Ch 11
Yeah….we are!
Disclaimer: I don't….own…..anything…EXCEPT MY BELOVED OC'S!
It popped into my head at random but I was super curious after it came into my mind. Is everyone reading this a female? So because I was curious I decided to ask so…
PLEASE REVIEW! AND IF YOU'RE A GUY I REALLY WANT TO HEAR A REVIEW FROM THE MAE PERSPECTIVE! So please review, thank you!
Also this chapter is somewhat like a filler episode because after this I'm writing the three years later where they graduate from the academy and get their groups. So do enjoy this chapter!
That morning Mira stared at her clothes for half an hour trying to decide whether or not to dress up. Finally she decided Shikamaru would hardly care either way. In the end she chose a white fitted t-shirt, jean shorts, thigh high black and white striped socks, and a pair of black sneakers. She put her hair up in a ponytail using a hair tie and the black ribbon Ino gave her and then grabbed her bag slinging it over her head so it hung across her body. Then she grabbed a quick breakfast and left for the park. She wanted to get in some reading before her date.
As she jogged to her destination she called out cheery good mornings to those she passed. Excitedly she made her way to a bench that was just out of sight and under a large tree. Flipping open her book she began to read.
The lead character stood face to face with a man large and bulky who held a large sword by his side. Her friends stood in various locations some fighting, some having won at great cost, some having lost. Her heart beat faster than ever, this wasn't how it was meant to be, her revenge it wasn't supposed to get others hurt. This, this was wrong.
"Your friends are dying around you, Akira" the man, mado, said with an evil grin. "Do you still intend to fight? If you give up, I will spare their lives."
Akira felt her knee's buckle as she watched her friends, Skirel was being beaten down and looked to be in pain, Casser was down and bleeding profusely, Mori was fighting hard but her opponent was as well. Sari and Blade were fighting back to back, and Corel was taking on three at once on her own. Akira felt so lost, she didn't intend to become close to these people, she hadn't asked them to come with her. She didn't want them to…. She didn't want them to get hurt! Despite it all, the fact that they annoyed her at times, that Corel was klutzy and Skirel was often moody, that these people were rowdy and troublesome, she wanted to protect them. They had weaseled their way into her heart, and she loved them.
"Well, Akira?"
That wasn't all there was though. They had dreams just like her; they were ninja just like her. They didn't want to lose to these people, these people who had taken everything from them already. They would want her to fight, just like they were. They wanted a fight, and they wanted to win it. This was no place to wimp out or get scared, this was where she made it worth it.
"Fight me" she told him with a fierce expression. She took out her sai's and took her stance. "Father"
Akira launched her body forward; he deflected her attack quickly jumping back quickly to keep their distance. The two circled each other, analyzing the situation. Akira used her left Sai to strike his blade and the right to cut his torso, but he used his leg to sweep her feet and flipped back from her. Akira narrowed her eyes and continued to fight him. Finally she gained an advantage pulling his sword from his grasp and sending it flying off somewhere a few feet away. He stood and began to make hand signs but Akira didn't let him get that far. In a split second his hands were gone cut clean off. Blood sprayed from the wounds to the dirt floor. Her Sai made an X around his neck. He looked at her with hatred.
"Kill your own father then. Revenge drove you here Akira, but look at what has happened." She did not turn but kept her eyes on him "LOOK!"
"No."
"Why? Are you afraid of what you'll see? Scared it will sway your decision, weaken your resolve?"
"SHUT UP!" She yelled and completed the necessary movement as the tears fell from her eyes. Her sobs were loud as she looked around to see her friend's bodies strewn across the land bloodied and broken. Her father's men lay beside them. Akira screamed loudly in horror.
"Hey" Mira fell over from the surprise.
"ouch" she said, when she hit the ground rubbing her but and looking up. Sasuke stood there with his hands in his pockets "oh, hi." Sasuke raised an eyebrow and she bushed, she stood up brushing herself off.
"What are you reading?" He asked looking generally uninterested, something that never failed to irritate Mira, if you're going to ask a question might as well care what the answer was.
"The Mislead Revenge" she told him reluctantly as she reseated herself on the bench.
"Mislead?" He asked
"Well, she went searching for revenge and when she found it, it cost her friend's their lives and she had to kill her own father. She thought getting revenge would bring her justice but in the end she just lost even more." Mira leant back and watched him as she spoke. He seemed a bit angry but she was just telling him the story,
"Tch" was his reply. Mira raised her eyebrow at him then looked at the vacant park.
"So what are you doing here anyway?" She asked him.
