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

[Iron Mouse]

"Not that strong," Asuna mumbled, "About average," raising a hand she made a 'so-so' motion, there was a lot of room for improvement in her technique. It wasn't flashy or stood out much and she knew she wasn't anywhere near the top ten students of the genin squads but she was content. Average was alright and with fast thinking teammates like Ino and Shikamaru that could put together strategies with the bare minimum, it was enough...for now. She followed along with Ino as the blue eyed girl disappeared into the bathroom, cleaning up as much as she could but not really bothering too much. The mud streaks on their faces took her back to simpler times where their only worries were whether they were going to play ninja or pirates.

The walk felt short, shorter than usual that is, as Ichiraku's came into view and despite Teuchi inviting them to sit anywhere they opted for an outside table, much to Ino's grumbling. "It feels like everyone's staring at me," she said as they took their seats. "No one's staring, I don't think anyone's even noticed," Asuna said slipping in beside her, but her words did very little in the way of comforting Ino as Ayame took their orders. To no one's surprise, Asuna took the house Shōyu ramen, "Y'know, the Shio's pretty good too," Choji said as they relaxed in their seats, "And Teuchi is a god when it comes to the Miso." The sandy blonde raised her shoulders in half a shrug as she pushed her chair back and leaned on the table with her arms, "Sure, but why try that when I know the Shōyu and I know I'll like it?"
"You don't know what you're missing~" Unlike Asuna who only ordered one menu item at a restaurant and then stuck with that every time, Choji was a connoisseur of flavour. He enjoyed food, he tried just about everything and wasn't afraid to mix them up a little to find a new burst of flavour to tantalize his taste buds.

Resting her head on her arms as the group bantered, Asuna's eyes followed their sensei as he walked around to the side of the building, a cigarette on his lips and his phone in his hand. He smiled down fondly at the device, typed something into it and pocketed it again. Curious. She wasn't going to say anything though, diverting her eyes as the ramen arrived and the table fell silent, aside from the 'thank you's' as Asuma rejoined them.

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Naruto's cheer of success had brought the battle to an end, Sasuke was panting, trying to catch his breath. He wasn't extremely exhausted but his jutsu did eat at his overall stamina. "Naruto did it!" Sakura said in both joy and disbelief, she was a little skeptical of his plan at first but it all worked out as they circled Kakashi. Three bells and four students, they all did their part in trying to retrieve the bells, but in the end one of them would be left behind. The raven haired boy didn't offer to sit out lunch though, it might have been selfish but he'd rather have another team lunch away from the school than have his every move ogled by a group of girls. He'd prefer it even more to eat alone, but that wasn't an option at the moment, "I've earned my bell," he said haughtily, crossing his arms over his chest, "And Hanaru did all the leg work for you." The process of elimination in his mind was based on what they had each contributed and how much that was worth and by that reasoning, either Naruto or Sakura had to bite the bullet and considering that Naruto was the one who actually go the bells...

"Whoo! Team lunch! Ramen! Ramen!" Naruto chanted as Kakashi agreed to leave anyone behind this time. 'Tch, such a little kid,' Sasuke thought to himself, copping an eye in Naruto's direction as the blond was practically jumping up and down out of excitement as they made their way to the school gate.
"You were amazing out there, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said as she walked beside him, but he didn't even spare her a second glance, "Most genin struggle with fire release, but you make it look so easy."
"That's because unlike the rest of you, I take my training seriously," he said as he picked up his pace. He was really good at his jutsu, of course he was! He trained every day, so what did they expect? He wasn't 'the best' because he was resting on his laurels! Onyx eyes looked back at Hanaru, watching her go so hard against Kakashi...now that was something that was amazing, but no matter, he'd catch up to her soon enough though as long as he kept to his training. He could imagine the frightening headway their team would make if she and Naruto actually tried to study the way Sakura did and if Sakura at least tried harder when it came to fighting.

"Hey! HEY!" Naruto yelled out excitedly as they approached the ramen shop and Sasuke couldn't help but think that if he waved his arm any more vigorously it would fly off of his body. "Shikamaru! Choji! You guys snuck out for lunch too?" Naruto was somehow even more excited, the two boys on Squad 10 he considered pretty good friends, though more so towards Shikamaru as he was the first if not only guy that didn't hate him when they were children. He hurried into the ramen bar and ordered up his usual Miso before hurrying out to grab a table close to the other team. In his mind some good banter between them over a steamy bowl of ramen sounded like an ideal lunch.
The moment Sasuke's eyes landed on the other team, his nose scrunched up, didn't they have any decency? They weren't just dirty, no, they were really dirty like they had a mud wrestling match and then they all tried to wash it off using the same half pale of water.

Asuna didn't so much as pause when the other team arrived, only glancing over her shoulder at Ino who quickly ducked behind her, "Hn, it's fine Ino, seriously no one cares-"
"That's a nice look on you, Ino-pig," came Sakura's voice as she took a seat next to Sasuke, "The mud really brings out your eyes." Ino growled from behind Asuna, "Yeah, well, it's only because we were training really hard for our next mission!"
Asuma gave her a look in warning, it was a quick glance that could easily have been missed, but they knew their sensei well and picked up on his look. "Your team could at least have had the common decency to go take a shower before leaving the school. Tch, you're making yourselves and the rest of us look bad," of course Sasuke decided that now was a good time to chime in, his words making Ino sink back further behind Asuna, "Here I thought cleaning was your hobby," his dark gaze flitted over the sandy blonde who only stared back blankly.

"Hm, the ramen's pretty good today," the sandy blonde turned her attention away from Sasuke, the best way to deal with people like him was to not give him the reaction that they wanted and it showed as his brows knitted together into a scowl. "C'mon, Sasuke don't be like that! I bet they were training like we were!" Naruto tried to diffuse the situation the only way he knew how and that was by being loud, "Hey Ha-chan, careful you don't get...SALMONella from that," he joked and Asuna actually choked, a spray of brown ramen broth coming from her nose as she tried to cover it up with her hand. Laughing was hard when trying to swallow and cough at the same time.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Shikamaru shook his head indignantly at Asuna’s nearly immediate dismissal of his praise. “’Suna, you’re stronger than you realize. I mean, think about Naruto. He knows one jutsu, and it’s not even a nature release. You’ve got talent.” That’s just how it was, but the Nara knew that convincing her of this fact was going to be a task in and of itself. Asuna was incredibly stubborn about the stupidest things, and while he usually admired her tenacity, he also became easily frustrated with it. Like in this instance where he wanted her to accept the fact that she was both strong and capable as a ninja.
While the others were arguing about the kind of food that they liked from Ichiraku’s, Shikamaru was more than content to just sit and listen. He wasn’t just listening, however, he was reviewing everything that they had done in their training session earlier. After all, with the new information loaded into his brain, he was already proposing ideas in his brain for if an actual fight like that occurred. A lot of the new little tips and tricks and things that they had practice were now getting catalogued into his memory banks for later use. Choji’s person throwing abilities? Incredibly useful. Especially if they sent their fastest runner after whomever they were chasing, either giving them a chance to slow them down by engaging in hand-to-hand combat, or by launching someone ahead to place traps… there were a lot of possibilities.
He was brought out of his thoughts as the familiar squad strolled up, and he chuckled at Ino’s misfortune of Sasuke actually showing up with her looking like she belonged in a pig-sty. Of course, Sakura was quick to pick up on this, and it wasn’t long before the girls were arguing despite being at different tables (the one that Naruto had picked had been relatively close, all things considered). “Oi, Shikamaru, you’ll never guess what we did!” Naruto was chuckling as he sat down, trying to frantically wave Hanaru over to sit by him. Shikamaru rose an eyebrow at Naruto, waiting for him to finish his sentence. “We all teamed up and beat Kakashi-sensei! Believe it!”
”Beat” Kakashi used air quotes as Asuma could only chuckle at their excited energy. “Is objective, but sure if that’s the narrative you want to tell.”
”Heck yeah it is!” Naruto grinned, nodding happily and practically buzzing with excitement as they waited for Ayame to bring them their food.
”Don’t pay any attention to him, he thinks being a prodigy is his hobby but really it’s just because he’s got a major inferiority complex,” Shikamaru turned to Asuna, not exactly speaking quietly about the dark haired Uchiha. Hanaru was clearly not paying attention to anything, her mouth watering at the sight of the salmon placed before her.
She did not, in fact, find Naruto’s ‘joke’ amusing. “If you say dumb shit one more time, you’ll regret it,” she growled, not even bothering to look at him as she picked up her chopsticks. Naruto was quick to squeak, knowing that Hanaru did not give out idle threats. His head had hurt on too many occasions to realize this fact.

_______________

Thankfully since all of them had their food, they were able to eat in a relatively comforting silence.
”Kakashi,” Asuma grinned, setting down his bowl. “What do you think of sometime training our squads together. My kids vs yours?” Naruto’s eyes shone brightly. They were, after all, the only two squads of four among the genins, it made sense that they could spar against each other fairly in this manner.
”I don’t see why not,” Kakashi hummed thoughtfully, a hand coming up to his chin. His food was already completely gone, no one having seen him eat. After all, there were few people in the world who knew what Kakashi looked like without his mask, and his students were not included along that list. “It should be good training for both of them, especially since the genin teams don’t get to spar as squads that often. Maybe after you get back from your mission?”
”Sounds like a plan,” Asuma chuckled, lighting a cigarette and sitting back in his chair, having made sure the wind wouldn’t be blowing his smoke into the student’s faces. “What do you think, kids?”
Shikamaru was the first to speak, and he could only offer a shrug. “I think we’ll crush them, but maybe there’s something to be learned from it.” He smirked as he felt a few glares on his features. “Sure.”
”Oh, you’re on Shikamaru!” Naruto yelled, everyone wincing as Sakura groaned and tried to remind the blonde to not shout everything lest all their ear drums burst. Hanaru, whose hearing was particularly sensitive, hissed at the blond next to her, her salmon all but gone.
”I don’t care, just tell me where to be,” Hanaru mumbled as Kakashi got up and went to the newspaper holder over to the right of the Ichiraku restaurant, paying a few yen for the daily news. Returning, he tilted his head, observing the local news as his students bickered with team 10 (hah), and Asuma texted someone on his phone.
Who were any of them kidding? That smile he had on his face was only reserved for Kurenai-sensei.
”Well, are you kids ready to get back to training?” Asuma asked his group, putting out his cigarette in a nearby ash tray.
”Finish up shortly,” Kakashi also spoke to his students, not wanting to be away from the school for too long. “I’m still going to make you work on your chakra control today. Meaning Sakura and Hanaru are free to work on whatever they’d wish.” Hanaru sighed, maybe some training with her Wakizashi would be good? She hadn’t known how Sasuke had manage to distract her earlier and then get her short sword out of her hands, but she wasn’t about to let it happen again. The purple haired half demon unconsciously found herself looking over at the Uchiha.

 

[Iron Mouse]

Sasuke glared at Shikamaru, "She can't speak for herself now? Or do you just like feeling like the big man?" he huffed before turning to his ramen. He didn't have an inferiority complex! Who did that Nara kid think he was? Ridiculous! His eyes trailed over the fish and up at Hanaru's face for a moment, she almost looked cute the way she stared at it and the boy shook away the thought almost immediately. Her tail twitching constantly wasn't helping either as she took on the appearance of a docile kitten in his eyes. He didn't want to think about it too hard, that led down some paths which he dared not to tread. Naruto's 'amazing joke' made him groan and roll his eyes. It was bad, even for Naruto it was bad!

"Don't die, Asuna," Ino said patting the girl on the back, "It wasn't that funny."
"It was awesome," Naruto muttered with a mouthful of noodles.
Regaining her composure and dabbing away the excess broth she had so indignantly sprayed over the table, Asuna nodded, "Yeah, bad...really bad. So bad I almost died." No, she actually genuinely liked it. Being a survivor of constant bad dad jokes, she had developed a pseudo appreciation for terrible puns. Telling jokes to purposefully make someone laugh wasn't her strongest ability, most of her jokes were bad to begin with and fell flat before she had even uttered them. This was gold though and definitely something she'd remember the next time her old man decided to try and sneakily eat a smuggled in plate of sushi.

Sasuke kept to himself as he ate, he listened to Asuma and Kakashi discuss their teams training together. They were larger than the recommended three man teams, but fighting with team 10? Psh, they'd wipe the floor with them! The Nara guy and his shadow? He had it on good authority that the shadow moved slowly, easily avoidable. Ino? Yeah she was more capable than Sakura, but not by that much and her jutsu required her opponent to stand still. Easy take down. Fatty might have had a weight advantage, but they were faster and stronger and he was the sensitive type too. Moody McMood skipped so much school he'd be amazed if she knew how to throw a damn kunai straight. "Your confidence is really cute, but we'll take you down before you even know what hit you," Sasuke smirked, their team was built to tank and it helped that they had actually been in life threatening situations before. "Yeah, you guy's won't stand a chance against us," Sakura added, always the loyal yes-man to anything the Uchiha said.
"Oh yeah, Sakura? We'll see about that! You're the one who's going to go down!" whatever affiliations Ino had with her state of dress went right out of the window as she pointed her finger at the pinkette, a confident grin spread across her face, "Our team works the best, there's a reason we're called the Ino-Shika-Asu-Cho!" she said brimming with confidence.
"Oh yeah? Well our team work is so good we took down the Hatake Kakashi! We're like the...uh...the um...Naru-Saku-Sasu-Hana-Death-Squad! Dattebayo!" Naruto threw back at her but that only made the Yamanaka girl laugh.

"Took down," Kakashi said raising his hands to make air quotes again, whatever amusement he had at seeing his team get so riled up at the prospect of sparring with another team he kept to himself. Sasuke on the other hand didn't hide his amusement as he leaned back in his seat with a smirk on his face. Individually, the members of team 10 were weak in his eyes, all they had to do was pick off the right one at the start and they'd all fall down. "Finish your ramen, idiot, so we can get back to training. Not that we need it if we're going up against them," he nodded towards Shikamaru as he spoke to Naruto, talking loud enough for all to hear.
"Don't get too cocky now, there's always room for improvement," Kakashi cautioned as Asuma and his students rose from their seats to take their leave, but Sasuke turned a deaf ear to the man. He knew underestimating the 'enemy' was a bad idea, but he couldn't help it. Between Hanaru and himself he was sure they could take on all four of the other genin, maybe if he trained harder they could take on their entire class! The thought had him smiling to himself, if he and Hanaru were on a team with his brother they'd be unstoppable! Then again...what if Itachi didn't like her? What if he thought of her as nothing but a criminal? Hm, that would be problematic, maybe he could- his eyes slid over to Hanaru, she was watching him and he fought to keep his composure.

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"Seriously, Ino, what do you see in that guy?" Choji asked as they made their way back to school, "He's so full of himself, I can't tell where he starts and where he ends!" Ino placed her hands on her hips, "He's just confident! And for a good reason too! Sasuke is totally one of the strongest genin of our year! We'll have to train harder if we want to beat them!" she said, striding with determination to beat Sakura, "Asuna, we're going to work on your chakra control! You're bleeding and wasting way too much chakra!"
Asuna was trailing slightly behind, she opted to stay out of their conversation and was trying to blend away, wondering if she could sneak away without being noticed...it was no go though. "Sure...but I'm with Choji on this one," she said making the flaxen haired blonde whip her head around to glare at her, "It's like no one's ever good enough for him, y'know?" She tried to pull her face into a broody expression and did her best to try and impersonate the Uchiha, "I'm so great and it doesn't matter what you say. If you're better than me then I'll just beat you down!" she said and Ino huffed at her mockery. "Hm, you're confidence is really cute, Shikamaru," Asuna said, a teasing smirk on her face, "Hmmm, yeah, confidence~" she wiggled her eyebrows and making a show of looking him over, but the dreadful, corny acting made her snort at her own silliness.

"It's not funny, Asuna!" Ino said crossing her arms over her chest. "No, I think that's totally accurate!" Choji joked, chuckling as Ino shot him a glare clearly annoyed, "I like your Shikamaru impression better. You're Sasuke is terrible!" Asuna shrugged at the critique, it honestly didn't bother her as it was all in good fun, but she shrugged and looked up at the Nara before leaning back to mimic his posture, "Nag, nag, nag, is that all you do?" she said bringing her arms up and behind her head, "What's so great about him? Sasuke's almost as troublesome as you women."
Choji smiled at the sandy blonde's antics, he could barely remember the last time she actually joined in on their jokes and looked happy. She usually tried to blend away into the background or disappear on them. He understood why, they all did, but the team being together like this made it feel as if they were all united again. It wouldn't last forever though.

"Yeah? Well, I'm Asuna and I'm scared of my feelings!" Ino huffed and fell in step beside the sandy blonde, who only rolled her eyes. "Hn, you're such a pain, 'Suna," she groaned and reached over to tap Ino's nose. That was the final act though, it felt weird and not in a good way. It didn't feel necessarily weird in a bad way either. It wasn't something she could place really, but her arms dropped down to her sides and she fell silent regardless as the school gate came into view.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Hanaru chose not to get into whatever petty squabbles that were going on around her. After all, how could she bother with them when there was such a beautiful cut of fish in front of her~? Hanaru had never been one to obsess over material wealth—she had few things of sentimental value that she kept considering much of her life was spent on the run. She couldn’t afford to be anything but a minimalist when it came to “décor” and other such nonsense. She was, however, easily persuaded with fish. She hated how “cat-like” it made her feel, but she simply couldn’t help herself. Call it instinct or nature or what-have-you, she was a fan of fish and she found it ironic but was too enamored to be bothered to care. She could feel eyes on her form as she happily ate, content for the first time in awhile (she couldn’t admit to herself that she was content with the team as a whole).
She had finished by the time Kakashi had warned them to hurry up, happy with the fish as Kakashi watched her out of the corner of his eye, an amused expression underneath his mask at her childlike happiness. It was good to see a look other than that of anger or annoyance on the half-demon’s face. Hanaru and Kakashi shared a lot more in common than the female realized—in fact, Kakashi saw a lot of himself in both Hanaru and Sasuke. He could only hope he could be a good waypoint for them in their journeys to become ninja. There were many things that could go wrong and steer them astray, and he was more than well aware of that. The only thing that he wanted was for them to find their own path. He didn’t want them to be influenced by anything in terms of making their decisions.
He supposed that was what every sensei wanted for their students.
Hanaru hadn’t even noticed that she had been staring at Sasuke until their eyes locked, and then she couldn’t look away. Thankfully team 10 had already left by this time so there was one less person to worry about getting annoyed at their long stare, but Sakura shifted in her seat out of the corner of her eye, and her ears flicked as the pinkette cleared her throat.
”Hanaru, could you hold onto the paper for me?” Kakashi mumbled, handing her the newspaper he had been reading before standing up and bussing their table for Teuchi and Ayame, the father/daughter duo thanking him and reminding him that it wasn’t necessary. In the meantime, the purplette found herself staring at the paper with… words… that was in her hands. Dear god how did anyone get anything from this? The characters swirled so much it made her brain hurt. Sure she understood some words, but they were kind of few and far between. That and everything seemed to swirl together considering how close the print of the paper put the words. Instead, she studied the pictures, finding she understood more from visuals than she did from words.
It was starting to give her a headache.

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Shikamaru chuckled as they walked, fond gaze following Asuna as she did her impression of the dark, brooding Uchiha boy. “I don’t know Ino, I think you’re just upset that she’s so accurate,” Shikamaru grinned, unable to hide his mirth at the girl’s expense. After all, if even Choji could see how stuck-up Sasuke was, then clearly something there was off. “Asu doesn’t spend that much of her attention on those around her, I think she’s got Sasuke down.” When she began to do and impression of him, Shikamaru felt a faint blush rise up his cheeks as he couldn’t help but snicker. Choji elbowed his side and he sighed, shaking his head. “Okay, fair enough. You’ve got me…”
”Haha… kids…” Asuma chuckled, also shaking his head at the antics of his team. It reminded him a lot of back when he was a genin—those days seemed so long ago, even though he wasn’t exactly that old.
”Don’t think you’re safe either, sensei!” Ino turned on Asuma quickly, and the jonin rose his hands in mock-surrender, a curious glint in his eyes, as if wondering what she meant by that. A devilish glint in her gaze, Ino was quick to whip out her phone, pretending to text on the dark screen as she began chuckling creepily, blushing and pretending to text back as she got a “reply”. “O-Oh Kurenai-sensei~!” she cooed, and Shikamaru actually snorted, the look of shock on Asuma’s face one of the funniest things he’d seen in a long time.
”W-When have I ever done that!” Asuma shouted in indignation, her face red in pure and utter embarrassment as his own students called him out.
”Right before lunch,” Choji accused, a smile on his features. It was rare that they got under their sensei’s skin like this, so they were all enjoying the experience.
”Sorry Sensei, but you’re not exactly subtle,” Ino grinned, nodding. “Right Asu-chan?” It was all pretty obvious to them that their sensei had it bad for Kurenai—and she was the same way back. Now if only them and team 8 could somehow get them together then maybe they’d stop being so annoying and beat around the bush.
”What do you say,” Shikamaru tugged on Asuna’s wrist, pulling her closer so he could whisper in her ear as Choji and Ino kept teasing Asuma, their words a distraction for his plan. “We could get Kiba and Hinata to help us. We could take a note out of Ino’s book and do some matchmaking…?” Shikamaru chuckled, pulling back and away from the girl, completely unaware as to how close he was and what it was doing to the poor ash blonde’s heart. “Just to stop them both from being so annoying about it when they get called out on it. My thought-process is that it’ll be less troublesome for the rest of us in the long run.”

 

[Iron Mouse]

"It's not! My Sasuke is a caring and loving person! He's brave, and loyal, and kind and amazing!" Ino made a face at Shikamaru, which had the sandy blonde puzzled. This was some strange mentality that his little fan club shared and yes, Asuna might not have given most people the time of day or attention, but the few times she's crossed paths with the broody boy he did not come off as any of those things and the accounts of anyone who didn't lovingly gaze at him with rose tinted vision stated the same. If she had the time and no life at all, she'd investigate this phenomenon between Uchiha men and their flock. Hmm, yes, maybe they're some kind of incubi monsters in disguise or something and their powers of seduction only work on some people...
'And just like that all those weird comics are going in the trash,' the more rational side of her chimed in decisively, giving the ridiculous fictional scenario the boot as Ino rounded on their sensei.
"I think that's the most accurate depiction of anyone I've ever seen, sensei," Asuna said with half a grin as their sensei sputtered in protest, his 'secret' turned out not to be so secret after all, "We just didn't say anything because we don't want you to feel bad," she nodded along with Ino. As one of her cousins pointed out at one of the strangest family events she'd ever attended -a wedding and funeral on the same day as neither wanted to budge on the date and venue-, guys don't just look at their crotches and smile.

"Don't think we don't notice the way you look at her~" Ino sang teasingly, "Or the way you say her name with such care."
Asuna only listened, most of the details regarding the two teachers were second hand as told by the blue eyed girl, some things were obvious but as Ino and Choji poked their sensei for his lack of subtly, the more things came up that she wouldn't have really pinned as being signs of being in love. Maybe she was the one that didn't understand what being in love was, it was a possibility. Did it really change a person's behavior to such an extent that simply saying their name was so different from saying anyone else's?

A warm touch on her wrist, fingers delicately wrapped above her hand, so familiar and unfamiliar at the same time she didn't need to look to know it was Shikamaru. She turned her face to look at him only for his own to be so close, a hair's distance closer and more than his breath would be caressing her cheek. The thought had her heart racing. She could feel the phantom touch of where his hand had been earlier that morning against her cheek. Why was this all feeling so weird? They'd been close before, why was it suddenly feeling so intense, like every touch was more than 'just a touch'? Stupid hormones, that was what she was going to blame this all on. 'Pull yourself together, Asuna!' she scolded herself, if she gave into those thoughts she'd be setting herself up for failure and possibly tear this patchwork friendship to shreds. That was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Hn, you know I don't like getting involved in other people's business," she tried to come off as unaffected as she possibly could, turning her head away from him in an attempt to fight back against the surging swell of emotion. She kept out of other people's business as a general rule, there was no time to worry about who did what and why when she had her own slew of issues to deal with, issues that she wouldn't want anyone else to stick their noses into. Glancing back to Asuma, who had his hands raised in defense as Choji and Ino continued to tease him, Ino of course also tried to get more juicy details out of him. That's when the warmth started ebbing away as Shikamaru's hand slowly slipped from her wrist. Her hand turned and reached out, taking his fully into her own, "But I guess if I want you to break curfew with me I can have a hand in this 'matchmaking' thing," she said with an exaggerated sigh as if he'd just asked her for her left kidney, giving his shoulder a light nudge, "The things I do for you people." She wasn't the most romantic person in the world, but she had a family that didn't understand boundaries when it came to oversharing about their love lives.

