This is story takes place during my Allied Shinobi Chronicles, Story One: Mission to Amegakure. This is a scene from when the team stops to camp before heading to Ame. If you haven't read that story, check it out!
"In this case, I would parry more to the left," said Omoi, furrowing his brow and pointing to the left of Chouji. "You would both be too open on that side — and since you are taking the left you need to be sure there's adequate coverage on that side."
Chouji, Karui and Omoi were standing some distance away from the large fire pit, practicing a new combo created for Chouji and Karui to perform together in fights.
Though, Omoi seemed to approve of the idea of them creating a move together, he seemed uncomfortable about being volunteered to help them create the move.
"You are Karui's partner already," Chouji insisted. "You can help me learn to move with her and match her pace."
"What makes you think she isn't matching my pace," asked Omoi, looking at him with narrowed eyes.
Chouji smirked at him and whispered lowly behind a hand, "you're honestly saying that Karui is patient enough to do that?"
Omoi's eyes widened for a moment before his looked over to the side nonchalantly and said "point well made."
Now, they were practicing a move that they had all created together, and Omoi was observing it from afar and critiquing certain details about their movements or vulnerabilities.
"I'm not honestly sure how I could make that happen while I am in that stance, Omoi," said Chouji, looking at him quizzically. "I can't even picture it."
"Look, I'll show you," said Omoi.
"I'm going to go get some water while you two do that," said Karui rubbing her shoulder with a sigh. "Do you want me to bring you some, Chouji," she said, smiling at him.
"Yes, that would be great," said Chouji, returning the smile.
"I'd like some, too," said Omoi, smiling meekly at her.
"Get it yourself," said Karui, walking away with a huff.
Omoi growled at her with a scowl, muttering under his breath that he was doing this to help her, but she wasn't really listening, and continued to walk away.
Karui walked to the fire circle and found the team's water supply. She grabbed a nearby cup, and filled it with water.
"Hi, Karui," said a female voice behind her. She finished filling her cup, and turned to see Ino sitting next to Sai. Ino was smiling and waving her over, and Sai was smiling at her in his usual creepy way.
"Hello, Ino, Sai," said Karui, walking over toward them, sipping on her cup of water.
"How is the training going," asking Ino, smiling up at Karui and tapping at a seat next to herself invitingly.
"Very well. Your teammate catches on very quickly. Our styles mesh surprisingly well together," said Karui, looking in the direction of Chouji and Omoi with a proud smile.
Ino glanced at Sai with an amused grin and muttered "boy, do they."
"Hm," asked Karui, who hadn't completely heard her. She was watching Omoi and Chouji as they were sparring and Omoi was showing Chouji some defensive moves.
"Oh, nothing," said Ino, quickly. "I was just wondering—"
"CHOUJI, REMEMBER THAT HE'LL KEEP OVER-COMPENSATING ON HIS LEAST DOMINANT SIDE — MOST KENJUTSU AND BUKIJUTSU FIGHTERS LEARN TO DO THAT FIRST," shouted Karui abruptly. "Omoi, what are you teaching him? REMIND HIM!"
"Yeah, yeah," shouted a slightly breathless Omoi, waving a hand in her direction.
Karui scowled in his direction. She turned to Ino and said, "Sorry, Ino. What were you saying?"
Ino grinned at her. "Ah, it's nothing," she said, turning to looking at the two training.
Karui narrowed her eyes at her slightly, but shrugged and continued to watch, too.
Ino peered at her from the corner of her eye, and watched Karui drink water while observing the pair. Karui occasionally yelled tips in Chouji's direction, but Ino watched Karui's facial expressions as she observed the two spar. Karui paid no attention to her teammate, and stared hard at Chouji, occasionally smiling with genuine admiration when he would do something well.