"Walking" he said and sat down. Looks like he's doing an awful lot of sitting right now, she thought.
"Oh? Sounds nice, walking during the morning can be really refreshing."
"Mm"
"Well, it was nice talking to you" she told him standing up to leave, she still had a couple hours before she was meeting Shikamaru but this guy was too frustrating to be around for much longer.
"Got plans?" Mira didn't know why but the cocky attitude in his voice made her beyond annoyed.
"Nope, but this isn't much fun so I'm going to go" then she spun on her heels to leave. He didn't say anything as she started to walk away but somehow that silence spoke louder to her than any words could have. Sighing she stopped and turned back. He didn't really look all that happy to see her return though. She ignored him and muttered an "I was here first anyway" as she sat back down and flipped the book open. The two remained quiet as she read. Sasuke stayed there simply watching her and the park the whole time. Mira couldn't concentrate on the book with him just sitting there it felt…weird.
"Why do you always seem so angry?" Mira asked staring at the park as the breeze blew through. Sasuke surprisingly didn't get angry and storm off as she really had expected.
"My whole family is dead, why do you think?"
"So you honor them by frowning and glaring at everyone around you?"
Shut up you wouldn't understand" he said getting a little heated.
"Calm down. And for the record I've lost people in my life too thanks. Maybe it wasn't like what you went through but I can't remember the last time someone decided to compare pain. I mean people who are hurting are hurting it doesn't really make a difference why, whether yours was more painful, pain is pain." Sasuke remained quiet. It would be hard to find a comeback since she was so completely correct. Sighing Mira returned to her book. A bout half an hour later she finished it. Closing it she looked at Sasuke who hadn't moved. Standing she began to leave, and then called over her shoulder to him.
"Are you coming or not?" Sasuke looked at her and shrugged before following with a disinterested look on his face. She rolled her eyes as he stuffed his hands in his pockets the picture image of not caring in the slightest.
They walked slowly until they reached her house. Mira unlocked the door and started inside, he didn't follow. She looked back in confusion. He stood leaning on the door frame.
"You can stand there if you want but I was going to go upstairs." She then proceeded to do as much. When she gt to her room she bent by the book shelf she had beside her bed. She combed through the books with her finger looking for two books in particular. She could feel Sasuke standing behind her which had her smirking in triumph. She pulled two books from the shelf and turned to him with a smile. He looked…grumpy.
"Here, this is the first in the series I told you about and this one is a novel, it's not part of a series but it's about a boy who lost his family as a kid, no I'm not making a joke, he goes through a journey to release the himself from his past. It helped me through a bad part of my life, still is." A small lie, it wasn't helping quite that much but she didn't relate to it half as well as Sasuke did either.
"Whatever" he said and walked away, with the books in hand Mira noticed. Smiling she walked out as well. She locked up the house and started for the meeting place before realizing she was going to be early, she shrugged and started walking aimlessly. The town was so alive she couldn't help but smile as she soaked it in. Sighing she started to swing her arms back and forth as she walked. Before she knew it she was at the meeting place, laughing she shook her head. Then she spotted Shikamaru making his way down the road and towards her. She grinned as he spotted her. She went forward to meet him grinning from ear to ear.
"Wow, look at us both arriving early" Mira teased leaning forward. Shikamaru looked away to hide his blush.
"Tch, I didn't have anything else to do" he said. She grinned and grabbed his hand.
"Well if you really have nothing better to do, let's start our date." He looked at her from the corner of his eye and then smiled a little as she began dragging him away.
"My dad hasn't been training me for a few days now, I wonder If he'll completely stop after her starts taking missions" Mira said as she and Shikamaru walked hand in hand eating their ice cream.
"I doubt it, you're his little girl his top priority. Maybe he's just making sure you are up to it first." Mira nodded and leant her head on his shoulder.
"You're probably right. Oh guess who I saw this morning?"
"MIRA?" A voice screeched piercing the air and cutting through the many loud voices on the street. Looking over they saw Ino and Sakura standing there dumbfounded, Ino was pointing at them in confusion. The two sighed in unison.
"Troublesome" they muttered together, honestly they'd been hoping they wouldn't be spotted so early on, they wanted to enjoy the date not spend the time telling their friends about it.
"Hi, Ino, Sakura" Mira called with as friendly a smile as she could muster. The pair came rushing at them and Mira gripped his hand a little tighter and Shikamaru got this scared expression as he stepped back pulling Mira with him. Fortunately the pair wasn't trampled by the two very scary females.
