eiji had made his fear of her coming home from a mission in a matchbox very clear. "You might have what it takes up here," with a quick flick to his forehead she went about her business, "but tell me how you go from community service to snuffing out Yakuza gangs? Maybe I'm just selfish, but I'd rather another day like this and another bbq with the team than having you declared K.I.A. before we hit twenty."

A jingle of the store bell had the girl drop everything she was doing and running from the room. It wasn't long before a muffled "Welcome to The Shuffle of Things!" rang up through the floor. The kitten seemed very confused by the sound as he circled Shikamaru's chair as if the boy was hiding the little door bell. With an accusing stare he watched the boy "Meeaw?" and started climbing him like a tree, giving up halfway and hanging on to the boy's shirt. It was a while still before Asuna came thumping up the stairs and back into the room looking annoyed, but her demeanor softened rather quickly, "You know, if-" she paused trying to find an appropriate way of wording it, "If you need a place to lay low..." she motioned to the room in silent invitation. Her dad wouldn't mind, right? He seemed just fine with them alone when he left, which wasn't something many of her male friends could say. Taking two juice boxes from the fridge, she sat one on the counter in front of him, "I'm not all for you ignoring your dad, though. Buuut, our family disputes work with a different mindset, I suppose." Eyeing the bowl of potatoes, a small smile tugged at her lips, "Maybe if you hang around long enough, and dad's not here, maybe gran'll confuse you for some long lost cousin or something and I might allow you free reign in the kitchen." HAH! Sometimes Asuna cracked herself up, her jokes were about as amazing as her drawing skills.

Taking the potatoes and dumping them into the hot water, she watched them bubble and boil. Her grandmother would have a line up of 'potential husbands' for her before she mistook Shikamaru as a long lost cousin. She was a senile old woman, small and friendly and seemingly forgetful, but under all of that was a cunning and noisy old bat. Her way of thinking was rooted in very old traditions of a time long gone, one where a girl of Asuna's age should be either; married with a bun in the oven or trying her damndest to get one, or she should be out looking for a husband. Needless to say, Nana Fu and Eiji didn't exactly see eye to eye on that, as he'd rather Asuna never even make eyes in the general direction of a boy let alone marry one. That was something the two blondes agreed on to a degree, mainly because she hadn't really thought of pursuing boys in a romantic way. It's not like any of the boys she knew were her type or would be fit to bring home to dad. She wasn't even sure what her type was. What kind of guy would catch her fancy if she was looking for someone? The preplexting thought had her chewing her lip as she stared hard at the stove. Ino had asked her several times, but she always pretended not to hear her. He'd had to get her father's stamp of approval, which in itself was a feat, but she'd also have to actually like him. He'd have his work cut out for him that's for sure and the more she thought about it the fainter the prospect of her ever finding a 'Mr. Right' became. The guy would have to be some kind of god if he was to pass her father's approval and her own, not that she even wanted much to begin with! It was depressing. For a moment her gaze lingered over to the boy, a quiet 'what if?' echoing in her mind, but she quickly squashed it. They were barely holding their friendship together. A part of her believed that he was only doing this out of pity and that they'd just go back to awkward 'hellos' again by tomorrow. The thought hurt and she couldn't take it, "Hey..." her voice was barely above a whisper, she needed to quell the whispers in her mind, "Are we...ok?"


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Sasuke watched her silently, her tears seemed to be drying up and while it brought him some relief, he still couldn't place why it bothered him so much to begin with. Sakura cried quite often over things he deemed trivial, like the time they escorted a drunk old shopkeeper back to his hometown under the assumption that he was trying to avoid some debt. The mission turned really rough really fast when said drunken shopkeeper turned out to be running from a yakuza bounty on his head. It was a small taste of what they would deal with once they moved up in rank, but still, they were novices when it came to real fights, fights where a teacher couldn't tell them to stop for being 'too rough', no, real life or death fights. Kakashi had taken on the actual gang member, while the rest of the team had to try and defend the shopkeeper and his family from the 'hired muscle'. There was only so much they could learn from books and one thing Sasuke would never forget was the feel of steel pressed against his neck and looking into the eyes of a man who had no qualms with ending the life of someone half his age. The text books could never prepare them for that. He'd gotten hurt, it was just a scratch in his opinion, the chakra fatigue was what put him in the hospital where Sakura cried as if he was dangling inches away from death. It pissed him off, he was obviously fine and he didn't like how in-your-face the pinkette was about trying to smother him with her 'affection' as if he was some toddler!

Strangely enough, Hanaru's tears didn't fill him with anger, he didn't want to yell at her to shut up and buckle up buttercup. He wanted to do something to make sure he didn't have to look at her tear streaked face again...and he didn't know why. As she rejected his idea to team up against the creature teacher, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of beef they had. There were mixed feelings regarding Mizuki-sensei, some students thought he was a good teacher, some thought he was an ass and then there were those that just couldn't stand him at all. He was going out of his way though to make life miserable for Hanaru though, and Sasuke couldn't help but feel it wasn't just because of her demon blood. Naruto was a vessel, he carried a full tailed beast demon inside him, yet, despite the citations every other week, Mizuki barely even paid the boy any mind. It was like he was obsessed with the purplette and the Uchiha could feel his stomach knot. The combination of a spiteful teacher and his obsession with a student was sending Sasuke's mind down dark roads, ones that made him want to take the man out before any of those terrible thoughts could become a reality.

Dark eyes could not meet her as she voiced the questions he'd been asking himself, 'Why?'. What could he say to her? What should he say to her? He didn't know why he did any of those things. Yes, he tried to convince himself that it was because they were teammates and that meant they had to look out for each other whether they wanted to or not...but that wasn't true, not entirely. All he wanted was to excel and become better, become stronger and show his father just how strong he was! Everyday was a struggle. Every night he'd come home, they barely talked around the dinner table as Fugaku would ask about his and Itachi's day. He was so excited and proud of every little thing his brother did but nothing he did so much as brought a smile to his father's face! When Itachi was away on long missions, his father was so disinterested in the things he'd accomplished he barely even showed up to dinner! Ever since Hanaru showed up, Sasuke had been training harder and longer than he ever had before. When they sparred, it reminded him of their mission gone wrong, it felt like he was really fighting. It was exhilarating!
"I...don't know," his voice strained with frustration, "My body just...moved on it's own." He could not bring himself to look at her as he stared at the ground. "I might not know who you were, I don't know what you did but right now you-" he had to catch himself, not sure where his train of thought was leading him. The sting of vulnerability made his voice falter, which only spiked his irritation. Yes they teased and argued with each other a lot, but he was the same with Naruto since they were little, always scuffling in the school yard. "I just- tch!" the frustration had built up to a tipping point, and his hand came down on the table with a mighty 'THWAP!' as he glared down at her, "Listen, I don't give a shit what you think you deserve! You're the closest thing I have to damn good challenge in this school! I'll be damned if some rinky-dink teacher got the best of you!" His emotions were but a blurred cloud and it was hard for him to think straight, especially as he realized just how far in he'd lean and how close they were. Pushing away from the desk he stomped back to his own, feeling his ears burn, "You're my rival, so stop rolling over and taking it like some weakling because I know you aren't!"
 
Shikamaru wasn't entirely convinced that moving two rankings and leaving his friends in the dust was the best decision he could make--his father seemed to think so, and whatever he said, his mother typically went along with and encouraged. They were kind people. They wanted the best for him. But sometimes "wanting the best" for someone came down to a matter of opinions. What really was "best" for him? Part of Shikamaru's argument against his father's wishes was based around the fact that he simply didn't know. And that was okay--it was normal for teens not to know what they wanted to do with their lives. That didn't just... cease to exist simply because they were shinobi and not average civilians. Shikamaru sighed internally, listening to Asuna as she told him what she felt about this news, and for some reason... hearing her say something remotely close to "I don't want you to do it" made his heart jump. He gripped the knife that she had taken and then handed back to him, staring at the utensil as he pondered her words and what they meant to him. It was... just nice to be needed for once. To realize that even if she was only thinking about the good of their squad, that she'd still said, indirectly as it was, that she needed him there with them. A sick chuckle left his lips as he shook his head. "I don't know--that monument is pretty neat looking, it'd be kind of cool to get my name slapped up there," he teased, his darker sense of humor making itself known before he shook his head and got back to work. He was delaying production enough as it was already.
When Asuna left to check on whoever had let themselves into the store (despite the sign she'd put up), Shikamaru felt his phone buzz in his cargo pants, and he blinked at the noise, it drawing both his and the cat's attention. Slowly pulling the sleek device from his pocket, he glared at the screen, seeing who it was from. His gaze softened, however, at the message.
Old Man: Hey, your mother and I made dinner, leftovers are in the fridge if you need them.
At least it was a nice gesture. He mentally debated with himself over whether or not he should respond, but after a minute of awkwardly craning his neck from one side or the other, he sighed and shook his head, biting his lip as he swiped the message in order to reply.
Me: Thanks. Won't be home till later.
Me: Training.
He watched those three dots appear and disappear for a moment before he turned his 'Do Not Disturb' settings on and pocketed his phone just in time for Asuna to reappear from up the stairs. He hadn't even noticed that the black little kitten had climbed its way onto his chest, clinging to his shirt with its little claws until Asuna returned to the kitchen. An offer like that seemed almost too sweet a deal to be true. Shikamaru blinked absentmindedly at her before sighing, taking a deep breath and shrugging as he felt the tips of his ears go a little warm. "Ah, thanks... I'll... seriously consider it." He took the offered juice box, not being able to help his smirk. Such a childish drink, but Asuna could be childish herself, and the thought made him grin no matter what.
Shikamaru silently watched as Asuna took his work and slid the vegetables into the boiling water, his gaze lazily following the steam as it was sucked up into the hood vent above her stove. They stood in silence, sipping on juice and watching water boil (how interesting was that?) in what seemed like a comfortable enough silence. Shikamaru pondered the idea. Hiding out at Asuna's wouldn't be too bad, although the last thing he wanted was to overstay his welcome. Besides, what few memories he had as a kid of Eiji getting mad at the both of them, he didn't wish to remember. Startling him out of his thoughts, Asuna's soft voice reached his ears and he blinked as he turned to look at her. Were they? Their friendship had seemingly fizzled out, like a sparkler at the end of it's stick. But... did he ever consider them not friends? The answer to that was no, he had always thought of them as friends. "Yeah... we're good," he said quietly after awhile. "I guess... somewhere along the way my definition of friend changed. I'm going to go ahead and blame society on that one. That and kids making big deals out of absolutely nothing." He shrugged as he rubbed the back of his neck absentmindedly. Another short silence permeated the air before he boldly stated, "I'd... say we're a little better than good."
Not quick to change the subject, but merely making an observation, Shikamaru pointed to the pot on the stove. "Also maybe you should turn it down a little? Your water's about to boil over." He would have done it himself, but he decided to hold the tiniest grudge for not letting him make dinner. Again, another mystery question: why did he want to make her dinner? As a thank you? For what? 'For still being friends... for not pushing me away...' he just couldn't shake that little voice in the back of his head.