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"Aghem, Sasuke, would you like to walk back together?" Sakura made her presence known as the duo stared at each other much longer than she liked. He couldn't have actually liked Hanaru, so that's definitely not why they were locking eyes, no, her Sasuke was too cool for her! Hanaru was probably looking to start something and there would be no way she'd let them act out in public. "No. Not interested," he said turning to look at the pinkette as Kakashi handed the paper over in their direction, "O-oh, well I just though, I mean yesterday-"
"It was a one time thing. I blame Naruto for being late in the first place," this is why Sasuke didn't like being helpful. Give any of his fangirls a hand and they try to tear him to shreds.
"What? Why's it my fault?" Naruto quickly defended, though he didn't really know what he was being blamed for, but added a very enthusiastic "I'll walk with you, Sakura!" much to her displeasure. "Ugh, fine. I'll be back in a minute," the pinkette sighed and stood up, trying to find the bathroom as Kakashi and Teuchi talked.

"You heard that? We're walking together, it's practically a date!" The blond's enthusiasm and excitement bubbled over as he giggled to himself, "My breath doesn't smell weird right?" he turned to the half demon, leaning in for a breath test. Sasuke shot him a glare before his eyes scanned over the newspaper in her hands. Some of the headings and stories he could read just fine at that angle; some place called The Hole was temporarily closed due to a possible link in a missing person's investigation, a general reminder of the oncoming Memorial Day in a few weeks time, someone who mistook a racoon for a cat on a 'pet found' advertisement, some political baloney here and there about misplaced funds. There was something he was looking for, specifically if Mitomori-san had gone to the newspapers as he had threatened but the articles were being covered by Hanaru at this point.
"Oi, what's that article in the far right corner about?" he asked, quirking a brow as the paper shuffled in her clawed hands, "I didn't say I wanted the paper, just read that heading over there," he didn't uncross his arms as she attempted to pass of the newspaper.
"Oh! Oh! I can read it!" Naruto said reaching for the paper, "The, um-"

"I didn't ask you to read it. I don't know how you even passed grade school with your reading!" the irritation in Sasuke's voice was rising as he swatted Naruto's hand away. He already had the misfortune of having to listen to the blond during class readings and every time he just wanted to reach over, grab him by the ears and tell him it's 'perpendicular not perpinediclar' and he'd much rather walk Sakura home than listen to him try to read the newspaper for the next 10 minutes like a little old lady who's had several eye surgeries and is now a self proclaimed double patched pirate. "Just let Hanaru read the damn thing!" he looked pointedly at the purplette, almost glaring, sure he could have done it himself but now he was being purposely stubborn and pig headed over this whole situation. It's not like he had asked her to recite the poems from the Six Dynasties in their original scripture while simultaneously trying to teach a monkey how to ride a bicycle. It wasn't that hard. "Why do you have to be such a jerk, Sasuke?" Naruto grumbled, leering at the raven haired male, "Because you're annoying, now shut up, loser."

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Shikamaru couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Ino’s words. Honestly, those rose-tinted glasses must have been hella thick for any person—let alone a whole slew of girls—to think that the brooding Uchiha was anything besides an asshole. His eyes narrowed as he looked to Ino, trying to see if he could understand what was going on through her brain for her to reach that opinion. Then again… he leaned back and turned his head. He didn’t exactly want to know. There had to be some form of serious brainwashing going on and Shikamaru had no desire to be involved in that in any regard. Best to forget and know that he really didn’t care, so long as Asuna didn’t care… Really? His brain did a double-take. That… made sense. But when did he become so selfish?
Thankfully Asuma-sensei provided the perfect distraction from that train of thought. That kept them distracted long enough in order for him to have his aside with Asuna. “I know—” he had to keep himself from whining. After all, it wasn’t often that Shikamaru, of all people, wanted to play matchmaker himself. Meddling was more like Ino’s business… or Naruto’s. That being said, a part of him had blurted something out so stupidly in order to have another excuse to hang out with Asuna.
He wanted to be around her. Was that so bad?
Well, really it was selfish. He couldn’t expect Asuna to want the same things, and he didn’t want to make things awkward between them either. God, why was this so hard?! It was really awkward and unfortunate to have feelings for your best friend. And they had just returned to being friends too, so the last thing that he wanted to do was to ruin everything that they had steadily built up again, and that would be a tragedy. Imagine, getting your best friend back only to catch feelings for them and scare them away by being selfish with their time?
Needless to say, Shikamaru’s brain was the most frazzled it had been in a long time. Or seemingly ever. But that being said he forced himself to be grounded in the present so that he didn’t come across as spacey. Letting out a big sigh, he smirked. “Sorry, must be tired,” had she been trying to speak to him while he had spaced out? Lost in his own head… it wasn’t outside of his character, but he hoped that she hadn’t noticed. As the school came up in his peripheral, he avoided letting out a noise of relief, strangling it to silence in his throat. What was wrong with him today?
Seemingly having gotten Ino and Choji off of his case (for the moment) Asuma turned to look at all of his students. “Now we need to train more, considering the nature of our upcoming mission, but after you all did so good this morning, I think we can at least be done with chakra control and focus on weapons.” Tilting his head, he thought about his next actions. “If you wanna go back to the training grounds, I’ve got some cool things I think I wanna see if you guys have an affinity for. Just remember—"
”Yes sensei, we know,” ino sighed, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “Weapons aren’t toys. We know to be careful, right Asu?”
”Yeah, just don’t freak out when holding a kunai this time, Ino,” Shikamaru grinned, eager to pick on the girl. It wasn’t very fair to the blonde, considering he was using that to distract himself from the frazzled state of his brain, but she would just have to suck it up.
”Shikamaru! I haven’t freaked out about blades since we were little!!” Ino’s face immediately shone red in embarrassment. “Shut up!”
”Whatever you say, ‘Mud Princess’.” For that Choji gave him a high five and he chuckled, placing his hands behind his head. There… now he was starting to feel a little bit better. “We’ll talk about plans later,” he offered to Asuna with a slight grin out of the corner of his mouth, not bothering to explain himself if anyone else had overheard his words.
”Play nice,” Asuma motioned between them, though his humored grin never left his features. “I’ll be right back.”

_______________

Hanaru would have chuckled at Sakura’s misfortune (just cause she was an asshole) but she was distracted with Kakashi handing her the paper. Naruto’s sudden intrusion had her nose wrinkling in disgust. “The next time you do that I’m leaving your body in the nearest well,” she stated flatly, her eyes narrowed into dangerous yellow slits as Naruto whimpered slightly in fear, a quick and quiet ‘yes ma’am!’ rushing past his trembling lips. Good, at least he was aware of the danger he faced on a daily basis.
The paper was large, with extensive stories, and the more Hanaru looked, the more the kanji seemed to bleed together. When Sasuke asked about an article, having been reading over her shoulder, and she blinked at him stupidly. Despite offering him the offending piece of paper, he was insistent that she read it. Hanaru. Whose grades were so awful because she simply couldn’t read well. Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to decided which would be worse, tell him to read it himself and storm off, or stumble through it… or even make something up. Anything was looking better than answering his question. Thankfully, Naruto had gotten over his fear of the half demon relatively quickly and was reading over her opposite shoulder. An out, yes! Unfortunately the Uchiha somehow (magically) found a way to get under literally all of her skin. Her eyes narrowed as she looked to him with suspicion, as if daring him to speak again.
How did Naruto pass grade school? At least he went. Hanaru swallowed a lump in her throat. It was just damn words! Reading! It shouldn’t be that difficult! And yet the expectancy that he had as he waited for her to read the article had her sweating, her nerves flaring up as her tail practically slipped between her legs. “U-Um…” she cleared her throat, cursing the little waver that threatened to betray her nerves (if he couldn’t already tell). “It says something… about a guy… in… a-a… place…” she was straining her eyes really hard, practically touching the paper with her nose as she squinted, getting increasingly frustrated as her hands trembled. Embarrassed and willing to lash out, she shoved the newspaper into the unsuspecting Naruto, who had been busy looking for Sakura as she left the bathroom at the restaurant. “Read it your damn self!”
The purple haired female turned around with a huff, masking her fear and embarrassment over something so traumatizing as reading an article outloud with her signature anger. A snarl was on her lips—how could something so small get to her? She was supposed to be tough. Badass… edgy, even! What badass couldn’t even read? “K-kanji are hard, okay?” she mumbled, her ears flicking as she heard someone approach her from behind. She identified the distinct smell of trees mixed with something slightly spicier—maybe even cinnamon? Was that his scent? As Sasuke approached the bristling feline. “Just shut up,” he hadn’t even said anything yet. Lord, she was embarrassed at not being able to read. It should have all clicked by this point—what with her backstory, always moving from place to place, and never getting taught properly. “M-my mom taught me how to read plenty of things! I swear!” she tried to defend herself, her words catching in her throat as she avoided looking at him, the pink on her cheeks unmistakable as the heat (and the coloring) fled all the way up to her ears. “It just… it wasn’t akways necessary.”

 

[Iron Mouse]

The heated glare that the half demon had thrown Sasuke's way went unnoticed, even if he had noticed he had simply brushed it off as her being her usual self. He sat back, his finger tapping on his bicep as he waited, growing more impatient as Hanaru kept stalling. What was the big deal, it was just a stupid article and it wasn't even that long, but he picked up on her nervousness as it saturated the air around them. Was she a nervous reader or something? His brows knit together as she stumbled and stuttered over the words, her eyes flitting all over the page as she tried to bury her face into the paper. That's when the thought struck him: could she even read?
"H-Ha-chan!" Naruto squeaked as the newspaper was suddenly thrusted into his hands, he had stopped paying attention to his two teammates a while ago, newspapers were boring and Sasuke was being a pain in the ass as usual. "Hey, what's up, Ha-chan? Your face is all red," he asked as she shot up from the table, almost knocking it over in the process. He looked at her then down at the newspaper, "If Sasuke's being a jerk I can clock him for you?" he quickly offered. Although he had spaced out, he could tell something wasn't right with her and that dead fish eye stare on the Uchiha's face, "What did you do to Ha-chan?!"

"Shut up, loser, I didn't do anything. Mind your own business," Sasuke snapped at the blond, his eyes trailing after Hanaru as she turned her back to them. She stood there stiffly, shoulders scrunched up and tense, her ears down and her tail ever so slightly curled between her legs. He knew people thought of him as a jerk, but for the first time he actually felt like a jerk. Yes, he pushed people's buttons and he berated and belittled them if they got on his nerves and he wasn't afraid of doing it out in the open either, but this? Had he known Hanaru couldn't read he wouldn't have pushed her into doing it. He was a jerk but not that kind of jerk. Ugh, why hadn't he thought of it earlier? Her grades were as terrible as Naruto's when it came to their academic courses, but Naruto was always skimping on studying and for some reason he had pinned Hanaru as doing the same. This...this was different, she was failing because she didn't have those basic skills they had, not because she was too lazy to study. His heart clenched, he was such an idiot.

Sasuke rose from his seat and approached her slowly as if approaching a frightened animal. He had to say something to make things right, maybe an apology? "Hanaru, look I-" she had cut him off, the embarrassment was evident in her voice even as she snarled and snapped at him angrily. Ngh, what was he supposed to do in situations like this?
"If you said something sooner I wouldn't have made you do it," he said as she tried to justify her inability to read, "It's not a big deal." Well, it was in a way, the whole team suffered because of their low points. There was no getting through to Naruto, but maybe he could think of something to somehow bring up Hanaru's points even if it was just by a small percentage. It sounded incredibly selfish, he wanted to help her for his own gain, but there was an underlying motive to it as well. "I wouldn't normally do this, but, I could..." could what? What would helping her entail? Sitting her down with a dictionary and beating the words into her head with a rolled up piece of paper? Psh, like that would work. If Iruka couldn't teach her than how was he supposed to help her at all?
"I could help you out. No one has to know, in fact I'd prefer it if we kept it on the down low," he stood beside her, keeping his voice down and throwing glances over his shoulder at Naruto, "There's no hope for that knucklehead, but we can work something out. In return..." he didn't want to offer up his assistance for free, what if someone got the wrong idea about them? No, he couldn't have people thinking he was doing this because he liked her and wanted to spend time with her even if there was a defiant voice in his head saying that that's exactly the reason he wanted to do this. "You train me. I saw the way you fought with Kakashi. That's the level I want to reach and surpass."

"Sakura! Are you ready to go?" Naruto called out excitedly as the girl returned.
"You don't have to answer me now, but think about it," Sasuke said as he shoved his hands into his pockets, the rest of the team joining up. "Alright, are we ready to head back?" Kakashi asked as he looked over his students, all except Naruto looked like they were about to be sent to bootcamp. The blond was excitedly patting down his jumpsuit to make himself look 'presentable' as he stood close to Sakura.

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

"So, you have anything in mind or should we get Kiba and Hinata in on it first?" Asuna asked as they walked. When he didn't answer she turned to look at him, "Hey," she tugged on his hand recognising his resting thinking face and knowing he was off in a far off world. Was he really thinking that hard about trying to match up their teachers?
"You're always tired," there was a slight whine in the blonde's tone as she bumped his arm with her shoulder again, "Lazyass."
Reluctantly she let her hand slip from his as they entered the school, Asuma turning to address them. She wasn't ashamed or embarrassed at holding his hand, but now that Ino's attention wasn't focused on their sensei anymore she deemed it the safer option. The Yamanaka was clearly in one of her moods where she saw things that Asuna apparently couldn't and she didn't want Ino to be on her case over something so innocent.

"Hm," Asuna hummed in agreement with a nod in Ino's direction, "We're not little kids, sensei," she shrugged and casually folded her arms together. Weapon training sounded like fun and something she'd be a littler better at, not that she was running around swinging weapons around, but with her father leaving town for extended periods at a time she had found ways to entertain herself when she was alone. She had to bite her tongue though to stifle a snort as Shikamaru brought up their first experience with a real kunai and not a plastic toy. It had happened so long ago that Asuna couldn't even remember who had found it in the first place, but she remembered them all gathered around a kunai someone had found while they were playing and the shrieking that followed after Ino had picked it up and her hands were covered in red rust. "You're not allowed to laugh, Asu, you were scared of literally everything!" Ino quickly tried to defend herself and divert the teasing, "You were screaming and crying too, if memory serves me right. And it does."
"Anyone would have been scared of your wailing banshee screams, even I was scared of you," Choji chuckled as Ino puffed up her cheeks before turning and making their way to the training field.

"We were kids! Someone could have gotten hurt!" Ino kept protesting as the boys sniggered, looking to Asuna for some backup but the blonde raised her shoulders in a shrug, "I was scared of everything, wouldn't be fair to take sides here," she said, biting her lip to keep from grinning at Ino's glare. With a mischievous smirk Ino uttered a drawled out "Fine then~" before skipping forward, grabbing Shikamaru by the arm and practically pulling the boy with her. Asuna felt a knot forming in her stomach as Ino wrapped herself around the boy's arm and leaned her head on his shoulder but pushed it all down. Ino was doing it purpose to rile her up, this much she could tell, and she wasn't going to give her the reaction she wanted as Asuna could already see it snowballing in her mind.

"So what are you planning, hmm?" Ino purred as she latched herself to Shikamaru's side, "You thinking about your date next week?" as she spoke she craned her neck backwards to try and see Asuna's reaction, but the sandy blonde was doing her damndest to try and avoid looking at them, "You have to tell me where you're going so I can at least dress her up properly, I wouldn't want Asu to look like a total hobo on her first date."

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Hanaru waved Naruto off—she sure as hell didn’t need anyone fighting her battles for her, as sweet as Naruto was trying to be. She also knew that the blonde was always looking for something to instigate a battle with Sasuke—some way to prove himself to the male. She didn’t know why he bothered, Naruto didn’t need anybody’s validation. That Kyuubi lent him enough power to make him strong—she’d seen it only once or twice before, and only in instances of Naruto’s raw, unhindered emotional breakdowns. She felt bad for the guy, after all he didn’t quite know how to control it, cause the power he had was technically ‘borrowed’ no matter how many ways you looked at it. But that was her brain distracting her from the incredibly embarrassing situation at hand.
Hanaru could barely read. More like… she got and understood numbers but actual reading felt impossible no matter how hard she studied. She wasn’t going to reach out and ask for help herself, oh no; that was an impossible fact because her damn pride would get in the way every single time. It was no wonder to her why her grades were so poor when she could barely make out what the assignments were asking for, much less write a legible response. Her eyebrows furrowed as her ears flicked, hearing the black haired male’s approach as she braced herself for laughter. For teasing like he did with Naruto, calling him a dobe and a dunce or something along those lines. Sure they were juvenile insults, and she could take it. It was a whole lot nicer than the worst of what had been hurled at her.
But the insults never came. In fact, if Hanaru knew better, by the way Sasuke was talking it almost sounded like it was his way of apologizing. But… that couldn’t be. Sasuke didn’t make mistakes—that was how he held himself, to that unfair and unrealistic standard of being perfect (she could only guess where such strong and unfair ideals came from). Her form and her face looked guarded as she turned to him, still pink and still embarrassed, but a flash of shock shone through her eyes at his words.
”You… you’d… take time out of your day… to teach me how to read?” she rose an eyebrow, her posture slowly relaxing as soon as she realized that she wasn’t going to be made fun of. “I mean…” she flicked her gaze back to Naruto as a bright head of pink hair returned from her expedition to the bathroom (the petty part of Hanaru snarked that maybe it would have been better if she had gotten lost, but she didn’t actually hate Sakura, all things considered). “That level is…” well it wasn’t fair to compare them physically, and she turned and looked to Sasuke, a wave of seriousness overcoming her person. “The fact of the matter is that I am only half human. Keeping up with a demon is gonna be hell, no pun intended.” If he was willing to accept that she might utterly beat his ass until he started to improve, then maybe… just maybe…
”I’ll do it!” She blurted out, her eyebrows furrowing as she quickly blushed and motioned for them to start walking, eager not to let their teammates hear about their little deal. “I’ll do it,” she whispered harshly, her eyes trained ahead of her. “But you better be prepared to work, because I’m not about to half ass anything.”
Kakashi lead the way through the streets, a decent amount of people out—with the rain yesterday’s history, and the sun shining, it apparently was a nice day for a walk. That didn’t stop Hanaru’s new “friends” from poorly tracking five ninja in broad daylight, sticking to the shadows, and yet somehow still sticking out like sore thumbs. “Hanaru,” Kakashi called from ahead of him, “I believe we have some friends.”
”I noticed,” she hissed, her gaze flicking over Sasuke’s shoulder to watch them shamble to keep up—and apparently the ninja weren’t the only people who had noticed either. Normal, everyday citizens were looking on with concern and confusion as very obviously-dressed mafia members stalked them through the streets. “How have they not died already, if this is how they act?” It was more or less muttered under her breath, so whether or not the others heard it, she didn’t care. “Let’s just get back to school.”
As they walked, Hanaru tried to ignore their admirers, her tail flicking behind her as she got lost in thought, honeyed-amber hues narrowing at nothing in particular ahead of them. A training regimen that helped him get to the level at which she and Kakashi had been sparring… well, that was going to be interesting. By the time they had made it back to their assigned training grounds, it was well after lunch and Hanaru took out her Wakizashi once more, a concentrated expression on her face. “Sasuke,” she turned to him, pointing the sword in his direction. She knew that he and Naruto were told by Kakashi to do more of that chakra training that they “loved”. Still, the challenge was extended to him for a later date. “This weekend, we’re going for a run. You’re going to have to keep up with me, and I won’t go easy on you.” An excuse to run at full speed? Maybe. An excuse to show the gap between their physical capabilities? Utterly. Sasuke could probably (definitely) outsmart her, but raw skill put the ball in Hanaru’s court. A smirk played upon her lips as she turned, stretching to prep for however long Kakashi expected them to train. “We’ll see how long you last before you give up~!” She turned back over her shoulder. “But you still gotta teach me even if you decide my physical training Is too much for you to handle.”

_______________

”W-what…?” he blinked, looking back to Asuna as her voice brought him out of his own head. Yikes. Hopefully she hadn’t needed to do too much to get his attention. His eyes narrowed at her playfully as she teased him and he rolled his eyes. “And you’re always troublesome, slacker. What else is new,” he prodded back, unable to keep the small grin from playing upon his lips. There was just something about the ash blonde that kept him on his toes. It was a lot more than he could speak for his other peers (if you could even call some of them that). “I was thinking maybe get Kiba and Hinata in on it first. After all, we have to make sure we know about how everything happens on their end of things.” If Shikamaru was going to play matchmaker at all, he was going to do it his way—in an analytical manner. And that usually started with gathering as much information as possible.
”Do you suppose if we bribe them, Kotetsu and Izumo will tell us everything we need to know about them…?” he was more or less thinking out loud, but it was a good gamble. Especially considering it was something as harmless as that—and when they were just trying to secure the happiness of their respective senseis. Shikamaru sighed, looking over to Asuna. “We’ll figure something out. Maybe I’ll text Kiba and you can text Hinata?” Kiba could be kind of… overbearing. No doubt, the other night when they were pranking the crap out of squad 7, Hinata had been unceremoniously dragged into whatever mess that Kiba had cooked up, and Shikamaru couldn’t help but feel bad for the Hyuuga girl. She wasn’t annoying like the other Sasuke-crazed females. Maybe a little too quiet and shy for Shikamaru’s taste, but she wasn’t annoying by any means.
”That way Kiba can’t just… drag her with him,” he voiced his thoughts aloud, but he probably hadn’t needed to in order for Asuna realize his reasoning. He could be considerate! … when he wanted to be. He missed the feeling of Asuna’s hand on his wrist, the feeling of her warmth disappearing being nearly painfully obvious, but merely shook his head and didn’t allow it to affect him as they all changed topics as he teased Ino, only for him to continue to whine and protest. “The lady protests too much,” he grinned, elbowing Choji who chuckled in return. When Asuna failed to back her up, Ino skipped forward, and Shikamaru blinked as she wrapped around his arm, and he groaned at her clingy-nature.
”Geez, Ino, we were just teasing,” he groaned, not bothering to shake her off, but clearly not pleased with her actions. They were all friends, and had been for quite some time. This behavior wasn’t exactly unusual but he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at Ino as she snuggled up to him.
”Planning?” He asked, his eyes narrowing at the Yamanaka female as she leaned into him. How had she heard—Asuna wasn’t exactly the type to explain losing something like a cleaning bet, but like usual, Ino had taken the whole thing the wrong way. Sighing, he shook his head. He could try to explain what happened to Ino, but she would only hear/believe what she wanted as it fit her own agenda, so really the question was “why bother?”. “She lost a bet so I’m just taking her out of that store for the weekend after our mission. It’s nothing.”
”Oh yeah? That sounds like a date to me,” Ino wiggled her eyebrows, before furiously whispering in his ear, a light ‘eep’ leaving his lips as she pulled his arm down so she could do so without standing on her tiptoes. “We’ve known each other for a long time Shikamaru—I work at my parent’s flower shop and do so whenever we’re not on missions or at school, and you’ve never done anything like this for me.”
Shikamaru scoffed. “That’s because you’re still selfish enough to take time for yourself. You and I both know that ‘self-care’ doesn’t frequently appear in Asuna’s vocabulary.” Her eyes flashed dangerously, but thankfully for his own sake Ino seemed to let the mild insult go. “It’s seriously nothing.”
”You wouldn’t be so embarrassed if it were nothing,” she hissed again, her eyes narrowing once again, as she shook her head. “Whatever, I’ll still make sure she leaves more dressed up than Asuna’s usually comfortable doing…!”
”The… aquarium,” Shikamaru sighed.
”What?”
”We’re going to that new exhibit at the aquarium,” he finally relented, unsure as to why his ears were burning at the confession. It wasn’t a date. Even if he wanted it to be (and he TOTALLY didn’t care), Asuna would never see it that way. That and her dad would most definitely kill him. Ino seemed to giggle at his uncharacteristically-blushing self, and he groaned, turning his head to the side. Catching Asuna’s gaze from behind them, his gaze slipped down to where Ino was still tightly holding onto him, and he made sure to exaggerate mouthing a big ‘HELP ME’ to the ash blonde as she walked behind them, Choji having kept pace with Asuna to make sure they were all sticking together.
They had made it back to the training grounds before their sensei—apparently gathering weapons had taken a lot more time than he had initially thought. “That or he found Kurenai-sensei and got distracted again,” Ino groaned, doing the best to pick/fleck dried mud from her outfit. “I’m still covered in cakey, dried mud!” She complained, hanging her head in defeat. “I cannot wait to take a shower!”

