You Will Not Remember Me

-The Medic-Nin & The Special Info Nin-

Ignoring the foreign feeling on his skin, the stranger looked at Aida, who made no motion to close her mouth or look away. Normally, the master of intense eye-to-eye contact, he was forced to look away from her appraisal after several minutes. He ate another dango and took a sip of tea, appreciating the distraction the burning of his throat as the tea went down.

It suddenly occurred to him that he was embarrassed, and although nobody was else would notice, he would not be able to live down the disgrace of blushing because of someone random girl, even if the only person who knew was his own self.

"Am I really that ugly? Did your parents never teach you that it is rude to stare?" he said suddenly. He swallowed his fourth dango, and hoped that she would look away.

Aida blushed brightly, but she was not one to be insulted so she maintained eye contact and retorted rather hotly, "Yeah, you are, and no, they didn't live long enough to teach me anything."

However, as soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted it.

After all the long hours Niha had spent coming up with and documenting the perfect past to tell to anyone who would ever asked, she had to blow it in a moment of embarrassed anger. If he ever told anyone, and they got suspicious, they were screwed. She felt terribly guilty and slumped forward in her seat, trying to avoid eye contact with her table-mate, and especially Niha.

The Konoha ninja was taken back, he had figured she did not have a mother, at the very least, so it was not the information that surprised him, but the emotion written on her face after she said it seemed so raw that he felt bad. It was not his intention to bring up something so painful. He mentally cursed, and wondered just what had gotten into him that day. He was acting more than a little recklessly and thinking back on memories he tried to bury deep within him; maybe memories of Shisui and Sasuke and Naruto and a time when he he could have been just a little bit more carefree.

"I didn't realize," he said softly, honestly, "I am terribly sorry. I have lost my parents too, I understand."

'What the fuck was that?!' he thought, bringing up a hand to cover his mouth. He had never ever mentioned that to anyone. Granted, the entirety of the Akatsuki and the Konoha citizens knew this fact; but it felt different, more real when the weighted words left his own lips like that. And for what? To comfort some strange girl? Although she was so upset because of his earlier, tactless comment. He downed the rest of his tea in one go, hoping the burn of the hot liquid would help him shut up. Just where was he going with that?

Aida looked up just as he lowered his hand back to the plate of onigiri before him. She was genuinely surprised. The stoic, mysterious man beside her had seemed all too capable of carrying a conversation without revealing any information at all, and yet he had something so personal to her. Still shocked, she nodded once and asked, "Really? Uhm, that's terrible. Were they ninja too?"

Furiously eating another dango, the man wondered how he had allowed this conversation to get out of hand so quickly.

"I... Yes, they were ninja," he replied thinking, 'short, clipped answers so she won't think I want to talk.'

For a few minutes they ate in silence, but then Aida soon came to four realizations.

Firstly, even if this stranger were to disclose her information, why would they believe this cloaked man, as handsome as he was (and holy hell was he handsome) when he was from as far away as Konoha? Additionally, he would be gone in the morning; continuing his journey elsewhere to do whatever giant ninja villages like Konoha wanted him to.

Secondly, there was something about this man's controlled, yet unexpected speech that was pleasant. She enjoyed talking to him.

Thirdly, she realized that he did not know that she was not supposed to say that her parents were dead; especially since in these times, being an orphan was almost normal. Sure, the circumstances of their deaths in a virulent massacre was scary and notable, but not the fact that they were dead, in and of itself.

Four, she badly wanted to continue throwing caution to the wind.

Also, although she didn't want to think of it, there was also a fifth realization; if Niha needed to, she could choke him to death in minutes from a million miles away, so really, if they knew that he knew something that he should not, and Niha had his scent and could look for it (which she always could)...

She dug her nails into her palms and stopped thinking about death and awful things. Holy hello, was it so wrong to want to talk to someone? To want to feel less alone? Why was it so impossible to find people to trust and talk to, must she doubt everyone and everything always? She knew that her duty as a ninja came first and foremost; but sometimes, she really wondered about her choice in living as a ninja.

