To all my readers! Hello and I am sorry for the late update.
I have messed up internet and its driving me crazy.
BUUUUT here it is and i want to say a big thank you to PLBOOKS who actually reviewed :)
I havent really been getting reviews and I'm not sure if anybody is even reading it :/
But on a better note, here's the next chapter..
Waking Robbie up always proved to be a challenge.
For one the boy snored like a wildebeest sometimes and he loved sleep like it was the closest thing you could get to heaven.
Rosile could remember every time her father would attempt to wake him up safely would be to have steaming ramen with fresh vegetables wafting into his unconscious nose and he'd follow it like a little duckling to its mother.
Unfortunately Rosile wasn't the best cook and even if she was she had neglected the grocery list yesterday while she herself had been unconscious and there wasnt much to go with.
So, Rosile opted to carry his tired body towards the kitchen counter and set him atop it, haphazardly dressing him while he mumbled sleepily and had to force his hands away when he tried to cuddle back up to her in his sleep.
Once his shirt and pants were on and she began putting his sandals on she must have accidentally tickled between his toes for in the next moment the boy jolted and kicked out at her, sending Rosile falling backwards and landing hard on her back.
A groan rumbled from her throat as she slid her elbows out to raise off the cold wooden ground from underneath her, her back feeling the pain of the impact and she felt a sympathy for knocking over Shikamaru the same way not a few minutes before.
Robbie it seemed had fully woken now and was currently rubbing his sleepy eyes with the back of his left hand while his right stayed firmly steady on the counter to keep him upright, a loud yawn falling from his lips before his eyes opened properly and Rosile was graced with the cute innocent face of her 7-year-old brother looking as confused as ever.
"Rosie?" he asked, his voice in a higher pitch from sleep and his arms reaching out to embrace her again.
With a sigh, Rosile raised from the ground, unable to be mad at her brother and embraced him in a hug, running her fingers through his soft bed hair that was almost blinding now that the sun had come through the window and was reflecting off of the white tresses.
With a small kiss to his head she gave him a big smile, "Ready for school my little Shinobi?" She teased, walking over to put some toast on for him and began to haphazardly wash her face in the kitchen sink and pull on her clothes for the day which consisted of a long-sleeved white shirt that was a tight fit but still movable, and black tight leggings that went to the middle of her calf.
Tying up her dark long hair which was tangled from the night before and this morning's ruckus so that it was out of her face Rosile deemed herself presentable before the toast popped from the toaster and she asked Robbie idly what he wanted on his two pieces.
Robbie, who had been watching her get ready with the still-half-asleep face and his mouth wide open from daydreaming, folded his legs to sit Indian-style and thought very hard for a moment, his elbows resting on his knees and his head resting on his left hand while his eyebrows frowned in thought.
Rosile rolled her eyes, it was a habit he'd got from their dad.
He used to take far too long to decide on what he wanted to eat and every time it never failed to frustrate Rosile beyond belief.
The thought of their dad made her seal itch.
"Jam!" Robbie announced and sat up straight like he'd just told her the answer to cure cancer or something.
Rosile rolled her eyes, handing him the toast and giving him a small kiss on the forehead before making her way up the stairs to go and wake the other boy in her house up so that the could leave soon.
She got caught up in thinking about what her dad would say about her having a boy in the house along with her without an adult present.
Any normal parent would probably go banana's about it but since Rosile's dad was nobody but himself, he would have probably sat the boy down at the dinner table, cooked him some eccentric dish and talk about the young mans interests and hobbies, waiting patiently for the boy to leave and then pounce on Rosile once he left to ask just how emotionally invested she was with him.
Her father was pretty easygoing and not one to shy away from new challenges, unlike her, but the best thing was that he never judged and always smiled.
And her seal was itching again.
Walking up the stairs and noting that the wallpaper was much too pale she found Shikamaru curled up exactly where she'd left him in her room, head resting on her pillow while his arms were folded under his head while he looked like he was having the best dream of his life.
But before she even had time to start thinking again she was hit by his scent, the musky tree one that threatened to knock her over when she breathed too much of it in.
She wondered why the hell it was his scent that always managed to catch her off guard but as she thought her feet were involuntarily taking her closer to the boy to get a better inhale.
Rosile felt extremely creepy with how she was literally watching him sleep and smelling him as he did so, and was quick to back off and shake her head to clear out the memory of his scent and peaceful face while he was sleeping.
It had to be something to do with his blood right? Since that was the whole thing about the seal, that she could sense blood again.
Yes, it must have.
Walking the couple of steps left until the tips of her toes were touching his leg Rosile knelt down and as lightly as she could, ran her fingers down the skin of his arm to wake him.
It was an impulse, but as she was doing it deja vu hit her and it was almost as if she'd seen it before, a beautiful woman running her fingers down her fathers arm..
Shikamaru mumbled, his own hand reaching out and his warm fingers barely brushing her hand in response.
Rosile froze.
It was an innocent action on his part and there was no was he would've done it on purpose but why did it feel so.. weird.
Her skin felt as if it had pins and needles and she wondered if everybody felt like this when they made new friends.
Doing it again Shikamaru's eyes peeked open and he stared at her for a few moments, before arching an eyebrow as if asking her why the hell she had woken him up for.