 

[Iron Mouse]

Asuna tried to avoid looking at Ino as she practically hung from Shikamaru's shoulder. It wasn't anything she hadn't seen the girl do before, after all, they had been on the same team for a few years now and had known each other for a few more. For some reason though, this time it bothered her somewhat and unfortunately she could absolutely pin the source of the uncomfortable feeling that festered in her stomach. Ugh, they weren't even dating and she wasn't even sure if dating would ever be a thing she'd do, but here she was...feeling something akin to anger all because Ino was clinging to Shikamaru, whispering in his ear and giggling. Stupid, it was all so stupid and unnecessary. "You ok, Asu-chan?" Choji's voice pulled her back to the present as her head snapped up to look at him, "Hn? Yeah, fine."
"You sure? You know Ino's just messing around right?" What? Of course she knew that! "You look like you were trying to make the ground swallow her whole with your mind."
Really? A light blush dusted her face, she hadn't realized that she was staring that heatedly at Ino, "I was just thinking about stuff, y'know, with my dad and our mission," she lied, the swirling angry feeling replaced by guilt. She had to curb her stupid crush, kill it and bury it under 10 ft of concrete before she ended up tarnishing the last threads of relationships she had with what little 'friends' she had left.

"Is everything ok with him or-?" Choji wasn't exactly sure what he was asking, Asuna didn't exactly broadcast her personal life, but at the same time it wasn't some well kept secret that they were kept in the dark about either. "It's fine, Choji. He's just being his weird overbearing self," she said reaching into her pocket for her phone, looking for some kind of escape from the weird feeling in her guts, which she found as they quickly knotted together at the sight of several messages from her old man. At first she was too afraid to open them, fearing for the worst possible scenario, but no, her father had just sent her more cat photos of their little stray. One almost made her lose her neutral face, the cat had its head stuck through the middle of a slice of toast. Horrible little beast...making her insides all mushy and giving her the urge to go 'aw'.
'Stop it. Get back to work or you're both grounded.' Sent.
It didn't take too long for her father's avatar to light up and the three dots to appear with a 'You don't have enough badges. Why aren't you in class?'
She rolled her eyes, her hand gently tugging at Choji's arm, "Hey, smile for a sec," she held up her phone to take a selfie and poor Choji had to bend down to get into the shot as her short stature left her unable to hold the phone up high enough. "Thanks," she offered the boy as she sent the selfie of their dirty faces to her old man with the caption 'Training' before turning the camera towards Ino and Shikamaru, taking a quick snap and sending it as well, 'With the team.' Radio silence followed as the three dots turned grey before disappearing completely, if she had to guess, he was probably typing up a storm only for whatever argument he started to be rendered invalid.
That wasn't why she had grabbed her phone in the first place as she sent a quick text to Hinata to catch her in the changing rooms after school, she wasn't expecting a reply as the afternoon classes were in full swing so she pocketed the device again.

Ino dug her fingers more into Shikamaru's arm as she tried to keep herself from squealing in his ear, "That's so cute! She'll love it!" there was a bounce in her step, "I didn't know you were so romantic, Shika~" she purred in his ear before breaking into a fit of giggles. Out of all three of them she was probably the most excited about the whole thing, "I'll tell mister Takanashi I'll be going too so he doesn't flail you at the door, but don't worry, I wouldn't want to be a third wheel on your date, so I'll bail out the moment we turn the first corner."

Her gaze was set once more on the duo, they could do whatever they wanted, it wasn't her business. That's what she told herself until Shikamaru turned his head and mouthed a silent plea for help. "Hm, do you think we should help him?" she asked loudly, looking up at the Akamichi beside her, "Well, I think it would be cruel to let leave him in the clutches of Ino for much longer," he grinned looking down at her, talking loud enough for said blonde to glare at them from over Shikamaru's shoulder. "I don't know, Cho, maybe she's finally letting go of Sasuke. Guess I'll just have to convert to take her place. I've been practicing my inhuman squeals and shrieks."
"Haha, very funny, don't think I haven't noticed all that green on your face, jelly bean," Ino's glare was replaced with a mischievous smirk, "I have a secret and I'm not going to tell you~"
"I'm not green, I'm not a jelly bean and I don't care," Asuna said, she wasn't jealous...right? She was just mad or was she mad? She didn't even know for certain what she had felt, just that she didn't like Ino being all over Shikamaru like that, it was weird for everyone! 'I think...'
Ino had released the boy, instead taking Asuna's hand in her own, "I'm going to come over to see what you've packed for the mission. If we're going on this important mission, we're at least going to look stylish," she said, though it would be more of an excuse to rummage through the girl's closet, before she bemoaned the state of her own outfit.

"Just a while longer Ino," Choji said trying to cheer the girl up, "And since most classed have ended and our classed don't end with taijutsu, most of the change rooms will be empty."
"Hm, I guess. At least I won't have to shower with Billboard Brow hogging all the hot water like usual," Ino sighed as she tried to clean up as much of her outfit as she could. "Get use to it, I doubt we'll see a hot shower until we're back from our mission. I guess we can wash up in a stream if we camp anywhere near one...but I doubt it," Asuna pointed out. That is, if her old man let her go, hopefully, if he was sending her cat pictures it meant he had calmed down enough to bring up the mission again during conversation again.

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"It's not a big deal," Sasuke said, "Don't make it out to be one." He kept his face in it's normal 'I don't care about you or your problems' expression but his insides fluttered. She made it sound like he was really going out of his way, maybe he was but he was getting something out of it and therefore all arguments were invalid. So shut up. "Don't you think I realize that trying to keep up with you is going to be hell? Do you honestly think I'd even bring it up if I wasn't prepared and willing to go through all that? You're more of a dunce than Naruto," ah there, an insult to make things feel more normal, "I can't be the best if I can't go toe to toe with you and Naruto." He was fully aware of the demon inside of Naruto and how it lent its power to the boy, making him a raging powerhouse hopped up on steroids and red bull, but the day he admits to Naruto being the strongest of all the genin is the day he lets his fangirls do whatever they want with him. For him to even lightly graze the level Naruto and Hanaru were on wasn't going to be easy, but who was he to turn down a challenge?
He had barely finished his offer before she took it and it surprised him a little, but he was pleased all the same, "Hn, wanna say that a little louder? I don't think everyone heard you," he reverted back to teasing her, falling into step beside her as they walked.

He was aware of the three men following them, he'd actually been aware of them for a while, but he hadn't given them much thought as he thought they were just a trio of cosplayers. Now the cosplayers were following them, he could hear some confused and concerned voices of the citizens on the streets, so he didn't need to turn around to know their stalking skills were...terrible.
"Sakura! Look! It's those thugs!" Naruto said tugging at Sakura's sleeve to get her attention as she glared at Hanaru's back, "What are you talking about, Naruto?" she looked over her shoulder and surely there were three men who looked like they had climbed out of an old timey mobster movie; one was tall and lanky, his hair styled in a most ridiculous pompadour, the second was also on the tall side, but he was a heavy fellow as his leather jacket was barely holding together as he hobbled along, trying to hide in the shadow of a lamppost. Really? The third man was short...very short, his arms disproportionately much larger and longer with at least one ring on each finger. He wore a pinstripe black suit unlike the two fellows that ducked and weaved and rolled behind wall corners and standing shop signs, but they were unmistakably all part of the same 'crew'.

"Seriously? Those guys were the thugs?" Sakura looked at Naruto with a deadpan expression, no wonder Hanaru hadn't paid any attention to them as per Naruto's ramblings, "They look...pretty incompetent, Naruto, are you sure those were the same guys?" Naruto nodded, he looked dead serious, "Yeah, I'm sure," he turned to look at them and they quickly froze in odd positions as if they were street mimes, "I know they look like a bunch of idiots but..." his serious expression melted away and resembled that of the pinkette. "Don't look at them. Just keep walking and pretend they're not there," Kakashi called back to them, "Huh? Why? I mean, it's not like-" the blond started only for Kakashi to cut him off again, "Look at all the people around us, how many of them would get hurt if you were to provoke them?"
Sakura was a little unsure, the trio didn't exactly look too threatening, but Kakashi also had a point. They couldn't tell if the men were armed or if they knew any jutsu or it this was all some elaborate act. In her mind something clicked into place, is this why Sasuke didn't want to walk with her? Did he know Hanaru was being followed and he was trying to ward them off and protect her? 'Oh Sasuke, he's even more amazing than I thought!' she squealed mentally and took out her phone, she had to tweet about just how insightful and protective he was, not only was he protecting one of their teammates but the entire team by extension!

Sasuke on the other hand was trying to think of how to teach Hanaru to read, she could read a little but how little that was was undetermined, hm, shoving a newspaper in her hands and demanding her to read it wouldn't help. He'd have to first find out at what level she was and work his way up from there. He hadn't ever taught someone before so this would prove to be an interesting challenge. Their poorly disguised shadows stopped following them once they neared the school, "Hn, ex boyfriends? They look your type," he smirked as they made their way to the training grounds, where they split up, he and Naruto having to do more of their favourite training while the girls goofed off. He almost scoffed when she said they were going to go running, but he knew better, she wouldn't have suggested it if it wasn't going to be a challenge, "Sounds fun, afterwards we can start on your lessons," he smirked as he turned to make his way over to the old tree they were required to climb, "We'll see who gives up first, Hanaru."

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Shikamaru was typically an observant person—but that didn’t usually apply when it came to emotions, and how others might feel about himself. Most of the time this was true simply because he didn’t care what others thought about him, but in this moment, it was true because Ino was distracting, and he was just completely oblivious. He sighed as Ino continued to cling to him for far longer than he found necessary, even to get her point across. “It’s not that big of a deal—geez. Why do you always have to be this troublesome?” he mumbled under his breath in annoyance, though silently a part of him was grateful to Ino. Before she could come up with some sort of smart retort about how he owed her and everything, he let another set of words leave his lips, and they made Ino’s turquoise gaze widen ever so slightly. “Thanks, Ino…” It wasn’t loud. It was meant for her ears only, and no, he wasn’t going to repeat it.
A wide grin appeared on the Yamanaka’s face at the realization that Shikamaru never really thanked anyone for helping him out. Usually these kind of interactions between them earned a constant stream of bickering until he ignored her or walked off. He must have really liked Asuna, if he was willing to actually thank Ino for her meddling, for once. Of course, she smirked and planned to lord that over them later in life—preferably when they were married and secure in their relationship. Ino would never forget, but she was close enough to the both of them in order to see that they made each other happy, whether both parties actually saw it or not. She might butt heads with either of them on different occasions, but that being said… Shikamaru, and specifically Asuna, were some of the closest friends she had. Of course she was going to help them together to secure their happiness. And! That meant that (as a bonus, of course! Ino wasn’t thinking about herself… mostly) there was one less female rival for her to compete with for Sasuke’s heart~. She was nearly buzzing with excitement.
Shikamaru snorted as Ino turned to argue with Asuna, the teasing going back and forth between them as Sasuke was brought up again. His gaze naturally followed Asuna, and he couldn’t help but chuckle as even Choji got in on the fun, offering to rescue him from “Ino’s evil clutches” as they arrived to the training grounds. “Guys, please, there’s plenty of Shikamaru to go around,” he teased right back, earning a laugh from Choji.
”If you’re even awake, that is,” the Akamichi joked, and they both snickered. This was what being on a team felt like… it was good, after all. When they had first been assigned teams, Shikamaru couldn’t have cared less who he was with as long as Choji was there, but now looking back on it, this seemed to be the only team he would ever want to work with. They all balanced each other out (which he knew the nin decided the team arrangements took into account). And their natural team chemistry just… worked. They shouldn’t have all been able to get along as well as they did, but against all odds squad 10 was rather successful in both teamwork and individual skillsets. Of course they had a long way to go before they could become higher ranked ninjas, but that was beside the point.
Thankfully it wasn’t too long before Asuma returned with a sheepish grin, apologizing for taking so long. “Geez sensei, keep doing that and we’ll start referring to you as Kakashi-sensei,” Ino snickered, knowing full well the plights of team 7 and their notoriously late jonin leader. “What did you bring?
Thankful that no one had questioned as to why he was gone, Asuma opened up a storage scroll, different neatly-organized weapons appearing in a poof of smoke as he unraveled the scroll. “Now, I’m sure you all know the basics about ninja weaponry and weaponry combat, but just in case there’s something here that you don’t recognize, let me know, but otherwise I’m starting from the beginning. Now, kunai…” and so began the lecture. Of course, some of it was new, but a lot of it was review for Shikamaru, so he allowed his mind to wander. Asuma-sensei would have been able to tell when and when Shikamaru wasn’t paying attention, but that wasn’t all too important. Even if he did miss something, he could just read about it later. He wasn’t overly concerned about weapon-combat, after all, his accuracy was indeed deadly… when he wanted it to be, and not when he was pulling average scores on purpose. He didn’t want to apply for the chunin exams without his teammates. He’d told his father that recently, and while he had offered to back off slightly, the older Nara knew his son well enough to know that Shikamaru could have easily passed them up by now. There wasn’t any fooling his old man.
”Now—” Asuma-sensei’s speech brought his brain back into the present, and Shikamaru turned to observe their sensei with a passive expression, hands on his hips as he rose a gentle eyebrow. “I want you to pick up a weapon, something you are unfamiliar with, and practice with it for a half an hour. Each half an hour I will call for you to switch and you will pick something new until you have at least practiced once with everything, and then we can call it a day, okay?” There was a lot of nodding and Shikamaru sighed, stepping forward. Senbon, huh…? His hands naturally pulled him towards the throwing needles. They were precision instruments, it would be fun to try and do some very difficult target practice…

_______________

Hanaru scoffed at Sasuke—geez, what was with him? Being an ass just seemed to be entrenched in his very soul, there was no way she was going to ever get a pleasant conversation out of him anytime soon. That being said, her mind drifted to the previous day, when she spilled her guts to him and when he stood up for her. She immediately shook her head, there was no way she was going to hyperfocus on one moment—one incident regarding the boy who now kept pace with her. That was dumb. That was something school girls did. She might “technically” be one, but she sure as hell didn’t need to act like she was. Not if that meant she had to be like Sakura or Ino and get obsessed over a past incident. Hanaru needed to constantly look toward the future. One misstep could spell death for someone in her delicate position, so she couldn’t afford to be a ditz.
That teasing jerk…! Her mouth gaped open at his audacity, and she growled lowly under her breatjh. “Oi, watch it, duckbutt I don’t gotta be nice to you just because it may hurt Sakura’s fragile feelings…!”Most people might call someone like her a ‘diamond in the rough’ but as far as the garbage that came out of Hanaru’s mouth, she was still a piece of burnt, blackened charcoal. She’d never had a rival before—just different jobs with different people that she would crush, take over, and then move on from. Sasuke’s lasting presence and challenge, whether she would ever admit it or not, was a good change. A change that pushed her for the better. “Shut up…!” she threatened him, although this time it was empty. Thankfully Naruto had gotten bored of their conversation previously and had went back to wait for Sakura. Hanaru knew it wasn’t about whether or not Naruto would make fun of her for her inability to read—no, he’d probably be the most supportive of their team. It was Naruto’s inability to keep his mouth shut that made her grateful he hadn’t overhear her and Sasuke’s conversation.
Hanaru’s ears flicked back when Naruto pointed out the thugs as well. Had he seen them before? Her gaze didn’t slide back to focus on them. Instead they remained forward, and slightly narrowed, allowing her ears to hear the failed attempts at stealth happening behind them. “We don’t know if they’re armed, if they have backup waiting somewhere just beyond the alleys,” Hanaru continued for Kakashi, her tone a touch more serious than earlier. “Besides, even if they’re doing a piss poor job of it, clearly they’re just following and probably reporting back to whoever their boss is. No need to worry about it now. Yet. Or at all until we’re given orders.” Hanaru could have easily taken them all out, but after the whole incident with Mitomori and the threatening of her life, the purple haired half demon was a little more than eager to keep herself on the downlow. The last thing she wanted was to die before she was able to accomplish everything she wanted to do…
”Ex-boyfriends?” Hanaru scoffed, a snort leaving her nose as rather than take offense to the suggestion, she continued along with it. “At least they’re not a bunch of empty headed screamers who don’t let me breath without freaking out about it. Besides, if I wanted some older sugar daddy who worshipped the ground I walked on, I’d at least find one who had more money than those losers. Look at how they’re dressed!” Hanaru was no snob, but she knew value when she saw it. That didn’t mean she collected it for herself, and she definitely wouldn’t be caught dead trying to seduce some older male just for money when she hated material possessions. They got in the way and made quick getaways and relocating nearly impossible. Let’s just say none of that was happening anytime soon.
Back at the training grounds, Hanaru twirled her Wakizashi, and she smirked as Sasuke answered her challenge—after all, this was not just about learning how to read, or physical training. This was about their rivalry as well, and a battle of wills was always a good place to start. “Don’t get cocky, ‘my Sasuke~’,” she teased, looking back at him from over her shoulder with a confident smirk of her own, watching as he made his way over to a familiarly tall tree.
Turning her focus onto the training dummies in front of her, Hanaru took a deep breath before situating herself in a comfortable fighting position. She had allowed Sasuke to distract her earlier, but that wasn’t about to happen again the next time they fought. Rather than realize that it had nothing to do with her skill lever and everything to do with her emotional state while around the Uchiha male, Hanaru figured that if she trained herself even harder, there would be no way for him to catch up… leaving him in the dust sounded like a good idea, and she didn’t want that same incident to happen again. As she attacked the dummies with newfound vigor, Kakashi called out to her, having pulled out his dumb ero-novel, and while still reading he spoke. “Don’t make any moves on those thugs, but I’ll talk to the Honorable Third about how they recruited you.” She didn’t respond verbally, but rather a subtle nod that Kakashi didn’t look up to see, nor did he need to in order to know she was listening. “I’m thinking we can play this to our advantage, like I mentioned earlier. I’ll keep you updated.”
”Of course, sensei…” Hanaru nodded, her tail flicking behind her as the thought of doing some real ninja work came to mind. Kakashi turned back to yell at Naruto to stop goofing around and start focusing his chakra more, and Hanaru eyed the training dummies with a deadly gaze… this was certainly going to be interesting…

 

[Iron Mouse]

There was something rather entertaining about teasing the half demon, or to be more precise, her reactions to being teased and her quick responses as she nipped right back. He wouldn't say that he enjoyed it, but he did. It's not really the kind of conversation Sasuke could have with just about anyone, Sakura would either get hurt by his words or she would just laugh it off. There was no witty back and forth jabs and while Naruto was better in that regard, half of the clever things Sasuke thought of to say were wasted on the blonde. With Hanaru though, there was at least some kind of escalation and he rather enjoyed that, even if she could worm her way under his skin.
He had caught himself, red handed if you will, as his face softened and a smile tugged at his lips as Hanaru criticized their stalkers and their poor fashion choices. He didn't let it linger too long, the last thing he wanted was to send mixed signals and have another girl breathing down his neck. He hated it so much; the squealing, the screaming, the constant need for his attention. It was beyond annoying. He was sure he could count all the girls in their year who weren't worshipping his every step on one hand, not that they were much better than his screaming fans. 'With that mindset you'll be single until the day you die,' his brother had teased him after a long vent about his frustrations towards his little 'club'. Whatever, it's not like that idea sounded terrible to begin with. He didn't need the extra baggage.

As he turned to make his way to the tree, Naruto was already stretching out, he froze.
"My Sasuke~"
He turned his head and looked at Hanaru quizzically, unsure if he had heard her correctly, but that cheeky over the shoulder look she shot him was enough to confirm that yes. He did hear her right.
My Sasuke? It's not the first time he's heard those words, but...it was the first time he didn't completely hate it. He blinked at her retreating form, 'My Sasuke', the words etched into his brain and that sickening feeling in his stomach started up again. 'Shit' he thought as he realized he was staring, he couldn't let her know that her words affected him and he turned quickly back to the tree. Almost half of the girls in the school all referred to him as 'their Sasuke' so this shouldn't be weird at all, yet his heart was racing and his palms were sweaty.
"Well, that could be a slew of different things, have you been feeling stressed lately?"
No, stupid Shizune, he was obviously catching some stomach bug or a flu or something from staying up and training late at night and the 'ghost hunt' probably made it worse.

"Hey, Sasuke! I bet I can make it higher than you can!" Naruto called out to the raven haired male as he finally joined him at the base of the tree. "Hn? Yeah, whatever," Sasuke said, but he sounded far off, which threw the blond for a loop, "Uh...you ok? You don't seem to be here?"
"I'm fine, Idiot. Get to training before Kakashi-sensei decides to extend your detention!" Sasuke snapped, but it didn't have that snarky bite to it, instead, it sounded more defensive which made Naruto raise his hands slightly, "Man, you're so moody lately!" he complained. Despite being called a knucklehead and not being the best at his academics, Naruto felt he was better when it came to people. He was always patient with them, as much as he could that is, and he could sometimes pick up on their feelings...it was a 1 in 5 shot but that was still pretty good...maybe? Either way, he had picked up on Sasuke's mood swings lately, they were more sporadic than usual and much like now he seemed very defensive. It puzzled him.

"Unexplainable mood swings? Sweaty palms?"
Sasuke stretched out, glaring up at the tree. He was fully aware of Naruto watching him out of the corner of his eye though and it irked him.
He focused his chakra into his feet as he took a running start at the tree. It was basic training though. Tree climbing wasn't the most amazing feat, but it was good practice and for the most part, had gotten easier over the years. It wasn't as hard as walking on water, but the school pool wasn't exactly 'available' around this time of year for that. Training was training though, and he wasn't going to pass it up...even if it was a boring bare basic as this.
Every once in a while, as he reached a higher and higher mark, he couldn't help but glance over his shoulder. Sakura was training with a stump and Hanaru was swinging her short sword around. Even from that distance her movements were elegant and precise, like a true assassin. Beautiful and dangerous.
CRACK!
'W-what?' the tree bark under his foot cracked and broke, making him lose his footing and the next thing he knew he hit the ground with a hard THUD. He cursed silently under his breath as he heard Naruto cackle from up above before he yelped and came crashing down as well. 'I have to concentrate' he scolded himself, angry that he had gotten so distracted as to lose his footing. What was wrong with him?
"Has it...only been happening when you're around a certain person?"
'Shut up, Shizune!' he could do without her whispering in his ear, that would most definitely help him concentrate better! Her reasoning was flawed, there could be a hundred things wrong with him, but he most certainly did not have a crush on Hanaru!

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Sarutobi sat at his desk, his eyes were glued to the summons that had been so unceremoniously dropped on his table. The masked ANBU member quietly waited for him to read it.
Even as the golden rays of light poured from the windows, the room felt dark and cold, as if the scroll enticed the shadows in the room to snuff out the warmth. His eyes trailed over the rolled up parchment, two seals glimmered dimly under his gaze. Carefully, he broke seals and unfurled the yellowed paper, his eyes flicking over the writing before the soft look in his eyes turned hard.

A summons to appear before the council of elders.
An urgent meeting to be held as prompted by the concerning information brought to light by Mitomori Aku.
The pipe between his lips bobbing ever so slightly as a deep frown settled on his aged face. His opponent has made his move. Whatever concerns and information he had brought to light to the council of elders could have been a myriad of possibilities, though all of them could have been countered if he knew what they were. He had to admit it was rather clever of the man to have left out all of the detail, but it wasn't clever enough. "Very well, if we must then there is no way around it," he said to the kneeling shinobi in black. Facing off with Aku wasn't what had his brow furrowed, no, it was that the elders have been involved. There would be no 'quick' way to sort things out as usual, no, everything would be deliberated and he foresaw this as one of many summons yet to come.