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Hanaru flinched in surprise as Sasuke smacked the desk, his mixed emotions clashing with her own as he yelled in her face. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked to him in annoyance. That damn brat...! He just had to butt-in. It was all his fault that she felt nauseous! Her face heated up as she mentally registered with how close he had gotten to her face, their noses practically touching. "That's... that's a real dumb way to compliment someone, idiot...!" She growled, her tears completely dry at this point. "Were you listening to a damn thing I said or not? Geez!" She winced as her tail flicked angrily out of habit, the no-doubt bruised appendage making her wince, and she turned, hating how weak she was appearing in front of him. She was... a challenge? She should hope so, considering how much he tried (and failed) to compete with her chakra reserves. If she was ever being honest with him, she would have had to admit how impressed she was, that just a mere human could keep up with her demonic chakra, strength, and speed. He really was some sort of prodigy.
Crossing her arms indignantly, she sulked, considering how much his words both fired her up and added salt to her already wounded pride. "I'll take whatever I want and dish it back to you tenfold, Uchiha," she growled as he pushed away from her, still yelling. "That whiny teacher doesn't have anything on me, it's the principle of the matter. If I don't give in to what he wants, I win. I could kill him. He's only a chunin." As she spoke, a miasmatic chakra spilled from her fingertips, and the acid-like material burned the floor. Realizing that said dumb teacher that they were talking about might not appreciate her burning a hole through the floor, she cut it out, turning back to Sasuke. "I can't wait for our rematch. If you only think of me as the 'closest thing to a good challenge', then I guess you'll just have to see what happens when I get serious...!" She was grateful to him, actually. There were a lot of things that she'd sooner do than tell Sasuke her inner thoughts, but that was neither here nor there and at this current moment in time, she was... grateful.
If Sasuke hadn't been there, who knew what might have happened...? To that kid, to Mizuki... to herself. She rode a thin line and if anyone suspected her of doing anything that went against Konoha, then that was it. Game over. Hanaru shared a lot of traits with her feline friends, but nine lives was unfortunately not one of them. And... well... at the bottom of everything, she was scared. Scared to die, scared to depend on other people. She was scared of so many things it was ridiculous.
"Listen, just butt out." she paused as she thought for something to say. Something to wager. "... If you can scare me tonight into thinking that the pool ghost thing is real, ask whatever the hell you want, I'll answer them all," she stated, cocky as she grinned at the onyx haired male. It was a hefty wager. Something that she wasn't fully prepared to own up to but she'd be damned if she broke a promise. If her word wasn't good then she might as well just crawl up and die. She might have been a blade for hire and a 'murderer' to some, but she was honest--brutally so, in most cases--and her word was all she had in some instances. She wouldn't do anything to sully it. "But it's not gonna happen." She couldn't help but laugh, grateful for the topic change. "In fact," she was now giggling, still nursing the ice on her tail but eager to cover up her pain and weakness with other emotions and a falsely confident attitude--the same one she wore every day. The same one that sometimes cracked and showed her melancholy if Naruto caught her daydreaming, or when Sakura called her out, and despite her hearing she seemed to be lost deep in her mind. "I think you're more likely to beat me in a fight, and that's a stretch!"
 
With a prize so tantalizing dangled in front of him, Sasuke couldn't refuse the purplette! It was his pride versus hers. They'd quickly parted when the sound of footsteps approached the classroom. The ice pack roughly shoved into a bag and text books opened to at least make it look like they were adhering the rules that Mizuki-sensei so clearly stated before he left. Said teacher appeared in the doorway not too long after, looking rather miffed as he was forced to excuse them as per the orders of the wise old Sandiame, who hadn't agreed to punishing students that "Displayed such a caring attitude towards their teammates". The boy walked rather close to Hanaru as they left in an attempt to keep Mizuki from trying something, but aside from some heated glaring and some choice words that could make even the manliest sailor blush, the two made it out scot-free. With most of their afternoon gone, they agreed to postpone their sparring session as Sasuke made his commute home. His once half hearted pondering of how to scare the resident cactus had turned to serious scheming. It came as no surprise when his father wasn't home and he excused himself to his room to pass the time until the time Naruto had specified.

Night had fallen over the city, stretched and furled itself across the land with faint stars of distant worlds barely visible against the neon glare of lights. As the residents slept the city turned a new. From the darkness sprouted a new life that shunned the day, nocturnal souls reveling in skirting shadows of the flaring mimicry of neon starlight.

Nipping slightly at his nose as the raven haired boy made his way to the school. He was a practical boy, the thought of ghosts roaming the streets was nothing but a mere fantasy, but something about the way the shadows in the night seemed to stretch out, seemingly to grab at his ankles, had his eyes pivoting from left to right and his senses on high alert. Not so much for anything supernatural, mind you, but the midnight air engulfed those who wished not to be seen. What made it worse, was the absence of the moon. A new moon to mark the night of their ghostly adventure, where he could have been in bed, snuggled warmly and comforted by dreams. He could make out a figure standing near the looming front gate, he'd have thought it was an unsavory character, but he they would have been sneaky and wouldn't be waving a flashlight around like an idiot. "We're supposed to be undercover, dumbass," he said as he approached the figure who let out a piercing scream before shining the light at him. "Sa-Sasuke! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Naruto complained as he let out a sigh of relief, "This place is totally creepy, don't you think?" Following the small beam of light Sasuke only mentally agreed, the school did look pretty creepy shrouded in darkness with no living soul around.

"Hey, guys! I'm glad you made it!" Ino had turned up looking much more at ease now that she was around the two, "I never doubted that you'd come, Sasuke! You're too cool to be scared of ghosts!" she beamed. He groaned. As she attached herself to his side he remembered why he didn't want to come in the first place. "I'm happy to see you too, Ino," Naruto sounded dejected as Ino only cared about Sasuke being there. Of course. Naruto pulled his phone out, "I guess I can get this started while the others are coming!" he said as he all but blinded them with the camera light. "Hey-Yo! It's me, ya boi! Naruto Uzumaki! And tonight, we're going to look into the legendary ghost girl of Konoha Academy! Sayu-Sayu!" Sasuke could feel his eyebrow twitch as the blond all but screamed at the phone, before pointing it at them, "And here with me, Ino and Sasuke!" The kunoichi was quick to hit him over the head, "Naruto! What are you doing?! This is suppose to be a stealth operation!" Ino raged, only to have the blond throw his arm over her shoulder, "Aw, c'mon Ino! You can put it on your blog or something! Just think how famous we'll be if we capture Sayu-Sayu on camera!" he giggled like a school girl bringing his phone up again. Sasuke turned away from them, trying to convince himself not to leave.

"Naruto, I can hear you yelling from all the way down the road!" Sakura complained as she approached the trio, she looked tired in the glow of the lone flashlight as well as annoyed. "Do you want the whole neighborhood to know what we're doing? Do you know how much trouble we'll be in if we're caught out here at this hour?" She hadn't been there for five minutes and she was already scolding the poor boy. "I see you made it, Ino-pig," Sasuke wanted the world to open up and swallow him whole as Sakura latched onto his other side. "I'm surprised you even made it at all, Billboard-brow!" Ino sneered from the other side of Sasuke. The two kunoichi locked in a heated glaring match. "Ye-yeah, we're all here! Let's not fight, ok?" Naruto tried to calm them down, but they turned their glares towards him. "Not everyone, Hanaru's not here yet! And Choji, Shikamaru, was Asuna going to come too?" Sakura asked, turning her gaze back to Ino as she spoke of her team members. "I can't speak for Hanaru, but I think Choji fell asleep. He hasn't answered any of my messages since ten. Shikamaru had a family thing going on, so he left early and Asuna...she...left this morning, she wasn't doing so well," Ino trailed off. She wasn't a complete airhead, she had put two and two together and came to the conclusion that something must have happened at home given her outburst. "Tch, slackers. What's the use of being in a ninja school if they're never around to learn anything? Sarutobi should just expel them and save up on those wasted resources," Sasuke said harshly, pulling his arms free from the grip of the two girls.

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An unseen weight seemed to have been lifted at the clarification on where they stood. Asuna was a lot more relaxed having been reassured by Shikamaru's words that there was still something between them that could be patched up and built upon. Playful jeers and teasing followed their prolonged comfortable silences, as she skittered about finishing dinner and running down to check on the counter all while trying not to fall over the kitten. After closing up the shop for the night, dinner proceeded much the same until Eiji showed up, stopping by long enough to eat and shower and to complain about how bland the hospital food was. Conversation turned to him asking the boy just about every question he couldn't that afternoon, wanting a detailed breakdown of his life, which Asuna tried to cut short as some of her father's questions turned back to being 'inappropriate' and 'invasive' as she had deemed them. As soon as he had showed up though, he was out again with a "Hands above the table now!" which Asuna couldn't decide if he was teasing or being serious.

The city lights seemed to twinkle out across the park. Darkness crept through the trees, but it was calming, inviting. The lamps in the park only added enough yellow glow, looking like large fireflies beneath the trees.

"We should probably stop by your house, grab you some clothes," Asuna said as she exited her room, a sling bag over her shoulder packed with two fresh towels, "I don't think you'll fit into any of my stuff. It would be funny if you tried...and it would be weird seeing you in my dad's stuff." Giving the house a once over to make sure the windows were closed and double checked the doors that needed to be locked, she looked down at the cat. With a full belly it was sprawled out on an old couch throw, purring as it slept. It was a disgustingly cute site and the girl had to fight the urge to take out her phone and snap a picture of it, "Not even a day and he's already going around like he owns the place. Unbelievable." As they left through the front door and descended the stairs into the night, the blonde almost suggested taking the old vespa, but this was going to be a stealth mission. All, or at least some, of their ninja training would be put to the test. Well, sort of, she'd gotten in and out without a hitch before, but this time it felt different. The way they had planned it made it feel like they were going on some top secret mission. "Do you feel it too?" she asked bumping his shoulder lightly, "Two shinobi, under the cover of darkness, on a mission to infiltrate a high security estate," her voice was low, but the excitement was evident, "Maybe it's just because you're here this time, but it feels so different. I'm almost willing to call a cab just so we can get there faster!"

A part of her felt silly for being so excited about a simple swimming outing. They followed the streetlamps, making their way to the more residential area of the city where the large family estates and compounds were nestled for the larger clans. The Uchiha and Hyuga estates being the largest of them. Asuna couldn't remember the Nara's home so well. They didn't play at his house as much when they were little and the darkness wasn't helping her memory much as they walked along the wall.
Quietly standing in the glow of a streetlamp, waiting across the street from the Nara estate, dull eyes flicked around keeping watch for anything moving in the dark. It was hard to keep her excitement bottled up as she glanced down at her phone, wondering what was taking so long. Movement in her peripheral vision had her on alert. The darkness made it hard to see who it was, but given that the shadow had jumped over the wall from the inside and was casually approaching her, it wasn't hard to guess who it was. "You good?" she asked as she fell into step with the boy. Together they made their way in the dark, the once familiar streets having taken on a new shape and form in the dark. Shadows warping into phantoms, twisting, grabbing, but they pressed forward, determined to reach the school and to set their plan in motion. Granted they had a further way to walk after stopping at Shikamaru's house, but it would be well worth it.

Neither a friend nor a foe, the night was indiscriminate. The sound of cars in the distance accompanied them on their journey. Neon lights in the distance grew closer, sharper than the soft streetlamps. Their path deviated though, into the darkness, leaving behind the neon glow. The quiet tap tap of their footsteps and the slight heat by her side eased her mind as they ventured down the darker road. Absently, Asuna's hand grazed Shikamaru's and in some long suppressed instinct, her hand wrapped around his, but she quickly pulled away when she felt him jolt. "Sorry, old habit," silently she was grateful that the darkness masked her embarrassment. Why was she embarrassed? There was nothing wrong with holding hands! She held Ino's hand...sometimes...when Ino saw something and pulled her along. Bad example. Hinata! She'd hold Hinata's hand...well, mostly when they were in a crowded place and she was worried that the poor girl would be swept away by the sea of people. "Hm, it's funny, that used to be so normal. When did it become a taboo?" she chuckled dryly remembering the day she realized just how little everyone else's opinion mattered, that she'd pushed away her best friend because there was a time she cared what the other children thought of her. "I used to be...so embarrassed, when Ino teased me, and Kiba," her hand reached again, though this time only to hook a few fingers around his. It didn't matter what everyone else said, but if he was uncomfortable with it, she'd understand, "This ok?"
 
