Dango Shop

"Ahh...Isn't it great?" Tora Akimichi asked her brother Choji, "Both our teams made it!"

"Yea," he said chewing nosily on a bag of BBQ chips, "It's fantastic!"

"Lets celebrate!" Kino Inuzuka exclaimed, his pet dog, Kibou, barking excitedly.

"What a youthful suggestion, Kino!" Sana Lee exclaimed, clasping her hands together, "But what could possibly be a suitable way to celebrate such a youthful event in our young yet fleeting lives?"

"We could go out to eat..." Choji suggested looking down into his empty bag of chips.

"Choji..." Tora groaned, "Must you always eat?"

"Hey, it's not my fault you decided not to take on the family technique. I did. And that requires constant eating." He replied pulling out a box of doughnuts from his weapon pouch.

Tora sighed. It was true she didn't want to take on the family's technique but not for the reason her friends thought. She honestly didn't have a problem with the weight thing. (The things her family could do with that weight...) She just wanted to be her own person. She would always be proud of her heritage, of her family's legacy and name but she didn't just want to be an Akimichi. She wanted to be Tora too. If she grew up to be someone amazing, would she be remembered as Tora? Or would the world only see her as an Akimichi because of her choice of jutsu?

Her father, bless him, saw her point and supported her decision wholeheartedly. For a while it was hard. Her dad started dedicating most of his time to teaching her ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu unrelated to the family technique. Since he didn't know that much out of his technique, it goes without saying it took a while. But the end result was quite nice. Apparently she had a natural knack for genjutsu and her element was either water or earth. She was quite pleased.

"Fine..." Tora said giving in, "We can go eat. But the question is where?"

"Dango shop's right there..." Asuma said pointing behind him.

"Hmm..." Sana said, her foot tapping, "I do not think that it would be very youthful to celebrate our achievements in a crowded, poorly lit, cramped dango shop..."

"Hey," Yui said pointing, "Isn't that Kataki and his team mates?"

"Without our fellow comrades! But now that we know where they are, we should share this youthful feeling with them!" Sana said running to the dango shop, dust hanging in the air behind her.

"Dango it is!" Kino said walking after her.

"So Hitacha...uh..." Hikaru started trying to start a conversation with his teammate since she and his cousin seemed determined not to do so. Sometimes one of them would fidget and the other would make a small noise, like they were playing some kind of body language game he could only just barely catch hints of. And he was positive that part of this game was to see how much they could irritate him with silence. Luckily he was spared when a blur of green appeared next to Kataki. And here he thought today would be boring...

"Hello Kataki!" Sana exclaimed, her voice somehow raising a pitch and her smile widening impossibly. "What a delightful surprise to see you here! Surely, I am only to assume that you are here to celebrate your team's success, correct?"

"Yes." Kataki said, actually answering her. Kataki usually ignored any and all form of fangirls but Sana was different. It's not that he liked her. It was that she, unlike the rest, was actually worth the time of day, if he was willing to put in the effort to ignore her creepy crush. Sana Lee at the age of 10 was very well known to be a Taijutsu expert and in the space of 2 years was considered a master in the eyes of the ninja world. Her ninjutsu and genjutsu were very rocky - most were convinced that she had inherited her father's handicap - but she was making progress. Her aim was beat only by Kataki and Yui Aburame and her speed was yet to be matched by her year.

Despite all this, at times she could still be devastatingly annoying. Which is why Kataki only paid partial attention. He would prefer not to lose his temper with her right now.

"Hey Sana! There was no need to leave us!" Asuma said.

"Hey Hikaru." Tora said, smiling.

"Hi Tora!" Hikaru said smiling proudly, "Guess who just passed their Genin test!"

"Congrats!" She said excitedly. She wasn't very surprised but was happy all the same.

"Hey," Kino said addressing Hitacha,"Don't worry about those two. They're annoying as hell at first but I'm sure you three will be like brothers in no time.

Kataki raised an amused brow.

Hikaru snorted.

Hitacha stared.

"What?" Kino asked. "What did I do?"

"I'm a girl. Hitacha Nukasami. GIRL."

Kino paled. "Heh heh. My bad - I didn't mean to assum - um. Your very androgynous is all. I mean that in a good way. It's the shades. They make it hard to tell and hard for me to shut up apparently. I'm gonna just -" He turned around and wandered behind Asuma who had been laughing for a while now.

