"Akiko?"

That's right, if you wanted to hide from ninjas you had to lock the door and the window. I'd forgotten the latter.

"Yes Gai?" My eyes were still hot from crying though, and despite the fact that my voice made it painfully obvious I still didn't want him to see my face. I didn't want anyone to see my face. It'd been years since I'd cried like this. I wasn't a little girl anymore, I shouldn't be crying like this.

"I just wanted you to know…the bet…doesn't…directly… involve you."

That was a good piece of news for once. "What do you mean?"

"Well…I can't really tell you…that was part of the bet." He fidgeted uncomfortably. "But this isn't breaking that, I'm not telling you what it is…I'm just telling you what it isn't…." he trailed off uncertainly and then nodded feverishly.

"YES! I have found a way around the rules to ease your worried mind!" he cried triumphantly punching a fist into the air and upsetting my blinds.

I giggled into the pillow. I couldn't see him but my imagination was doing loop de loops with the script.

"Alright, thank you Gai. I'm tired though, can we talk tomorrow or something?"

"Yes! Of course, I shall leave you to your rejuvenation exercises!"

Sleep, rejuvenation exercises I suppose you could call them the same thing. I waited a few more moments after he'd left then shut the window and the blinds. No need to have people peeking in or anything.

That was comforting though…especially with Kakashi acting like it revolved around me. What a jerk, but if the bet didn't really involve me then I suppose it was okay. The rest was just teasing then, not anything really serious. Still…what would he do with two tickets to Konoha's finest sit down restaurant and The Konoha orchestra?

Some part of my brain was tickled several possible scenarios, but I dismissed them quickly. Best not to stick one's neck out when you don't know if you're right or not. It was only idle musing after all. But Gai had said that the bet didn't directly involve me. It might indirectly…that might even be fun.

Okay, he was forgiven, even for the whole interrogation thing this morning. And it if ever came up, I could tell him he owed it go Gai. That would ruffle his feathers some. I smiled and snuggled into the blankets actually intent on sleep this time.

-

"Kiddo!"

I froze in my tracks. That senile crackling voice was not talking to me. I half glanced over my shoulder to see Clarisse strutting her way through the market crowds waving furiously. Her cat was still draped around her shoulders. I wonder how many of the shoppers could tell if it was alive or not.

I waited until she'd caught up with me. "Good morning Clarisse."

"How you been youngster?"

I caught quite a few amused smiles in the crowd and scowled back. "Pretty good I guess." I replied offhandedly. No need to get specific in public.

"Good, good. What's that you've got there honey?"

She was trying to peer into my bag, which I was holding at least half a foot above her eye level so she couldn't.

"Oh…nothing much groceries." Eggs, to replace the ones that had gone into an all day waffle fest. A few veggies, tomatoes, ginger, absolutely no carrots…

"Ohh look!" Pointing in some general direction she gave a small cry of victory and took off through the crowds. Morbid curiosity kept me at her heels.

"Ahhh." Clarisse was excitedly picking through a brown wax box. "Turnips, half priced no less!" she cried. Seizing a particularly fat one she lifted it to her nose and sniffed it with relish.

Personally I'd never found inanimate objects that interesting.

"I've heard these are great for fertility." she remarked slyly.

I stared.

She jabbed me in the side with her elbow, the orange cat flopping bonelessly. "Akiko-chan you should buy some!" she cackled.

The store owner chuckled and smiled. "Special deal for the missy then, I'll toss in one for free."

"Wait wait wait! I don't…need turnips."

"Pay the man dearie, he's been so nice."

Wordlessly I handed over the requested price, feeling my sack suddenly get much heavier and bulkier.

"Enjoy little lady." The store owner called behind us. Clarisse waved cheerfully back at him keeping up with me despite my frantic pace.

-

"That was such a good deal, aren't you glad I was with you?"