Hanaru never really stayed in her apartment for too long. It was a rather sterile looking environment considering she didn't really have much use for material possessions. She was actually quite frugal with her money (what hadn't been taken away from her upon her capture by the Konoha nins), and therefor her apartment just felt... empty. It had the bare essentials but that was about it. She had no use for a tv so an old tv sat on the most decorated shelf in her home, considering it housed all of her scrolls. Imagine that--a ninja who sucked at reading and writing but could whip up scrolls in her sleep! She always caught herself on that irony.
Studying was going to be a bust considering her brain wasn't going to be able to focus after today's events, and not to mention... what was going on tonight. Once again she nearly smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. After all, it was super dumb of her to agree to do something the one night her demonic blood receded and human traits took over. Realizing that she hadn't given Sasuke back his handkerchief, she hand washed it and left it out to dry as she took a nap, waiting for the dreaded evening to come.
Hanaru brought her wakizashi, or samurai short sword, strapped to her back. It wasn't because she was afraid of ghosts--no, that was the least of her concerns. There was a lot of people who would find it particularly interesting that she had a moment of weakness, where she wouldn't be as alert, as fast, as strong... even her healing factor was suppressed under the moonless sky. A cool shiver ran down her back as she reached up, feeling for her unfamiliar human ears, and knowing that her beautiful purple locks had gone from purple to a deep chestnut brown, and glinting amber orbs had dulled to a rather reddish chocolate. She always felt... exposed. Her usual agenda on New Moon nights was to build a nest of sort out of blankets and lock herself in for the night, but this time... here she was going 'ghost hunting' with a handful of idiots.
Even before she had arrived at their agreed-upon meeting place she could tell who had beat her (not that she cared), and her now-chocolate orbs glared darkly at the silhouettes (NANI MO, NANI WO, WARAERUSA) that were appearing in front of her. Just goes to show how loud they were, considering her hearing was severly lessened. "Would you idiots shut up?! Geez, for a group of ninja, you guys suck at being stealthy."
"And right on cue, our residential seguoaro arrives! Hanaru-chan, what do you have to say to our audience?" Naruto quickly danced over to her, shoving the camera unflatteringly in her face as she growled, though if anyone was paying attention, the sound was... a lot more... well, human sounding (considering her growls and chuffs were often very guttural and animalistic).
"If you shove that thing in my face again, I will break your phone, with your hand," she stated dryly, her tone implying her sincerity as she walked up to Sasuke, awkwardly shoving his clean handkerchief in his hands as he struggled between Ino and Sakura. "You... left this..." she mumbled under her breath, before turning back, avoiding his gaze due to the pink blush slowly building on her cheeks. It was embarrassment! And she didn't want to be too close to anyone tonight, considering her weakness.

---------

Shikamaru thought the, er... well, the interrogation that was dinner was rather entertaining, considering how much Eiji's crazy questions seemd to make Asuna either embarrassed for him or for herself (he wasn't paying close enough to decipher which was which). Shikamaru had no problem answering a bunch of questions, and he strategically answered them. That wasn't the same as lying, he just chose to omit certain parts and if he wasn't all too keen on answering a question, then he just chose to ask Eiji a question of his own to redirect the focus from himself. It was a rather eventful evening, all things considered, but that was nothing compared to the mess of trouble that they were planning on getting into later.
Well, it was only trouble if they got caught, that is.
As they got ready to leave, Shikamaru was nodding along with Asuna's words, a smirk playing upon his lips at her mild suggestion. "Yeah, I think I'll pass on your clothes," Shikamaru shook his head slightly, knowing that he was going to have to take a hard pass on that offer. He checked the windows and things with her as she closed up her house, making sure to pet the cat's head as they passed by its stuffed, sleeping form. The Nara boy's head pat did nothing other than send the cat's tail lazily flicking from side to side in his dreaming. "You thought of a name yet?" he asked as they exited the house. "He clearly makes your dad happy, or he wouldn't keep feeding him. And I think you like him, you're just too stubborn to admit it," he teased, grinning as they made their way out onto the streets, the streetlights casting a gentle golden hue about them as they slowly made their way to his house first.
"Hell yeah," this was followed by a snicker. "Of course it's because I'm here. Now you actually have a proper plan. Before you were just... kinda going and getting caught." That smirk refused to leave his lips as they made their way down the softly lit streets. Shikamaru's hands were stuffed into his pockets as he shook his head. "If you wanna pay the ridiculous fee, I wouldn't object to a cab ride." He shook his head again at her quiet ridiculousness. Unfortunately, his home was a little out of their way to the school building, but it didn't take them too long to get there, and he told Asuna to wait for him outside while he snuck into his room. His parents were ninjas, so he wouldn't have been too surprised if he was found out, but for whatever reason, the house was silent as he changed into his normal swim shorts and a dark t-shirt, leaving his hitaite and headband tied around his arm. He was in and out, silent like the shadows his family was well known for, and when he reappeared and she asked him if he was okay, he shrugged. Did he look like he wasn't?
Her taking his hand was... certainly something.
Shikamaru found a heat rising to his cheeks as he jolted upon feeling the warmth of Asuna's hand grabbing his own. He quietly thanked the moon for hiding, as it kept the blush from being visible on his cheeks. 'Man, these troublesome feelings better leave me alone before something else happens...' he thought quietly before realizing that she was probably just as embarrassed as he was. He listened to her words--before he shrugged nonchalantly. "Kiba's always been an idiot," he said gruffly, feeling the slightest bit of resentment toward the dog-tamer for this action, but he let it slide. That was so far in the past by this point, and what's done has been done. Kiba had also matured with age, not a lot, but enough. So hopefully he would stop being so weird about it. "And Ino's... Ino. Honestly, the only opinion that matters is your own." He sighed. "But... yeah I kinda fell into that way too, so it was the result of similar teasing I guess." He silently took the rest of her hand in his, tugging her along the dark street and towards the back entrance they had discussed in their planning stage.
"You ready?" Shikamaru asked, not looking to her as he squeezed her hand lightly, looking up at their point of entry. He could only hope that the one patrolling tonight would be some random chunin or a lesser-known Jonin or something. That would make avoiding them a whole lot easier. "You ready? Lead the way in."
 
A giddy, childlike excitement made her heart race as they stood by the foot of the wall, staring up into the night sky at the wall's edge. She wasn't sure if it was because of what they were doing or if it was because Shikamaru didn't object to her taking his hand. Asuna wanted to use a jutsu, just a simple earth style and platform them up and over, but it would look mighty suspicious in the morning. "Ladies first, huh? What a gentleman," she said mockingly as she took a few steps back, letting go of his hand. With a running start, she focused her chakra in her feet and climbed the tall stretch of wall. While the dark was a great advantage and helped conceal them, it was also a terrible disadvantage as dull eyes strained into the night from atop the concrete perch. Throwing her legs over, she jumped down, ears straining for any sounds as her eyes were all but useless. Every fiber of her being was on high alert. Thrilling didn't begin to describe the rush as she waited for Shikamaru.

A light breeze swept through the trees making the leaves shake and the shadows of the night move. If there was any animal Asuna was a kin to in that moment, she'd be a wild hare on alet. Her head moving slowly as she tried to make out any movements within the shadows, her ears listening. On her own, yes, she took some precautions and she was on guard, but never this much. Then again, the route she took was always the same. The trees there were familiar, she knew were the rocks were, and the path was rather short and straight. In the daylight, she knew this area well, but in the dark it was as if everything changed. Everything seemed more menacing, the leaves shaking as if to say 'Here! Here they are!' and the play of the large clumps of shadow gave the illusion as if the trees themselves were moving to circle them. Relief filled her when Shikamaru plopped down next to her, though she wouldn't say nor show it, instead she inched closer, cupping his hand in hers. "C'mon, I don't want to leave you behind," she kept her voice as low as she could as her other hand stretched to touch the wall.

There was no need to rush, it would just create an unnecessary amount of noise and the sudden movement of two running figures could alert whoever was out there, if anyone was out there. It never really bothered her before, even after she was caught, maybe she was lucky those times? Then again, maybe if all went well tonight, Shikamaru would come swimming with her more often.
A rustle.
She stopped abruptly.
This time, it wasn't the wind. There was something moving in the shrubbery. Squeezing his hand, Asuna took a slow breath. It could be nothing. It could be something. Honestly while she didn't believe in the dumb story of the ghost girl in the pool, there were other older, more believable stories. Having never met a ghost, Asuna couldn't say that she believed in them and there were always hundreds of variations of a single story that it was hard to believe which was the true tale and which were fabrications. There were more terrifying things out there than ghosts.

It was probably a cat, or a really big mouse, her rational side said. Either way if it didn't know they were there, then they'd end up scaring it, and it would make more noise and attract the attention of whoever was out on patrol...if they were even in the area. Working on a worst case scenario basis, she gripped the boy's hand tightly and made a run for it. To break their cover, to break the treeline, to make a break for the fence. The rustling behind them only grew and fled into the trees. The screeching call of a cat and the high pitched shrieking of a bird, how she hated the ungodly noises fear could force out of living creatures as their lives came to an end. As silence fell once more, Asuna slowed down to a walk, albeit a brisk one "Come on, we're almost at the fence."

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The lone flashlight might have been a poor excuse for proper lighting, but Sasuke couldn't help but notice...or not notice Hanaru's missing features. Specifically the lack of her ears and tail. If it wasn't for her prickly demeanor, he'd almost have a kunai to her neck and call her an imposter. Even her hair was different! What the hell happened? Was this some shitty attempt at a disguise? It wasn't very good considering that she didn't even bother to hide her scars! His eyes trailed over her curiously, this certainly was new and he wasn't exactly sure how to feel about it. His gaze wandered to her weapon...why the heck was she carrying that around? They weren't on an actual mission, there was literally no danger. Well, maybe, there could be traps and he didn't put it past Sarutobi to have at least some guards around the building at night. He had it on good authority that the school kept very detailed records of every single student, from their personal lives to what jutsu's they were taught. Perhaps it wasn't as mind blowing as a secret scroll, but if he was a yakuza lord or maybe someone from a rivaling school, that information could be very valuable.

"Hey! Why do you have Sasuke's handkerchief?!" the blonde next to him yelled, snapping him from whatever daze he was in. "None of you business," he retorted quickly, pocketing the folded up cloth. "H-hey, uh, Hanaru-chan..." Naruto curiously tilted his head as he inserted himself right into the girls' personal space bubble, "You look different, like, weird." He brought up the flashlight and bathed her in the light as he studied her closer. Something in Sasuke's stomach was burning, he didn't like how closely Naruto was to Hanaru. It reminded him of earlier that day when they were that close. "Hanaru! Your hair! You made it brown!" the energized boy yelled pointing his phone at her again, "That's dedication to the cause!" he seemed even more energetic as he captured the 'Kodak moment'.

"Who cares? We're wasting time," Sasuke shrugged the two girls off of him as he approached the gate, "This was your dumb idea, Naruto, so how do we get in?" he wanted to shift the focus, the sooner they got inside the sooner he could put his plan in motion and the sooner he could go home. "Oh! Uh, we'll, I thought we could just, y'know, climb over the gate!" Sasuke wanted to bash his face repeatedly against the wall, that was the worst plan he'd ever heard. "That's a terrible idea! We'll be caught for sure!" Sakura fretted but the blond seemed as relaxed as always as he clambered up and over the tall gate, "See! Nothing bad happened! Just admit you're too scared!" he laughed. "I-I'm not scared! It's just not a good idea!"
"Whatever, I'll see you guys inside!" Naruto waved to them as the groups only source of light slowly moved away. "Sakura! Don't!" Ino called out as the pinkette followed Naruto's lead, determined to prove that she wasn't a coward. "Sakura! SAKURA!" it didn't take long for Ino to follow after the pinkette, her rivalry for Sasuke's affections being her main driving point as she hopped the gate.

"Bunch of morons," Sasuke mumbled as it grew increasingly dark. "I don't know if I like your hair like that," he said turning his head to Hanaru, "Are you going to follow them? Or are you scared?" he had more questions than answers and it was driving him insane. Taking to the wall he jumped over, "Hurry up, I have a bet to win," he might not have agreed with the execution of their break in, in fact, it seemed more and more like a hastily thrown together plot that the Uzumaki didn't think through and he hoped that his theory of night guards was just that, a theory and nothing more.
"O.M.G, you guys, this place is so creepy!" Naruto was pointing his phone around, using both it and the flashlight to light up their way, "Sasuke! Hanaru! Hurry up!" he waved them closer.

Unbeknownst to the curious teens making their way to the doors, the darkness watched. The darkness saw it all and kept a close eye on them. The stars silently bearing witness as the dark turned to a stealthy hunter in the moonless sky.
 