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Just like that the bad feeling was gone, the odd, bubbly, angry feeling had subsided as they all laughed and joked together. Asuna felt silly and maybe even a little guilty for getting angry over literally nothing and then have it directed at Ino? She wasn't going to apologize for it, it's not like she'd done anything aside from quietly festering over it.
"I'm sure we can make him a face mask for next time," she said looking at Ino with a nod in Asuma-sensei's direction, at least their team leader wasn't nearly as M.I.A as team 7's and if he was it was either something important or well, as Ino had said, he ran into a certain kunoichi.
The unveiling of the the storage scroll though quickly had everyone's attention as Asuma summoned an assortment of weapons. Some looked familiar, like the basic kunai and shuriken, while others looked somewhat odd or intricate like the beautifully decorated fan, which if Asuna could make an educated guess, probably had hidden blades somewhere. As their sensei explained and gestured to the weapons laid out before them, Asuna really tried to pay attention as to which weapons were suited for the different kinds of combat. That is...until her eyes fell on a very long chain with an iron claw on each end. At this point their sensei could just as well have been talking to a brick wall as the blonde was immediately fawning over the Flying Claws. She'd seen it in a movie that was almost as fake as Mitomori-san's concern for the well being of the students, but it had left an impression on her nonetheless.

By the time Asuma-sensei had wrapped up his explanation and instructed them to pick up something to train with, her hands reached for the chain. There were three things she knew about the Flying Claws and its other variants like the Meteor Hammer and Dart Rope; 1) They were badass, so much so she'd even say they were Hella Badass and 2) It actually took years and years to master the simple looking weapon and 3) She had no idea how to use it but... "You will all refer to me by the name...Betty," she said turning to face her teammates with the most evil grin she could muster. "Pff, stop that, this is suppose to be serious," Ino chastised but she still had a smile on her face as she carefully looked over the weapons before them. "Fine, fine, but you can't ever complain about me being boring when you're the one not letting me have any fun," Asuna deflated as she put the claws down, looking over the other weapons instead, wishing that she had paid more attention to what Asuma had said.

When she finally settled on the Chigiriki, a bamboo shaft with a chain and weight on the end, the rest of the team were already practising in earnest. She wasn't too sure how to go about using it as it looked like an elongated flail, but it was the closest to a polearm she saw without actually taking the staff. It took most of the half hour to figure out what the weapon was even used for without asking Asuma to repeat himself. It was a parry weapon, great against swords, but just how many fights would they walk into where their opponent would actually be fighting with a sword? It wasn't samurai country after all. Her next choice was very similar, the Kusarigama, a sickle with a chain and a weight on the end. It wasn't as clunky or nearly as big as the last one, but just as with the Chigiriki, she wasn't actually sure how to go about using it. She understood what the sickle and the chain parts were for respectively, but together? At the same time?
"Ow, F-" she hissed, her lips barring the curse that threatened to burst out as she had somehow hit herself with the weight while trying to 'fight' with the sickle as if it was just a regular kama. It wasn't hard enough to actually do any serious damage but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. "You ok?" Choji called out, stopping for a moment to watch Asuna hop around and biting back curses, "Fine, just...have to keep my eye on the ball," she hissed back, trying to straighten up and brush it off, making a mental note to stay away from chain weapons in the future.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Hanaru would definitely be lying if she said that she didn’t enjoy her banter with Sasuke. She had observed him when she had first gotten to Konoha Academy. After all, it was her fight/flight instincts that made her scope out any and all competition ahead of time, and it wasn’t hard to see that amongst their peers he was the biggest threat. From his attitude, to his natural affinity for chakra control and prestigious background. The purplette took note of anyone who might be a threat. Then, as time grew on and he got annoyed with her and her inhumane abilities, it just… became fun to tease him. After all, he was so… whiny and pouty. It really was fun to poke at his ego and see how much it took to get him to break or snap at her, snapping out of his cool demeanor. It was fun. A good pastime.
How could she ever see it as anything more than that when she found it so difficult to love herself, much less anyone else? Unless it was expressly told to her, she wouldn’t have understood. The last person who showed the half demon that they actually loved her was long dead, leaving a scar deep on her heart—it was hard to trust that deeply again, and yet somehow… she had told Sasuke pretty much everything! These thoughts forced her to focus harder on her training, the short sword swining with deadly accuracy. Though… the more she got distracted and lost in thought, the more her swings became erratic and less controlled. A warning call of her name from Kakashi had her snap back into focus, and a light growl sounded underneath her lips. Wasn’t the whole point of training to be a ninja trying to reign in her demon blood? Her heritage is what had caused her a lot of grief, after all.
A thud from behind her caused her pause, and she turned her head, swiping the Wakizashi in a diagonal direction downward, only to see Sasuke on the ground. She couldn’t help but giggle, flat-out laughing when Naruto followed not that far behind. “Nice,” she smirked, mirth dancing in the light of her eyes.
”Sasuke-kun!” Sakura called out in concern, all but abandoning her training as Hanaru rolled her eyes and got back to work. “Are you alright? You didn’t get hurt, right?”
”What about me, Sakura-chan…?” Naruto was quick to whine, crocodile tears flowing down his face as she paid him no mind. Hanaru’s ears swiveled as she heard a soft sigh of disappointment come from Kakashi as he turned the page in his book. They were probably the weirdest, most dysfunctional team that Konoha had… even Hanaru, with her horrible social skills, could see it.
”You’d better get back to training,” the purple haired female looked over to both males, but he should have figured out who she was really referring to. “Lest you fall even further behind~!” A snicker was on her lips as with one deadly swing, the head of the dummy slid to the ground, pieces of straw dust gently falling to the ground in the motion that followed her strike. If one were to look carefully, they would even be able to see the ground was scored slightly in the wake of her strike. Kakashi sighed again.
He didn’t ask for edgy, problematic students, did he? Well… when thinking back on it, he remembered an argument he, Iruka, and the Sandaime had over his ability to not only take care of Naruto, but then Hanaru as well. There were many that didn’t even want to see the ex-con, much less have her trained in the arts of the Konohagakure ninjas.
”Sasuke, I could try my healing chakra on you! I’ve been taking extra after-school lessons with Tsunade-sama so I can heal any and all of your wounds,” Sakura said cheerily, and Hanaru rolled her eyes. Why did she care what the pinkette did? It wasn’t that big of a deal, and as far as Sasuke’s fangirls went, Sakura was actually tolerable (sometimes).
”If they fall in battle you’re going to have to cover for them,” thankfully Kakashi was quick to scold her, his single dark orb sliding from his book to the young kunoichi. “You won’t often have time to heal wounds because you’ll be too busy protecting their bodies if they fall. So really, Sakura, you shouldn’t get distracted from your practicing. Just because you have good chakra control doesn’t mean you know how to use it.”
As Sakura lowered her head in shame, even Hanaru winced—yikes that was harsh. True, but harsh. Even Naruto opened his mouth to rebuff Kakashi’s words, but found he couldn’t argue with him. Instead, he turned to Sakura with a grin. “But that won’t happen, Sakura-chan! We’ll protect you, you can believe it!” Hanaru rolled her eyes and turned her back on them. That was too sweet—it made her teeth ache. She didn’t want any part of whatever that was. The blonde hopped over to the pinkette. “Now uh… I keep losing my gripping, how do you stay up in the trees for as long as you do?”
Sakura seemed to brighten up at the prospect of transferring her knowledge to the blonde, and Hanaru sighed, shaking her head. Having felt that she had done enough training with her shortsword, the purple haired female moved over to their sensei, looking up at him as he had since turned his gaze back to his story. “Sensei, I’d like to use my chakra claws,” she said plainly, and as Kakashi looked to her, she could see him searching for something in her gaze, but what he was looking for, she had no idea. Maybe a hint of betrayal? No, Kakashi believed in her. It was a hard concept for her to wrap her mind around, but he did. So what he was thinking was definitely beyond her.
”… alright, but you must remain on the opposite side of the clearing. I won’t risk you hurting your teammates,” he finally acquiesced. “Oh, also, try not to hit any of the trees. There’s no need to deforest the area.” Hanaru rolled her eyes, but she nodded in understanding—that was something she could work on anyway—her accuracy when it came to chakra abilities was often off. She had so much chakra that funneling it in the right direction was hard. Of course, she had control over it, but it took more concentration that she cared to admit. That was one of the reasons why she had to ask Kakashi for permission in order to use it. That and it was a part of her conditions that she remained at the academy. If not on a mission, she had to ask for permission to use most of her abilities (which was why Kakashi was always shooting her warning looks when she did so without asking)… it was dumb (she thought so, anyway) but she’d rather follow some stupid rules than die. If she remembered to do so… that is.
The half demon moved away from the group, releasing the floodgates (as it were) once she was far enough away. That greenish miasma of chakra flowed around her hands, dripping into the ground and burning the grass and dirt like acid. Blades of pure chakra attached themselves to her nails, and she focused on trying to keep them short, avoiding trees with care as she trained. Her movements were a lot slower than when she had been using her Wakizashi—there was a lot more that could go wrong with this than with her sword.

_______________

”On our mission we could dye his hair in his sleep,” Ino snickered, a cheeky grin on her face as Asuma seemingly panicked.
”Woah kids, I’m not quite ready to go gray yet! I hope you’re joking,” he said, raising his hands in a mock-gesture of surrender, his eyes wide. They all laughed at that—Asuma was a rather easy-going jonin, thankfully, though that didn’t mean he went easy on them when it came to their training. Shikamaru noted that his relaxed personality played well against their group dynamic, and he was thankful for their sensei. Without that brevity in their training, he could see a lot of individuals becoming consumed with the process. Yes, they were ninjas, and there was a time and place to put their heads down and be serious, but without brevity, where would their humanity go? That was a question he really didn’t want to delve into too deeply.
”Ino’s right, Asuna,” their sensei encouraged, though a smile played on his lips as he watched her struggle with the Flying Claws. He wasn’t going to help her unless she actually bothered to swallow her pride and ask him for help. Until then, he would merely observe. Choji had picked up a set of chakram, and with Ino she had taken the bo staff (which seemed fitting for her personality). “Practice for awhile and see if any of the weapons speak to you in particular. Just be careful.” And that was his words of warnings before he stepped back and watched his students, a contemplative look in his eyes as he nodded occasionally at their progress.
Shikamaru enjoyed the Senbon actually—there was a lot of potential in such thin, hard to see needles. As he practiced, he looked for harder targets to hit, calculating gaze sweeping over the training grounds. He wondered, even, if he could somehow attach his shadow to the small sliver of the the needle in order to help directly hit a target that moved faster. His thoughts strayed to training this morning, and how hard it had been to watch his friends try to pin down their sensei so he could probably capture him. Both his and Ino’s jutsus were powerful, but it required for the other person to remain still, and that was rather impractical during a real fight. But by attaching his shadow to the shadow of the senbon, he could get a further reach, and he could use it to help aim for where it was going to be rather than try to chase it around the floor like a lunatic.
It would definitely take a lot of practice, but maybe… just maybe he could train this up in time for the chunin exams. A lot of the genin weren’t focused on the exams yet, considering they were still at least a month away, but with how much his parents bugged him to do it early and surpass his peers (something that he refused to do on multiple occasions) it was almost always present in the back of his mind. Looking up as he heard Asuna’s mere swear, he held back a chuckle to see her battling with a kusarigama, the chained sickle seemingly giving her issues as she rubbed a small lump on her head.
Walking over to her as Choji shared his concerns, Shikamaru offered a hand out to take the weapon from her, giving her time to begrudgingly hand it to him (it must have wounded her pride, he didn’t blame her). Placing the senbon in his pouch, he flipped the blade in his hand, testing its weight as he looped the chain in the opposite one. “I don’t think this type of weapon is for me,” he told her, nodding. “It relies heavily on the ninja’s ability to be ambidextrous regardless of their dominant hand. But if used effectively, you would definitely be the deadliest person on this team. Aside from Choji straight crushing people with his giant jutsu.”
”Only if they stole my food…” Choji mumbled, going back to what he was messing with previously.
Swinging the blade around after taking a step away from Asuna (he’d never forgive himself if he accidentally hurt her, and he could bet that Mr. Takanashi would never let him near his daughter ever again if that happened), he caught it in his hand, and then swung the chain in a circle. The ball weight on the end acted almost like a thrown stone, and he whipped it around, catching the chain as it swung back to him so that the chain curled around his arm. It wasn’t perfect, however his moves were calculated to be fairly safe—the weapon had more potential, but Shikamaru wasn’t willing to go “all out” on it without the fear of beating the shit out of himself on accident. Turning back to Asuna, he offered it back. “I think you should give it another try—it’d be pretty badass.” A small grin graced his features as he teased her lightly. “Besides, if anyone is stubborn enough to figure out a tough weapon like this, it’d definitely be you.”

 

[Iron Mouse]

Asuna was vigorously trying to rub away the pain while also trying to play it off, failing in both instances and attracting Shikamaru's attention instead. The moment his hand extended for the weapon she instinctively held it tighter, her mind racing to find some sort of argument or reason to not give it to him. Why couldn't she just listen to Asuma-sensei the first time he went over the things? Why did she have to get distracted by something stupid? "Ngh, take it, I don't think chain weapons are my thing," she sighed in defeat as she placed the chained sickle in his hand, her arms folding under her chest as if to steele herself against a pending chafing for her inadequacy.

She watched as he tested the weight of the weapon, "Yeah...after training with it for five years maybe I won't beat myself into a coma," her joke was about as dry as the fallen leaves on the ground that crunched with their every movement. Despite looking completely disinterested, she actually listened intently as he talked about the weapon, her eyes following the movement of his hands acutely. On one hand she wanted to toss the stupid thing to the ground and try something else, but now that Shikamaru had paused his own training to give her a demonstration...and make it look easy...now she had no choice but to take it up again. At least if she tried and failed then his time wouldn't have been completely wasted, but she still hesitated when he offered the kusarigama to her, "I...don't know," she said, a hand reaching up to rub the tender spot where the ball weight had hit it's mark, "I don't think I'll have the basics down before the mission." There were too many things she needed to revise before then and other things on her to do list, but there was something in his words, something about his encouragement that had her chest tightening, bubbling even, the same way it did when her old man was being overly affectionate.

"Pff, careful, that almost sounded like a compliment," she said taking the chained sickle, not bothering to fight the small smile that tugged at her features, "I might even blush, Shika-kun." Asuna was actively trying to push down whatever feelings were being stirred, jabbing him softly in the arm before taking several steps back. Switching the sickle between her hands, she attempted to recreate the Nara's demonstration with both her left and right hand. Wielding the sickle wasn't the hard part, it was like wielding a kama, the hard part was trying to not hit herself in the face with the weight at the end of the chain or tangle her arms up with it. It was a frustrating challenge to say the least and as Asuma called for them to switch to something new, she found herself standing awkwardly before the jonin, unwilling to let the kusarigama go, "A-Asuma-sensei, is it ok...if I don't switch out? I mean, I get why we should but," she was having a hard time keeping eye contact with the man. The fact that she was struggling so much with something that was probably covered in a class she had missed made her feel inadequate, "I'd rather just learn to be good at one instead of falling short with all of the ones I try."

Ino was turning in her bo staff for a pair of tonfa and she couldn't help the teasing smile that slithered its way onto her face, "Is it or is it because of a certain someone?" she purred. Her grin only grew wider as Asuna's ears turned pink, "No! It has nothing to do with Shikamaru!" the sandy blonde quickly snapped realizing too late she had stepped right into Ino's trap. "I didn't say anything about Shikamaru, you're so defensive~"
"Just because I want to get better at something doesn't mean it's because of someone else!" Asuna tried to dig her way out of the situation. She really did want to try and improve herself. Being a jack of all trades meant she'd be equally bad at everything, but if she could focus on being really good at one thing then maybe she'd feel like she was contributing more to the team. "Mmhmm, being strong for someone else is a good motivation for improvement~" She had used Asuna's words right back against her and that's when Asuna knew she wasn't going to get out of it. Her frustration level was already at its limit and Ino's teasing was pouring gasoline on the fire. White knuckled, she gripped the sickle in her hand, biting her tongue to try and keep herself from exploding and whether Ino sensed she was crossing a line or not, she nudged the sandy blonde's shoulder, "I'm just teasing, Asu, lighten up."
"I know," Asuna sighed as Ino wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"Stop being so mad all the time."
"I'm not mad..." Not entirely true, but she'd be yelling at the blue eyed kunoichi if she really was mad.
"Awe, would a kiss make you feel better?" Ino teased, but Asuna had had just about enough of her teasing, it was time to retaliate. She closed her eyes and leaned in and instantly Ino's hands clasped over her face, "Asuna! I wasn't being serious!" she squealed trying to push the girl away.
"EWW! You licked me!" she shrieked jumping back and wiping her hands on her skirt, glaring at the sandy blonde who met her with an equally heated I'm-tired-of-your-shit look.

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

An angry pout settled it's way onto Sasuke's face as Hanaru started giggling and out right laughing as Naruto crashed down beside him. She wasn't supposed to see him fall flat on his ass like that. It had all happened so suddenly he hadn't even thought of doing a flip and landing on his feet. Not only would it have looked so much cooler, but then Sakura wouldn't be on her knees fretting over him like he was a toddler. "I'm fine," he huffed as he got up to his feet, brushing off the dirt on his pants as Naruto whined for attention, "I'm not fine!"
"You're fine, Naruto, you weren't as high up as Sasuke-kun," Sakura retorted shooting the blond and unimpressed look before turning back to the ravenette with concern, but he wasn't even looking at her as he straightened himself up, instead he was giving Hanaru a look almost as if to say 'You wish'. He wasn't going to fall behind, no, he was the Uchiha prodigy if anything she'd be the one falling behind after he'd trained under her for a little while, "Hn, just watch, I'll surpass even you!"

Sasuke was about to decline Sakura's offer to heal him as he honestly wasn't even bruised by the fall and to rather give Naruto a look over as the boy sat rubbing the lump on his head, but Kakashi's had beat him to it. There was truth to what their sensei had said, but the way he had said it made it sound so harsh. Then again, Kakashi didn't sugar coat anything when he addressed them everything was cut and dry with him, especially when it came to their performances during training. Still, a part of him felt sympathy towards the girl for being singled out when she was trying to be helpful, but on the other hand, he wasn't the one that needed the help. "It's good...you learning healing ninjutsu," he finally turned to look at her, "But if you do get a chance to heal someone in battle, don't just rush to me. Naruto might not have been as far up, but he did fall head first." He wanted to be encouraging, having a medical nin on the team would be a real plus for them, but he also knew that being a field medic was not an easy field to go into and if she rushed to help the wrong person then that could spell the end for someone else. "R-right," she nodded as Naruto promised they'd always protect her.

As reassuring as Naruto's promise was and as encouraging as Sasuke tried to sound, Sakura knew that Kakashi was right. She wasn't blind to the immense gap in abilities between her and the rest of the team. She was always the damsel in distress, the one that needed to be protected and that lead to the others getting hurt. She had started taking up healing ninjutsu so she could be useful to the team, but she'd still be a burden to them. Her concern with Sasuke's well being, to be the one to actually rescue him for once was such an all consuming feeling, the fantasy that he'd fall in love with her after being the one to heal him had actually blinded her to the fact that, despite not haven fallen as far as Sasuke had, Naruto could have been even more badly hurt. Here he was though, looking at her with that goofy grin and promising to always protect her. He was always there, always encouraging and always looking past her shortcomings, acknowledging her strengths even when she wasn't always the nicest person towards him.
"Heh, well, it's not as hard as you think," she couldn't help but giggle as he tried to learn her 'secret' to chakra control. "Let's not tell Sasuke, ok?" he shot a look up at the dark haired male who had turned and started making his way back to the tree.

Sasuke had most definitely heard his name pass the blond's lips, but he couldn't care less what they were gossiping about. He hoped that his attempt to try and encourage the pinkette wouldn't backfire on him and have her clinging to him even more in the future. He tried to clear his head, he needed to focus if he was going to better himself. No more distractions. Focusing his chakra in his feet, the Uchiha took a running start at the tree. He kept his focus and surpassed the break in the trunk where he had lost his footing, pushing himself up higher and higher. "Sasuke!" he heard Naruto yell and he almost lost his footing again as he turned to look down, seeing Naruto catching up to him. "Tch, stop distracting me, Idiot!" he yelled back down at Naruto.
CRACK
There was a yelp and Sasuke felt something wrap around his ankle, followed by extra weight being added to his leg.
"Let go of me!" he snapped at the blond who had a death grip on his leg, "Don't let me fall, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled right back. "Naruto, I said let go!" he was trying to keep his concentration but Naruto had his arms wrapped firmly around his leg as he tried to find his own footing.

Kakashi sighed, he could hear the frantic back and forth shouts and was doing his best not to look up from his book, but alas, his singular black orb trailed over the rim of his book to watch as Sasuke tried to shake Naruto off of his leg, the blond screaming bloody murder about how Sasuke would be betraying him if he allowed him to fall. Was this some kind of karma that had come back to bite him for all those years he had failed aspiring students for not being able to pass the bell test?
"If you don't take your training seriously, I'll just have to punish the entire team and sign you all up for Gai's Bootcamp training," he called out in warning, but his words were drowned out by the frantic yelps as Sasuke finally lost his footing and both boys tumbled to the ground. He wasn't going to get much reading done at this rate.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Shikamaru did his best not to laugh as he watched Asuna fumble with the Kusarigama, knowing that would only further dissuade her from working with the weapon. Of course, as stubborn as she was, he was hoping she would stubbornly believe in her own abilities, even if it was hard to conceive for her at the time. “You don’t have to use it on the mission,” Shikamaru shook his head. That wasn’t his intention—no one would be ready to use something as tricky as a Kusarigama in a couple of days. Well, he’d heard of a girl a year ahead of them that was good with a bunch of different weapons, but that was beside the point. Asuna just needed to build a little bit of skill in order to realize how talented she was. More often than not the Nara found that she liked to compare herself to those on the squad, or even in their class, and didn’t equate herself on the same playing field. She was definitely a contender for being towards the top half of their class power scale, but she simply didn’t see it. It wasn’t like using earth release was easy, and she was already terraforming all over the battlefield!
”Even if it was, it’s me trying to convince you that you’re stronger than you look,” this was definitely a push-and-pull relationship. If she was going to tease him, then he was going to tease her right back. There was no going easy on each other either, not that he minded. Again, she wasn’t some soft civilian, and she wasn’t one of Sasuke’s fangirls either. That had to at least account for something, and in his eyes, Asuna was great. He’d long since given up trying to crush this little crush he had on her, though he wasn’t exactly going to do anything about it either. The Nara was mostly convinced that she didn’t see him in the same way that he saw her, and even as they joked, and he teased and felt butterflies swell in his stomach, he didn’t take any sort of affirmative action. That just wasn’t how this was going to play out, especially considering how shaky their relationship had been previously. They had just gotten back into the habit of talking again (just in time for him to realize his feelings) so there was no way he was going to ruin their rekindled friendship by being a selfish idiot.
When it was about time for them to get new weapons, Shikamaru traded in his senbon for some promising-looking hookblades. Although he didn’t have as much of an idea as to incorporating them into his usual fighting style, he was allowed to pull them out because they looked cool… right? As he began to swing them around, his attention was once more pulled to the ash blonde as she asked Asuma-sensei if she could keep the same weapon. He couldn’t help but grin softly to himself. After all, she had wanted to stick with it, and while he wanted to attribute that to his words, he would have been fine with whatever the reasoning was so long as the outcome meant that Asuna was treating herself better, in regard of her personal abilities etc. He couldn’t hear what Ino and Asuna were arguing about, messing around with each other on the other side of the training grounds, but he wasn’t exactly trying to listen. Even if his gaze did often get swept up with the Takanashi girl, he wasn’t going to allow any infatuation he might have had get in the way of his training.
”I suppose I don’t see why not,” Asuma-sensei shrugged, his familiar, passive expression on his features. He nodded to the two girls, breaking up their squabbling. “Alright you two, now… back to work. We’ll see you get into shape with those weapons yet!” His smile was anything if not infectious. Asuma-sensei always seemed to have the right thing to say in any instance. This was a gift that he had been blessed with, even early on in his ninja career, it seemed. It worked especially during his time as a sensei, as it helped nurture his students into strong shinobi and kunoichi.
The hookblades were light and cleanly cut through the air. Shikamaru observed the pommels carefully, noting how they themselves could be used as an extension of the weapon. They were deadly and accurate, not to mention useful in their versatility, but even as he thought these things, he found himself looking over to Asuna’s form as she began doing more practicing and training loops with the chain. If she were to catch him staring ever, he’d blush and look away, embarrassed at doing the exact thing that he had said he wouldn’t do, but that was beside the point. He was… impressed, to say the least.
By the time their training was coming to an end (and the end of the school day was nearing as well) all of the students were tired. They had taken small breaks between switching weapons and the like, but they were pretty tired from chasing around Asuma-sensei in the morning and then doing all that work afterward with the weapons—it was a lot for one day. Shikamaru held the senbon in his kunai pouch—apparently Asuma’s goal was to give them all new weapons—not necessarily for the purpose of using them on their mission, but to have another goal for them to master. “As ninja,” he was lecturing, while Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, and Asuma all sat exhausted on the ground. “You must be ready to deal with whatever circumstances that you have, be it new weapons, new surroundings, or even facing off against new abilities the likes of which you haven’t seen before. The ability to be prepared for many situations is a valuable skill, so work on these skills. Of course, I don’t want any concerned parents coming to me for malpractice, so remember what I told you. Safety is important when learning these skills.”
They all nodded, and Asuma smiled, congratulating them on their work and releasing them about 10-15 minutes before the final bell usually rang. Ino was the first to get up, dusting herself off, though that did little for the mud that was still caked onto her outfit.
”Ugh, that’s it. I’d love to stay and all walk out together like a squad, but I’m immediately going home and soaking in the longest bubble bath of my LIFE! I don’t care if they give me extra detention.” Ino growled, collecting her things and heading off with a wave. Thankfully Shikamaru and Asuna had helped work the morning detention/cleaning shift, so they were free to go as they pleased, and Choji, who hadn’t participated in their stupid late-night endeavors, waved to leave. Asuma had disappeared after his speech and dismissal, so that just left Shikamaru and Asuna, and the Nara wasn’t moving anytime soon. As soon as Asuma had released them, he had leaned back onto the ground, staring up at the fluffy clouds dotting the sky and fighting back the biggest fatigued yawn he could muster. It was an exhausting day.