Bringing her tingling hand around to her back and hiding it as if she held something she didn't want him to see, feeling her seal itch but resisting the urge she cleared her throat.
"We should probably go now"
Robbie skipped off to his class without much prodding, very excited to go and hang out with his friend Konohamaru and left with a toothy smile and a large wave.
The road towards the training grounds was a tense one.
Rosile was well aware that Shikamaru was watching her tensely for any indication that she was going to fall down screaming again and Rosile understood completely, she was quite nervous about it too.
But she knew as long as her step-mother stayed out of her thoughts, nothing bad was going to happen.
Not that it made the walk any less awkward though.
On the way there Rosile got to thinking about how her hand had felt when she'd brushed it against his arm, did it mean something? Was it to do with his blood? Did he had a particular type of blood that made her feel like she'd just gotten a lot of small electric shocks over her arm.
It wasn't as if she could just outright ask him, how weird would that be?
"Uh hey, Shikamaru, why does your blood make me feel all tickly?"
Yeah, she didn't see that as going too smoothly.
And what was up with the arm thing, she knew she had seen it before. It was like a dream that she could remember but couldn't actually remember and it was driving her insane.
She knew it was her father, that much was certain to her.
Rosile could remember waking from a nightmare and going to seek out her father, quietly pushing open the door to find a woman stroking his arm like she had to Shikamaru to wake her father up.
She remembered her fathers face so clearly, but when she tried to imagine what the woman's face looked like her mind came up blank, like the features had been erased or something.
It was certainly not her stepmother, since her stepmother was not as slender as the woman had been that night, and her stepmother didn't have curly hair like Rosile's.
It nagged her for the whole walk to the training grounds.
But what she didn't realize, was how hot the seal had gotten as she was thinking.
Asuma-sensei looked every bit of impressive as he had yesterday.
Same tall bulky stature, same muscled limbs and he also had a cigarette hanging from his lip.
There were also two other people gawking at her from behind him that Rosile was becoming more and more tense with by the second.
The first was a boy, not so much gawking as glancing at her every few seconds he was chewing since he continued to stuff his mouth with a large handful of chips after every swallow.
He was a chubby fellow with a brown hair color lighter than hers which was styled into two little tuffs on either side of his head where his headband allowed.
Rosile noted she would easily identify him with the spiral patterns on his chubby cheeks which were a deep red, but the scowl of his eyes didn't suggest he was very friendly.
The girl on the other hand was a complete other story.
Blond, and beautiful already for a girl a year younger than Rosile.
Her long blond hair shone vibrantly in the Konoha sun and her pale skin without a flaw, with bright blue eyes that held a doe like nature to them. She didn't look Shinobi material at all.
Perhaps this would be easier than Rosile anticipated.
Maybe she wouldn't need to worry about Robbie at all.
Asuma drew a drag from his cigarette and straightened, "Ino and Chojil, this is Rosile Snow, from Kirigakure. She's going to be tagging along with our team for a few weeks until after the Chunnin Exams"
Asuma's voice was gruff and seemingly robotic, sounding much more like orders than a suggestion and Rosile had no idea what to make of him yet.
Choji, it seemed, merely stared at her while Ino blinked a few times dumbly.
Rosile felt like crawling into a hole, this was the worst thing ever, why the hell did she even agree to this in the first place? She wasn't a-
A high-pitched squeal rung out in the silence and before Rosile had time to identify it she was tackled by the blond beauty who was currently squashing her with her body weight.
This would be the third time she'd landed on the ground today.
"Oh this is so great! Finally a girl who will understand me and notice how much I do for this-"
A throat clearing broke the girl from her rant.
Asuma sent Ino a dry look and she replied with her own sheepish one and held out one hand to help Rosile up.
Ino had quite a high-pitched voice that suggested she may be high-strung, but in Rosile's opinion men generally gravitated towards women who were high-strung and beautiful.
Perhaps she should try and make friends with Ino as well.
Before she had a chance to ask, Asuma spoke up again, "Well before you guys go crazy with her I'll need to take a look for myself at that seal of yours Rosile."
Oh. He was asking if she was okay with it in a subtle way.
Rosile shrugged and moved to lift the back of her shirt for Asuma to examine and the other two come over either side to see first hand.
Ino bouncing excitedly while looking engrossed and Choji well.. Choji sort of watched and ate.
And Shikamaru had disappeared behind a tree to nap sometime before, leaving her to fend for herself in the midst of these strangers.
She wasn't sure if that was what 'friends' do.
Asuma's fingers brushed against her seal, a small frown donning his face and Rosile felt herself tense up under the scrutiny, she really wanted to know what it was.
"You don't remember how you got this?" he asked, smoke coming out from his lips as he spoke and blowing right into the direction of her face, making her cough as she shook her head 'no'.
Asuma-sensei straightened and raised a finger to his lip, a contemplating expression donning his face and Rosile wondered just what the Leaf was planning to do about all this.
Well, she did know that they were going to remove it the day after tomorrow, but Asuma did say something about an exam as well.
This was just so much to take in.
"Well," Asuma said his tone of voice suggesting the seal talk was over and Rosile took that as a hint that she could drag her shirt back over her body. "The first step to becoming a Shinobi is finding your chakra" he said.
Rosile merely stared at him for a few seconds before exclaiming,
"My what?"
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-PrincessJade