"Hey, you said it, not me," Shikamaru said lowly, holding his hands up in a gesture of innocence as he waited for Asuna to climb the wall ahead of him. Of course, it was hard to see in the dark, but he wanted to use the perch up above for a moment to see if he could spot anyone patrolling the grounds through one of the many windows in the main school building. As soon as the ash blond was up and over, Shikamaru followed, his eyes narrowed as he briefly swept the yard. Nothing. That didn't mean that there wasn't someone there. Either they were on the other side of the school building and the grounds, or they had already been spotted and they were in hiding. That being said, there was a much higher probability of it just being whoever was patrolling was currently on the other side of the building. Dropping down besides Asnua silently, Shikamaru watched blankly as she took his hand in hers. Why did his cheeks get so hot when she did that? They held hands all the time as children. He'd even said he didn't mind, and yet the Nara was grateful for the cover of darkness to hide his uncool blush. It was just... he wasn't used to the action anymore--he'd have to re-get used to it again. Yeah, that was it!
"As if you could ditch me," Shikamaru lowly responded, a teasing glint in his eyes that she could barely make out with the lack of the moon in the sky. As they sneaked through the path, he paid the occasional rustling no mind, seeing as though the school grounds had plenty of wildlife. It was just an animal, and yet Asuna froze. Shikamaru felt her squeeze his hand and suddenly his heart was pounding. Damn adrenaline, kicking in even when he didn't need it. "Come on, let's keep moving," he whispered softly, his eyes narrowed as he tugged on her hand gently. It didn't take much, however, to get her to run for it, and he only jumped slightly at the noises of the night. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were scared..." he grinned, teasing her quietly as they came to the fence of the building that housed the locker rooms, the supposedly haunted bathrooms, and the pool. "Look, no one bothered to close the fence," Shikamaru pointed out a few steps away where the gate was open. Looking around initially, to make sure they really weren't being watched, this time it was Shikamaru's turn to lead them closer toward the building, tugging Asuna behind them as they reached the pool house with ease, and he opened the door as quietly as the heavy metal would allow, letting Asuna go in first before following behind her himself.
"See, now was that so hard?" He refused to bring up his voice so as to disturb the utter quietness of their environment, but he was 98% sure that they were now definitely alone. "Now... don't go doing anything crazy like jumping into the water. If we want to hang out here without getting caught we're totally gonna have to keep it down," Shikamaru mumbled, turning and walking though the main area and towards the pool. He grinned at the cool water, before shooting his smirk in Asuna's direction. Low lights shone in the water for safety, even at night, and he felt the excitement spark through his body anew. They would have to do 'heists' like this more often... "Let's go..." he mumbled, before he began to take off his shirt and his ninja sandals.

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

Hanaru had paid the annoying duo no mind, having no patience to waste on either of Sakura or Ino's possessive antics. She was just returning it, geez. This was why she didn't do "nice" things. It would have saved her a lot grief just having kept it and returning it later when neither nuisance was there to try and interrogate her on it. Thankfully, she didn't have to say anything as Sasuke dismissed them, and Naruto was quick to take her attention as he inserted himself within her "bubble." Her eyes, now a chocolate shade, narrowed at the annoying blonde, raising an eyebrow in challenge.
"What if I did?" she growled, though her voice held no real challenge. The only thing he was doing was making an observation, but she had no reason to be angry at him for just... getting in her personal space like he always did. Naruto was just raised without understanding personal boundaries... he wasn't to blame for that, which was why she blamed Jiraiya. "You look weird," she responded lamely, but otherwise didn't comment on the sudden change. Naruto was quick to dismiss it, so she was hoping the others would follow his lead, or they'd be like Sakura and Ino, who were too busy trying to impress Sasuke with their "bravery" (Hanaru had to hold in a snort on that one) to notice.
"This is so unorganized..." Hanaru muttered in annoyance, watching Naruto, Sakura, and then Ino climb the fence with an unimpressed expression. She could remember the first time she had taken stealth jobs, and even then, as a child, she had been more stealthy than this! Whatever. She swiveled her head to look at Sasuke as he spoke, her eyes widening ever so slightly at his words. He... preferred the unnatural-looking purple shade? She felt something flutter in her stomach, and it was gone just as quickly as it appeared as he taunted her. "Shut up, of course not! They're just making so much noise I don't want to be associated!" she wasn't very far behind him. Where she normally would have easily jumped the wall without needing to touch it, the female hoisted herself up and dropped down on the other side. It was still realitively easy in her human form, just not as seamlessly as she was used to.
"The school is definitely not the creepiest place I've lived in, er... been to," Hanaru corrected herself, having remembered, as a child, living out in an abandoned shrine with her mother. If any place was haunted, that would have been it. That being said, she didn't like not having her normal eyesight or hearing capabilities. Usually, she could see just about 20 feet ahead of her in the dark as if it was in black and white thanks to the demon cat traits, but as a human... well, let's just say the terms "useless" and "weak" came to mind.
 
"Hn, I've seen worse. I use to play hide and seek with my brother in the old family mausoleum," Sasuke commented as he looked around, "What's the creepiest place you've been to?" As they got closer to the lone flashlight, Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto swept his phone slowly around trying to capture more of what he deemed nothing. "What's the hold up?" he was starting to get a little impatient, the ten or so minutes that had gone by felt like hours and they weren't even in the school yet. "Naruto's trying to get a panning shot incase we all die," Sakura said as she tried to rub away a headache, "You'll thank me one day! Just imagine if we go missing! Someone's bound to find the footage and it'll make the best found footage horror movie ever!" Naruto defended as he pocketed his phone and made off to into the darkness. "We're not going to go missing because the ghost isn't real!" Ino said a little forcefully, but there was an odd feeling creeping over them, as if the building itself was alive and watching them.

"Naruto! Wait for us!" Sakura called as the group reluctantly followed after the boy. Sasuke tried his best not to keep glancing at Hanaru, she just looked so different. Tonight though, he was planning on sticking close to the girl, partly because he didn't want Sakura and Ino to hang on him all night, and partly because he was waiting for the right time to strike. For a moment though his focus turned to Naruto, staring confused as the blond started scaling up the wall, the confused and slightly concerned questions by Sakura and Ino permeating the night air. "C'mon! I left the first floor boy's bathroom window unlocked! We can get in through there!" Naruto said excitedly as he climbed up the wall, testing the windows, "What?! I don't want to go into the boys' bathroom!" Ino protested as Naruto found the window he had been searching for and disappearing into the building. Sasuke waited, his breath caught in his throat. Surely the school had an alarm system? With Naruto moving around inside, it would go off right? He waited, but nothing happened. Only the crickets serenading the night sky could be heard before Naruto poked his head out of the window and waved down to them.

This was very curious, has he just gone his entire life believing the school was safe with state of the art security? Maybe the alarm was in the more 'important' areas of the building were the actual records were kept? Focusing his chakra, he too ascended the wall, following the light Naruto was shining down at them. With much grumbling and many complaints later, the Sasuke fanclub followed after him and Hanaru. Neither were going to let her show them up! While Naruto was playing cameraman, Sasuke waited and at least helped the girls into the room. They were already breaking and entering so the last thing the rag tag team needed was for someone to get hurt. "Here," he said as he took a firm hold of Hanaru's arm, pulling her through the window, his other hand slipping around her waist. "Keep an eye on Naruto," he instructed, not that he was worried about the boy...more that he was sure Naruto would end up breaking something. He had to keep himself in check as Ino all but threw herself at him with her arms around his neck, "Get off, Ino-pig!" Sakura fumed as she tried to make her way through the window.

"Wow, I didn't think this place could be any creepier," Naruto mumbled as he looked up and down the hall through his phone's camera. The dark hall seemed to stretch on forever in each direction. So full of life in the sunlight, now nothing but cold emptiness staring back at him. "Hm? Hey, Hanaru do you see that?" for a split second he looked back at her before his face turned to confusion, "Huh? It's gone?" shining the flashlight down the hallway he saw nothing, "It looked like...a floating orb." Clicking through his phone's gallery, he found the video he just took and held his phone so Hanaru could see. It was dim, but there, down the hall in the utter darkness, a dim orb floated in mid air before disappearing through the wall on the left. "W-what do you think it was?" he was a little unsure, a chill crept down his spine. "What's what?" Sakura asked as Sasuke seemed to have been successful in wrestling the girls off of him, the trio joining them. "It...could just be a speck of dust. I've seen it on these ghost hunting shows all the time!" Ino tried to dismiss it, "Yeah but, it wasn't there a minute ago, then it was there all of a sudden and it stayed there before moving through the wall!" Naruto protested, he was sure it wasn't just a speck of dust, "Naruto, I'm sure it's nothing," Sakura tried to reason, after all there could be a very logical explanation for all 'ghost' sightings.

Naruto's protesting didn't get him anywhere as the group started moving down the hall, "Hey-yo! I totally caught a ghost on camera!" Naruto was one of those people that confused Sasuke, one minute he looked like a kicked puppy and the next he had his phone out as if nothing happened. "I'm telling you, my dudes! So the ghost we're looking for is all the way at the back of the school, why do you think we'd see ghostly lights all the way up here? Sasuke?"
The raven haired boy had to swallow his scoff as Naruto pointed the phone at him, "Tch, there's no ghost," he stated simply making the blond pout, his phone panning over to Hanaru, "Neh, Hanaru-chan! What do you think the ghost is doing on this side of the school?" he asked and waited for an answer, but he didn't seem satisfied as he redirected it to Ino, "Maybe she's a fan and wants your number?" the girl teased only to let out a yelp as the classroom door they were passing suddenly creaked loudly. "What was that?! A ghost?!" Naruto had his phone focused on the door that was cracked open slightly. "The wind, probably? Someone must not have closed the windows properly," Sasuke said as calmly as he could, approaching the door and pushing it open fully.

It was the biology room. Taking Naruto's flashlight, Sasuke stepped inside. It was oddly musty inside, the flashlight bouncing off of the various jars containing all sorts of parts and pickled dead creatures. The chairs were neatly arranged on top of the desks and in the far back the shadows moved. Panning the light over, Sasuke could hear a sigh of relief, whether it was from Naruto or one of the girls, he couldn't tell. "See, just the wind." he said as he moved to the back of the class where a curtain was fluttering. "There wasn't any wind when we were outside though," Sakura said quietly beside Hanaru, "And the window wasn't open when we were outside, right?" It was too dark to have actually noticed if the window was open from the courtyard and with the lack of proper lighting, it was even harder to recall. "These things are even creepier than in the day," Naruto said looking over the anatomy models that lined the teacher's desk, "Is it just me or is it kind of chilly in here?"
"The window was open, what do you expect?" Gazing out of the now closed window, Sasuke almost swore he saw someone standing under the the old courtyard tree, but the shadow was gone in a blink of an eye.

"Sasuke? Are you ok?" Ino called taking a step in his direction. There was a sudden snapping noise. It was artificial, like plastic and everyone's heads snapped to the front of the classroom. The head on the female anatomy model was snapped to the side, the hollow right eye socket staring at Ino. "That's not funny, Naruto!" Sakura scolded, "It wasn't me!" the boy retorted, the blood draining from his face. Another sickening snap filled the room as the male model's head turned to face Sakura, a loud yelp leaving Naruto as he had his phone pointed at the models. Sasuke wasn't easily scared, but his guard was fully up now. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end as he approached the models with his flashlight trained on them. Aside from the chakra of the group, he couldn't sense anyone else there aside from them. There must have been some sort of explanation for this, "One of you must have touched them," he said panning the light over them all, fixing it on Hanaru a little longer. Even with the window closed, the room seemed to become colder. The flashlight flickered; once, twice...then the light died. "GAH!" there was a girly shriek as the darkness engulfed them. "The batteries must have died," Sasuke was calm, he didn't put it past Naruto to have forgotten to insert new ones. Reaching in his pocket he brought out his phone, the white light did a much better job then the old flashlight. "Sasuke!" Sakura gasped, her face contorted into a look of terror and he quickly turned. The skeleton model that was stationed in the corner, was now casually leaning over him. The models on the table seemed to have all fully turned to face each of them.