_______________

Hanaru had waved off the challenge thrown at her back, instead focusing on the task at hand and getting back into her training. Kakashi’s words toward Sakura were harsh but true, and she had no intention of stepping in, it wasn’t her place. If Sakura didn’t realize the proper way to go about using those healing skills of hers, then that was her own fault… is what she wanted to say, but she still felt a twinge of guilt rise up within her subconscious for not also standing up for her teammate. She had made a dumb mistake due to how blindsided she was by the Uchiha boy. ‘Sasuke’ this, ‘Sasuke’ that… it was so obnoxious. Hanaru didn’t know why it got on her nerves so much but she really just… hated it. Trying to convince herself that she was just annoyed by it, the purple haired half demon focused on her flowing chakra claws. It was like chakra blades, except the force through which she embedded her energy was her own claws. Sharp enough in their own right, Hanaru’s nails hardened when she fought this way, and became weapons so that she didn’t even have to use the sword on her back.
She was a ways through her training when Kakashi threatened to send them all to Gai’s Bootcamp and a shiver trailed up her spine and she turned, extinguishing her chakra. “No, I refuse. How do I help you bastards so I don’t have to experience that?” Hanaru stomped over from across the way, her tail flicking behind her. Of course, acting upon selfish impulses was something she was good at, so Kakashi wondered if maybe he should threaten something so “terrible” (and he would agree) as Gai’s training. He had no problem with the male, but for some reason Gai thought they were in a rivalry, and he couldn’t help but wonder when that had started. But no matter, if it got his squad to act as a team collectively, even if out of fear, he would do it. Stalking up to Sasuke as Sakura shared her secrets with Naruto, Hanaru glared at the Uchiha. “You’re going up that tree,” she pointed to said tree. “I will give you a head start of five seconds, if you beat me, the time goes down.” Consider this training with Hanaru 101, but of course, it wouldn’t be training if there wasn’t any pain involved… “If I catch you, I smack you. Understand?”
”Go.” She didn’t give him time to argue, and she could feel Sakura’s glare on her back but she didn’t care. Counting silently in her head, she gave him the allotted time to scale the tall tree as far as he could go before she embedded chakra to her feet and casually ran up the tree trunk, catching up with him in no time, and slapping his shoulder in a way that was sure to sting. Jumping off and landing on her feet with a flick of her tail, she glared, almost turning into a harsh drill sergant. Her amber gaze slid over to Naruto. “Your turn. Go!”
”What, Ha-chan! I never agreed to this…!” the blonde exclaimed in protest, though he was scrambling to his feet as she began to stalk over. This process was repeated a few times before they were climbing up the trees faster. Fear wasn’t a tactic that was always healthy… but in this instance Hanaru was willing to instill even the fear of God in them because that’s how much she did not want to interact with Gai-sensei more than she already had to.
As they were distracted by Hanaru’s harsh version of their usual chakra control training, Kakashi had sighed and long since put his book away, coming to stand by Sakura and place a hand on her shoulder gently. “I don’t say what I do to hurt your feelings Sakura, I just want you to be aware of the gravity of the situation.” Speaking of gravity, in nearly perfect timing, Naruto came crashing back down to earth from the tree. “Sasuke is right, your healing abilities will definitely be the most valuable on the field, that’s why you need proper discernment in picking cases from the most necessary to the most minor. You cannot fight with your heart when it comes to being a medical nin. You are a necessity and we need you on this team.” His cool obsidian orb was trained on her, and though his expression was serious, she nodded with a smile, though it was more demure than some of her fuller grins.
”I… I understand, Kakashi-sensei. Thank you for your words,” she nodded, bowing her head as Kakashi stroked his chin.
”You know… I bet if you asked Tsunade, the old woman would teach you some of her fighting jutsu as well. I have a feeling she’d let you in on at least some of her secrets.” At this his singular orb crinkled in mirth, and Sakura nodded—that didn’t sound too bad… maybe she’d do just that after her detention. Ugh… cleaning. Just her luck.
School was nearly over by the time they were done, and even Hanaru was starting to get exhausted, having chased both boys up the trees numerous times, whacking shoulders and the backs of heads until they were all sweating and a little worse for wear but otherwise fine. Rolling her shoulders, the half demon glared at Kakashi, knowing now that he was probably just trying to get them to work harder together, but still blaming him for their circumstances, she nodded as the silver haired scarecrow released them for the day, just a little bit early.
”Sore?” Hanaru grinned, turning to Sasuke and elbowing him slightly. She might have been out of breath and sweaty but she was certainly better-looking (in terms of fatigue) than the rest of them. “You… didn’t do too bad,” Hanaru crossed her arms under her breast as she quickly covered up (poorly) the almost-compliment. “Like I said earlier, don’t get cocky. You might be barely better than Naruto, but he learns just as quickly as you do. More-so even, if he’s done being an idiot and actually focuses.”
”Ha-chan’s mean…” Naruto sniffled to the side, seated at the base of his tree with a few more welts, due to teasing the purple haired half demon that had chased him up and down the tree.

 

[Iron Mouse]

Sasuke glared at Naruto, he'd been doing just fine until the knucklehead decided to grab at him. "What were you thinking?" he growled at the blond who was rolling around and rubbing his head, he didn't get anything aside from groaning and he was ready to reach out and add another lump to the boy's head until an ominous shadow fell over them. Hanaru loomed over them. At first he was somewhat confused as he hadn't heard Kakashi's threat but she wasn't giving him any time to retort that 'Duh, that's what I'm trying to do' before she started barking orders. Was she being serious? That look on her face sure as heck said so. He didn't bother patting himself down as he stood up and once again ascended up the tree. It wasn't long before he heard a rapid tap-tap-tap-tap and had only enough time to look down, just in time for Hanaru to have caught up to him and with a hard SLAP a stinging pain shot across his shoulder blade making him hiss.

This went on for some time, Hanaru switching between Naruto and Sasuke, a symphony of slaps, yelps and "Ha-chan! Not there! No!" drifted across the training fields. Kakashi watched them, if he had known just how effective his threat would have been he'd have used it sooner. Maybe even a few years sooner. "Alright, I think that's enough for today," he called to them, pretending not to notice the heated glare that was pinned on his being, smiling behind his mask as he released them.
Sasuke was leaning against the tree, panting as he tried to catch his breath. His legs ached from the constant sprinting but it didn't begin to compare to the stinging pain on his back and shoulders. He shot her a pointed look, "Sore? Not how I'd describe it," he didn't protest when she nudged him with her elbow. Subconsciously, he puffed up his chest at her praise, straightening up as she continued to acknowledge Naruto's growth in a backhanded manner. "Tch, that knucklehead still has a long way to go before he catches up to me," he huffed, pulling the hem of his shirt up to wipe the sweat from his face.

"I thought dogs were suppose to chase cats up trees," Naruto muttered as he did his best to recline and catch his breath, "I wouldn't push her buttons if I were you," Sakura cautioned, pinning the half demon with a less than pleased look, "I just think she took things a little too far."
"No, I think she used just enough force," Sasuke said much to the pinkette's dismay, "Whaa-?! How can you say that? I thought I was going to die!" Naruto all but yelled out. "You're still alive aren't you?" Sasuke shot back making the boy grumbled as he lightly shouldered the half demon, "Hn, I guess I'll take this as my first lesson. It's only fair that I give you your first lesson too~" Well, after he cleaned up a little, "I'll meet you by the gates and you better not try to leave without me. I know where you live," it wasn't the best threat he could think of, but he didn't want to say too much in the presence of their teammates.

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​

Asuna was grateful for Asuma allowing her to stick to her battle with the kusarigama and stick with it she did. She'd taken up a spot far enough from the others to practice full arches without the fear of accidentally hitting any of them. Instead she tried to focus on 'catching' the stationary dummy between swinging arches, but everytime the chain looped around the strawman her split second excitement fell flat as the chain limply slid off of it. As she crouched down to let her arms rest for a moment and ponder as to what she was doing wrong -was she not swinging the chain fast enough? was it the direction she was swinging it in?- dull green eyes trailed off and over to her teammates. The tonfa didn't seem to fit with Ino nearly as much as the bo staff did and Choji...a ghost of smile crept on her face, he almost looked like a Kabuki actor as he wielded the naginata. While it resembled a spear, it had a long curved blade at the end. Her eyes trailed over to Shikamaru, curious to see how the hook blades were treating him, but her head snapped back to her own weapon the moment they made eye contact.

As their training came to an end, tired was probably not how she'd describe herself, aching all over was more accurate. She fought against the idea of reclining back and supporting herself on her arms, not sure if they'd be able to hold her weight as they all surrounded Asuma as he dismissed them.
"Hmm, a bath doesn't sound so bad right now," Asuna murmured as Ino waved them off, "I'm off too, promised to help my mom with some stuff today," Choji said as he stretched out, "See you online?" he nodded to Shikamaru before waving, "See you tomorrow, 'Suna." The sandy blonde waved as he left, she'd have jumped the chance to leave too, but she'd asked Hinata to meet her after the final bell and she wasn't that big of a jerk to stand the girl up.

"I hope it's a quiet afternoon," she mused to herself as she flopped backwards onto the ground, "No deliveries, no little old ladies that need help with carrying things..." It was all wishful thinking though, just because they didn't have any scheduled deliveries didn't mean that her old man hadn't gone and changed things up. Asuna hadn't lain down for too long before she got up again, "That's enough lazy time for me. I'm going to go clean up a bit and talk to Hinata about Kurenai-sensei," she said looking down at the boy. She couldn't bring herself to lay there watching clouds until the final bell rang, even if it was only a short while away. Sure, she could have cleaned up at home too, but there was a rather pressing matter she had to deal with the moment she stepped through the door. Dull green orbs rested on the reclined young man, whatever her father was trying to force him into doing, she wasn't going to sit idly by as he pushed him around.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Hanaru wasn’t easy on them, in fact one might consider her version of their training as “brutal,” but Kakashi did little to interfere with her interference. In fact, if anything, this meant that he went back to finishing his chapter in Icha Icha Paradise. By the end of their training, Hanaru was panting slightly from having to work both Naruto and Sasuke up the tree. Her stamina was significant, but even she seemed a little winded after all of their training today, and she almost wondered if they were getting stronger, or if she needed to train more (and she refused to admit to either reason). At Naruto’s grumble, she turned to eye him with a less-than-nice look. After all, it was him who had struggled more than Sasuke in this exercise. At least Sasuke had enough discipline to learn from his mistakes after the first few hits. Naruto was… a little bit more of a slower learner.
”Too far would have been bringing up my Wakizashi with me,” Hanaru stated, rolling her shoulders as she stared unchallengingly back at Sakura’s distrustful gaze. “Or if I had actively been trying to make sure they weren’t getting back up again.”
But just then, Sasuke himself spoke up for her, and she blinked in surprise, her golden eyes widening a fraction before she put on her best disinterested scowl in order to hide the momentary emotion. Kakashi, the ever-silent observer, smirked behind his mask. These kids… they were effectively a hot mess. But they reminded him so much of his own squad that it brought back some of the more happier memories that his darker ones tried to make him forget.
”If you were going to die Naruto, I’d have made sure you would have known,” Hanaru teased, her tail flicking behind her playfully as a cruel smirk danced upon her lips. “I don’t play with my toys… often.”
”T-toys… as in this has happened before…?” Naruto blanched, to which Hanaru’s shoulders bounced in neither confirmation nor denial. She could let Naruto’s imagination go rampant, though clearly if he had half a brain he’d have realized that if she was that dangerous then clearly his adoptive father, or Kakashi, or literally any of the other shinobi would have taken her out by now. And some really wished they had the opportunity now that she was a ward of the Sandaime… they didn’t think it was fair of her to be able to get off scott-free for her history… but the Sandaime saw a troubled teen who had been forced to give up her childhood, and a creature ostracized for blood that she didn’t choose to have.
Others might have seen the whole ordeal as a transaction of ‘weaponry’… ‘Others like Mitomori…’ she couldn’t help but think bitterly. But, as if there to bring her out of her thoughts, Sasuke bumped into her shoulder, and she looked to him, her eyebrows furrowing. She definitely wanted to give him a harder lesson than that…! But she wasn’t going to back down on a deal. Hanaru had done so many things she regretted, but never once would she be called a promise breaker. “Fine,” she sighed, shaking her head lightly at his words. “As if you could sneak in without me knowing about it,” she pointed to her nose and her ears as an idle threat in response to his own.
She waved a hasty goodbye before she turned on her heel and began walking toward the girl’s locker room, making sure she was ahead of anyone else who might have thought of a similar idea. Once there, she quickly showered, shuddering at the water like she always did, but tolerated for the sake of cleanliness, and then changed into clothes that weren’t sweaty and gross. Her wardrobe was not expansive, and she didn’t have very many options to choose from. That being said, Jiraiya liked to stop by unannounced (no doubt originally ordered by the Sandaime considering they lived as neighbors just a few doors down) and once he had seen that she was lacking in a few departments, would every once and awhile bring a box of clothes, or pantry items. Things she always complained and said she didn’t need, but always ended up using eventually. So that’s what she stepped out in—a hoodie and pair of shorts that she had probably gotten from Jiraiya at some point (she didn’t want to know where he got the clothes from and always washed them first).
Once her hair was tied up and out of her face, the female half-nekomanta youkai let her feet carry her back towards the front gates as Sasuke had proposed. Her Wakizashi was sheathed, but her holster was in one hand and the handle of the blade in the other, lazily placed against her shoulder. Seeing a familiar head of onyx hair, she let out a loud sigh, pretending to be bored. “Alright, where are we goin’ for this ‘lesson’ of yours?”

_______________

As he laid on the ground, Shikamaru heard Asuna collapse beside him, his attention remaining on the fluffy white clouds that slowly and lazily made their way across the sky. He acknowledged her statement about a bath with a small hum, but otherwise made no move to look to her. After all, this was beginning to remind him of when they were kids. Whenever she couldn’t find him, she would usually catch him at the same place: the hill in the park near her home. It was the best place to cloud watch and he could often find himself dozing off there and forgetting the time. He’d wake to a head of blonde hair in his business and a teasing tone of voice telling him how he’d lost track of time and his parents were now looking for him. Somehow they never found his special place.
So how Asuna ever did was always a mystery to him.
”Good luck with that,” Shikamaru noted at her words. It was true, for as empty as The Shuffle of Things seemed to be at any given moment, there was rarely a day where something uninteresting (or something not vexing to the poor Takanashi girl) happened. Finally his onyx orbs slid over to Asuna, watching her as she pushed herself back up to her feet again. “You couldn’t stay still for very long if you even tried,” he couldn’t help but snicker, criticizing playfully about her natural need to always be doing something. They were polar opposites in that regard. Shikamaru could have probably remained on the ground there for hours after everyone had left, thinking about both nothing and everything at all. Sometimes the Nara became so lost in his own thoughts that he wasn’t quite sure where his subconscious ended and his natural thought process began, and perhaps that was why he was so well praised for his mind.
”Listen, make sure you get Hinata in on it first, I do not want to bring it up to Kiba until she’s good to go,” he spoke honestly, shaking his head. He didn’t need to say anything but hint at the Inuzuka’s overbearing nature, and how he tended to push around the poor Hyuuga girl just because she let him act like a doormat. Most of the time the brunette didn’t even know he was doing it, but Shikamaru knew he’d feel bad about it if he pointed it out. “Once we get them in on it, then maybe sensei won’t be so weird about it with us. He acts like it’s his first relationship.” He couldn’t help roll his eyes, remembering all the times that Asuma had tried to give him romantic advice by talking about his exes and past relationship experiences. At the time, Shikamaru hadn’t exactly been interested in listening. Now though… well, let’s just say he wasn’t going to bring up his feelings for his squadmate any time soon.
”As much as I could probably fall asleep right here… I should probably also head home. Figure out what my old man wants,” he’d gotten a text from his father during training that he hadn’t bothered responding to. Something about the schedule for his “internship.” Or maybe it was about his expectations in regard to working with Mr. Takanashi. He wasn’t exactly sure, and he wasn’t eager to find out, but he figured the sooner he got it over with, the better.
”I’ll see you around, ‘Suna,” he nodded to her, before placing his hands in his pockets and letting his feet carry him home. Rolling his shoulders, he noted how sore he had been, working out different muscle groups. His eyes narrowed as he walked, once more lost in thought. He could do with some more training, particularly if he wanted to use some of the weapons that they had practiced with. The training regimine was already more than halfway done by the time his feet had carried him up to his doorstep, where his father was picking weeds out of their front flowerbed. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at watching such an accomplished shinobi do such a menial task, but said nothing as Shikaku stood and wiped the dirt from his hands off on his pants.
”Don’t aggravate your mother, I might be in the doghouse right now,” he warned, and Shikamaru nodded, making a mental note to be more respectful. “I wanted to talk to you about what Mr. Takanashi called me about today regarding your schedule…” basically, long story short, Shikamaru was to help out at The Shuffle of Things every day after school until Eiji decided he was done with him. Shikamaru sighed—it wasn’t exactly ideal, but he also didn’t mind the idea of being around Asuna more. “So…”
”So… what?” Shikamaru tilted his head as Shikaku let out a heavy sigh.
”So, shower and get your ass over there! Seriously, you can’t work the first day of your internship all grimy from training.”
And so not even 30 minutes later, Shikamaru found himself kicking around dirt outside of the store, waiting to be summoned inside or just wasting time, he wasn’t exactly sure of his motives. He was wearing a more casual outfit than his daily school/shinobi wear.

 

[Iron Mouse]

"Hn, well I can't exactly lay there and waste a finite resource," her retort was a little meaner than intended. Shikamaru's ability to just lay there staring at the clouds was something that was both irritating and something she slightly envied about him. It was a silly thing really, she could take a break whenever she wanted...take a day off and do absolutely nothing...it's not like anyone was explicitly trying to stop her or anything. As she gazed down at him with a tired and dull look, Asuna could feel the energy sap out of her body, the desire to copy the laziest boy she knew rising. Oh temptation, what a cruel mistress. The gears hastily started clicking and clacking, sending the machine of her mind roaring to life. A seemingly endless list of 'Do this' and 'Don't forget that' quickly took the place of her short lived desire before the thought even had a chance to properly process. "I know," she said nodding, she felt sympathy for the Hyuuga girl, she was weak willed and Kiba...well, his will was too strong for his own good which ended up with him all but dragging his team with him whether they wanted it or not, "You'd think being on a team with him for so long those two would have learned to say no." That was rich though, coming from Asuna who could so easily be dragged off against her will by Ino.

She lifted a hand, giving a small wave as Shikamaru pulled himself up, "See ya." She watched him for a moment as he walked off, before turning and making her way to the change rooms. Her muscles were on fire, even the ones she forgot she had, and a new wave of irritation spread as the change rooms seemed to grow further with each step. By the time she had reached the showers, steam already billowed out in puffs from one of the stalls. Carefully, she peeled off and stuffed away her muddy clothes, stepping into an unoccupied stall. It was perhaps one of the few times Asuna allowed herself to slow down and relax, her mind stilling, the cogs and gears ticking and clicking ever slower under the spray of hot water. The four walled cubicle acted as a safe box, isolating her from the worries that floated just beyond its walls. At most her mind idly filed away the day's events as she leaned her head tiredly against the cold tiled wall listening to the hissing water, quieter now as the neighboring stall fell into silence. Despite the lethargic way her limbs moved as she washed away the muck, there was an undeniable swirl of excitement, guilt and suspicion. She was excited to spend the afternoon with Shikamaru, but felt guilty that he was all but forced into the position. If she were honest, her own selfishness left her feeling more excited than guilty. The burning suspicion in the back of her mind though had her chewing on her lip in thought, her father had never been shy when it came to voicing his distrust for teenage boys, but he'd been relatively kinder to the Nara boy in comparison.

There had to be a reason right? It was a plot, some cleverly disguised ploy with some sinister goal, it had to be. RIght? Was he looking to replace her in the shop? Doubtful. Psychological warfare? But what would that achieve in the end? Was he looking to turn her friends into his spies? He had been snooping through her room and she hadn't exactly been upfront about everything she did. Hm.

The thoughts rolled through her head, each as ridiculous as the next, even as she stepped out of the cubicle and dressed in a pair of shorts and a plain t-shirt. The sound of the door opening brought her back to the present and her current mission at hand. "H-Hey, Asuna-chan," Hinata smiled softly as she entered the changing room, "How was training today?" Asuna raised a hand, turning to the girl as she shuffled closer. "Hm, ok I guess," she didn't miss the way the girl glanced at her neck and averted her gaze, quickly the blonde's raised hand came to rest over the area, obscuring the discoloured blotches, "It's fine, don't worry about it," she assured, "And don't say you're sorry."
Hinata swallowed the words that teetered on the tip of her tongue as Ausna draped her towel over her shoulders, "I know but...have you seen Lady Tsunade? I-It doesn't look normal."
"It looks that bad? Hn, I'm sure it'll be fine in a day or two," the blonde muttered, pushing the towel up on one side to try and cover up better. She didn't like the staring, it wasn't that it made her feel uncomfortable, but she could see the discomfort on the Hyuuga girl's face. "I wanted to ask you something," she changed the topic and took a seat on the bench between the lockers. Hinata followed suit, curiosity shining behind her eyes but there was concern, it wasn't everyday the blonde asked for a secret rendezvous to talk about something, "Oh? W-what do you want to ask?"
"It's about Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei." The worry faded and now she was very curious, tilting her head slightly as the blonde leaned back on her arms staring up at the ceiling.
"So, we were talking, me and Shikamaru, about how annoying they are. They obviously like each other, so we thought maybe to give them a nudge and stop all this pussyfooting around," Asuna spoke, stopping and cocking her head in confusion at Hinata who had a face splitting grin on her face, "What?"
"I-it's nothing!" Hinata said, "It's just...this is really unlike you." In all her years of knowing the blonde, this was probably a first for her to 'stick her nose in someone else's business' as she would say, "You don't normally get involved like this." She had heard Kiba's grandiose tale of catching the slacker duo in the school pool for a late night swim and while he had a habit of embellishing small things here and there, it was still a surprise to hear that Asuna of all people had been involved.
Hinata had a point, this was very unlike Asuna who blinked silently at the Hyuuga. She wanted to protest, if Ino had dragged her along she'd probably have done the same. Reluctantly. However she wasn't really putting up a fight when Shikamaru had suggested it, there was no reluctance and she knew why.