"SINCE WHEN WERE YOU DATING?" Ino screamed while Sakura started poking Mira's arm asking "How come you didn't tell me, I thought we were close" this went on for a good five minutes before the couple finally told them to "shut it!"
"We didn't tell anyone!" Mira said in annoyance, it only started last night, this is…was our first date?"
"We wanted to have a date first before we really told anyone" Shikamaru told them. The girls nodded with small ooooh's of understanding.
"I understand that," Ino said nodding to the couple.
"Then can we continue?" Mira asked hintingly.
"OH!" Sakura said embarrassed "yes, yes of course." They then began to back away slowly blushing bright red and walking backwards. In unison Shikamaru and Mira gave great sighs before turning back around.
"Do you think they'll stalk us our whole date?" Mira asked ignoring the now sneaking female ninja's a few feet behind them.
"Probably, tch, so troublesome" Shikamaru said looking at his now quite melted ice cream.
"Eat it or else the money will have been wasted" Mira urged, Shikamaru rolled his eyes but continued to eat it like she'd said to.
"So who did you see this morning?" Shikamaru asked her distracting her from her attempts to lick up all the melted ice cream before it reached her hand.
"Huh? Oh right! It was Sasuke actually; he sat with me while I read this morning."
"Really?"
"Yeah, honestly It was a little weird since he and I don't really…ever talk."
"Life is full of surprises."
"I know" she said squeezing his hand a little. Shikamaru worked to force down the rising blush.
"Shikamaru?" A voice questioned and the pair sighed, they hadn't thought they'd bump into any one else so quickly. Turning they saw Choji standing there looking…well confused to say the least.
"Hey, Choji" Shikamaru said in his indifferent manner.
"What are you two up to?" He asked, he was so obviously oblivious. The two shared a look before giving him a long and odd look as they tried to understand how it wasn't obvious.
"Can I come?" He asked the two stared blankly, "I have nothing to do today, so can I? You know we should go to…" he trailed off mumbling completely forgetting they hadn't actually said he could come. Mira and Shikamaru looked dumbfounded.
"HEY GUYS!" A loud voice boomed from behind them make the couple jump. Turning they saw Naruto standing there with a grinning Kiba and a quiet Hinata.
"Oh no, no no!" Mira stated before smacking her forehead.
"We should hang out, I mean the groups all here, Ino and Sakura are over there too" he said pointing to the girls who were not so discreetly wearing sunglasses large hats and reading newspapers with holes in them. They gave guilty waves before glaring at Naruto.
"What?" he asked. A hand landed on Shikamaru's shoulder, he looked over with practically no curiosity and saw Shino and Sasuke standing there quietly. Shikamaru gave an audible sigh and squeezed Mira's hand.
It didn't take long for their friends to lead the too restaurant where Choji ate like a starving animal, Naruto laughed and talked as loudly as possible, Ino and Sakura sat trying not to look at the glaring Mira, Shikamaru ignored most of it, Hinata blushed realizing they'd interrupted a date, Kiba talked with Naruto, and Shino and Sasuke remained quiet as usual. The restaurant wasn't very crowded but Mira and Shikamaru felt there was about eight people too many in it. Sighing they resigned themselves to a day of their friends invading, but at about seven o'clock Mira had finally had enough.
"Hey, hey Sakura" Naruto was saying, "why are you so quiet?" Mira's glare hadn't let up once. Sakura gulped and shook her head.
"N-nothing, Naruto" she then sped up to stand by Hinata.
"Glaring isn't going to give us our date back" Shikamaru told her quietly. She sighed and nodded. After a second she snapped her fingers.
"No, but I know what will, come here" she told him, he leant down so she could whisper in his ear and she began to whisper her plan. Shikamaru actually grinned and nodded. The two continued with the group slowly changing their pace to fall a step behind everyone. Focusing on melting into the shadows the two felt mischievous as they escaped. Soon they were completely gone from the group; once they had escaped them they made a run for the hill for the end of the night. They both laughed happily when they made it there.
Back in the city the group noticed their missing friends a little too late.
"Hey, where are Shikamaru and Mira?" Naruto asked. The whole group turned in confusion, and saw he was right, they were gone! Everyone shared a miffed look.
"Do you think something happened?" Hinata asked.
"We would have noticed any danger" Shino replied shaking his head.
"I think they left us" Sasuke said.
"What? Why would they?" Kiba asked.
"I think Ino and Sakura know the answer to that" he said watching their guilty expressions deepen.
"Well….you see" Sakura began.
"They, uh, they were on a date" Ino got out the two rubbed the back of their necks awkwardly. Silence ensued before a unanimous "EH?"