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"I'm not scared, I just don't like those sounds," Asuna huffed as she followed after Shikamaru, her face burning red. She wasn't going to admit that disembodied animal noises were unsettling in the dark, even if she knew which animals they belonged to. "Ugh, probably some juniors who half assed on cleanup duty," she said as they passed through the fence. Most people didn't like being stuck with cleanup duty on this side of the school, it was a pretty large and open area and the slightest rustle of the trees could undo all of their hard work. That, and most students that were 'punished' with cleaning the pool area were usually the most unruly and impatient ones. Making sure to give it a once over, cracking open a window or two as an emergency escape, Asuna scoffed, "Well damn, and here I was going to show off my epic diving skills," she said mockingly, keeping her voice down as she unpacked the towels for when they needed them.

Following suit with much enthusiasm, Asuna discarded her sandals, pausing slightly as she pulled down her shorts. A warm feeling bloomed over her face as she couldn't stop her eyes from wandering over the boy. No matter how much she tried to relive what they had as kids, there was no mistaking that they weren't six anymore. Even in the low blue light, she could see his lean figure. Sure, he wasn't bursting at the seams with hard muscle, but the years of training was evident. Mentally shaking the thoughts away she folded up her shorts, "Yeah, it's a little cold at first, but you get use to it pretty quick," she stifled a giggle seeing his face as he tested the water. Pulling her her shirt over her head, the blonde wondered if she shouldn't have kept it on, feeling oddly more exposed in the one piece than she ever did in Ino's awful bikini and even more so than when she did this by herself in the buff.

She couldn't help the sharp gasp as she lowered herself completely into the water, ever fibre of her being jolting awake as she fully submerged in the cold water. "Summer's the best time, but this isn't so bad," she breathed out swimming around in little circles. It was a weightless feeling, so freeing as if nothing existed outside of this moment in the water. "Hey," she called softly, swimming over to him, her dull green eyes now full of mischief as she reached for his ponytail, "No guys around to show up," she teased tugging at the hair tie. Once it was loose she drifted away, swimming to the far side of the pool to get use to the cold water.
 
Hanaru didn't feel like she needed to train while in her human form, considering most nights when the new moon cast the night time deeper into shadow, she spent the entirety of it holed up in wherever she happened to be sleeping. No going out. No showcasing her one major vulnerability for the entire world to see... so basically the opposite of what she was doing right now. That being said, she never had to focus hard to pull chakra to her will. It came naturally to her--it was easy. So the fact that her face was actually starting to sweat from the concentration was making her concerned as she followed behind Sasuke. Maybe this whole trip and awful experience would be useful, as in allowing her to realize that her weak human form needed better training in order to protect herself while a weak, defenseless human.
She begrudgingly took Sasuke's offered hand to help her in through the window, and she would have complained about how she could easily do so herself, if it weren't for how hard she was focusing durin this whole human mess. Her angered state, however, melted as she was suddenly acutely aware of where the Uchiha's hands were as he helped pull her into the boy's bathroom, and she blinked in mild surprise as once again their faces were quite close together. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she felt her cheeks heat up as he told her to watch Naruto. Rolling her eyes, she muttered a semi loud "Yes dad," under her breath as she moved out to follow Naruto in the hallway, more than happy to leave Sasuke to deal with Sakura and Ino by himself as she followed the yellow blonde and tried to avoid thinking about the weird feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Something was messing with them, but exactly what it was, the female couldn't be too sure. "Oi, stop trying to Blaire Witch yourself in the corner, Sasuke..." she growled lowly at Sasuke as he looked out the window and onto the lawn. Naruto wasn't doing as well, his vlogging quickly becoming annoying. "Maybe it thinks you look tasty, Naruto," she stated with a blank expression, before raising an eyebrow at him to challenge him to say more, only for him to turn to the girls for an explanation.
Something was trying to mess with them, but what? Another downside of the "weak, defenseless human" time was that not only were her senses dulled, but that her senses were dulled! Yes, it was important so I had to state it that way. It felt like someone had stuffed cotton into her ears. "Well... that's something you don't see everyday...." Hanaru muttered under her breath as she looked to the newly positioned skeleton figurine that had appeared behind Sasuke. "Oi, don't you have better things to do?" Turning to the others with an unimpressed expression, she crossed her arms under her chest and growled lightly. It was pretty hypocritical of her to say ghosts weren't real, but... well, she didn't exactly think they were. "I bet it's someone who overheard out conversation and thought I'd be reeeeaaally funny to try and scare us," she stated plainly. "And when I get my hands on them...." her hand instinctively traveled to the wakizashi strapped to her back.

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"Yeah, whatever you say," Shikamaru teased her with a smirk--he'd never get tired of that annoyed look on her face. Some stray thought ran through his brain at that idea, down a dangerous rabbit hole that he didn't intend to follow. There was no way he was thinking about that now, on the verge and in the midst of their super secret heist. Bringing himself back to the present, he shook his head lightly at her childishness. "Or, it's just a racket caused by a bunch of animals--the lawns are big enough to have small animal habitats and biomes. They mostly live off of cafeteria leftovers which is why they're so fat, and why they make so much noise." He couldn't help but chuckle at his own words, remembering a time when he had seen a rather... ahem... obese squirrel heavily weighing down a decently thick tree branch.
The pool was quiet and lowly lit, but still lit enough to where they could see and swim in peace. As Shikamaru turned around, looking Asuna after he had discarded whatever clothes he didn't want to get get wet (so, everything but his swim shorts), he couldn't help but find his eyes trailing to her figure. He couldn't lie to himself--he much preferred the one piece swimsuit, considering how much the woman in their grade liked to parade their bodies off as much as they could (most of the time just because they knew that Sasuke was going to be there). One could leave things to the imagination, and it would still be incredibly attractive. Wait, did that mean that he found Asuna incredibly attractive? His own brain put him on full halt, and he reasoned with himself, knowing all the while Asuna was probably speaking to him and he wasn't responding due to the brief mental crisis. Wanting to shake his head and run the image out of his head as quickly and as efficiently as he could.
"Y-yeah, cold. Got it..." he needed the cold right now, as he cursed himself for stuttering before he had even gotten in the cold, clear water. Moving to the edge, Shikamaru dipped himself in sideways, letting out a light gasp as the cool water caused goosebumps to trail up and down his spine as he slowly got used to the feeling. As he was distracted, however, he failed to notice Asuna swimming closer until she was tugging at his pony tail. Shooting her an unimpressed look as his hair fell down around him, he sighed and gave in, dunking his head underwater and swimming over towards the ash blonde. He popped up next to her, making sure to splash her a bit as he did so. "Who ever said I was always the one showing other people up?" he teased back, blinking innocently at her.
 
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Asuna wiped the water from her eyes, glaring slightly at the boy. Bringing up her hands she made sure to splash at him in retaliation, "Looking like that, you might convert some of the Sasuke fangirls, maybe not the die hard ones, but enough to have your own little gaggle." A hand came up to cover her mouth as she started laughing at the thought of Shikamaru being followed around by a group of girls all vying for this attention. "Who knows, maybe you'll like that," biting at her lip the blonde tried to hide her grin knowing how uncomfortable that would end up being. That was at least one thing she granted the Uchiha, the fact that he had been putting up with his little fan club for as long as she could remember. He must have developed nerves of steel over the years. Despite how funny the idea sounded at first, it quickly filled her with an uncomfortable feeling. Some girls could be so shallow, not all of them, but she'd seen her fair share of Sasuke fangirls who only liked him because he was Sasuke Uchiha and that name alone was all they cared about. Joining a family with such high prestige and being the next Mrs. Uchiha was all some really wanted. Others just liked him for his looks, not that he was that good looking to begin with. He wasn't ugly by any means, his personality was what made him so unpleasant.

"Hn, I almost feel sorry for the guy, almost. Can you imagine it though? Having legions of girls throwing themselves at you?" Asuna was drifting on her back, staring up at the roof, completely relaxed. "Marry me, Shikamaru!" she brought a hand up to her face dramatically, "No! Marry me instead! I have a shirt with your face on it!" She tried to keep her voice down, but every now and again it was a little louder than she intended as most of her concentration was on trying to keep herself floating while making dramatic poses. "But I have pictures of you in my room! I even printed it on a full body pillow! Smooch! Smooch!" she would have continued but with all the moving she'd lost her balance and the water claimed her. It felt like she was being pulled under, like two arms were weakly holding her down as she sunk down to the bottom of the pool. The chlorine water burned her eyes, but she didn't dare close them, staring up at the view from halfway down.
If she could, she would have stayed down there, cradled in the arms of the water like a bygone lover. If she was alone, she'd try to stay down until her lungs couldn't take it anymore and she was forced to the surface, but tonight she wasn't.

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Sasuke poked the skeleton with the dead flashlight, "I still think it's one of you," he muttered as the plastic skeleton seemed about as lifeless as...well...a plastic skeleton. "Why do you think it's us?! What if it's you!" Naruto accused, not having put his phone down once "You've been awfully calm this whole time and you were standing in the corner over there for a long time. Very suspicious if you ask me!" the blond narrowed his eyes as he eyed the raven haired male. "Do I look like a prankster? Take your flashlight, the batteries died," he tossed the light at Naruto and the moment the blond caught it, it sputtered back to life. Tch, it must have been one of those dumb overly sensitive cheap pieces of crap, Sasuke thought as he walked out of the classroom. "Do I look like a prankster? Stupid Sasuke trying to scare us," Naruto grumbled. "Are you in on it too, Hanaru?" he asked, "Or are you on his side too?"
"Psst, hey, what if we teamed up? Me and you? We can scare the pants off of him, what do ya say?" he wasn't even trying to hide the foxy grin on his face.

"Sasuke! Sasuke wait for us!" Sakura called as she hurried out of the classroom, but stopped just outside the door looking up and down the hall, "Sasuke, where'd you go?"
"Probably to get as far away from you, especially after that scream!" Ino laughed, but she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling still resting on her shoulders. "What are you talking about, Ino, I didn't scream! You're the on who screamed!" Sakura retorted, placing a hand on her hip. "Who cares who screamed? Let's go get the ghost!" Naruto was all too quick to change the subject as he pulled Hanaru out of the classroom after him, his arm still around her shoulder. "Hey, Sasuke! Wait up!" he called as they walked into the hall, but there was no height nor hair of the young Uchiha. "Maybe he's nursing his ego after getting scared," the blond snickered quietly as not to evoke the wrath of the Ino-Saku duo, who looked very concerned. He couldn't have gotten too far, the hallway was only that long, which was probably why the duo seemed so worried as they couldn't see the light from his phone down either way. "Do you think something happened to him?" Sakura asked but Naruto just shrugged it off, who's to say he wasn't hiding in the classroom waiting to jump scare them when they walked by?

Sasuke on the other hand was strolling down the hallway, it seemed darker than it was when first came down it and the light if his phone wasn't helping a lot. He kept walking though, the hallway was longer than he remembered and glancing back he couldn't see the others. Were they still hanging out in the biology classroom? Turning around he walked back the way he came he reached the class, but there were still no sign of the others its as if they just vanished into thin air. "Hey, losers, shake a leg. I don't want to be here all night!" he called opening the classroom door. The class was dark, the chairs all neatly turned over and stacked on the tables, but there was no sign of the the four party members. Taking a look around all the biology models were back in their proper places, the sight made him somewhat annoyed, "Very funny, Naruto," he called out but there was no answer. In a huff he left the room, stalking down the hallway, just where did they disappear to? It's not like they could have gotten far, the hallway was only that long and there were only so many classrooms down this way. He was sure they were right behind him! As he walked he checked the classrooms as he passed them, but they were all locked.
 