Tilting her head towards the ceiling again she let out a sigh, "Yeah, well...the things I do for you people." There was no point in protesting or trying to cover up Hinata's observations because when it came down to it, no, she would not have done this sort of thing for anyone else, "But every kind of relationship works on giving and taking and it would be pretty shitty of me if I just kept taking." Hinata nodded, "I see, and you want me to help you with Kurenai-sensei?" She didn't exactly agree with Asuna's judgement of herself, she gave more than she realized. Yes, she never really got directly involved with anything that didn't directly affect her and yes, this sometimes did make her seem cold, uncaring and indiffered, but despite all that Asuna cared a great deal more than she would care to voice. The way Hinata saw it, her inaction oftentimes had an indirect influence on the things and people around her. Asuna's non-intervention mentality made Hinata feel more comfortable in sharing her thoughts, feelings and things that bothered her in general, knowing that the blonde wouldn't try to 'fix' her problems. "I'll help in any way I can," Hinata said as she folded her hands together gently and brought them up, "I think it's sweet that you would want to help them."

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"No, really? You don't say!" Mr. Takanashi said as he wrapped up a box on the counter for the middle aged couple that had stumbled into The Shuffle of Things a good twenty minutes ago. When they first walked in looking lost and curious, they were only window shopping, but once he turned on his business face and got them talking, well it didn't take him too long to persuade them to make a purchase. There weren't many things the man would say he hated, hate was a strong word after all, but if he were to use it he'd say he hated the modern sales people in the general every day stores. There was a certain disconnection he felt whenever he walked into a store and after finding what he was looking for a wayward young man would approach him with a lifeless 'Can I help you?'. Being a good sales person was an art, it required a certain set of skills that he believed he had mastered over the years and if you couldn't talk the hind legs off a donkey and sell it back to him, then you had no business in the sales department. Carefully, he handed the package to the couple, stepping out from behind the counter, "Well, I hope this helps to ease things up!" he smiled brightly as he escorted the duo to the door, "Thank you for stopping by, I hope to see you again soon!" He noticed Shikamaru standing there, but kept his attention on the couple who said their thanks before they walked off chattering excitedly. His beaming smile was still plastered on his face when he finally turned to the boy, his hand coming up and clapping him on the back, "There he is! My new favourite employee!"

There was no underlying hostility in EIji's tone or actions as he spoke, "In we go, we can't stand out here all day!" He was oddly calm and seemingly excited as he guided the dark haired teen into the small store and to the back room. "'Suna said she was going to be late, something about the little Hyuuga girl, so let's get all this nasty admin work out of the way before she comes back, neh?" he released the boy as he paced around the office pulling out files only to shove them back into the shelfs. The office, though small, was packed to the rafters. There were shelves full of files and loose papers, boxes were stacked ontop of each other and a few were stacked on top of the shelves as well. There was a distinct smell of cheap sandalwood incense and cigarette smoke, the former was most likely an attempt to mask the latter, but did so poorly. Years of smoke had reduced the once white walls to a slightly off white colour, even in Mr. Takanashi's absence one could always catch a whiff of his tobacco trail as if it had become a part of the office itself.
"I might not have exactly discussed this...arrangement with the little boss lady," Eiji let out a chuckle as he found the file he was looking for, pulling it from the shelf and setting it on the table, "But with such high praise, how could I resist?" He took a seat as he spoke, opening the file and pushing it towards the boy. His long fingers laced together as he leaned his elbows on the table, "I had to make a few adjustments, but it's pretty standard."

Eiji watched the boy scan over the document, he had to tweak it a little as Shikamaru was still a student and could be called away on a mission with very little notice. While he wouldn't receive all of the benefits of a full time employee, Eiji made sure to still make it worth his while. He wanted the boy on his side after all, it would mean he'd have extra tabs on his daughter's less than savoury behavior and he would be able to keep the boy at arms length at the same time. As the old saying went, keep your friends close and your daughter's friends closer.

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Most of Team 7 all donned the same look of exhaustion, sweat dripping from their faces and their breathing laboured. Sasuke was no exception to this, even as he tried to steady his breathing. He had played off the intensity of the training to keep up his appearance, but every fibre of his being begged him to rest. He ignored the agonizing burn of his muscles as he watched Hanaru take her leave. "Man, I feel like my legs are going to fall off," Naruto complained behind him, but he wasn't paying attention, not until the blond had somehow found his feet and was currently leaning against the raven haired male, "So what was that all about?"
"Tch, none of your business, now get off me," Sasuke attempted to shrug the boy off, but Naruto had his arm slinged around his shoulders, "Aw, c'mon, you two have been acting really suspicious! Sneaking around and whispering behind our backs!"
Sasuke turned his head away as Naruto tried to pull him closer, he didn't have the energy to deal with this, "I don't know what you're talking about. We're not whispering, you're hearing is about as good as your grades!" His hand came up and planted itself against Naruto's face in an attempt to push him off. As Sasuke and Naruto struggled on, Kakashi watched from the corner of his eye, "Where do they get the energy?" he asked no one in particular. They acted as if they hadn't just endured a harsh training session, "Alright you two, that's enough. Go hit the showers before the other students are let out of class," he called out to them as Sasuke now had both his hands on Naruto's face. "Now, Naruto! You still have detention this afternoon."
"What?! Aw, c'mon Kakashi-sensei! Have a heart, we were training really hard today!" Naruto protested as best he could with Sasuke's hands slapped over his face, but the look in the singular orb fixated on them left little room for more protesting and with a heavy sigh he surrendered, "Yes, Kakashi-sensei."

Sasuke was able to straighten up as Naruto finally let up. Kakashi's stern gaze acted as their final warning. "Wait, why doesn't Sasuke have to do detention?!" Naruto quickly yelled out, pointing an accusatory finger at him, "Because, idiot, I already served my detention this morning," the ravenette clicked his tongue in annoyance as he turned and stalked off to the changerooms, tuning out the Uzumaki's groans and complaints. Sakura visibly deflated at his words, though he didn't see it. Her hopes of walking home together were dashed. Quickly she picked up her pace, almost running to catch up to Sasuke's retreating form, "Sasuke-kun!" she called but he didn't slow down. "Hey, Sasuke-kun, you were really amazing today!" She said as she finally caught up to him, "You're getting stronger every day, I bet you'll be scouted by the ANBU before we even graduate!"
"Hn," was all the raven haired boy offered in response. He had hoped his walk would be a solitary one, it was hard to think with Sakura yapping beside him and Naruto calling out for her behind him.
"Sakura-chan! Wait for me!"
He had realized that he had nothing prepared for his 'lesson' with Hanaru, he wasn't even sure what she was struggling with or where to even begin the lessons.
"-and so I was thinking that maybe, if you're not too busy later-"
The words had just tumbled from his mouth without him even properly registering what he was saying. It was quite the pickle and he only had so much time before they met up.
"-get some ramen after detention?"
Think. He needed to think, but there was just too much...
"So, are you and Hanaru like...going on a date or something?"
Sasuke's eyes snapped open, "What?" was all he could muster, he had been so lost in his own mind that he hadn't really paid much attention to either of his teammates who were flanking his sides. Naruto was staring at him curiously and Sakura looked like she was about ready to commit homicide. "Ha-chan, is that why you want to meet up with her?" Sasuke could feel the tips of his ears burning at Naruto's comment, "No! It's not a- you wouldn't understand!" he huffed and lengthened his strides. What an absurd thing to say! Only an idiotic person like Naruto would think up some crackpot idea like that! HA! A date. He scoffed loudly at the thought.

"Naruto!" Sakura was quick to grab said boy in a headlock, "Why do you always have to say dumb stuff like that?!" She was clearly offended by the mere notion of anyone, especially Hanaru, going on a date with her Sasuke. The pinkette's grip tightened on the blond, she was just about to ask Sasuke out herself, he'd never go for a girl like Hanaru, they didn't even get along most of the time! "Just butt out of people's business! Sasuke wouldn't even dream of going out with a girl like her!"
"Ack! I'm sorry!" Naruto wheezed as he clawed at Sakura's arm, "I just thought...since they're meeting up...and stuff...it's...suspect!"
She didn't want to admit to it, but she had noticed just how more protective Sasuke had been acting towards the purplette. They were fighting less, he tended to stand or walk closer to her and even went looking for her to bicker. She didn't want to believe it. Not her Sasuke. There must have been a different reason, something else must be going on and like usual...she was in the dark.

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Sasuke had all but slammed the door to the boys' change room. The sound still echoed down the hallway. He had hastily shed his clothing, taking a second to look at the red marks that marred his body before stepping into the shower. What about any of this made Naruto think he was asking Hanaru on a date?! He just asked her to meet him at the gate, what in that request screamed romantic in any way, shape or form? He had never asked a girl out before, but he believed that if he ever would, he'd at least be more...tactful, maybe with some flowers or a nice gift. Ugh, why was he getting so worked up over something so stupid? All he needed to do was to calm down, calm down and think of what to do for his first lesson. That's all it was, a deal, a lesson for a lesson. Nothing more, nothing less and there was definitely nothing amorous about it.

He didn't take long, stepping out onto the cold floor with a billowing cloud of steam following him out of the cubicle. The pieces of an orange jumpsuit were scattered around, the pants were on the floor, the jacket on the bench, there was a shoe on the locker and one on the...windowsill? It was best not to ask, Sasuke decided he didn't need to guess who it belonged to as he had heard Naruto stumbling in bemoaning Sakura's bad mood a while ago. Quietly he dressed, leaving Naruto to sing loudly and off key by himself, making his way out to the gate. He was dressed in what he dubbed to be casual attire; black cargo pants and a white button up shirt pulled over sapphire blue t-shirt. The echo of his footsteps in the empty hall was drowned out by the screech of the bell and all at once the scraping of chairs and tables and the roar of chatter tried to compete with the ringing above his head. He had made it out just in time though, before the first wave of students came crashing through the corridors.
There she was, waiting, and for some reason Sasuke could feel his heart beat faster. A part of him wasn't sure that she'd even show up and the fact that she did...
"Well, well, well, here I was expecting you to get cold feet," he teased as he approached the half nekomanta, "Wouldn't you like to know?"
He had a plan, granted it wasn't an amazing plan, but given his limited time to come up with an impromptu lesson plan, he almost wanted to pat himself on the back, "C'mon, I want to test you to see just how good or how bad you really are," he nodded to her to follow along. His plan was to walk from the school to the park having cleverly routed out a course where they'd encounter the most amount of street and business signs. "We're going for a walk down to the park," he shrugged as they started walking, they hadn't even made it four feet out of the gate before he pointed at the plaque embedded into the wall, "Here, read it."

He was patient as he waited for her to read it, while she did he couldn't help but let his gaze wander over her, he'd never seen her dressed so casually before. She looked rather regal with her hair tied up, it brought emphasis to her catlike features, to her face, to her eyes and Sasuke had to mentally shake the thoughts from his head and he quickly tried to look anywhere but her face. His eyes naturally landed on the exposed skin of her arm, mentally tracing the visible rough ridges of her scars. He had seen them before. He had seen the full extent of what lay hidden beneath her sleeves. It was haunting. It painted a picture so vividly of what her life had been like. Lower, his gaze trailed, her hoodie left a modest strip of skin exposed to his roving eyes. There too, mostly hidden, where the edges of old wounds now long healed. He wasn't repulsed by them, quite the opposite in fact. They were like trophies of life and death situations, ones that she had lived through. They spoke of her strength and he was sure that they each had a story, not that he would ever ask about them. He forced his gaze to the plaque, there was no room for his morbid interest and he was sure she wouldn't want to talk about it either.

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"Wha's with the kid?"
Parked a short ways down the street, a black car with tinted windows faced the school. Behind the shadowy guise of the blackened windows, three men sat, watching and waiting. The man who had spoken was hunched over the steering wheel, his feet barely reached the pedals. "I dunno, boss. Saws 'im las' night too. He dun look tha' tough ta me," the lanky in the passenger's side said, he moved his head carefully as his fabulous pompadour grazed the roof of the car. He was unsuccessful in swaying
"Don' let 'is good looks fool ya, each one of 'em kids can be trouble," the short man said peering over the steering wheel as a sea of students all burst through the gate, "We follow 'em, quietly this time. If we don' bring 'er back the big boss' goin' to 'ave our heads."
The car sat motionless, it's passengers were silent. Even the sounds of the chattering students that passed by seemed muffled and lost, turned to white noise.
Taking up most of the back seat, hunched so his head wouldn't knock on the roof, the third man sat with a pair of small binoculars to his face, "Walk...park," he said before lowering the device from his face. Two red rings circled his eyes, "Boss, they're goin' for a walk, down to the park. I's what he says."
There was a grunt from the driver's seat as the short, well dressed goon tried to slide down enough to toe the pedals.
"Eh, boss? Nutin' fer nutin' y'know, but yer sure yer can drive t'is thin'?"
There was a pause as the man in the drivers' seat turned to glare daggers at his companion, "Whacha' mean can I drive this thang? Course I can drive this thang! What are yez, stupid or somethin?" he growled out as the lanky man rose his hands in surrender, pulling down the safety belt and securing himself, "Jus' checkin' boss, jus' checkin'."

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Shikamaru didn’t know what he was expecting, but let’s just say his mind’s eye had foreseen something a little bit more… intense, than whatever this was. After all, Mr. Takanashi was relatively nice to him upon first glance. In fact, as he had walked his last customers out the door, he hadn’t even acknowledged the Nara’s presence. But now, clapping a hand on his back, Shikamaru instinctively winced, only to be caught slightly off guard by the lack of force in the action. The Shuffle of Things wasn’t any different from the other day when he had been inside, although maybe a few items were gone. He knew the curio shop had existed for far longer than he’d been alive, and a part of him wondered exactly how old the records for stock in the store was. There was no way taking stock in a curio shop was easy, what with all the old and eclectic items that could sit on shelves for months—even years.
He nodded at the man’s words, registering the fact that Asuna had actually stayed back to talk to Hinata; not that he hadn’t expected her to, it was just good to see a few different plans in motion. At least it was something they could think about before going on their mission this weekend. Sometimes thinking about the mundane things did a good job at distracting them from the fact that they were literally going to a school to learn how to be ninja. Biting his lip at the cheap incense smell, Shikamaru found the smell of cigarettes comforting—his father smoked a bit when he was younger (he was trying to quit) and Asuma-sensei did as well. He didn’t necessarily see a need in smoking for himself, and while he didn’t necessarily condemn those who did it, there were certain people who did that just made him uncomfortable about the whole thing. Such as whenever he smelled the scent of tobacco on Asuna—it just… didn’t seem to fit her, right? Well, he couldn’t exactly talk or he’d be a bit of a hypocrite.
”Yeah, I mentioned that I was working here now and she was a little… surprised,” Shikamaru sighed, warning the girl’s father. Both were scary when they were angry, and Shikamaru had yet to decide which person’s wrath was worse—father, or daughter. The black-haired male trailed after Mr. Takanashi, watching him get the file from a box. How he could even find anything in this mess, the Nara would never understand.
His eyes glanced over the paper—it was rather simple, and there wasn’t necessarily a need for anything fancy, considering he was just an intern. The pay was a little more than decent, and Shikamaru huffed slightly, nodding and being more than aware that Mr. Takanashi watched him like a hawk. It was probably a good thing that he was working at the store, in the end. After all, not only could he stick around Asuna more, but he could also, maybe (hopefully) show her father that he wasn’t exactly a bad influence, or a bad guy in general.
”Thanks, uh… sir.” What did he call him? Boss? Bossman? Asuna’s dad? Sir. Sir seemed to work—either that or Mr. Takanashi, or Takanashi-san. He was going to be formal for the sake of respect in a workplace environment, but other than that, he wasn’t really looking to become Eiji’s best buddy.
”Is there anything in particular that you wanted me to do first?” Frick, his muscles were still rather sore from the intense training that they had done earlier… his shower at home had done his sore muscles some good, but clearly this was the punishment for slacking off on some of his training. Not that he wasn’t strong already, but there were certain things in the shinobi world that you needed to keep on top of that sometimes Shikamaru let slip to the wayside. “I already know how to clean the place—and I’m aware of Asuna’s standards.” That, in and of itself, was a feat to understand. Asuna was very serious when it came to cleaning, so Shikamaru, for as long as he was interning, he would make sure that he at least cleaned well enough so the blonde-haired girl wasn’t yelling at him. Not yelling at him too much, at least. Besides, cleaning wouldn’t irritate his already sore muscles as much as any lifting might, etc. so it seemed like a pretty decent deal.
Having been given a bit of direction, Shikamaru snagged an apron that looked like at one point it had been a deep forest green, and put it on, looking like an employee now. He nodded to Eiji respectfully before moving to collect a broom from the closet. Already knowing where the supplies he would need was basically half the battle, the showroom full of various breakable things and other such knickknacks. Taking the broom to the floor, he began to sweep, carefully and precisely.
It wasn’t long into his duties that out from underneath an adjacent table, a little black paw snuck out, swiping at the hairs on his broom as it passed by. Snickering, Shikamaru fished for the dark creature a little bit more, the black cat finally getting it’s claws stuck in the bristles of the broom. Flipping the handle, Shikamaru stared at the cat’s thousand-yard stare silently. “Everyone wants to get into my head…” he mumbled softly, talking to the cat. “But I wanna know if there’s anything at all in that soulless gaze.” The blank look didn’t stop, his little tongue sticking out from behind it’s muzzle. Offering him a “mrrowr?” before hopping down to race to the door, Shikamaru looked up blankly to see Asuna standing there. His face slowly colored as red as the trees outside, blinking as he tried to calm his beating heart. “You, uh… you didn’t see any of that, did you?” he asked, his embarrassment betrayed in the slight shake of his voice. “N-not that it matters or anything—the cat’s possessed. Probably.” Not that he believed in ghosts, but anything aside from crawling in a hole and dying of embarrassment. “Uh, w-welcome back,” he coughed lightly, going back to sweeping the floors and trying to pretend that absolutely nothing had just happened.

_______________________

”As if I’d let you stand out here looking like a loser for too long,” she snickered, turning her head away from him. “I would. That’s why I asked.” Her amber gaze slid back to his face as her eyes narrowed slightly. Now was not the time for games—she was here to learn! Or something. Clearly studying how to read on her own hadn’t exactly done any wonders for her. She was definitely a little better than she had been when she had first been taken in by the Sandaime, but there was no way she was going to make any speedy progress on her own. That was part of the reason that she had been so quick to accept his offer. Of course, it was between that and using her words to hide her embarrassment, but she was actually excited to… not have to guess what assignments were saying, and to be able to actually read the blackboard would be nice too.
”Lead the way,” she shrugged, walking alongside him as Sasuke began to lead down the street and away from the school building before the majority of the students could even make their way to the gate. The last thing Hanaru wanted was both some wannabe thugs AND Sasuke fangirls following them. Speaking of thugs—she hadn’t seen them in a while. As they walked to the park in a comfortable silence, Hanaru’s gaze slid over to the alleyways and side streets, noticing a distinct lack of following. Maybe they had lost them in the crowd of students? Either that, or they had done some learning themselves on how to actually be stealthy. Whatever, it didn’t matter. So long as they weren’t around.
As they came to the park, Hanaru’s ears swiveled to better hear Sasuke’s voice, and she nodded, staring down the park sign with a squint. Her eyes narrowed at the kanji, pondering for a moment. “Wait I’m not dumb, hold on, give me a sec,” she growled, crossing her hands under her chest as she leaned forward, as if being closer somehow magically helped her understand better. Mouthing out the syllables slowly under her breath, the half demon sighed in exasperation. This really shouldn’t have been that hard! “I-… Ima… Imabet… Imabetsa park…?” she did not sound confident. She failed to feel Sasuke’s gaze studying her scars, but she straightened out when she got to the numbers, reading them quickly. “1832. I can read numbers just fine. It’s the kanji that are hard…” she mumbled, her lips forming into a pout as an embarrassed light pink blush covered her cheeks.
After getting the confirmation on whether or not that was correct, she turned and looked to her companion. “So now we just… walk…?” she tilted her head, her eyebrows furrowed in mild confusion. “Excuse me, but I’m still not being able to walk casually without looking behind me. I still shouldn’t be so relaxed,” she sniffed, sticking her nose up in the air lightly. She looked annoyed, as though she’d rather be anywhere but. That being said… the slight, playful bounce of her tail gave her away. The prospect of actually succeeding—and showing up Sasuke that she wasn’t just some idiot who thought school was a waste of time. She understood its value, of course—it just wasn’t even on her radar as a possibility until meeting Hirozen. Biting her lip, the female’s eyes narrowed as she looked to the park. There weren’t too many people, thankfully, but still enough casual civilians minding their own business that made her feel a little intimidated. She watched as a little kid pulled on his mom’s hand and pointed at her excitedly. She then watched the mother instinctively tug her son closer and away. She doubted the woman knew just who she was, but that didn’t stop the prejudice against her appearance from happening. Animal features? Covered in scars? Definitely don’t let your kids near that thing.
Instinctively, she took a step closer to Sasuke, her embarrassment and the occasional stares causing her to become a little small. Normal society… something she never thought she’d never get to casually stroll through. Her ears flattened against her head. What was she doing here? Oh, right, to learn. “N-next sign…!” she stammered, once again trying to cover up her emotions.
She was so focused on hiding her embarrassment that she failed to note the same car that had been parked near the school had followed them to the park. Surely that was nothing to worry about… right?

 

[Iron Mouse]

Sasuke nodded looking at the sign, "Not bad I guess. Don't get stuck on the first kanji, it could be part of a compound and you'll end up losing the context of the word," he said as his hand slipped into his school bag, pulling a small notebook out and flipping to a clean page. He didn't really use it for much, there were a few notes in the front, mostly just quick scribbles of this he needed to remember, but nothing too important. "Reading the kanji is just half of the battle," he passed the notebook to Hanaru and fished a pencil from his bag, "Practicing the stroke order of the kana is important for understanding them too." As she wrote, he would pause her, correct her stroke order and explain why certain strokes had to happen before others, how the singular parts that the strokes were derived from changed the meaning of the kanji. "Most kanji have a kun'yomi reading as well as an on'yomi reading form," he paused, thinking, the kun and on readings weren't something that was easily taught, it was something that had to be learned and memorized for each instance on it's own. He thought for a moment before taking the pencil and with a few expert strokes there was a new kanji on the page 雨, "On its own, the kun' reading for this is ame, while the on' reading is just u. Kanji that are on their own like this you'd usually use the kun' reading, so rain would just be ame. If I was to put this here," again his hand flicked the pencil and an elegant 水 nestled beside 雨, "You wouldn't read it as 'ame mizu', you'd sound like Naruto. For compounds of more than one kanji together like this you'd use the on' reading, u and sui. Together they're usui."

"Words like 'new' and 'listen' that have a kanji with hiragana, verbs or i-adjectives you should also apply the kun' reading to," handing the notebook and pencil back, he motioned for them to keep going. If not for moss covered stone walls that ran along the path they ambled on, the ground would not have been distinguishable from the trees. Bright yellow and red leaves crunched beneath their feet as they made their way from one signpost to the next. Sasuke was mostly silent when they weren't stopping at a sign, this wasn't something he was used to, Hanaru would have normally gotten under his skin by now and they would be tearing at each other's throats. It was oddly calming and to a degree he was somewhat enjoying himself but the atypical behavior was starting to make him feel uneasy. The winding, branching pathway eventually ended in a stone circle with a small kiosk. "If you can read what the sign there says, I'll buy you whatever you want," he pointed to the small black board that stood a couple of feet from the kiosk. He could use a drink and not offering her anything would be rude, but nicely asking her if there was anything she wanted would feel too chummy. "One tea please," he said as he walked up to the window and once the attendant turned to tend to his order, he shoved his hands in his pockets, turning to watch Hanaru squinting at the sign.

