Fourteen

It became a natural occurrence for civilians to stop and stare at the strange shinobi that had found themselves within their village. The headband they wore was unrecognized, and, thus, human curiosity rose to the surface and deemed the pair worthy of open observation.

The vixen lifted her lip in a smirk, as she lifted her arms above her head and arched her back. The scent in the air wafted around her, caressing her, and she snickered underneath her breath at the sudden increase in arousal. She amused herself in that moment, as she took the time to drag her fingers across her human disguise while several males were trapped beneath her stare.

"Tease," Shippo snorted.

"Ah, now, now," she cast him a glance, "you're only jealous because you didn't get to finish your meal."

His eyes flashed devilishly at the thought, before he cast her a glance of his own. His lip tilted, and though he heard several women sigh in sudden adoration, his sight was focused entirely upon the female traveling at his side. "You know," he licked his lip, "you could always help me with that."

"Oh, yes," she lifted her lip in a smile, "I'm certain that you would enjoy that very much. After all, it's not every day that you'd have a beautiful woman such as myself bend over in the middle of the street for you to have your wicked way with, is it?"

Several civilians, having heard the words, glanced away in embarrassment.

"Oh, and then Sakura—!"

The fire fox was quick to tug on his vixen's arm, pulling her from her sudden mirth. His emerald eyes sharpened, noting the way the other male had reached up to pull his own woman toward him before he dropped his hand. His companion securely tucked into his side, he frowned, saying, "You should watch where you're walking."

The woman's blue eyes snapped in his direction, as her mouth fell open. "Oh," she mumbled, blinking. Then, realizing that he must have pulled his glaring friend into his side from being trampled, she flushed. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going, so I didn't realize that I was about to run you over!"

"Ino."

The mortal woman seemed to remember something, as, quite suddenly, she punched the man next to her in the arm. "Shut up, Shikamaru," she growled. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have almost run over—?"

The question was there, though silent, and, finding it within herself to humor the mortal, Kagome found herself responding. "My name is Kagome, and this is my traveling companion, Shippo."

Yamanaka Ino found herself blushing, as a pleasant feeling washed over her from the other woman's voice. She blinked rapidly, wondering what was wrong with her, since she had never found herself even remotely attracted to another woman. "E-eh, that is," she almost slapped herself, "my name is Yamanaka Ino."

Shippo snickered underneath his breath.

Her eyes glinted, watching the mortal squirm beneath her seduction.

"Troublesome." That man, however—

The shadow fox frowned a bit. He remained seemingly unaffected by her magic, as he accessed her from the corner of his eye. Then, noting the way he leaned onto his opposite foot, she allowed herself to sniff the air lightly. She had only extended a bit of her magic, she knew, yet her eyes narrowed slightly at the realization that the shinobi before her appeared to be resistant to her seduction.

"And this lazy man is Nara Shikamaru," Ino sighed. Her eye caught the emerald green of the man before her, and she quickly ducked her head down as her blush increased. Was it just her, or had he winked at her? "Ah, we're happy to—well, that is—uh, what village do you—?"

"We hail from Kumorigakure," Shippo smirked.

"O-oh, that's nice," Ino chirped.

Pulling away from her fellow fox, she allowed a smile to display itself upon her features. The woman squirmed a little more, she noticed, while the man merely turned his head toward the sky. A growl nearly slipped from her lips at the blatant dismissal he showed her, but she managed to stifle it before it came. This human, after all, was unaware that she could end his life with a mere wrist flick.

Shippo's eyes glanced at her, curious.

"Your Hokage has been kind enough to allow us to stay here until we are recalled back to our village," Kagome stated simply. "We're actually going to eat, if you'd like to join—?"

Shikamaru's eyes flickered toward her, narrowing slightly. It would have been difficult not to see that the kunoichi was not extending an invitation with her tone, but, instead, dismissing them.

In return, the vixen smirked.

"—Oh, uh," Ino pouted, "we're actually heading out for a mission here soon. We don't have time to stop for food, unfortunately."

"A pity," Shippo said, "I would have adored having two lovely ladies to share my meal with."

Ino's eyes widened, as she realized that the shinobi was not talking about having an actual meal with her and his, for lack of a better word, companion. And that look he was giving her—Oh, god! If she did not know any better, she would have sworn that he wanted to gobble her up on the spot!

Lifting her nose a bit, the shadow fox stated, "I suppose we'll depart then."

Shippo clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, wondering what had gotten into his little vixen. However, with a final smirk in the direction of the delectable little blonde kunoichi, he turned on his heel and began to follow his female as she stalked away.

"Uh?" Ino blinked. She, too, did not understand the sudden hostility of the other woman. "Was it something I said?"

Shikamaru sighed, muttering, "So troublesome."