Shikamaru was glaring right back at Asuna, obviously not letting her mischievousness go unretaliated as she splashed him back. Swimming out of range before she could splash him further (and start a war that Shikamaru would be sure to finish) the male knit his eyebrows as she giggled at his looks with his hair down and in his way. “That would be such a drag,” he whined, already bemoaning the fate that she foresaw without it even needing to happen. He couldn’t imagine being popular like that. Sure, it stroked a guy’s ego if he had a gaggle of women falling at his feet and following him around, and Shikamaru was no different, but he knew… he just KNEW he’d get sick of it if it lasted for longer than five minutes. And he also knew that’s why Asuna was giggling. Although the words that she used certainly wasn’t lost on him, and despite the glare sent in her direction, he couldn’t help but smirk confidently. Swimming back toward her, he rose an eyebrow as he spoke, “based on what you’re saying, is that you think I’m attractive with my hair down?” He snickered as he got close to her face, confidence blossoming in his chest as he couldn’t help but tease her. “Is that what you’re saying, hanh, Asuna?” He backed up as she spoke again about Sasuke’s fangirls and he couldn’t help but cringe. “Yeah, no thanks I think I’ll pass on the fangirl department.” Shikamaru was both cringing and shivering at the thought—that was absolutely the last thing that he wanted.

”I don’t feel bad for him, he acts so stuck up all the time,” Shikamaru shifted in the water so he was floating on his back, his hair acting like a black halo that surrounded his face. It was a lot softer than most people thought, considering its naturally spiky nature. “All that weird waifu/husbando crap really freaks me out,” he muttered under his breath, glaring at the ceiling before he rolled his eyes, watching Asuna sink after her manic episode pretending to be a fangirl. He could help but think, as he watched her blurry figure underwater… that if Asuna was his fangirl it wouldn’t be so bad. BUT! That wasn’t who she was, and for that, he was grateful. He rolled his eyes again when Asuna took forever to come back up, and it wasn’t until it had been slightly too long to be comfortable that Shikamaru spun and dove down, reaching for her arm and taking her back up to the surface with him. His hands rested on her shoulders as he offered her a semi-annoyed glare, but if she looked close enough, the ash blonde could see the concern he held for her in the way that his gaze scanned her form, as if checking for some sort of physical injury. “Geez, don’t do that, you tryin’ to scare me?”

As if in response to his question, a noise sounded from outside of the pool, and Shikamaru turned his head, his eyes narrowed. It sounded as though the noise had emanated from the locker room, but he wasn’t one hundred percent positive merely because it was a sound he hadn’t initially been listening for. “What do you suppose that was…?” he asked quietly, as if nervous to break the tension. In his intensity to listen for whatever was making sound, Shikamaru hadn’t realized that he had instinctively pulled Asuna closer to his form, as if trying to protect her with the two of them tread water in the middle of the pool.


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Hanaru narrowed her eyes at Sasuke as Naruto made his accusations. After all, it wans’t exactly unlikely—she had made a bet with him, after all. One that she didn’t intend to lose, so why wouldn’t he try to mess with them? She watched as the flashlight flickered back to life in Naruto’s hands and the blonde freaked out, holding it away from himself as if it was contagious with some sort of disease. Hanaru felt Sasuke’s gaze on her and she shrugged at Naruto’s inquisitions. “Do I look like I care enough to plan this far ahead for something so stupid?” she asked him blankly, the only shift in her expression being a slightly raised eyebrow. However, when the blonde asked her if she wanted to help him scare Sasuke, she followed him out of the classroom, shrugging. “If you set up the trap, I’m sure I can pull something off,” she muttered under her breath. Naruto looked absolutely pleased with this answer, his grin nothing short of devilish as he seemed to plan whatever prank he was planning mentally. Hanaru rolled her eyes—Sasuke was going to kick his ass.

Once outside of the classroom, the female blinked, looking around for Sasuke as Sakura asked where he was and Ino bickered. “Shut up, do you want whoever’s on guard to hear both of your screeching?!” Hanaru hissed, her lip curling back, though the blunt human teeth were less convincing than her usual sharpened canines. “Ugh, just shut up, he probably walked down the hall. You can exist without pretty boy for more than five seconds. He can’t have gotten far.”

”You be quiet Hanaru, Sasuke stood up for you today!” Sakura growled, a pointed finger directly in between her eyes as she blinked.

”Yeah! You owe him!” Ino glared, and Hanaru had to refuse the urge to snicker. Apparently the online time they could agree with each other was when they were both against her defending “their” Sasuke. Geez, what did they even see in the guy? Thinking back to the earlier events of the day, Hanaru couldn’t help but remember how close their faces had gotten, and the compliments (however back-handed they were) he had given her. Biting her lip, she felt a light heat rise to her cheeks, and she shook her head to try and clear it off, thankful for the darkness. What the hell was wrong with her?! Maybe she needed to see Tsunade again…

”Grr… I knew it! Sasuke is just trying to scare us! Well, I’m not going to let him!” Naruto stated confidently, marching off down the hallway in one direction.

”Naruto, wait for us!!” Ino whisper-yelled, nervously looking at the tall dark hallways as she and Sakura sped to catch up, still bickering as the went. Hanaru merely rolled her eyes and followed, but they rounded the corner before she did, and when she got there… no one was there. It was as though Naruto, Sakura, and Ino had all disappeared out of thin air like Sasuke seemed to when exiting the bio room.

”Oh great, they’re all in on it…” Hanaru muttered under her breath, glaring into the distance at nothing angrily. She had half a mind to go home. What if Mizuki found her here by herself? Or any other Jonin who wasn’t confident with her loyalty to Konoha? Would she be killed on sight? It did look rather suspicious, her wandering the halls at night.
 
"Cut the crap, Naruto," Sasuke said as he checked the last door in the hallway and just like all the others, it too was locked. The white light of his phone barely lit up two feet in front of him and it seemed to grow slightly more dim. Stalking down the hall, he turned the corner and made his way to the stairs and tested the doors on his way there. Surprisingly, the very last door seemed unlocked, which he cautiously pushed open. There was always the possibility that this was Naruto's doing, but then again, this seemed a little too advanced to be one of his pranks. Ugh, Hanaru must be in on it, he thought to himself as he stepped through the door, only to find himself back in the beginning of the hallway they had all started at. Turning around he grabbed at the door, but it seemed locked from the inside, "If this is your idea of a prank, it's lame you know!" he called out, though the darkness didn't carry his voice at all, it almost seemed to fall flat the moment the words left his mouth. Stomping down the hall once more, he could almost hear Hanaru and Naruto cackling in a corner at how they were 'pranking' him and how he must be 'so scared', well jokes on them! He was going to give both of them a good beating when he found them.

As he reached the biology room once more, it was still the only open room in the hall, the door creaking open as he neared it. Tch, like he was going to walk in there, maybe this way a little above Naruto's mantle to pull off, but who else then? Hanaru was a powerhouse, but was she capable of this? "Sasuke!" he stopped and looked back at the biology room, someone had called out to him, or was he just imagining it? Turning, he kept walking, ignoring the cries from the room, but as he turned the corner...he stepped right back into the beginning of the hallway. THe hair on the back of his neck was standing on end, what was going on? Staring down the hall, the bio lab door opened invitingly, literally calling to him. Well, he knew which way he wasn't going, as he turned the other way, going back, this time managing to reach the stairs, but as he descended down to the ground floor he stepped out on the first floor landing. "What is this?" he demanded, his tone broadcasting the annoyance that was bubbling inside of him. "Ghost my ass, who's out there?!" he yelled lifting his phone and looking up and down the hall, but his source of light was fading and he could barely see his own hand in the dim light, "Naruto!" he called out and from the biology room a distant voice answered him with a "Sasuke!" but it wasn't the blond's voice. "Hanaru!" he called out, walking straight for the door, "Sasuke!" the voice answered back, but it wasn't Hanaru's voice either. He knew the voice, but he couldn't think of a face or name to go with it at the moment.

Stepping through the classroom door, the chairs were still as they were; stacked neatly on the tables. The air was still musty and thick, but in the back of the class stood a shadow, only barely visible as the curtains of the window in the far back fluttered around the figure. "You're the one doing all of this," he stated as he glared at them, they didn't move. The figure remained motionless, shrouded in darkness and if Sasuke hadn't been in here earlier he wouldn't have even noticed the out of place shadow in the dark. "I'm talking to you!" at his words the shadow dissipated, bursting into the surrounding darkness. A light, almost feather like touch grazed his arm, as a disembodied voice whispered his name quietly in his ear. Running out into the hall, determined to catch who or whatever was toying with him, and maybe beat the crap out of them for having the gall to pull something like this on him, he chased it down the hall. As he rounded the corner and ran down the stairs, he found himself right back at the start of the hallway. "Damn it!" he seethed through his teeth, spotting a shadow moving down the hall. His hands were quick, forming the seals, "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" fire poured from his mouth, shooting straight down the hall and chasing away the darkness, albeit temporarily, as the flames licked the walls and ceiling from one end of the hall to the other.


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Hanaru found herself in a very similar situation. The hallway stretched out in front of her and no matter how many times she tried to walk down it, it seemed to circle her right back to where she had started. The hall seemed so short, she could just about make out the end of it, but despite walking straight and breaking into a speed walk, the distance never closed as if she was walking in place. Looking back though, she had at least covered half the distance, but that couldn't be right. At the brisk pace she should have reached the end of the hall and rounded the corner where Naruto and the two Sasuke crazed girls disappeared. Trying the classroom doors, it was no surprise they were locked, the windows were next but oddly enough their latches seemed to be missing. "Hanaru," a voice so soft and distant whispered in her ear, the cold breath of whoever it was licked at her skin delicately. There was no presence behind her though, no physical being when she turned to confront them with annoyance.

The door to the biology lab creaked open, "Over here," a light feminine voice becomes her from inside, followed quickly by the booming voice of the Uchiha boy, "Naruto! Hanru!" coming from inside the classroom. He sounded pissed off, but it could also be a trap. This wasn't her first rodeo, so she proceeded with caution, ready to strike as she entered the room. It was just as they had left it, well, the models at least, all turned to stare at the door. The chairs were upturned on the tables and there was a thick musty odor. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but just because you couldn't see the enemy didn't mean they weren't there. Suddenly a wall of flames burst through the hallway, roaring past the open door and flashing the room with a quick burst of light.

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"Hey-y-yo! It's me, y-ya boi!" Naruto had been wandering the halls for what felt like hours, "Th-this was a bad idea!" he said as he held the camera to his face, "You guys saw that freaky shit in the classroom, but then Sasuke disappeared! Then Hanaru, oh man you guys, I- I was walking down the hall for hours and Sakura and Ino disappeared!" he couldn't help the slight quiver in his voice. One minute everyone was there, and the next he was all alone walking through an endless loop of the same hallway. "I didn't think it would end this way!" he was huddled in the bathroom that they entered the school in, no matter which way he went, everything stayed the same, he even tried going through a window but none of them would budge or break for that matter! "I'm all alone, in the boys bathroom...this is how I die!" There was a quiet squeaking noise, the squeaking of faucets, as they slowly turned and the sound of water echoed off of the walls and down the hall. "Naruto-kun," a soft voice spoke in his ear as a cold hand touched his shoulder.

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Asuna chose not to answer Shikamaru at first, she wouldn't deny that as far as guys went he was somewhat attractive, but for some reason it felt almost like a taboo to say it out loud. Staring up through the water she could feel her face heat up, he might have just been teasing her, but the look he had in his eyes made her chest flutter. Could she possibly, maybe even just a little, actually like him? She was pondering on this idea, ignoring the burning in her lungs as she tried to come to a more solid conclusion other than 'maybe'. Watching the distorted water rippling above her as the water held her suspended above the floor and below the surface, her eyes having gotten use to the burning chlorine infused water though her vision wasn't any clearer. Clearly enough though, she could see Shikamaru diving down to her, his face scrunched up as his hands grabbed at her. All too soon she was dragged up to the surface, much to the joy of her lungs as she gasped in the fresh air, though it was also to the displeasure of her mind as she had yet to come to the end of her reasoning.