"As terrible as Naruto is, the only thing he can read is an Ichiraku ramen menu," he mused, a taunting smirk playing on his features, "Looks like you can read everything but a menu." Granted, Hanaru had been through quite a few signs by now and whoever wrote on the blackboard had a seriously bad handwriting. Stepping up beside her, he waited another minute before taking the notebook, writing the first kanji of each word, "Don't say I never did anything for you," his playful smirk didn't waver as he handed the notebook back so she could figure out the rest with the hint he had given her. Little did they know, just behind the trees a pair of eyes watched them curiously. As Sasuke approached the window to pay for his drink he caught a glimpse of movement, looking back all he could see was a girl walking down the path while typing away on her phone. Here and there in the distance families and dog walkers could be seen, but other than that there was nothing out of the ordinary.​

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"Yous stay here," the short man said he slid from the drivers' seat of the black car pointing to the large man in the back seat, "We don' wanna scare tha lady." He chuckled as he adjusted his suit, casually strolling up to the large map that stood tall and proud at the park gate. A quick scan and he had what he wanted. He wasn't going to follow after their target, no, he was going to try and intersect her. He ignored the path, cutting his way across the grass, at some point his target and the pretty boy with her would eventually pass through the circular plaza. They would have to rest at some point. He had found his way there with very little resistance, except when Pompadour tried to shank the ice cream for not having any rocky road in stock. What a fool, everyone knew pistachio was the king of ice cream flavours!
"Yer s're they gonna come 'his way, boss?"
"Course I'm s're! Whatta I look like, a halfwit?" he glared at the tall, lanky man as they leaned against the side of the bathroom. The lanky man had failed them once, but this time, he'd make sure they didn't. The boss wouldn't be too happy if they did.

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After their chat was cut short by the bell, Asuna and Hinata made their way out of the building, their conversation fading into short to the point sentences until they finally parted ways. Asuna started down the all too familiar road, familiar chattering floating around and of course the usual traffic. Her mission was a success, Hinata was on their side. As she walked, the towel still draped around her neck, Asuna found her mind wandering off to earlier that morning. Her cheeks flared and she scoffed at herself, why out of all the things her mind could throw at her, it chose to linger on the feeling of Shikamaru's hand on her face, thumbing away the mud on her cheek? That's not what she wanted to think about. She had to prepare herself, there was a battle on the horizon and she couldn't go in all distracted.The road she took everyday seemed much shorter than usual as she found herself approaching her family's shop. Patting her cheeks she willed the thoughts from her mind, but as she turned to walk through the door the sight that greeted her had her rooted in place, stunned into silence. Shikamaru stood in an apron with a broom in his hands talking to the little onii cat. He looked so...domestic? Was that the right word? Asuna wasn't even sure anymore. He looked so out of place that he actually looked like he belonged there. "Y-yeah, I- Hi," was all that she could muster, her eyes quickly flitting around the room to anything but the boy.

As if sensing the mood, Eiji popped his head around the corner to look into the room, "Welcome back, Miss Takanashi," he teased with a sly smile watching as her head snapped in his direction and her face scrunched into a scowl. "What is this? You can't force my friends to work here and we talked about hiring new people," Asuna's voice raised, but her father didn't seem to care much as he leaned against the door post, "You can't just hire people anyway, I get to have a say in the matter!"
"But Pumpkin, you did and you approve," Eiji shot back, drawing out his words, his grin growing ever wider as the blonde ball of fury sputtered out a protest. "Ah, but you see, you said that his skill was amazing and that he actually listened and learned. Yes, the makings of a good employee," he slid up beside the boy wrapping his arm around his shoulders and pulling him into his taller form, "Employee of the month! Acting superintendent! Manager even, hmm-hm, you really twisted my arm, how could I not scout such a fine young person?"
Asuna was bristling, her father had purposely taken her words, stipped them of their context, rearranged them to fit his own narrative and handed them right back to her all while being extremely smug about it. She wasn't sure how to counter his argument, she wasn't prepared at all, "You can't!"

"I can, I will and I have, the contract is signed and you're fifty years too young to be telling me what I can and can't do!" Despite his grin that screamed victory and his light tone, there was an underlying authority behind it. With a rather patronizing pat on Shikamaru's head, he turned on his heel and stalked back to the office, "Get grandma some tea before she breaks something." Asuna huffed, bending down to scoop up the ball of fur that was weaving between her legs. Just because he won didn't mean that it was over, she wasn't going to take this lying down. "Yeah, yeah," she grumbled, finally stepping into the shop fully, shuffling to the back room to find her apron. It had only been a few minutes since she left before the kitten came skittering back into the shop, the young blonde not far behind. "I hate when he does that," she mumbled stepping behind the counter and opening the sliding doors of the display, "Oh, right, Hinata said she'll be happy to help." Whatever residual anger that clung to her being had all but disappeared as she fell into her routine. The kitten who had been sitting and staring at them leap up with a tiny "Mrow!" and started scampering around, ducking and weaving under the shelves, climbing up onto the counter only to jump off of the other end. Asuna wasn't sure what it was doing, but she found herself biting her lip to keep from laughing as it vanished under display.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Listening to Sasuke speak about kanji and the right forms and which to use was a lot better than trying to teach herself. She was always too proud to use the children’s books (and how would she get them without looking completely foolish?), so she struggled for so long on her own. Her mother, Izai, had done her best to teach her when they were on the run, but there was only so much that stuck. Thankfully, the more Sasuke spoke of the basics, the more she was reminded of what she had actually learned, and she nodded in understanding. The pencil and notebook were helpful too, as they correlated what she was learning to physical writing. It didn’t make it easy, but it at least helped.
The more they walked, the more signs Hanaru slowly pieced together, reading and writing them down with the occasional corrections from Sasuke. He watched over her shoulder, and as much as she wanted to be 100% focused on what she was working on in order to show him up, she couldn’t help but feel herself being distracted. After all, in Sasuke’s casual button-up, he looked… well… good. Not that she’d ever admit that out loud. Some thought that his deep onyx orbs were cold, and uncaring—most of his fangirls praised him for his aloof nature and his “cool” attitude. There was definitely some pride issues deep down in there—a lot of his issues she recognized because it was the same things that she hated about herself. It was so much easier to see it in someone else. But Sasuke was also someone who struggled with expectations, even if those at school always perceived him as perfect. She didn’t get him… at all. But sometimes, when that dark gaze would flare with emotion… she recognized it.
Not allowing herself to stare for too long, lest he notice her distraction, she buried herself into the work that they were doing. Raising an eyebrow as they reached the kiosk circle, Hanaru opened her mouth to argue that she really didn’t need anything, much less that he would need to get it for her, but Sasuke was already turning and getting himself a drink. Tea sounded kinda good so her tail flicked once behind her in determination and then she began to write down what she saw, copying the strokes carefully. She wasn’t exactly fast, but she seemed to be getting the hang of it, and she didn’t seem to mind slowing her strokes down, or asking him to re-explain something so long as she got it. The end goal was simply to learn—he already knew more about the subject than she did, so there was no shame in asking him to repeat it all.
Biting back a small growl of annoyance at his teasing, her eyes narrowed at the last part of the word. By the time Sasuke got back, she still had the last bit to fill in, and she blinked as he took the notebook, writing the kanji in for her. Her eyes narrowed at him—she didn’t need his handicap. That being said, even having the first one down was enough to help her finish filling out the rest of it as Sasuke’s gaze was pulled elsewhere. She called his name once, but when he didn’t respond, an exasperated sigh left her lips and she tugged on his sleeve lightly. “Sasuke,” his name, without any form of insult, felt weird on her mouth. When she had called him by his name before, it was usually not even registered, but in such a domestic way like this… well, she did her best not to let any embarrassment seep through her face. “This look right to you?” she asked, holding out the notebook to the Uchiha and blinking as she waited for him to correct it. There were some small stroke things and a few choice errors, but the majority was correct. “See, I told you I wasn’t dumb!” she snickered, pointing to the stand that he had just come from. “And I’ll take an oolong tea.”
As she waited for Sasuke to return, a tug on her tail had her spinning around quickly, eyes wide as she was ready to gut someone, but attached to it was the little kid from earlier. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to reign in her temper, the child playfully giggling as her tail writhed in his hands. “Oi.” Her voice was neither harsh nor sweet, a cool indifferent tone overtaking her voice as she used her tail to pick the child off of his feet. He continued to giggle, having the time of his life. “How would you like it if I came over and tugged on your hair, huh?” she asked pointedly, but her eyes softened, ever so slightly at the kid as she tugged him around on her tail, his little feet not even touching the ground. At that moment, his mother, who had seemingly been on her phone, gasped, and immediately ran up, pulling her child off of Hanaru’s tail and placing him protectively on the other side of her. Hanaru straightened to her full height as the mother looked at her with the same thing she’d always experienced. Fear. Distrust. Whatever sparkle of joy that had filled Hanaru’s gaze had been once again replaced with that harsh ambivalence. “Careful, lady. It’s not smart to let your kid walk up to strangers,” she stated blankly, though the woman gasped in offense and hurriedly pulled her child away as Sasuke returned.
As she took the tea from him, she flicked her ears and sighed, offering him a small nod in thanks. “I suppose… you might have questions for me still,” she let her golden gaze slide over to him. “Since you’re helping me and I get to kick your ass—I-I mean, train you, it can’t hurt to tell you.” She sighed, closing her eyes and sticking her nose up in the air, using that haughty attitude to hide the genuine truths behind her words. “After all, at least someone on the team should probably know the extent of my abilities or whatever. Might be useful.” She was also eager to put the kid and his mother behind her as she gestured for him to lead the way as she took a sip of her tea.

_______________________

Oh kami, the way that she stared just made him self-conscious. Shikamaru groaned internally, closing an eye and rubbing the back of his head as he willed his peachy cheeks to die down in their embarrassment. He mus have looked certifiably insane, talking to the cat as its claws were tangled in the bristles of his broom. Stupid demon cat—no wonder why Asuna wasn’t keen on calling it by its name. That being said… the Nara couldn’t help but find it adorable as it scampered up to Asuna, seeking its momentary affection before all of their attention was pulled away by the older Takanashi.
Shikamaru flinched ever so slightly as Eiji pulled him closer, a blank expression on his features as he looked back at Asuna. After all, the male wanted no part in this argument. He wasn’t about to pick sides, considering angering either Takanashi was a bad move. Instead, he was a neutral party, pulled whichever way the wind blowed, and in this case, Eiji seemed to have the upper hand, his logic (though sketchy at best) falling under the category of “father knows best.” He shrugged as Asuna’s gaze returned to him. “If I don’t do this my old man will really get on my case again,” Shikamaru stated blankly, looking at both of the Takanashi’s, before the situation already defused and Asuna was consenting to the chore that was given to her. After all, it wasn’t as if either kid was in the position to argue. While Asuna was a main reason as to why The Shuffle of Things continued to be in business, there was no denying the fact that it was still Eiji’s store and therefor could hire whom he pleased whenever he saw fit to do it. ’That was a part of the reason why Asuna was pushing him to hire more employees…’ Shikamaru noted internally, nodding slightly in understanding.
”No worries,” Shikamaru shook his head once the blonde haired male was gone. “I was already resigned to doing it, I told you as much earlier.” He really didn’t mind—the little bit of money the internship provided would be appreciated, though he’d probably just put a majority of the money back into the curio shop, buying little things for his family members or something as an excuse to not feel bad about taking money from Asuna’s family. It was so hard when it was for honest work, but you weren’t necessarily in it for the money and just wanted to help out. As selfish as it was, Shikamaru was looking forward to using the opportunity as a chance to be around Asuna more. His one-sided puppy crush may never be reciprocated, but that didn’t mean he had to get all depressed about it. It just meant he should spend more time with her so his brain could realize that crushes were something that could just… melt away. Easily. (HA!)
At the movement of the onii cat, Shikamaru couldn’t help but let a low chuckle leave his lips, shoulders shaking slightly before he shook his head. That cat… “nice dive, cat.” He complimented, the cat peeking out from under the display with a soft “mow” before ducking back under again, almost as if it had paused to say ‘thanks’. He rolled his eyes. Some animals just had too much personality for their own good, but he was perfectly find with that. Especially considering this cat was so adamant that these three---Asuna, her dad, and her grandmother, were its people. Oh no, cats did not become pets—people were definitely the pets of cats.
By the time Asuna came back, Shikamaru’s sweeping had moved to another section of the store, and his eyes were narrowed in concentration as he did his best not to slack on his sweeping. The last thing his shallow heterosexual male ego needed was for Asuna to roast him about his sweeping techniques. Hearing the door open, he looked up to see the blonde’s return, and he offered her a small grin. “How’s the old lady?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. Granny Takanashi could be… a whole lot sometimes, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like her. She was really funny, even if it was often unintentional and at the expense of the privacy of others.
He leaned on his broom as he listened, before remembering what he had forgotten to say earlier, when the whirlwind that was Eiji Takanashi had distracted and disoriented him (yeah, that’s totally what it was and not your embarrassment surrounding Asuna). “Oh, good to hear about Hinata. I’ll text Kiba. He might be suspicious that I’m the one bringing it up, but maybe I’ll say Ino mentioned it offhandedly or something.” After all, Ino made sense. The blonde, love her or hate her, had good intentions. She just really liked to stick her nose in where it didn’t belong and meddle with other people’s business. So Ino trying to stick her fingers in Kurenai and Asuma sensei’s love lives? That made sense. Shikamaru and Asuna? The famous slacker duo? Not so much.
Hopefully with their help they could figure something out so that Asuma sensei wasn’t trying to cover up when he and Kurenai were out somewhere, or feel sheepish about his relationship with her around them, cause the main motivation behind Shikamaru’s actions was to make everything less… tense. And not to mention, annoying, for both squads.
Changing the topic, Shikamaru began sweeping again, his dark gaze sliding over to Asuna as he spoke. “Are you ready for the mission…? It’s in two days, now.” He knew, just from the way that she had accepted her scroll the other day when they had received their summons, that she was a little uncomfortable about it. Now he was beginning to understand that what she lacked wasn’t a worker’s attitude, but more so confidence in her own abilities. “You’re a strong part of the Ino-Shika-Asu-Cho alliance—you’re pretty invaluable to our success.” He honestly meant it, too. None of them were really great with elemental releases like Asuna was—she was an important aspect, and having a fourth member on the team meant that if Shikamaru or Ino had their abilities incapacitate them, then they could successfully block off other attacks without having to worry about being down a team member. It was a useful aspect of having a slightly bigger squad.

 

[Iron Mouse]

Asuna didn't think too hard on the coloration of Shikamaru's face, chalking up to her father having made him do something or perhaps it was the sweeping and he somehow caught a dust bunny that tickled his allergies or something. Did he even have allergies? No, she wasn't going to think about it. Maybe it was the little trouble maker that had caught his broom. It might not have been what she had asked for, but in a rather roundabout way, Eiji had obliged to her request to talk to the senior Nara. In her mind she had thought he'd take him for a drink and talk about life and just how short it could be, especially for those in the shinobi line of work. Yes, Asuna wanted her father to guilt trip Shikaku into not trying to rush his son into an early grave, now he was an employee and one of her trainees. Eiji sure as heck wasn't going to take the time to train him and how was she supposed to protest why she didn't want the boy around? It's not like she didn't want him around, which was the exact reason why she didn't want him there, but how would she say it 'Yeah, you give me butterflies so stop being around me'?

From the cupboard behind the counter, Asuna pulled out several brown paper packs, the mixed herbal scents assaulting her nose almost immediately as she laid them out on the counter. "Hm? Well, she's pretending to play that dumb computer card game," she sighed, pausing in her work, "but I know she's on that stupid dating site again." With a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes she fished out a small, wooden box and started carefully filling it with herbs. A dull bang sounded from the back room followed quickly by footsteps retreating further to where Asuna knew the stairs were. She could hear her father cry out a loud "Ma!" as he ascended the stairs. Sometimes the paper thin walls were a blessing.
The kitten made it's way back onto the counter, starting at the dried leafy bundles curiously, inching closer to sniff at them. "I'm watching you, don't you start mixing these up," the blonde said in warning as the cat mushed it's face into the dried chamomile flowers. "I asked Hinata not to say anything to Kiba, I think I might have caught her a little off guard when I asked her, but she seemed happy, I think," she shrugged, taking her eyes off of the cat to look at Shikamaru.

Once the cat was no longer under the blonde's scrutiny, it slowly stalked closer to the wooden box, eying the jumble of dried herbs and flowers. He started for a moment before hopping in. "No! Meeko get out!" suddenly it was lifted up and plopped on the floor. It stared blankly and slowly turned his head back to look up at the girl as he couldn't believe what had happened. "Ugh, I hope there's no cat hair in this," Asuna grumbled, shooting the fur ball a glare. Furiously, her hands swept up the packages, finishing up the herbal concoction. Shikamaru's question struck a chord and her posture changed. Slowly now, she returned the brown paper parcels, her mind trying to find an answer. Was she ready? Meeting his gaze was hard, so she kept her eyes on the small wooden box as she wrapped it up, "I don't know," she said in a hushed tone, "I don't feel ready." It wasn't a decisive answer, but it was an honest one. His words sent a warm tingle through her chest and she gave him a small smile, leaning against the counter her hands fiddled nervously, "It's like the second-day-of-school kind of feeling," her shoulders raised and lowered as she played with the string around the neatly wrapped box, "The first day you're all excited, you're so ready, but then the second day comes and you're not sure if you're ready anymore. You had a taste and realized just how woefully unprepared you really are in the end." It might have sounded dumb and the words did elicit a dry chuckle from her, but it didn't do much to hide her unease.

Yes, she had trained, but two days of training didn't make up for several months of slacking off, "What if I freeze up or I just...do something stupid," it wasn't a pleasant thought. The last thing she wanted was for her teammates to get hurt because of her. "Sides, my old man hasn't concented yet. He wasn't really in the talking mood this morning," she turned away from the adolescent male, fighting against the creeping feeling in her stomach.

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A straight A student is what Sasuke saw himself as. A prodigy is what others called him. All this fed his belief of being the best, albeit academically in the classroom or practically out in the field. Even if the lesson was improvised on the spot, he could see Hanaru making progress. She still needed some correction and a guiding hand, but she seemed a little more comfortable and was actually trying to understand what he was saying while also trying to actually apply it to each sign they stopped at. Her motive didn't really matter to him, all he could see was his teachings bettering her and what more could he ask for to confirm his own ability. He really had to be the best if he was able to teach Hanaru of all people something, heck, he might even try to take Naruto on as a student!
... Alright, maybe he wouldn't take things that far, he could practically feel his eyes attempting to roll into the back of his head at the mere thought of dragging that idiot out like this. Still, he puffed up his chest proudly as he studied the notebook. "Hn, I guess you're not that big of a dunce," he said calmly, trying to hide his smile as he closed the book, "You still have a long way to go, but I guess you deserve your tea now." Handing the notebook back he turned and made his way to the kiosk, "Another tea, Oolong, please."

He brought his own tea up to his lips, blowing over the golden honey coloured drink. Learning on the go seemed to be working, but he couldn't bring her back for their next lesson, he'd have to take her somewhere else and mix things up a little. Hm, there were some festivals going on around the city and some neighboring towns, some of them had floats with large writing on them. They were usually short phrases, poems or prayers and it could be a good way to amp up Hanaru's reading speed...but the one's he dubbed 'the good ones' were still at least a month away. She wasn't ready for a place like the museum, maybe he could take her to the library. The image of her sitting hunched over a tiny plastic table reading something like the Inch-High Samurai or Gon, the Little Fox or even A Baby Bear and A Seesaw almost made him spill his tea as he snorted to himself. Hearing her talking, he tilted his head in her direction, just to make sure she wasn't talking to him. That cocky smile of his fading into a gentle look as he watched her interacting with some random small child. It was a side to her he'd never known, then again, it's not like he was trying to get to know her before.

"One Oolong tea, sir."
"Thanks."
Turning back to the window he pulled out his wallet, sliding some yen over the counter before taking the second cup of tea and as he turned back the mother of the small child had come to scoop him up. He didn't miss the look she had shot the purplette, one he'd seen directed at her and Naruto alike: fear and disgust as if their very existence was some kind of offending eyesore to the public. He approached the half demon, holding out the cup of Oolong tea, "Tch, letting her kid run around like that. Hasn't she seen Pet Semetary before?" he wasn't keeping his voice down as he spoke, glaring in the direction the woman had disappeared to. Where all this sudden hostility came from he couldn't say, but it bubbled forth angrily from some dark corner of his mind. Nodding to one of the benches, he made his way over, taking a seat to enjoy his tea. It wasn't cold, but the sun wasn't providing much warmth either. The light breeze that tickled the highest leaves atop the trees was enough to chill the air every so slightly. Sasuke sipped at his tea, thinking carefully, "When Naruto loses control, I've seen him turn into something inhuman. Do you...can you...I mean, you're only half a demon right?" he stayed neutral, but his curiosity seeped through as he watched her from the corner of his eye. He was curious about just what that demon half of her meant, yes, super human ability and all that, but to what extent? He'd seen what a small amount of the nine tails chakra did to Naruto, did she experience the same?

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Shikamaru attempted (poorly) to hide a snort as he imagined Granny Takanashi trying to hide the fact that she frequented some old person’s equivalent of Farmer’s Only. He could totally see her doing it, too. “So, your granny’s got game, what else is new?” he pointed out, a stupid smirk playing upon his lips as he watched Asuna bring the tea leaves out from their compartments. Eiji could be heard somewhere upstairs, and the Nara paused as more footsteps sounded, but continued as Asuna scolded the cat.
”Ah, so you’ve named him?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want to get attached.” Of course, it was more than obvious by this point that the little black akuma was here to stay, and he could only grin at Asuna’s defiance, trying to pretend that she wasn’t totally enamored with the cat in question. As she mentioned Hinata, he nodded, his eyes narrowing as she spoke. He had suspected for some time that the little Hyuuga girl had a crush on Naruto—she wasn’t exactly subtle about it. The only one who didn’t seem to notice was the blonde dunce himself. Shikamaru would like to think that he’d have enough sense to detect someone’s feelings if they were for him, especially if they were as obvious as Hinata’s. That being said, she did seem to like her team, despite not being on squad 7 with the blonde (and honestly, with both Sasuke and that devil cat, and Ino 2.0, who would want to be?) she liked her teammates. And, of course, he knew the things that Kiba would tell him late at night.
Like how Hinata was pushing her training super hard, considering her home life at the compound, despite being a main branch member, is rather hard. How her father pushes her to be more like her cousin Neji, who is a year older than them and seems to have a grudge against her just for being main branch. How she doesn’t want to let their squad down and therefor works herself to the point of exhaustion. Shikamaru could hear the admiration in Kiba’s voice. The two were close, so that might be why Asuna’s request surprised her. Just how close, though… that was the question. That he didn’t know, and he assumed it was far too early to tell.
Once they began talking more about the mission, Shikamaru was able to pull himself out of his own head a little bit more. After all, he was far more confident in terms of talking about ninja things than stupid relationship problems or guessing people’s feelings. He wasn’t terrible, but it also just wasn’t his area of expertise. Ninja stuff… missions? He could do a lot of that kind of thinking in his sleep.
”Nah, I get it…” he waited for her to finish speaking before commenting, his head bopping along with her words. “As a member of a squad, there’s a lot of pressure on you not to let the team down. It’s a lot to worry about.” Shikamaru couldn’t exactly say he’d ever felt what she had, but that’s because his level of calm was… well… just a different breed. He was confident, but not necessarily cocky, and while he had never felt that way before, he did understand. A lot of people, in their genin classes especially, felt the pressure of missions a little too personally. “It’s so hard to hear from someone else that you’re doing good, and that they trust you. It almost makes those feelings worse, I think.” Finishing his sweeping, he moved over to put the broom back in the closet before returning to Asuna’s side. He leaned on the counter where she was working with the tea leaves, her eyes narrowing slightly. “I don’t know what to tell you that will put you at ease, but I’m not worried about you. If that helps.” His eyes slid over to hers, and he shrugged lightly. “You’re capable on your own and with the team.” It probably wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but Shikamaru wasn’t exactly the best at giving pep-talks. That was more Ino, or Asuma-sensei’s area of expertise. “The way I see it, you have two options. To worry, or to accept, and while accepting is hard, worrying is so much worse. All you do is get in your own head until you make yourself screw up. Easier said than done to just drop it, but maybe trying is worth it.”
He sighed softly, standing up next to her, his dark gaze looking down at her, considering their slight height difference. “I’m just saying that accepting the fact that you’re nervous and worried, and then pushing past it to think of all the things you can do successfully is a better option. Don’t focus on what you’re not confident on. You have to focus your energy into something more positive, or it isn’t even worth thinking about.” He didn’t know if his advice made any sense, or even got through to the blonde-haired female, but he had hoped to at least put her mind at ease a little bit. “I understand about your old man though—you’re his only kid, and your family hasn’t exactly been full of shinobi in its history. He’s right to be concerned about you, though he may not understand that this is literally what we’re trained to do.” His parents were still worried over every mission he went on—they never said it or forbid him from doing Shinobi work, but he could tell in the ways they bid him farewell when he left… the way that their eyebrows would pinch together lightly. “It’s just their job to worry, I guess. So maybe let him do all the worrying for you.” The black-haired male playfully nudged Asuna’s shoulder, a small smile showing that just barely reached his eyes, something fonder hidden deeper than he was willing to admit. Even to himself.