But then Ino began to notice something else about her facial expressions. She would occasionally stare at him with a slightly, dreamy expression and a small wistful smile — which actually baffled Ino. She had never seen hard-ass Karui make that expression before, and although she had seen girls pay more attention to Chouji in the village (a concept she was still wrapping her brain around) after his victories in the war, she was still shocked to see a female look at him this way.
Ino began to giggle, which broke the spell over Karui who turned to look at her quizzically.
"What's so funny," asked Karui.
Ino recovered quickly, and responded with "oh, nothing. Hey, I've got a question. Chouji has never shared this with us, so we have all always been curious. What happened the first time you and Chouji met? It was when he came to Kumo the first time, right?"
Karui's eyes widened and she blushed as she remembered what happened. "Eh...well…" she said, scratching one of her cheeks awkwardly with a fingernail.
"Oh, come now. Surely it wasn't that embarrassing," said Ino with an encouraging smile. Even Sai raised an eyebrow at this curiously.
"Um...well...where to begin…" Karui bit her bottom lip with anxiety very apparent on her face before she continued, "well, to start..."
She looked in the direction of Chouji, and closed her eyes tightly. "I thought he was someone else for about 6 hours before I met him," she said, "and he waited for me in the lobby for hours before I realized that he wasn't...him."
"Wait...what," said Ino, raising an eyebrow in question. She clutched onto Sai excitedly, who had his mouth open slightly in shock.
"Yeah, it's hard to explain. I found Fake Chouji in the lobby - turns out, Real Chouji was running about an hour late and didn't tell us. Fake Chouji fit the description I was given of Real Chouji, and when I called his name he came to me. So we walked around for about 6 hours and I showed him around to the different facilities we would be using, all the while he said very little and seemed incredibly nervous. I had heard that he could be that way - you know, timid. I assumed that I was intimidating him." Karui smiled slightly at this before continuing. "Anyway, we were walking around and I turned my back from him for a moment to go speak with someone and suddenly, Fake Chouji disappeared - turns out, he was a guy from our village who works at a local restaurant in the kitchens - and while I was running around looking for him and calling his name, real Chouji ran into me. Uh, literally."
"What do you mean 'literally,'" said Ino.
"He heard me shouting his name, and came running to find me. We literally ran into one another as we both rounded a corner, and before I could fall down, he caught me," she said, the dreamy look returning to her eyes.
"He 'caught' you, eh? I bet he did," said Ino with a small giggle. Even Sai snorted slightly, covering his mouth.
"I don't remember much after that. I just remember looking into his eyes and thinking-" suddenly, Karui broke out of the trance and turned to Ino giving her a scowl and saying "hey, what the hell is that supposed to mean, Ino?!"
Ino clutched her stomach and laughed loudly, earning a firm punch in the shoulder from Karui. Sai slid away in case she decided to punch him, too.
Chouji and Omoi stopped sparing and looked in the direction of all the noise. "What's going on, guys," asked Chouji.
Karui quickly responded before Ino could say anything and said "nothing at all, just talking about girl stuff! Keep going, you're doing great!"
Chouji gave her a quick appreciative smile before turning back, which earned another giggle from Ino. Karui punched her in the arm again, and got up to bring Chouji and Omoi their water.
"They're so cute," said Ino to Sai, as she rubbed her arm and grinned. "But their kids are going to be monsters because they can both throw a hell of a punch, even when they're just playing," she said hissing slightly as she felt a bruise forming.
"You shouldn't have picked on her," said Sai, half smiling at her.
"Ah, it was worth it. I'm mildly convinced that it's moving things along," said Ino, smiling proudly as she looking in the direction of the three.
"Oh, is that what you think," asked Sai, peering at her with a doubtful smirk.
"I do. Take a look," she said, pointing and looking in the direction of the three. Sai looked.
Omoi took the water, and yawned widely, saying he was ready for bed.
He thanked Karui for the water, and praised Chouji for his progress before walking off and telling them both goodnight.
The two looked at one another, and smiled shyly.