The grip on her shoulders were firm, "Hm, I could have stayed down longer," Asuna muttered her eyes glued to his as he scanned her over, "Maybe, didn't think you'd worry that much. You must really care," she teased but all playfulness disappeared as a loud noise echoed through the enclosed area. For a second time that night her body was on high alert, her head turned towards the locker rooms as the gears in head turned to try and figure out what could have made that noise. "We opened some of the windows, could be an animal that found its way in," she whispered, her hands resting on his chest as he pulled her closer. All of her focus was on trying to find a logical reasoning for the noise that their position went right over her head. There was a loud clang above them, making her snap her head up. Sure, the roof made sounds as the metal cooled down during the night, but she'd gotten use to that sound. This. This was not that sound. A loud scream rattled through the night, but it was distant, perhaps from the main building? Either way it was enough to make her heart hammer against her chest.

There was a loud creak as the change room door swung open, a black figure stumbled out, but was clearly startled at the sight of them as it let out a yelp in surprise. Asuna froze, eyes wide, as the black figure pointed a finger at them suddenly, "Shikamaru! Asuna! What the hell are you guys doing here?!" it took a minute for the voice to register and Asuna felt...disappointed? It wasn't as bad as being caught by a teacher, but their mission was a bust, just as she was enjoying herself too. The figure decked out in all black removed their mask and Kiba looked at them both annoyed and curious. "Ugh, here I was hoping it was a murderous ghost or something...but it's just you," she sighed tilting her head as she tried to calm her racing heart down, resting her forehead on Shikamaru's shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean?" the brunette huffed before really taking in the sight he was seeing, "Am I interrupting something...steamy?" he wiggled his eyebrows at them and Asuna could feel her face flush as Kiba looked much too smug for his own good. Taking note of the position they were in, what with Shikamaru's arm around her, holding her tight and her hands on his chest. Huh, a very naked chest. It was a revelation that only deepened the blush on her face as she glared at Kiba.
 
Hanaru was unconvinced that there was really a ghost in the building, but without any of her heightened senses... well, needless to say she was more than a little on edge. The more she walked, the less distance she seemed to travel, and that wasn't right at all. Poor thing, if she did have her normal abilities, she would have known how much the hallways absolutely reeked of dog. Not only that but her weakest ability--genjutsu detection/creation/release would have at least been strong enough to remind her that there are perfectly logical explanations for everything that was going on inside the school. The culprit would have been easy to find! She could see in the dark for 15 meters! But no.
Instead she was stumbling around through the dark, grasping at shadows and beginning to wonder which was going to go first: her sanity, or her life. She shivered as a voice whispered in her ear, her now-dark brown gaze narrowing as she turned rapidly, as if trying to spot the offensive individual. "Okay, when I figure out who's messing with me, I will murder them... no holds barred, I don't care what happens to me for doing it!" she growled under her breath, continuing onward until finally she appeared to be back at the biology lab. Hearing Sasuke's voice right after the ghost, Hanaru whipped around to go give him a piece of her mind, turning towards the door. However, she had to throw herself back as a wall of flames--one that she recognized as probably being the onyx haired male's fire release, roared past the open door, nearly singing her nose.
Once the danger of being burned to a crisp was gone, Hanaru peaked her head out of the door. "Oi, dumbass! What do you think you're doing, you could have roasted me alive!!" she yelled, spotting the onyx haired teen. Stepping out of the classroom, the glare on her features refused to leave as she crossed her arms under her chest, stalking up to him. "You have some nerve, disappearing and then trying to scare me like that--I thought you had more honor than that! Disappearing, geez," she quickly turned away, not allowing him to see her face as she bit her lip slightly. "Making me think you had really been abducted by some dumb ghost... you're so annoying."

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Shikamaru gave Asuna an annoyed, raised eyebrow, before turning his attention back to the noise that had come from the locker rooms. Surely they hadn't been discovered by whoever was patrolling? They had been fairly careful and quiet, although he supposed one only had to look in to see them swimming. It was hardly an offense, just a break of curfew. It's not like they were doing anything... unsavory... in the pool. Sighing, Shikamaru shook his head in disbelief as a familiar brunette took off a black mask. What was he doing at the school so late at night?
"I should be asking you the same question," Shikamaru stated poignantly, his expression quickly turning annoyed. He and Kiba were friends, yes, but that didn't make the male any less of an idiot around literally everyone. "Yeah, no murderous ghost. You actually believe in that superstitious garbage?" Shikamaru wasn't sure which idea was more stupid, but he supposed that would have to wait for another time. Especially considering Kiba had taken that exact opportunity to be... well, the only way the Nara could describe it was that Kiba was being Kiba. He'd acted that way ever since they were children. He was a good guy, at heart, but sometimes the things that spewed from his mouth was just utter garbage.
"Oh, I'm sorry, would you not protect Hinata if you thought there was some weirdo trying to scare your team?" Shikamaru quipped, raising an eyebrow at the offender and his dumb words, oblivious to Asuna's embarrassment.
"W-Well, of course I wou--"
"Then why do you gotta be like that, man?" Shikamaru groaned, letting Asuna go. "What even are you doing here? And why are you dressed like that?" Though he asked, the male ran a hand through his freed hair as he mulled over the possibilities. Coming to his own conclusion before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "... you totally convinced Naruto to come here at night and are currently messing with him... right?"
"Bingo," Kiba's smirk was signature, as he placed his hands on his hips. "But I also wanted to come see this "so-called" ghost for myself. Looks like it was just the two of you getting cute in the pool."
Shikamaru was unimpressed, but he was doing an excellent job of hiding his blush, if it weren't for the slight blushing on the tips of his ears. "Shut up--even if I did explain it to you, you wouldn't understand. Dumbass."
"Whatever you say~!"
 
"What? No, of course I didn't really think there was a ghost," Asuna hissed at Shikamaru, she would have splashed at him if it weren't for the suggestive tone in Kiba's voice. She took to glaring at the brunette who was staring down at them, despite the heat radiating from her face. She could already see outcome of this, by tomorrow rumors would have already spread and for the next few days or weeks there would be gossip and teasing remarks, at least until the next big scoop floods the grapevine. The last thing she worried about was what the gossip would entail, she knew the truth, they weren't doing anything bad or wrong in her eyes. In the long run though, it would just end up being annoying. All she could hope for was that it was just a quick flare, a day or two, before they all moved on and found something else to talk about.

Putting a little distance between them, Asuna sunk down into the water with only her eyes remaining on the surface as she looked up at the intruder. Her brows furrowed as she blew bubbled in the water. If Kiba was here, did that mean...Shino and Hinata were here too? Who else? She didn't have to ponder long as a high pitched screams echoed from the main building, one of which was definitely Ino. "Aw, don't look so down, Asu," Kiba teased watching as she all but glared at the water, "I'll let you guys get back to, eheh, doing your thing. I bet a nice kiss would make things better?" this was some grade-A material that would last him for a good long while. "Did Hinata come here too? And Shino?" Asuna asked making Kiba's teasing grin falter a bit, she wasn't responding like he wanted them too, "Believe it or not, it was Shino's idea. Yeah, Naruto might have gotten under his skin a little," he couldn't help but chuckle.

That's all she needed to hear, ugh, the night wasn't turning out like it should have. Disappearing under the water she swam to the nearest wall and hoisted herself out. She didn't say much as she walked around to where she'd set out the towels. "I'm just teasing you know," Kiba said quickly, it wasn't his intention to make either of them angry with him, he just wanted to have some harmless fun! "Your team's here. That was Ino up there and the only way she'd come out here this late, is if Sasuke was here...which means Sakura's here too. Ugh, that's too many variables we didn't account for," she said taking a seat on the benches, "If Choji's here then that's almost three whole teams running around." She watched the water slowly pool around her, whoever was on guard was probably aware of all of them, but why they hadn't been confronted yet was an unsettling mystery.
"Where's your sense of adventure? Stop being so boring and live a little!"
Asuna's expression didn't change as she draped her towel over her shoulders, though water still clung to her skin. Something felt...off, she couldn't place a finger on it, but there was just something terribly, terribly wrong.
"Get her good, man, but don't get too wild," the brunette gave Shikamaru a toothy grin.

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

Sasuke stopped dead in his tracks as Hanaru stepped out of the biology lab, was she real though? He'd been walking around in a never ending hallway all night with disembodied voices calling out to him from that accursed classroom. "You're the ones who disappeared," he said narrowing his dark eyes, walking slowly around her, "When I turned around, none of you were there. It was just me and this dumb hall." Without warning he grabbed her arm and pinned her to the wall. He expected her to disappear or something, but...her form was solid and warm against his. After all the weird things that had been going on that night, he could be forgiven for thinking this was all part of the illusion. Well, expected or not, at least now he actually caught one of the culprits, "Don't act so innocent with me," he growled in her ear, his hands pinning her arms, "You and Naruto need to cut this shit out." She was warm against him, he could hear her steady breathing in the dark, for a moment he thought back at just how close they had been that day, but this must have been the closest they'd ever gotten outside of sparring. The thought almost had him choking on air as he quickly let her go, thankful that the darkness was still thick around them. Ugh, what was with all of these stupid thoughts? And that feeling in his stomach?

He wanted to say that none of this was his doing, but all that left his mouth was an indigent little 'uh', which only made his face flare up even more. Sasuke was a damn Uchiha, not a silly little schoolgirl, damn it! "Tch, come on," he tried to pull himself together as he took hold of her arm, "I'm not letting you out of my sight until I've given Naruto a piece of my mind." The light of his phone barely helped against the dark, but the battery was still full. Everything was as bright as it could get and he still couldn't see anything. Silently he hoped it would all be fine now that he had at least one of his two suspects in hand. As they rounded the corner though...he was somewhat relieved to see the hallway continuing on instead of starting him right at the beginning again. "Hm, looks like things are taking a turn for the better," he smirked in Hanaru's direction triumphantly, not that either of them could really see much. When he heard how she'd been stuck walking the same hallway for so long, he started to wonder if they were all just stuck looping around like this, but that would mean that she was truly was innocent. His grip on her arm had relaxed somewhat, he wasn't ready to let go. It was for safety reasons, he told himself.

Even with the darkness nipping their heels, the school was familiar enough to navigate with the dim stream of light. As they walked though, Hanaru could feel a cold presence behind her, a barely there touch of fingers running up her arm and an equally distant "You smell nice," in her ear. It wasn't a feminine voice, no, it almost sounded like the raven haired boy that...was no longer beside her. Sasuke was looking at his phone when he felt something hit him, "What the hell is your problem?" he snapped turning to Hanaru. His eyes grew wide as he looked around. "We were outside. We left the building!" his hand shot out and grabbed at her arm again. He remembered that they left the building, they left through the side door! Why were they back here again?! When did they get back here again?! He pulled Hanaru closer to him, looking around, everything felt different. The air felt thicker, the darkness felt heavy on his shoulders. This couldn't be Naruto's doing, not in the slightest. "Something's not right. Let's just find the others."
"Stay here with me." The fine hairs on the back his neck raised as he felt the tickle of breath against his ear, as the darkness caressed him so dearly. "Show yourself!" he yelled out, but again his voice wasn't carried far into the darkness. There was a scream, distant at first, but it grew louder and louder as the darkness shaped and swirled around them.

"Hanaru! Sasuke!" Naruto came hurtling down the hallway, his footsteps sounded so muted as he barreled right into Hanaru, arms wide open. Surprise flashed across Sasuke's face as Naruto all but lifted Hanaru up into a desperate hug, and for some reason he felt icky. "Hanaru! I'm so glad I found you guys!" Naruto rambled, he was paler than usual, eyes wide as he set the girl down on her feet, "In the bathroom, it was so scary! I couldn't get out, all the faucets were opening by themselves and there was this creepy ghost girl!" he was almost sobbing, but his story sounded odd. It wasn't like anything he nor Hanaru had encountered throughout the night. "Stop crying, idiot. Where's the other two?" Sasuke asked as his phone sputtered to life, illuminating the hallway and casting away the shadows. "I-I don't know! They vanished like you guys! I heard them screaming a while ago. We have to go help them!" Naruto said as he started coming to his senses, having found at least two of his group was quite a relief. "I didn't hear any screaming?" Sasuke quirked his brow, surely if Sakura and Ino had screamed they would have heard it? "Don't look at me like that! I swear! I heard them screaming! You heard them, right Hanaru-chan?" Naruto was looking at her expectantly.
 