I had no intention of ever letting her and my mother meet, so we were walking and walking and walking. My bags were slowly getting heavier and heavier and my wallet lighter and lighter. I was running out of things I could claim to need. Weren't old people supposed to get tired easily? The old biddy hadn't even needed to catch her breath yet.

Then again she wasn't carrying anything besides that cat.

We were in the area of her neighborhood so I decided we'd walk to her door, and if she didn't get the hint I'd fake a seizure.

"I know such a great recipe for turnips too, I'll copy it for you." She rambled on. Then she wiggled her eyebrows at me. "You should make some for Kakashi."

I walked into a wall.

-

"This looks pretty nasty."

"It's probably not much, we better clean it though."

"How did she even do that?"

I felt something poke my forehead and winced. "Ouch, stop that."

"It's alive!"

"Takeshi?"

"Yes Obito?"

"Shut up."

"Akiko, how do you feel?"

I cracked my eyes open and shut them again, wow too bright. Something touched my forehead again, I batted the hand away blindly. "Like I walked into a wall!"

"Well, now we know personality isn't in the right temple."

"Takeshi!"

"Sheesh…I'm going I'm going."

"Akiko, how did this happen?"

"Moving object meets solid structure. Do the math. I was looking left, hence my right temple."

"She seems to be alright…"

"…let's just make sure she doesn't have a concussion to be safe."

"Hey, Akiko can you open your eyes for a moment."

Only if you turn off the sun. "Okay…" I forced my eyelids apart, squinting again at the light. Two blurs were leaning over me. One dark with a light top, one light with a dark top, Kakashi and Obito respectively.

"Watch my finger okay?"

I dutifully stared at the digit as it moved back and forth.

"Okay, it's nothing serious then. We just should clean this up."

Kakashi smoothed my hair back. "You can close your eyes again."

I sighed. Keeping them open was irritating them. Whatever I was lying on was decidedly comfortable. I spontaneously decided to take a nap. Something cold touched my forehead. Then it began to burn.

-

"What the…!"

Someone grabbed my hands, preventing them from shredding whomever was doing whatever to my injury. I snatched a glance and glared just as Kakashi used his weight to keep me from jumping away from Obito who was calmly using some secret ninja torture device on my forehead.

"Ouch ouch ouch. Stop that, it hurts!"

"It's only rubbing alcohol." Obito sounded so rational I wanted to hit him.

It felt like somebody had lit my forehead on fire.

"So what was so interesting?" Kakashi asked.

I winced and tried to press my head against the pillow.

"Ah, no you don't."

I was pulled to a dizzying semi-vertical. I moaned at the sudden change in altitude. "Where am I?"

"What this doesn't look familiar?"

"Don't answer a question with a question. And what's wrong with just telling me?"

"Can't you answer mine first?"

I growled, he laughed. So I grumped and squinted at the room. His room. In fact, this was his bed I was sitting on.

"What am I doing in your apartment?"

"You walked into a wall remember."

"Yeah, but you weren't there. So why aren't I in Clarisse's apartment?"

"It was past her bedtime so we moved you."

Wonderful. They moved me…like a sack of flour. "What time is it?"

"What was so distracting?"

I searched the room again, my vision was getting less sensitive to the light. Progress! Now where in the world was his clock.

"Did it have something to do with turnips?"

I jerked back so quickly I almost gave myself a matching bruise on the back of my head. Kakashi looked like a cat that had just caught a canary.

Takeshi picked that moment to return. He took one look at Kakashi who looked like a pleased cat, one look at me who looked like a cornered mouse and picked that moment to tell Kakashi he was being too forward coming on to me.

Obito came in a moment later but no one would tell him why Takeshi was clutching his stomach and rolling on the floor in pain, or who had caused it.

-

In the end it turned out for the best. I had a grand excuse for being late, a bruised forehead to prove it, and the three of them carried the groceries for me. It would have been perfect…except the eggs had broken when I'd knocked myself out and dropped them.