AN: ok, I was going to make this longer, but I thought, this series is long enough already, and we've yet to get to the good bits. So…I'm going to skip ahead to the Suna party arrival next chapter and get started on the fun
Enjoy this for now at least, even if just for how Kawaii Asumu is.
1967 words in this chapter
Unmasked
Chapter Ten- Hyuuga-Teme
Ino opened the door to see Tenten looking quite ticked off. "What is it Ino?"
"Arigato Ten-chan. Come in"
"Well it's not like I have anything better to do. Shikamaru has us all on mission reprise for a while"
"Is Sakura coming?"
"No, not yet, she's working"
Asumu came running out of the other room, exited "Kaa?"
When he realized that it wasn't Shikamaru, but someone he didn't know, he shrunk behind Ino's legs anxiously.
Ino smiled down at him. "It's ok Asumu-kun. Ten-chan is a friend of Shika's. She's on his ninja team"
His eyes went bright as he edged out to look at her cautiously "You're a ninja?"
Tenten glared at Ino despairingly, "please say you didn't just ask me here for babysitting help"
"I'm not a baby" Asumu protested, then looked up at Ino with a pout. "I don't like her Oba-san, she's rude"
Ino just laughed "Go back inside Asumu, you didn't like me before either."
"Yeh, but you're fam'ly"
"Right. Run along"
He sighed in a very Shika-like way and stumbled off into the other room sulkily.
Tenten followed him with her gaze before turning back to Ino with a scowl "where did you find that and how long is it going to be here?"
"Seen as you asked so nicely, 'it' is Asuma's son and he's living here until Kurenai gets back on Tuesday."
"Living here? You, Yamanaka Ino, are going to look after a four year old for a whole week? Does Kurenai know what she's doing?"
"I love your faith in me, I really do. Shika promised he'd help me out, but he's moving out of his apartment so he couldn't look after him on his own."
"You are moving house already? When are you moving from here?"
"I don't know, we haven't really talked about it"
"Ouch, have you even looked at where you are moving to?"
"No, he is only moving out now because he said his mother was requiring his presence so much, he thought paying rent for his old place was a waste of money." she led through to her purple coated sitting room with Tenten trailing her "He's back at his parents until we go looking for a house I think"
"That almost makes sense" Tenten sighed and sank down unenthusiastically on her sofa.
"I just wished he had told me first."
She gave her a look that clearly said, 'don't go trying the sympathy act with me' and picked up a purple velvet cushion to hug to her chest "So, just to clarify, what am I here for?"
"I'm going out of my mind in here all day, I need company" Ino gave her an overdramatic exasperated glare
"You have the boy" she reasoned
Ino sat down and threw her hands in the air in defeat "Alright, so Aya is coming over to discuss wedding details and I need someone to help distract Asumu"
"It is babysitting then?"
"Not for you, don't worry. I wanted to ask Sakura because she is good with kids, but I knew she wouldn't come alone. You can always come and help us if you want. I mean, you have been married before."
"Hai, maybe once…" she snapped up a weak smile "I at least had a wedding"
Ino cringed guiltily "Gomen Tenten, maybe I shouldn't have brought it up"
"No, go ahead. It wasn't like I was in love with him or anything. The sooner I can get this divorce the better; then I can just move on and forget about it"
"Have you talked to Lee about it yet?"
"No, and I don't intend to. It's Hyuuga-teme's mess, so he can clean up the gibbering mess of his teammate afterwards."
"You are still angry then?"
"Nani?"
"You called him Hyuuga-Teme…"
"Hn"
Asumu looked up from the big cushion he was sat on, playing with a Koma and called to Ino "Oba-san… I'm bored"
Ino smiled at Tenten and leant forward to address him "Gomen Asumu-kun. What do you want to do?"
"I want to watch Kaa play"
"He isn't here, and I don't know how to play."
"What are you talking about?" Tenten interrupted curiously
"Shogi. He likes to watch Shika play it"
"Sakura plays it sometimes; maybe she can help when she gets here"
"She does?" Ino frowned in surprise "How did I not know that?"
"I guess Sakura's been busy… or maybe it's just that you were too busy trying to set her up that you didn't pay any attention to her. I'm no expert on her; I've just learnt a few things living with her. We talked a lot, trying to keep my mind off things. She really is a great friend."
"What time is she getting here?"
"I don't know. She was supposed to finish work about an hour ago, but you know how Sakura is with overtime. She may be hours yet."
"She's as bad as Shika sometimes"
"Hai, but at least she is genuinely working, not just sitting on a hill smoking somewhere"
"At the moment, I really wouldn't be surprised…"
"Oba!" Asumu whined impatiently
"Alright, alright, can't you just wait a little while patiently?"
"No, I'm bored now"
Just before he could start throwing tantrums, there was another knock at the door and he fell silent in anticipation.
"I'll get it" Tenten volunteered and stood to answer the door.
To her surprise, it wasn't Sakura at the door but Kiba.
"Hey Tenten, can I come in?"
She shrugged carelessly "It's Ino's apartment"
"Fine" he sighed, then shouted through to the other room "Ino, can I come in?"
"Sure!" she shouted back and he walked passed Tenten to greet her.
"Hey Ino," he noticed Asumu and bent down to pat him on the head "How are you buddy?"
"Kiba I'm bored!"
"I'm sure you are, stuck here in a house of silly girls. If you stay quiet for a few minutes though, I'll let you come play catch with Akamaru"
"Kay" he smiled and sat down patiently
Ino frowned "That simple?"