"Y-yeah" Sakura said.
"THEY ARE DATING?" Naruto yelled.
"WHY DIDN'T THEY TELL US?" Kiba shouted, everyone else's reactions were subtler. Ino and Sakura chuckled understandingly, Hinata blushed and looked down wonder why she hadn't been told, Shino seemed generally indifferent, Choji's mouth hung open, and Sasuke was….glaring. Maybe he didn't like not knowing about it, Sakura thought as she watched him. After that the group was quiet. Soon they all departed to think, finish their nights out, or go home.
Shikamaru poked Mira in the stomach and she giggled for half a second before glaring at him. She wrapped her arms around her stomach.
"Stop right there mister" she told him, he looked at her and then lay back down too lazy to actually continue tickling the poor girl. She had expected as much, it was troublesome.
"Hey Mira?" he asked
"Hm?"
"Do you remember that day that you came to the training area and were so angry you went at it for hour?" Mira's eyes went wide.
"Uh huh" she said feeling a little choked.
"Why were you crying?" his voice had raw feeling in it as he asked her, it had been very hard to see her cry. Mira sighed and pulled her knees up wrapping her arms around them.
"It's a long story."
""I've got time." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, he lay nonchalantly in the grass using his hands to support his head, his left leg crossing over his bent right leg. A small smile graced her face as she saw his face; protectiveness could be seen in his angry eyes. His mouth was set in a frown and his eyes trained on the sky above.
"Okay" she said, that night she told him all about her dear friend Gaara and that she'd left with Gray suddenly one night, she left out the details regarding not knowing him it being an order etc. She told him about the letter she'd gotten….from an old acquaintance, she hated to lie but in a way it didn't feel like a lie at all, and how they'd told her Gaara hated her and that she'd been emotionally incapable of handing it. She didn't cry though, being there with Shikamaru she didn't feel the need his presence was so comforting, so perfect, it was exactly what she needed and what she wanted. They both wanted he same thing, a simple life, they wanted to grow old have children, have a home, grow old with the one they loved, they comforted each other with the silent curiosity, the silent hope that that would be them.
When Mira got home she felt dazed. Shikamaru had made her feel so happy that night, wanting to know what hurt her, caring. It was all so brilliant, but when she stepped through the door though that night, she saw a very sad Gray sitting on the couch.
"Dad, what's wrong?" she asked feeling a little frightened. He looked up at her with sad eyes and patted the seat next to him. She sat beside him quietly worrying for her poor dear father.
"Mira" he began, "I have not been truthful. I have not been a good father because I took your trust in me and used it unfairly. When I took you from the village it was for a reason. They wanted to-"
"Separate Gaara and I" she cut in with a small voice looking at the wall in front of her sadly. He turned to her quickly, confused. She gave him a pained smile.
"A few years in schooling for being a ninja and you start to think out of the normal you know. I often wondered why but couldn't come up with a reason until I realized what is close to the Kazeage that I am close to as well. Gaara, a small boy made to be a monster, I don't know what he intended to do after I left but-"
"Kill Gaara"
"What?" she breathed.
"I realized after we'd left that the Kazekage was simply taking you out of the picture so he could get to Gaara without any extra deaths. It made sense; kill off the weapon you created because you can't control it."
"He's not a weapon."
"I know. Anyways, that was all that I could think of, even if he knew about your suppression Kekkei Genkai he'd never be able to get Gaara's friend to control him. The attachment was already too strong. Controlling Gaara was unlikely with or without you; all that was left was too kill him." Hearing Gray calculating like this with no feeling towards the actual topic on his voice, it disturbed Mira greatly. Gray seemed to see as much and gave her a soft look.
"I'm sorry"
"What made you want to tell me?"
"Honestly? I wanted your trust, but if I left it a big secret I wouldn't be a very trustworthy father." Mira smiled.
"I love you dad. I'm gonna wash up for bed." When she was halfway to the stairs Gray asked her a question.
"How was your date?"
"Perfect" she replied recalling her friend's invasion with a small smile. She continued towards the stairs but stopped on the first step.
"Oh by the way…I'm glad you're my real dad" she said before taking off upstairs happily.
That next day their friend's confronted them about their dating in class, the couple was bombarded with questions and Sasuke walked away after hearing it confirmed. The group only ever became closer but as they got older it hardly seemed like it, but Mira knew all them would be there for her should she need them.
Three years soon passed by and they were twelve and graduating from the academy, Gray was going on mission again two months after that conversation as well. Mira was so excited to see what group she was in. It was a quite a surprise whom it ended up being.