"Holy crap, Kino!" Asuma said through tears, "I think you managed to stick your entire foot in your mouth."

Choji, who had made his way over to Hitacha at some point during the debacle, offered her a doughnut. "My name is Choji Akimichi. Doughnut?"

Choji was dressed in green shorts and a white shirt with a red swirly symbol that matched the tattoos on his cheeks. He was chubby - almost circular in shape. His forehead protector sat on his head keeping his spiky brown hair out of his eyes. Hitacha looked into the box before picking out a glazed doughnut and replacing it with one of her three colored dango sticks. "Hitacha Nukasami."

Choji smiled and ate the offered dango before proceeding to introduce the others. "That's my sister, Tora." He pointed at a girl with similar tattoos and longer brown spiky hair who used her forehead protector as a headband. She wore a white tee with her family's symbol - like Choji's - under a light, green jacket. She had on a green skirt that matched the jacket with red tights that stopped mid calf and ninja sandals. Hearing her name she turned from the conversation she was having with Hikaru to give a small wave.

"That," he said point to the boy who was still laughing very hard, "is Asuma Sarutobi." Hitacha almost bit her tongue. He had the black somewhat gravity defying hair she knew to be a trait of his family. He seemed the most well put together of the new group. His ninja garb, a loose tee and long shorts, was all black and his forehead protector was finely polished. Even hunched over laughing, he held himself with an air of always being alert and on guard. She wondered if his namesake had carried himself the same way before Uncle Hidan had killed him.

"The one behind him," Choji said, not noticing Hitacha had distracted herself, "is Kino Inuzaka." Kino was blond haired and blue eyed but his skin was tan with red tattooed stripes on his cheeks. He wore a baggy deep purple coat over a black shirt and tan pants. There was a white furred dog resting on his head in a way that surprisingly didn't mess up his slicked ponytail or his forehead protector. "That's his dog, Kibou."

"Over there, is Yui Aburame." He said pointing at a girl in a very large tan coat and black circular shades. Hitacha could just barely tell that Yui's hair wasn't pulled back into one bushy ponytail but was rather in two separate pom poms. Her hair was so thick that Hitacha was surprised Yui wasn't using her forehead protector as a headband like Tora was but instead wore it traditionally.

"And lastly -"

"Is me!" The girl who was very deeply engrossed in her one sided conversation with Kataki suddenly jumped onto the table. "My name is Sana Lee! I am a firm believer and perfect example of the beauty of youth!" she proclaimed flipping her short brown hair and landing in a pose. She was wearing a green spandex suit, orange leg warmers and a short black skirt with her forehead protector as a belt. Hitacha swiped a look at Kataki who had closed his eyes and seemingly refused to acknowledge the scene on the table. She smiled a little and looked up at Sana.

"Hitacha Nukasami."

"It is a pleasure to meet you! Though I will admit to being envious of your placement on the team of my one true love, I look forward to growing with you as fine ninja of Kohona!"

"One true love?" Hitacha asked, her lip twitching slightly. Kataki's eyes snapped open and he shot her a look of pure venom. She ignored him. "Whoever could that be?"

Sana had an expression of confused surprise before smiling again. "Why it's Kataki, of course! With his manly good looks, his youthful finesse and his silent determination, I would be a fool to not have fallen for such an example of youth!"

"Ah." Hitacha said. "I wish you two the best and ho -" She dodged the bowl Kataki had chucked at her head and barely ducked under the table in time to miss the salt shaker.

"Get out from under there, Nukasami."

"Make me, Uchiha."

Kataki had just picked up the pepper shaker and was moving to pitch it under the table when Hikaru moved in front of him.

"Move Hikaru."

"No. You're overreacting." Hikaru said even though he was laughing as hard as everyone else.

"Move."

"No."

"Move."

"Make me, Uchiha."

Half an hour later, when Shikamaru had finally got around to heading towards the Dango Shop, there was a small scene in the streets. Choji Jr. was sitting on Hikaru's back who was more than a little bruised and trying desperately to scramble across to where Kataki was being held back by Yui and Asuma. Somewhere to the side Sana Lee who was exclaiming loudly that she needed to 'Help my beloved Kataki.' and was barely being held back by Tora and Kino.

"What even...?" Shikamaru asked as Hitacha crawled out from under a table with a plate of dango in her hands. She looked up at him over her shades.

"Dango, sensei?" she offered, the one eye he could see twinkling with amusement. He sighed.

"Troublesome."

Chapter End