Sorry for the long wait between chapters, I have been struggling to find the time. I hope you enjoy this.
Special thanks to dimonyo-anghel and SeptemberStorm who reviewed and kept me writing.
Thanks for reading – Kuroda
Text in italic is thoughts (save for a few accented words.)
U.S. P.O.V.
I can't take it back.
I closed my eyes as the first rays of a bright new day started to show through the small gap between the curtains covering the window.
My head was spinning from all the information that we had covered over the last few hours of the early morning. I still could not believe that I had to live with Shikamaru for the next however long the Hokage felt that it would be good for me to be under house arrest.
I needed to get some rest, no matter what people were told the information that I was back in the village would soon be filtered around and the 'fan girls' would be back. Then the blonde dobe would be back onto me trying to recreate the bonds that he undoubtedly feels are broken.
I rolled over to face away from the window to try and get some shut eye. I knew what my next confrontation with Shikamaru would bring and I wanted to have some rest between now and then. It would be no good trying to fight on tired logic against another genius.
As I started to slip away from the world for a little peace I heard the other people in the house starting to move round although they had only gone to their rooms little more than an hour ago.
It was a soft tapping that had sparked the reaction of a couple of kunai being planted into the door.
"Is it any wonder that I didn't open the door to start with?" a female voice asked as the door opened, "I think for now I will have to take your weapons off you, you are safe here Uchiha-san and you are under house arrest." The voice continued.
I slowly opened my eyes to allow them to adjust to the light coming in form the outside; I scanned the room and found the source of the voice standing by the door with two kunai in her hand.
"Gomen-nasai Ku-chan." I mumble as I sit up.
"Don't worry about it, Shikamaru has gone out on a mission so it will be just the two of us with Otou-san for the next couple of weeks or so." Her eyes arched in a smile. "I came to see if there was anything that you wanted from the bakery or anywhere else for that matter, Yoshino-Nara is going to get some stuff for me."
"no, thank you. I will be down soon though to go through what I can do while I am stuck in here." I turn my head away from her.
"Uchiha-san, you know there is nothing we can do about this situation. I don't like it as much as you don't." she sighed and headed out of the room after a moment of silence between us.
I stand and make myself presentable, even though my clothes were slightly creased from sleeping in them, maybe I do need something from Konoha shopping district. I sigh to myself before heading down to the kitchen to get something to eat having not eaten since 9 pm the night before I walked back into Konoha.
I see one of my hosts stilling at the table writing a list on a piece of paper, her writing small and neat, just the way I remembered it from our first meeting.
"What size clothing would you like?" she asked as I stepped towards the fridge.
My pace faltered, it seems that she has thought of everything, even though I did not when she asked me before, I look at her to see her waiting for a reply.
"I mean I guessed about Shikamaru-san's size but then again some people prefer wearing different sizes and considering the shirt that you are wearing I wasn't sure if you would want a bigger size." She imputed after she still got no response from me.
"Your first guess will be fine I am sure, thank you." I nod before opening the black fridge door and closing it again before going to look round the other cupboards to get my bearings.
"Uchiha-san, when you have finished exploring I will meet you in the garden to talk about what you mentioned before if you like." She stated as she folded up the paper and stood from her seat.
I kept going through the cupboards to know where all the different things I might need were and got something to eat on the way round before heading into the living room where there was very little to look at due to it being sparsely furnished. There was however a Shogi set that I would dig out for use due to there being little else to do in the house.
I stepped back though the hall way and made my way to the back door; stopping to look in the closet under the stairs and finding a stash of weapons and three hooks one, two with ninja tags on and one with a headband tied to it.
I wonder if I will get my headband back, or if I am allowed to become a ninja of the village again. Tsunade said that she would tell everyone that I was on a mission but there will be those who don't believe her…
I found myself in the back garden and saw that there was a seal around it and the house as precautions and to reassure the people nearby.
I headed towards the shade of a big oak tree where Ku-chan sat with a bundle of gold fur in her lap.
"I see that you still can not get away from them then." I comment as I sit opposite her.
She raised her head, slight shock evident in her eyes as to my approach; "you know I can not get rid of them." she smiled as the bundle of fur woke and looked at her.
"Why did Shikamaru not want to talk to me?" I asked out of curiosity when the little fox had moved to chase a butterfly in the garden.
"Why do you think Uchiha-san?"
I looked at her confused, why does she have to answer a question with another question?
"You are a genius Uchiha-san yet you can not see what has happened can you?" I shook my head and waited for her to continue.
"You have a hard task ahead of you, you have to try and take everything back to a point before you left. You see, Shikamaru-san told me about a boy now man who he loved years ago and who he made a promise to, however not long ago he found out that that person had not kept the same promise for him. He has been torn up inside because of what that man has done. He is no longer able to trust that man no matter what his feelings are for him. Another friend of Shikamaru-san's has tried to help him but was pushed away until only a week or so ago when Shikamaru-san let him get closer because he no longer had a promise to keep."
I looked into her eyes, they were blank of all emotion yet I could see the hurt of the man that she was talking about in them.
"He asked me not to tell you Uchiha-san but you needed to know before you tried to start something with him again. You need to think about the promise that he made for you." She paused and stood, "you broke his heart."
