Shinobi Definitions

ii.a. [minato.?.neji]


6. Family

-were they, but only for mere minutes, before he was forced to go into the fray that was called war, as was his duty as the Fourth Hokage. He could see her, limp red hair damp with sweat from the glorious birth and the cantankerous release of the demon, hugging their son to her as tight as she could manage with her unmoving limbs. Perhaps it was the determination of a father or that of a Hokage, but he would surely vouch for the former, that made him don on the robes that he usually disliked wearing (they were heavy and not ideal for transportation, though they did add a fairly noticeable flair. besides, kushina would laugh at him snidely behind his back, saying it looked horrible on him, though she would always pounce on him after, smelling his neck). His knuckles cracked, his robe on, his determination and fury in check, and he was ready. I'd be back before you know it. He fervently prayed to the nonexistent gods that when he was back, the minutes that they had together as a family would be longer.

He doubted it.

7. G-spot

-was that what they called it? She couldn't think of anything else as her damp hands grasped at the pristine sheets, at the sinewy arms, at his hair damp with sweat, at the abdominal muscles that defined a shinobi. And that was the last thought that crossed her mind as she saw stars and breathed hard and gasped the name that only she had the right to gasp, after years and years of admiring and longing and loving, finally, both of them were home.

8. Hair

-was her weakness, and that was why she cut it off. That was what he heard when he had awaken from a (naruto-induced) haze that had inverted all that he thought he had believed in. He had fingered his tresses (yes, he at least merited the hair that could aptly be called that)—never had he regarded his hair as that. He was the one who had regretted her pink hair the most (albeit it was a silent regret, who knew what his peers would think if they knew if was a silent connoisseur of hair?). After all, he had secretly regarded her hair as one of the best in the village (as the years had passed, and as the yamanaka girl had taught her the uses of a ribbon, it had become more beautiful and he would go as far as saying that it was now on par with her best friend/teacher).

It was shortly after that incident that her team faded away in the dust left by the tracks of two males with ambitions only rivaling each other's (and a teacher who had never so much as looked at her as a kunoichi), and she had volunteered herself as the apprentice to the Hokage.

For a little while he had rejoiced because she had let her hair grow again. But it was swiftly gone when he saw how she had impatiently swiped it off her face as she ran a swift hand glowing with chakra over the wounds on his chest (bare, and the fact that she hadn't shied away from it when most girls would blush at the sight of him naked, was witness to her professionalism). A week later she cut it (the pink silk had reached the middle of her back already, he had thought with much shame). He overheard his cousin ask her why. "It was in the way," she had answered, shrugging. She didn't seem to care about it anymore. He regretted that lost hair all the more.

Then he saw her in action. For lack of description, he thought of her as a living bulldozer, able to tame the earth with her fists and uproot gigantic oaks. Yet the black-gloved female Shiva could also unleash a smile as bright as he-who-had-turned-his-world-upside-down (and yes, he has realized that being two-faced are one of the valid reasons on why to fear the female population). In a flash, his admiration for her hair was displaced to admiration of her strength.

He could just wish that it wouldn't be misplaced into admiration of her (because he knew that was dangerous territory). After all, it was common Konoha knowledge that she was already unavailable, whether he came back or not. But he was fast losing this battle with himself, as he found himself unconsciously searching for a head with pink hair whenever he went outside. Even his cousin was surprised when he started going to the hospital after missions, instead of going home and insisting that he was fine (he himself didn't know when he started to stop searching and looking and just went to her). He was quite content with their casual friendship (that he sometimes hoped that the last uchiha will never come back, but he knows that that's just him being selfish, that he wouldn't be able to give her as much happiness as he could). But hidden feelings left smothered for so long tend to erupt and explode with all the subtlety of a homemade bomb, and even if he was one of the people who sported infamous indifference, he never held out against time (it was three years, he held out for freaking three years!). He told her. I love you. Blurted it out.

She smiled, and commented, "I was beginning to wonder if I assumed too much."

"So you-"

"Yeah, for a while already I was wondering if you had feelings for me."

Silence.

It was awkward for him. He had no idea how it was for her; he still had to hone his skills in the art of understanding her. He waited. She was shuffling the reports she held in her hand (he had come to fetch her from the hospital again) and selected one. Then she looked at him again and opened her mouth (and he steeled himself for rejection) to say slowly, her eyes serious and unhesitant, "If you're serious, I'm willing to try."

He blinked at her.

She was smiling, nodding at the disbelief present in his eyes. Her eyes were shining, and her short, cropped hair had never looked as glossy and as pretty as it was before.

He had never thought himself so blessed.