She continued, "I see. Mine too. I have actually never met my mother; she died when I was an infant. Apparently, she used to be a woman too beautiful to be a medic-ninja, with long blonde hair and a gentle voice, and as you can see, I look nothing like her." She paused for a moment to close her eyes and run her fingers through her hair, giving a little laugh. Although the gesture was simple, the Konoha ninja caught the tremor in her lips as she bit them. It seemed as though her beautiful mother was more than a bit of a sore spot for the not quite model-looking teenager.

He remembered his brother used to have a similar look on his face whenever their father praised him without ever acknowledging Sasuke's accomplishments, even though they were amazing in their own right. He gave a rare smile and waved his hand, motioning for her her to continue.

"Niha says she'd never seen a more fierce-some sight as her when our old village was attacked with a highly infectious airborne disease. She was really good at her job; and finding the cure to that disease was the last thing she did."

The male ninja wanted to poke himself in the eye with two of the empty dango skewers for getting himself into this situation. She had confided in him so wholeheartedly that it would have been disgustingly rude to act uninterested and not respond. He decided he would try to keep the conversation focused on her and her family.

Additionally, he was also somewhat interested in her life, which surprised even himself. He figured it had been a while since he had civilly spoken with anyone that did not speak in shark analogies or the third person.

"That is incredible, I'm sure you are very proud of her. What about your father? What kind of ninja was he?"

"My dad was a special information ninja before he met my mom but as soon as they realized she was pregnant, he took up a teaching post at the training academy so he would get to see me grow up. He raised me after she took up her position as head-medic, and even taught me some fire techniques he had invented himself. However, his favorite type of ninjutsu involved lightning. I'm trying to duplicate his techniques now. They are really difficult, though!"

"I can see. The burns on your hands are the results of your rigorous training, I presume," he said, making an aborted move to touch one particularly shiny red welt.

"I-I'm sorry," he said, pulling back quickly, "That was presumptuous of me..."

She shook her head no and reached her hands out, motioning that it was okay for him to touch the burns. Although conscious of the intimacy of the gesture, he reached forward and turned her palm over in his own, running his fingers over the shiny red skin.

She reminded him of Kakashi, another ANBU member from his time of service with the organization. He also was raised by his father; however he was an incredibly talented, frankly unprecedented genius who had mastered his lightning jutsu by thirteen.

"So then, how did he pass?" he inquired, while reluctantly, ('why reluctantly?' his thoughts interjected) pulling his hands away from her to finish the last of his onigiri. Aida paused for a bit and reclined back into her chair.

She turned to face Niha.

The wind-ninja had been listening to their conversation as soon as Aida had mentioned her dead parents.

At first, the brunette was shocked that she would even dare to bring the subject up, and extremely angry. Normally, Niha acted really casually, using lighthearted sarcasm, and joking around, ('play-mean,' Aida had called it) but when necessary, she could be truly something; cold and unfeeling, able to commit unspeakable actions when necessary.

She was ready to send Aida a piece of her mind in the form of a cloud of diluted coughing gas, but as they had continued, the waitress had began to calm down a bit, especially after the stranger said he was also an orphan. As she watched the two from her post at the cash register, she began to realize it was only natural for teenagers to want to feel a sense of companionship and not feel so alone in this world.

Even as Niha practically pulled her brown hair out when they touched hands, she knew she could not bring herself to be truly mad at Aida. Ever since she was seven years old, Niha had taught her to lie, build up facades and have no friends, because at the drop of a pin, the two might have needed to run away to the next town and start a new life. She had robbed Aida of her childhood and felt guilty about it every day.

Niha was abrasive and childish in public to hide her calculative side. However, somewhere along the way, Aida had become the sort of person to use her diligence and responsibility to mask her core of empathy; her shy and awkward desire to talk and listen to genuine people.

Although, she never regretted her decisions. Seven years ago, at thirteen years of age, Niha had figured that total isolationism would be the best protection from their pursuers, and she still did.

Until they reached this safe haven where the citizens where so isolated, that Niha sometimes wondered if it was the same date here as her hometown or the rest of the world. They actually used their real names here. For five years, they had enjoyed being in this town and although understanding, Niha was not going to let Aida's teenage hormones ruin it for them.

Still, if worst came to worst, she decided, she could always kill him.

And with that lovely thought, she nodded at Aida to start the story of their sad lives, and continued filing her nails.