Shikamaru grinned, at Asuna briefly, before his calm and collected gaze returned to Kiba's figure. Really? With all of them here, Asuna was right--it was basically three teams running around the place. Of course whoever was on duty was going to notice all of the activity. He sighed--the part that was actually scary was a lot bigger than any sort of ghost--the thing Shikamaru was the most concerned about was: if Kiba's team and the others were all making such a racket... why hadn't the jonin on duty stopped or been seen by any of them? Of course, the ninja community was full of slackers (he would know) but he doubted it was because of carelessness that that they hadn't been "discovered" yet. Whoever was on duty must truly be devious, to let all of them run around like this without going after them... maybe they were waiting for the perfect moment to strike...
When Asuna moved to get out of the pool, Shikamaru followed, shooting Kiba a glare for his teasing remarks. "We were, as you said living a little by swimming here at night," the Nara pointed out with a raised eyebrow, an unimpressed look upon his face as he walked over to where they had left their things, grabbing his own towel and letting the water drip off of his body naturally as he worked on drying his hair first, rubbing the dry cloth over his scalp and squeezing out the water to the best of his ability. He'd need to shower the chlorine off at home, now, considering the operation had been compromised by outlying factors. "My plan was perfect..." he lamented quietly to Asuna as he shook his head in resignation. "Unfortunately, not even I can predict the actions of idiots like Kiba and Naruto. I say you and I slip outta here while the jonin on duty is occupied dealing with the idiots running around in the school."
Too distracted by Kiba's dumb words, Shikamaru didn't share Asuna's same sense of foreboding, instead turning to his attention to their so-called friend and throwing him another unimpressed glare. "Don't you have anything better to do, Kiba? Like spend the night studying to get your grades up? I tank on purpose, but you don't have to try to do that."
"Hey, man, no need to get hurtful and defensive," Kiba once again raised his hands in surrender, shaking his head. "Fine, fine, I'll leave you both alone, jeez." Shikamaru and Kiba were friends, but Kiba could be mouthy and insensitive, so of course Shikamaru loved to take the wind out of his sails when he was being a smartass and that's exactly what the insult was meant to do.

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

"As if--" Hanaru started to complain, mouthing off her go-to strategy in order to "reason" with someone. However, she was cut off as Sasuke grabbed her arm and pinned her to the wall. The currently brunette haired female looked to the Uchiha prodigy with wide brown eyes, feeling her cheeks heating up as she was stunned into silence. His hands were warm--she hated how she noted this unconsciously, and she looked into his dark eyes as he seemed content in deciding that she was not, in fact, someone trying to mess with him. "N-No need to be so rough, dammit...!" she finally stuttered, wincing internally at the slight squeak in her voice in her response. His words sent shivers up and down her spine as he growled, biting her lip as she slid to her default emotion--anger.
"I had nothing to do with any of this! If anyone should be upset it should be me!" she growled back, squirming in his hold as he pressed close to her figure, closer than before outside of fighting. "I like my skin as it is, not charred." She tried to think of something to be mad at him for--literally anything, but Hanaru was speechless as their close proximity startled her stupid. He finally pulled away and she felt herself let out a breath that she hadn't known she had been holding, though she was left confused as Sasuke continued to hold on to her, tugging her along after him. "Fine fine, god..." she muttered under her breath, walking along and trying to ignore the painful tugging in her stomach that she didn't quite understand.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as something whispered in her ear--why did it sound like Sasuke?? Also, speaking of the ravenette, his grip had all but disappeared and he was nowhere to be seen. "What the hell is going on...??!!" she growled loudly. Was that even Sasuke before, then? What was even real anymore? Her head was swimming suddenly--as if she was becoming motion-sick, or like she was whenever she stared at big bodies of water from too-close a distance that triggered her fears of drowning. She couldn't be too sure, but all of this screamed of some sort of Genjutsu. As soon as she thought this, however, Sasuke's grip returned and a blink seemed to pull him back into existence. What the hell was going on indeed! Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she looked around, thoroughly on edge now, if she wasn't already.
As soon as she heard Naruto's call, Hanaru's head tilted towards him and she yelped in shock as he barreled into her, clinging to her form. Naruto was a little bit shorter than she was and let's just say that at the angle he was bent, and the squeezing hug, Hanaru was... well, increasingly uncomfortable. "NARUTO GET OFFA ME," she squirmed, trying to push his head off of her chest. "I didn't hear any scream, now would you let go?! I swear, I'm going to gut the next person that pops out of the dark--!" her voice was shaking slightly as the whole situation just screamed unsettling.
 
"A ghost in the bathroom, huh?" Sasuke had to turn away, seeing Naruto wrapped around Hanaru like that was really rubbing him up the wrong way. "Naruto, let go and tell me what happened!" he was teetering on his breaking point as he grabbed the blond by his shirt collar roughly. Naruto yelped as Sasuke roughly pulled him off of his teammate, "I did! I did!" the blond sputtered, "I shoved the ghost and ran for my life!"
"So, you could touch it? Doesn't sound like a ghost to me then," Sasuke growled, his glare turning from Naruto to the hall before them, "I say we go pay this 'ghost' a visit and get to the bottom of this." With that said, he took Hanaru by the arm again, though not nearly as roughly as he had before. "Ow! You're pinching me!" Naruto said as Sasuke led the two back the way the blond had come, keeping himself between the two. He wasn't distancing them -no, no- he just wanted to keep them from vanishing. He didn't want them to be scheming against him, even though his suspicion of this whole ordeal being their fault had mostly dissipated he just...though it...tch! He didn't need a damn reason to be between them!
"What are we going to do? We can't fight a ghost!" Naruto asked as he squinted in the dark. He'd dropped his flashlight and phone in the bathroom after he got spooked and he was all for just leaving everything there and getting out. If it wasn't for the missing Sakura. Oh and Ino. "I don't there ever was a ghost. I think this was all some elaborate joke played by someone with a death wish," Sasuke said as they trekked down the hall.

Their walk was short, surprisingly so, as the everything seemed back to be normal. There was no looming gloom in the dark and the night didn't seem so infinitely black. The stars twinkled in the night sky just beyond the windows. As they neared the bathroom, soft sniffling could be heard along with hushed talking. Pulling his phone out he quickly stepped into the doorway, the bright white light immediately illuminated the room. On the floor sat Hinata, the quiet Hyuga girl, in a long white yukata with her hands on her face. Crouching in front of her was Shino and Kiba, both trying their best to comfort the crying girl. "So, it's you," Sasuke said as a scowl took over his neutral expression.
"H-Hinata! You're the ghost?!" At Naruto's voice the poor girl only hid her face more. "Did you think this was funny?" The Uchiha only glared down at them, these guys? Seriously? He was done in by this one, that one and the other Naruto?! "What the hell did you do?!" Kiba barked at them as he turned to them.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" the once unstelling eeriness of the dark school was replaced with a more tense mood. "Us?! You guys were creeping around in the dark dressed like that!" Naruto snapped back at the dog nin as the brunette tried to pry Hinata's hands away from her face. Sasuke's eye twitched as he pointed his phone at the thrio, he scoffed as the reason for the quiet sniffles became quite clear. A thin stream of red trickled down the dark haired girl's arm and small stains of red bloomed on the white fabric of her yukata. "We were just having some fun! You're the ones that got violent!" All the blood drained from Naruto's face, "I-I didn't mean to!" now he was knelt down next to her too. "I thought you shoved the 'ghost', Naruto?" Sasuke asked making the blond sputter. He did...but he didn't think he had shoved the girl that hard! "N-no, I-I'm fine!" Hinata said, her voice soft and barely audible as she slowly lowered her hands, "I lo-lost my footing." Aside from the bloody nose, there was a slight bump on her head, even from where Sasuke stood it was clearly visible. "Well, maybe that'll teach you not to go around playing stupid pranks," it sounded harsh and cold, but Sasuke was still salty and growing more bitter with each passing second. How could he have been tricked by these three? They were training to be tracker ninja! Their Genjutsu skills must have been at least sub par, and they still got them? How could those three losers trick him so easily?! Was he just that terrible?! That easy to manipulate?!

"It doesn't look broken, at least. C'mon, I think I have something in my pack," Kiba said as he carefully helped the Hyuga girl to her feet, Naruto shakily sputtering a string of apologies. "Do you honestly think we'll fall for that?" Sasuke was unsure and angry, this whole night was just a waste of time and energy! "Lay off man! Can't you see she's hurt?" Kiba never really liked Sasuke, he was stuck up and expected everything to just fall into his lap. He couldn't stand that guy! With a protective arm around Hinata, who was quietly protesting that she was fine and that the bleeding had stopped, he shoved past the glaring Uchiha as he led her down to the changerooms. Naruto had quickly abandoned his team to trail after team eight, still sprouting his apologies. "I can't believe those three were behind this," Sasuke was seething through his teeth, the more he thought about it the more bitter he became, "They're not even that damn good!" It took every bit of him not to lash out as he instead shoved his hands in his pockets and trailed slowly after them. "C'mon, let's just get the other two. I'm done with this."

═══════ ≪ °❈° ≫ ═══════ ≪ °❈° ≫ ══════
​
"Hm, interesting."
The darkness formed and deformed, wrapping around a figure in the night. Ever vigilant and attentive, the figure watched on, wrapped in the inky veil and hidden from the starlight. "Just how long before they turn on themselves?" the voice asked, seeming disembodied as two eyes glanced down at the two sleeping girls that had been stolen away.
Silently the figure moved, watching, listening. A true master of the shadow, gliding along the building undetected. This game was too easy, well, that would come to an end soon enough.

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

Kiba left without saying any more, he didn't need to, the grin on his face was enough for Asuna to sigh as she blankly stared after him. Silence engulfed the room, aside from the quiet ruffling of towels, Asuna's mind was off wandering again. It wasn't until a quiet sigh derailed her train of thought that she realized she'd been staring at her companion. For how long she wasn't sure, but he had that concerned look on his face again. "I wish we could stay longer," she sighed as she stood up, "It was...nice, having you here." Grabbing her shirt and shorts, she shot the boy a lopsided smile, "I'm freezing, let me get out of this and I'll tie it up again," lifting her arm the black hair tie was still snugly in place around her wrist. Once in the changeroom, she pulled off the cold wet piece of clothing, but the uneasy feeling of being watched had her on edge. Green eyes trailed to the corners of the room, but it was empty, as expected. The dark never really bothered her, why it was making her skin crawl now, she wasn't sure. Maybe it was because she wasn't doing this alone for once? Hm, yeah, maybe she was just being paranoid, there was a guy in the other room while she was getting changed after all.

"They're not very bright are they?" Asuna asked as she joined Shikamaru again, taking his arm lightly as she sat down, "Their whole prank. They're not being smart about it, y'know?" Motioning for him to sit between her legs as her hands found their way into his still damp hair. Knowing just how finicky wet hair could be, she only tied half of it up. "I would have waited till they were down here," she mused resting her chin on his head, staring at the water. "Sayu-Sayu," the name tumbled from her lips with confidence, "Sayu-Sayu," there was no such thing as ghosts, so why should she be afraid of calling her out? Three times, right? "Sayu-Sayu."
Eyes fixed on the water as it lapped at the sides of the pool calmly, Asuna could feel her heart race as she secretly hoped something would happen, but after waiting for what felt like an eternity with nothing happening she softly hummed. Really, what was she expecting? "Let's go, yeah?" pushing at his shoulders slightly, the blonde got up, grabbing her towel and stuffing it into her bag. "Hey Shika?" she paused looking up at him, "Thanks...for today."

With all their things gathered they made their way to the door, but the door wouldn't budge. "Is it stuck?" Asuna quirked a brow wondering if this was Kiba's doing. She wouldn't put him past trying to extend his prank to them as well, but no matter what they did the door wouldn't budge. Breaking it was a tempting option, but this was still a stealth operation and while the water on the floor would mostly dry up, a broken door would surely grab a lot more attention in the morning. Thank goodness for Shikamaru's quick thinking during their planning. As they entered the changeroom, the windows were still open, which only made Asuna smile, giving the boy a light tap on the arm, "Look at that, Mr. Nara thought of it all."
 
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