"Hai, it's that simple." He smirked. "But, I'm not here to teach you how to look after kids."
"Why are you here Kiba?" Tenten asked as she reentered the room and sat down
"A number of different reasons; the first being, Sakura won't be long, she is just briefing staff ready for next week. I just caught up with her at the hospital. The second, quite related, was that she has promised to cook for everyone in apology, so I'm staying. The last reason was actually to relay a message to Tenten."
"From who?"
"Our esteemed Hokage"
"About the divorce?"
"Hai, but you aren't going to like it"
"Just tell me" she groaned, getting fed up of everyone skirting around her.
"She spoke to the Hyuuga elders and you can have the divorce…"
"How am I not going to like that?" she asked with an irritated edge to her voice.
"Wait till I'm finished ok? There's a catch. You are very important to the Hyuuga reputation, so they are saying that they will only allow the divorce after the Suna celebration. Until then, you have to stay with Neji, which means that you have to go to the dance with him aswell"
"No, it won't happen." She waved him off with a glare "I don't care what they say"
"You have to Tenten. Even Tsunade has said it's a good idea."
"Kiba, cover his ears for a second." She signaled to Asumu and waited while Kiba cautiously did as he was told "Tsunade can fuck off back to wherever the hell she came from if she thinks I'm going to bare Hyuuga-teme's inconsiderate, pathetic excuse for company for another five minutes. I can't do it. I'll either break down in tears or severely injure him by the end of the night if I have to deal with anymore of his shit."
Kiba sighed with a concerned glance to Ino "Tenten I really don't think you are going to have a choice. It's only for one night, surely you can manage that"
"No! No I bloody can't!" she felt tears welling up already and buried her head in the cushion she had been clutching earlier with a sob.
"What's matter?" Asumu frowned at her
"No swearing for a minute, alright Tenten? Come on Asumu, let's leave them alone. Go and get your shoes"
"Kay Kiba"
As Kiba walked with Asumu outside the street where Ino's apartment lay, they met Sakura outside, dragging her feet along the ground in thought with a solemn expression on her face.
Not looking where she was going, she collided with Kiba head on and would have fallen over if it hadn't been for a helping hand from Kiba in a place she didn't want it.
He laughed cockily as he removed his hands from her waist and let her step away from where he held her a little too close to himself "Watch it Saku, are you alright?"
"Hn…" she gave him a destructive glare as she brushed herself off and hugged her arms around her body cautiously
"What's wrong?" he frowned at her, ignoring the tugging at his trousers from his four year-old companion.
"Nothing" she waved him off dismissively; then bent down to the child. "Hi Asumu"
He stared up at her with wide eyes "You know my name?"
"Hai, I uh… I am friends with Shika."
Asumu looked back up at Kiba "Kaa has lots of friends, huh Kiba?"
"He sure does." Kiba smiled back
"I thought you were at Ino's" Sakura asked them both
"Pig-girl was boring" Asumu pouted
"Hey, don't call her that" she protested
"Why? Kaa said don't say it to her 'cos it was rude but he di'n say don't when she's gone."
Sakura smirked at him "Only I am aloud to call her pig, ok Asumu?"
"Why?"
"I've called her that since we were in the academy together."
"You're a ninja too?" he grinned with excitement
"Not like the others"
"Why?"
She smiled sweetly as she thought of the best way to explain it "They hurt bad people. I make good people better."
"That's silly."
"It may seem that way, but without ninja like me, you'd never get better when you get poorly."
"That isn't ninja, that's med'cine"
"Who makes the medicine Asumu?"
He looked up questioningly to Kiba, "Dunno, who?"
"Gorgeous little pink-haired kunoichi, that's who" he answered with a smirk
"Don't try to sweet talk me Kiba" Sakura warned
"Kiba likes the pink lady?" Asumu asked innocently
"Very much so" He nodded; then informed him "Her name is Sakura"
"That's pretty, jus' like her" he giggled
Sakura rolled her eyes at Kiba's obvious brainwashing. After all of Shika's noble efforts… he's still going to turn out perverted "Cute kid. Why are you out here really Kiba?"
He sighed and his cheeky smile dropped, thinking of his teammate "Tenten had a break down so we left her to swear profanities into the sofa at Ino's"
"I thought she might do that" she nodded
Kiba looked surprised "Really?"
"Hai, she's taking the split up a little harder than she would care to admit."
"You think she might actually like Neji?"
"I know for a fact that she had trained herself into that line of thought for sure, even if it was just to make things less awkward when he asked her to…" she glanced at Asumu and chose a more tactful turn of phrase "you know"
"What changed?"
"He didn't ask, he ordered"
He looked like he was about to bear fangs any second "Do you need someone to have a word?"
"No Kiba, Shikamaru already did that. He needs to figure it out for himself now. If he only knew what it was doing to Tenten…"
AN: believe it or not, this started Ino-centric. Damn you Kiba and your awesomeness in fanfics…
Gomen this took so long, but I was super busy with my current art-centric creative flow. I'm not kidding, I just couldn't stop myself. Go and look at my deviant art account for proof that I wasn't wasting precious writing time on just anything.
http://ladyloss. it out. ;)
I may be really slow updating soon cos it's festival season so for the next few weeks or something me and my laptop will tragically have to become separate entities once again.
Sob my soul will surely be incomplete
Stay shiny and show the luff
XX Belizma-chan XX