Ino and Sai couldn't hear everything they were saying, but Karui was pointing at spots on his arms and talking very seriously, and he was listening and nodding with a soft smile on his face.
She kept occasionally looking up in his eyes, and her face gradually reddened.
After a while, she touched his arm, and ran her hand along it, talking with a serious expression on her face, and seemed to be working hard to avoid his eye contact.
But he seemed to have stopped paying attention to what she was saying, and was looking directly at her face with half-lidded eyes.
When she looked up at him, his eyes popped open abruptly, and he reached his other hand up to rub the back of his neck, and closed his eyes and smiled, saying something rather quickly, to which she just nodded but raised an eyebrow.
She said something, and he opened his eyes and responded, and she looked down at his arm again and said something else with her brows furrowed.
His expression suddenly became very serious, and he moved his hand from his neck and placed it on top of her hand that was resting on his arm.
Her eyes widened, cheeks reddened and she looked up at him. And he looked at her very seriously with a heated look in his eyes.
She said something and seemed to visibly tense, looking up at him with wide eyes. He said something back, and looked at her with a very hazy look in his eyes, and a slight smirk.
His eyes lowered to her lips, and he began to move very slowly toward her, and he said something else as he continued to smirk slightly.
As he got closer, she said something else, and smiled slightly before glancing up and down his face, then settling her eyes on his lips.
Their faces were slowly getting closer, and she said something else as she pulled his arm closer to her own body rather abruptly, making his eyes widen. His hand touched her hip.
She smirked, and he smiled widely and continued to move his lips closer to her lips.
Their eyes closed, and their lips were just a inch apart when suddenly—
"Yo, Karui," said Omoi, who came back to the training area, "I can't remember which bag we packed the extra blanket. Was it the blue bag or—"
"OMOI! COME ON, MAN," shouted Sai and Ino in unison. They were grabbing onto each other in anticipation, watching Karui and Chouji excitedly.
Chouji and Karui pulled away abruptly red faced and flustered and looked around at Ino and Sai and a very confused Omoi.
"What did I do," asked Omoi, looked at all of them with a raised eyebrow.
"You ruined it," said Ino, who shook her head disappointedly and laid her head on Sai's leg defeatedly with a pout on her face. Even Sai shook his head and turned to face the fire, putting a hand on Ino's head affectionately.
Omoi looked at Chouji and Karui questioningly, and they just shrugged without looking his directly in the eye and began walking quickly toward the tents.
"Uh, it's in my red bag, Omoi," said Karui quickly. He nodded and turned, sparing a glance at her and Chouji before shrugging and walking back to his tent.
Karui and Chouji walked toward their tents, and they stopped outside Karui's tent and they both glanced at each other nervously, and then snorted with quiet laughter.
"Ah, that Ino," said Chouji, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah," said Karui with a sigh.
They looked at each other with smiles on their faces, and then the smiles faded slightly.
"Karui, I…" Chouji peered over her shoulder behind her, and around them checking to see if anyone was around.
"It's alright, Chouji," said Karui, letting out a low, breathy laugh. She turned to open the flap of her tent, and as she lifted it slightly she said, "the moment has left us. But I'm sure we'll have many others."
Chouji narrowed his eyes at her and then shook his head. Chouji wasn't satisfied with that. Before she could walk in, he reached and grabbed her hand, and she let out a noise of surprise. He pulled it up to his mouth, and kissed the inside of her palm and said, "I still wanted to thank you for your help and patience with me. You're a good teacher, Karui." He was looking at her with that same heated, half lidded look again that made her toes curl with anticipation. But the kiss…it sent tingles though her skin like electricity.
She bit her lower lip but released it quickly and smiled at him and said, "its my pleasure, Chouji. You are a good student and a fast learner. I look forward to training more with you."
He returned the smile, and released her hand. She turned to walk into the tent, and said over her shoulder, "goodnight, Chouji."
He stared after her, and said "goodnight, Karui."