_______________________

The purplette looked to her companion in confusion—forget reading and writing, imagine the eons of movies that this chick had missed when survival was her main priority for the majority of 15 years! She didn’t know what ‘Pet Cemetery’ was, but if she had to guess… kid joins his pet in death? “Does… does that make me the pet…?” she asked him, raising an eyebrow. Her voice, rather than being offended, as she might have easily gotten in literally any other context, was curious; more so asking for confirmation than anything else.
Hanaru followed Sasuke to the bench, her tail curling around her waist as it usually did so she avoided sitting on it (which was neither pleasant nor fun). At his words, she stiffened slightly, she knew this question was coming. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but she answered anyway. “You’re right, I’m only half demon. Naruto is a host. When he borrows the Nine-Tailed Fox’s chakra, it’s because of some sort of emotional push first, but he could learn to work with it and control when he uses it. Depends on how amiable the Nine-Tails is.” Letting out a deep breath, she calmed her nerves, her grip tightening around the cup. “As a half demon my blood is tainted. Even the blood fights my very existence, human and demon blood fighting for power.” She took a sip of her tea to try and help calm her down, it doing little to shake her of her nerves as her amber gaze stared blankly into the distance. “If I lose my control… if I am beaten to the point of unconsciousness—past what might be considered “mortally wounded” for mere humans, I… I lose control.” Her breathing was shaky as she brought up a hand to lightly touch the scar on her face. “It’s never pretty, and it hasn’t happened in a really long time. In fact, I don’t intend for it to happen again. Ever.”
There was a small silence as she closed her eyes, forcefully pushing her back to those moments, the few and far between where it had happened. “I… I black out. I don’t even know what I’m doing. My instincts just lash out at whatever it deems a threat regardless of friend or foe.” Eager to change the subject, she figured he could ponder what that meant and think about it later. Her voice picked up as she opened her eyes to glance around, making sure that they weren’t being overheard. It seemed as though everyone was keeping to their own, and not paying them any attention (if they could help it). “My… weakness is that while I am half demon, I am also half human. My… uh… cycle,” god that sounded weird. “Follows the moon cycle. On the night of the new moon… and you… you can’t tell anyone this!” Her eyes snapped back to Sasuke as her ears flattened on her head. She’d never shared her biggest vulnerability with anyone. The fact that they had even gotten to see it the other night was kind of a miracle. Her voice lowered and she leaned closer to him on instinct. “On the night of the new moon, I am at my weakest, and I become fully human. I normally hole myself up somewhere because… I’m uh… a little reckless when I fight and I don’t wanna be caught while like… that.”
She leaned back, her cheeks flaring up an embarrassed flush as she averted her gaze and quickly changed the subject. “These scars? Most of them were deep, but they heal to fresh scars in at least 24 hours, if not a few days depending on the size. S-so there’s that too. I’m not as weak and as… squishy… as you humans are.” Raising her top just a little bit, pointing to one of the bigger wounds on her stomach, Hanaru traced the widest part of the scar with her clawed fingernail. “This was the sword’s point of entry, through my back, and it ripped,” her fingers followed her words along the scar. “Down this way. That’s why it’s so big. I think it healed in… two days? I remember being sore for a week though.”

 

[Iron Mouse]

Sasuke's scowl had softened into a quizzical look, "What? No, it's..." wait, did she even know what he was talking about? "It's a book that was turned into a movie. It's supposed to be terrifying, but it was more of a bleak tragedy to me. You really don't know it?" Then again she didn't exactly have those kinds of luxuries. "It's basically a family that moves into a new town and after their cat dies one of the neighbors suggests burying it in the ground near the old pet cemetery. Turns out just beyond the old pet cemetery was an ancient burial ground and whatever is buried there doesn't stay dead but changes for the worst. Then their toddler ran into the road in front of a speeding truck, well, I suppose you can guess what happens after that?" It wasn't really something to his taste, he preferred documentaries but every now and again he was dragged along to a movie night. He disliked the movie nights more because of the three hours of bickering over what to watch than the actual movies they ended up watching.

He listened intently as Hanaru spoke, the hand holding his tea resting on his knee as he turned his body to face her. There was quite the difference between the two, Naruto and Hanaru that is, but he sought to fully understand just how different a half demon and a host really was. The way she spoke and the cues her body showed, he had touched on a sensitive topic, one that she wasn't very comfortable with and with good reason it seemed. While Sasuke couldn't exactly understand what it was like to have his very blood fight for control, to have his very being relying on the fact that if he so much as gave up a little, it would be all over. He could only compare it with what he had witnessed Naruto do when he lost control, but on a much larger and more devastating scale. "It's frustrating," he said after a long silence, "I can almost imagine what it must be like, but it's probably nothing compared to the real thing. I can't imagine what it must feel like, what it does to you." There was some remorse in his onyx orbs, they'd gone from having an alright time to having this thick, smothering cloud over their heads, "If it's worth anything, I don't think you'd need to worry about reaching a point like that again, especially not after I surpass you," he shot her a cocky smirk, trying to lift the mood.

Sasuke brought his tea up to his lips again, this time his other hand came up as well, but stretched out towards the young woman beside him. FLICK. His fingers moved quickly, flicking her on the forehead. His brother did something similar and it was something he both hated and had an undeniable fondness for. The disgruntled sound that slipped from the girl's mouth made him smirk against the rim of his cup, "Don't think so hard, you might sprain something."
He fell silent again, watching the people on the far side of the park while taking longer sips from his tea as it cooled. Hanaru's next words, however, caught the boy off guard. Those calculated onyx orbs of his widened and he could feel his ears start to heat up. Her what? Sasuke shifted uncomfortably, this time turning his head away in embarrassment. Why was she telling him this? He didn't want to know about her moon cycle! By the time she had finished, he let out a breath that he hadn't known he was holding, his cheeks red with embarrassment, "R-right, you have a...transformation cycle...maybe you should have started with that." Downing the rest of his tea so he wouldn't have to make eye contact, he tried to force away the awkward blush on his cheeks. "Don't look at me like that, you're the one who randomly started talking about a cycle that followed the moon, like no shit!" he huffed out in petty annoyance.

A humiliated silence now replaced the previous loaded silence as neither teen could bring themselves to look at the other. "Is that what happened the other night? In school?" he muttered after a while, rolling the empty cup between his hands. It explained why she looked so different, why Kiba said she smelled so different and why she clung to him like a safety blanket. No, he wasn't going to bring up his own actions that night, he only acted like that because she prompted him to. Yeah, that's right, he wasn't worried about her at all. Nope.
Slowly his eyes wandered back to her, to her scars to be precise, silently watching as she revealed what was once a deep gash. Any normal person would have surely died or at least have been crippled for the rest of their lives. There was some morbid fascination that made him itch to run his fingers along the scar and trace it. He wouldn't dare, it would be too intrusive and well, intimate. The thought alone had him feeling dizzy. Intimacy, with someone like her? Tch, like hell that would ever happen! "Hm, it's good to know you can recover so fast, now at least I won't have to watch your ass in a fight," he tried to poke at her verbally, they'd been much too calm and chummy and it felt very strange. Yes, he was curious and he couldn't help his eyes from flitting to the other scars that marred her body. What was becoming of him, why couldn't he just ignore her as easily as literally every other girl in existence?

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Asuna tried to hide the smile threatening the corners of her mouth at Shikamaru's reaction to old Nana Fu's guilty pastimes, "Hmm, social justice warrior catfishing catfish," she said sarcastically. It was all fun and games until the other person wanted to meet in person and suddenly Nana was bathing in epsom salts and rubbing crystals on her face, swearing that it was an ancient mystical art that made you look ten years younger! Her ears were set ablaze underneath her blonde mane as Shikamaru called her out, "N-no! It's not his name! I just...wanted to yell something other than 'Little Shit'. I don't want Nan to come down here to yell at me only to start hanging off of you," she said trying to sound irritated, like she was doing this for him. She was still on the fence about keeping the furball but it was worming it's way into her heart and Eiji wasn't going to let them get rid of it as he already took to calling it his favourite son. She knew he didn't say it with ill content in mind, her father loved children and she knew that he really wanted to have more and have that big family life. Why her parents never had more children wasn't something that was brought up for discussion. She had asked before, when she was younger, and her father could never really give her a straight answer which she had learned meant that there was no easy answer.

Her dull gaze didn't leave his form as he spoke, trailing after him as he moved around the shop. There was something in his words that rang true. It was hard to accept others' praise, there was always that possibility that they didn't really feel that way and were using positive reinforcement to push you into working harder or even to make you think that you were good enough when you weren't. It was cynical to think like that, not everyone was out to throw lemons into your life but she'd seen it happen before. There were many things she accepted, every day had its own path and choices and at the end of that day, whatever happened, whatever she decided, those were the consequences she had to live with. There was no point in hanging on to your yesterdays of yesteryears, what was done was done. "It's funny, you almost sound like my old man, he used to say: Don't say sorry. If you're sorry then you regret what you did, but you knew what you were doing and when you had to make a choice, this is what you chose. There's no going back. So stop being sorry and learn so you don't do it again." Her father had most likely meant it in a metaphorical sense, but she had taken it's literal, word for word, meaning to heart. She knew if she stopped now and looked back at her life, there would be so many things she had said and done that she'd be sorry for and regretted. The biggest one of all was still crumpled into a heap, stuffed into a crack in the furthest back corner of her closet.

"You're no Ino when it comes to pep talks," she sighed, straightening up, only to lean into his side tentatively, almost expecting him to immediately shrug her off. "You should write that one down though." She hated just how easily he could get into her head and she hated how she just let him do it too. No matter how desperately she wanted to chalk it up to their childhood closeness, that cynical voice only reminded her that what they had they couldn't have again. They had changed too much over the years. "I guess I'll work on that acceptance thing if I can get my old man to accept the summons," she said as she pulled herself up again, pushing down the feeling of dissatisfaction at the rush of cold that nestled into her side, "C'mon, trainee, you're not being paid to stand there looking pretty." Asuna pulled herself together, they had work to do. Tugging on his work apron she walked to the small storage room, "If there's an empty spot on the display, you can come grab something to replace it," she said, glancing back into the main room to see what was missing.

"If anyone comes in looking for something that's not out here or back there, don't ever say that we don't have it," taking what she could she restocked the displays, "...no matter how weird it sounds." Looking at him, she placed her hands on her hips, "I'm serious. That room's only for things currently circulating and the things we get asked for a lot, believe it or not," walking past him to the door that leads to the office, she waved for him to follow. She led him past the office, past the door that connected them to the house, past a small kitchen and bathroom, turning to the left to stop in front of a heavy set door. She made sure to show him which key opened the door, "You ready for a history lesson?" she asked as she opened the door. The room, another storage unit, was slightly bigger than the main display room. It sat in the far back of the building, wrapping around in a large L shape, and packed with even more things.The progression of what The Shuffle of Things had once been to what it currently was, had been carefully laid out from wall to wall and roof to floor.

 

[AwkwardSilence]

Hanaru looked to him blankly, taking in his words—she knew what movies were, she wasn’t exactly living under a rock, she just didn’t quite understand how something like watching other people experience things would be entertaining. “The kid got whacked? That’s dark.” Coming from the half-demon ex-con it almost sounded like a joke, but Hanaru wasn’t completely corrupt. Even when on some of her “meaner” streaks, when she had lost a lot of her moral grounding, she still had a strict thing against harming kids—even if they annoyed her.
She was far from perfect but at least she could defend herself in that manner. Continuing deeper into their conversation, Hanaru’s eyes would flick over to Sasuke’s face every once and awhile, trying to gauge his expressions and how he was taking in the information. This weird breath of hesitant trust… this… intimacy… was making her slightly uncomfortable. Hanaru didn’t exactly do well with vulnerability and it showed. “I’ve heard accounts from those who were far enough to witness it…” she nodded solemnly. “Graphic… brutal… apparently I get these markings and my sclera go black. So that’s creepy.” She shrugged shaking her head. “I-I… don’t like talking about it, obviously.” As the purplette shifted uncomfortably, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye as Sasuke moved to drink his tea. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as his other hand rose, and suddenly-
Flick.
Hanaru let out a strangled noise that was reminiscent of annoyance as she rubbed her forehead, shooting him a glare, though the hostility was minimal at best. “Shut up, loser,” she growled lowly, her cheeks going pink. “What did I tell you? I’m not that much of an idiot!” Suddenly she felt a lot more at ease. It was odd how such small actions, such as them arguing, did so much to help her feel more comfortable once again. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him, trying to ignore the fluttering feeling in her stomach. Maybe she really was coming down with something…? Her face slowly turned red as he stammered about her choice of words. “I-I never said I knew how to speak good—w-well…!” she stammered, shaking her head in frustration. It was definitely poor word choice on her part, but she was just as stubborn as he was, maybe even more so, and she bit her lip as she tried not to choke on her own embarrassment.
The silence now was uncomfortable, and she slammed her tea to avoid having to speak after that mess. Thankfully Sasuke broke it, and she nodded slowly. “Do I look like a brunette to you?” she rose her eyebrow. “My mom use to tell me how much I looked like my dad… but then she said she liked that form because I looked like her then.” She sighed softly, before she began talking about her scars. Specifically the biggest one on her stomach (and back, considering it went through the whole way).
Looking back over at Sasuke at his words, she pushed his, another light growl rumbling in her throat. “Oh shut up,” she couldn’t help but grin. “You wish were watching my ass.” She teased jokingly—she didn’t mean anything by it, but the implications were not lost on her. ‘Seriously, brain? That’s what you decided to go with?!’ she chided herself internally. Seriously, just what was wrong with her? “C’mon,” she stood, her tea gone as she casually tossed it away in the recycling. “I’ve got more stupid signs to read. I ain’t done yet.” Hanaru wasn’t a quitter—not on her own volition anyway. Her tail flicked behind her lazily. This… she didn’t hate this outing. It was weird. On one hand, her brain was trying to rationalize the experience as being because she was teaching him about herself, or maybe it’s because she was learning from him?
But the experience was… pleasant. Actually. Surprisingly. Huh. Her tail curled weirdly, brushing past his arm as she moved to walk beside him once more. She didn’t even notice.

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Shikamaru shook his head—he could totally see Granny Fu doing that. He could only imagine how much she did know about their culture in order to successfully catfish the way that she did. When he caught Asuna naming the cat, he rose an eyebrow at her, a steady playful smirk on his lips as she backpedaled quickly. “Uh huh…” he nodded, his sly expression betraying the fact that he knew she was lying. “You know, ‘Suna, my eyes may be closed a lot cause I take a lot of naps, but it sure does help me to know bullshit when I see it,” he grinned, leaning over to poke her side. “That thing is here to stay, whether you want him to or not.” The cat, as if knowing he was being discussed, poked his head out from another section of the store, mewing at them as if he wanted a say. “And that’s all thanks to your old man.” Shikamaru knelt down beside the cat, petting his head affectionately, and Meeko leaned into his touch, purring lightly before scampering back and away again. “I think Meeko suits him.”
He didn’t expect her to believe him fully when he spoke of the things like self-acceptance, and other such matters that surrounded her lack of self-confidence. Shikamaru, as a tactician, knew his abilities and his flaws, but he was able to, despite whatever his shortcomings, get himself past the mindset that she was in now. It was no special feat for him, he’d always been fine with what he was currently capable of, and if he wasn’t then he knew what he had to work on until he got to where he wanted to be. Granted, his lazy tendencies snuck into his routines, even more so the last two years, but he was still a capable shinobi because he understood his limits but didn’t let them get to him. “I think that you’re at a good place for the team, right now.” He nodded, ignoring the comment about how he was like Eiji Takanashi (he simply couldn’t see it), but the advice that followed the comparison made sense. “Rather than compare yourself, realize the things that you can do, and put them to use,” he nodded.
The Ino comparison (or lack thereof) made him snort, however, and he narrowed his eyes slightly at her, his half-lidded gaze accompanied by another lazy smirk that played upon his lips. “Of course, I’d be a little concerned if I was at all like Ino. Can you imagine?” He threw up a hand on his forehead, melodramatically, and sighed, his voice taking a mocking higher pitch. “Oh~ Sasuke~!” He couldn’t hold it long before laughing. “Yeah, pretty sure I’d rather die before I became anything like that.”
”I’ll keep that in mind,” he shook his head lightly—they were honest words from his heart, which he didn’t seem to offer to just anyone, so he probably wouldn’t write them down like she had suggested. That being said, he was glad that she had thought they had meant something. Asuna could have easily written his words off as disingenuous or something similar of a reason, so that fact that she listened and even liked what little advice he had to offer made his chest swell ever so slightly out of pride. “Good luck with that. Maybe get him drunk?” he suggested, before pausing. “Actually, scratch that. Your dad’s crazy enough without the alcohol influence.”
Turning onto more current matters, Shikamaru pushed their upcoming mission to the back of his mind as he turned over to face the store. “Okay, just uh… fill it with anything?” The Shuffle of Things didn’t exactly look like it had rhyme or reason to its display, but the last thing the Nara wanted to do was just assume something and go for it only to have Asuna correct him.
”As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose,” he nodded, following after her, taking note of the key situation so that he wouldn’t forget which one opened which (though it would be impossible with Shikamaru’s photographic memory not to). “If I’m gonna work here until your old man deems me worthy, or unworthy, not to, then I’d better learn as much as I can about this place. Plus it’ll help in the future if you ever need help in the store. Like if you get sick or something,” he nodded, following after her into the storeroom and nodding along as she explained the inner workings of the small (and yet surprisingly complex) curio shop.

 

[Iron Mouse]

"Please, no. If you think my old man is a handful now you should see him after a few drinks," Asuna groaned, she wouldn't say that her father had a problem, but he could enjoy a strong drink a little too much, "I swear, one moment he'll start lecturing about the politics of micronations then the next he'll be slurring his way through nonsense songs." It was both amusing and irritating when her father was like that, whatever filter he had over his mouth would disappear after the first few sips. She'd have to hope his mood stayed up so she could try to persuade him again later, but there was a queasy feeling in her stomach that he might not want to hear her pleas. It was a worry for later though

Asuna offered the boy half a shrug, "Yeah, basically. Everything already has its price on so just fill in the blanks." With the changing seasons and the rapidly passing fancies of the populous, there wasn't much use in putting much effort into the arrangement scheme. It wasn't a general store where they could section off a part just for a specific range of products that had to be replenished weekly. "People change their minds on what they like almost daily. One week you'll see more people coming in and looking for lucky cat charms and it'll be booming, but the next week you have a backlog of stock because now it's all about the jade look," she explained waving off a box that sat in the corner, her father had a knack for sniffing out the next trendy thing tourists would like, something she hadn't picked up on yet. In her experience if two different people came in looking for the same thing then that was the new 'hot' thing going around. Asuna did however pick up on the not so curving trends of the locals though, they were easier and rarely deviated as drastically as those who passed through.

The blonde did her best not to laugh at the boy, employees didn't last very long, and he was already planning to be around if she got sick. "We'll see," she said quietly as she stepped into the room, "This place has seen a lot of faces."
Carefully the blonde led Shikamaru into the storage room, weaving up and down the long paths that were kept clear for movement. "My old man, he wanted to completely upturn the shop, turn it into a real tourist trap by putting everything out on display like a museum, but for collectors," she spoke as she gestured to an old suit of arms with ornate weapons behind it, clearly for decorative purposes. The older the ornaments in the room were, the further back they were set. Trinkets glimmered in the low light, as if calling for attention, ornate vases were lined against a wall, hand carved parts and mechanical doodads for machines that Asuna didn't know the names or purposes of. Weapons were stacked together from the old war days, whether of shinobi make or whether they were pedaled from a far away land was unclear, but everything was well taken care of and in excellent condition. "Nan didn't like that idea, I think she likes keeping this stuff around. Moments of the past, I suppose."
"If you can't find what the customer wants back here then you probably won't find it in Konoha," she paused and turned to look at the boy, "Except the obvious stuff, we're not a florist so we obviously won't have flowers...and you know I'm only saying this because it's happened before."

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Sasuke listened as Hanaru described her more beastly form based on eye witness accounts. He had a bit of trouble imagining a look like that on Hanaru's features, but he wasn't going to push for any details. It was a sensitive topic, but maybe even more than that, he didn't want to imagine her like that. He'd seen her in her human form, at her weakest, and while he didn't exactly dislike it, he still prefered the purplette as she currently was. The tug at the corner of his mouth couldn't be helped as the strangled noise left her lips. It was such an indignant sound, especially coming from her, it was something he'd remember. "Hn, I dunno, this suits you better. Guess I'm just more used to seeing you like this though," he tried to mask up his compliment to sound like more of a statement, as the mere thought of complimenting her made his stomach flips.

"You wish you were watching my ass."

Onyx eyes flicked over to Hanaru, wide in disbelief, before quickly finding something else to look at as a dark shade of pink crawled up along his neck and over his face. "I-I don't...h-hey, I'm not Naruto!" he tried to defend, the last thing he wanted was to come off as lecherous, "You wish I watched your ass," he scoffed quietly, his eyes drawn back to the half demon as she stood up. He followed her lead, rising to his feet and discarding his empty tea cup, "Hn, at least you're more determined than Naruto, I'll give you that much." The brush of her tail had him stiffen slightly, it was a ghost of a touch, but the softness of her fur was not lost on him. He couldn't help but glance at the appendage, fighting to resist the urge to touch it, remembering her reaction when that loser kid grabbed it in class. "Let's go down this way," he nodded to the looping stone path, "I think you're ready to up your game a little." She had been doing pretty well so far and it would have been a lie if he said he wasn't enjoying their little outing. It was peaceful and relaxing, unlike Naruto, Hanaru wasn't running around chasing squirrels and running away screaming from a flock of geese. Unlike Sakura, she wasn't hanging off of him, doing and saying things that he might like. Perhaps that was why he found her more endearing than most other girls; she wasn't annoying and she was being her own person. "You know," he started after a moment of silence, "I...kinda like this," no sooner had he said that before he started backpedaling, "the walking, I mean."
Ugh, that sounded so lame, he wasn't as smoothes as he thought he'd be, "Your company's nice too," he added after a short pause.​

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"Ey, boss, I think tha's t'em," the words were hushed as the tall, lanky man quickly pulled his leather jacket on, slipping away behind the wall. "See? I told yous," the short man growled out as he peeked around the corner. The two teens were still a while away, standing and staring at a tree. It looked rather strange from where he stood as they moved on to a picket sign, crouching down in front of it. Were they onto them? No, no, that couldn't be, just what were they doing? He wasn't about to question the sanity of their target, after all, that would be questioning the big boss' direct orders. A large hand came up and gently rubbed his ear, he'd seen what happened to those who didn't 'listen' as the boss' would say.
"Jus' be patient, let em come to us," he motioned for the lanky man to back away further behind the wall. He watched the teens, once they came around they'd coax their target away for a little...chat.