Like with crepes, spread the batter too thin and it'll either burn to the pan...or rip. Even things as delicate as French pancakes need support! OR Kiharu may have that whole 'pacifism' thing going on but Ensui sure as hell didn't.
…..
Hitoshi was not pleased.
He was a truly skillful hunter, more intelligent than any mutt and sleeker too. He had chakra, he could speak and, when it came to tracking, no-one was better than him.
Which only made their lack of any solid findings at the crime scene all the more aggravating.
"'Nothing substantial'?"
The office was silent for a long, tense moment before Inoichi kicked his chair back and started pacing. On the other side of his desk, Seiichi's lips pressed into a tight, pale line.
"We triple checked, all the way to the boarder of Kumo and then a sweep across to Iwa."
Beside the Chuunin's chair, Hitoshi's tail lashed, the only sign that the predator was agitated at all.
"You're certain it wasn't one of them?"
Seiichi resisted the urge to grit his teeth, knowing his friend was merely frustrated and not really questioning him like that. As it was, he couldn't quite keep the affront from his voice. "I think I've fought more than my fair share of Iwa and Kumo nin to understand their techniques and the evidence left behind. Hitoshi even more so."
"And there have been no non-affiliates through the area?" The blonde interrupted his own pacing to pick the file back up, the sheath of papers distressingly thin for months of work. Even if they had been doing it on the side of their usual workloads.
Seiichi brought out his own notepad, tucked into the inside pocket of his vest and no bigger than the length of his palm, and flicked through the notes taken. "No-one with a grudge we're aware of and only a few good enough to get a drop on him like that. The crime scene was too neat for anyone less skilled than Jounin, or Tokubetsu. The only disturbances present lacked any scent or chakra signature." The brunette glanced up but Inoichi had his back to him, the line of his shoulders tense and the lamplight catching on the shiny scar tissue at his temple. "Anything in-village?"
It was beyond fucked up to even consider their own but...after Danzo...they didn't have the luxury of not checking any and everywhere.
"Yes...actually."
That caught Seiichi's attention.
"What?"
"Did Inokumo ever….come to you?" Inoichi sighed explosively.
Seiichi blinked, mouth ajar in genuine bewilderment. "About Inoko-chan?"
The blonde turned and Seiichi could see in his eyes how upset he was. "About money, Seii."
His chest went cold, something like grief or disappointment curling in his blood. "Gambling? How bad is it? Is Natsuko going to be okay-"
"No, no, she's fine. He was...his accounts are irregular and it doesn't add up. Lump sums gone but not spent on anything material. The card tables, pubs, runners - no-one saw anything of it, even in the villages nearby. Unless he was going to the boarders, it certainly wasn't spent gambling or on drink."
Seiichi pursed his lips, sharing a look with Hitoshi. "Blackmailer?"
Inoichi sat down again, legs flopping under his desk and Hitoshi, subtly as ever, gently leaned on them. The panther was all but radiating heat in the cool building, his huge form hulking down in the space between Seiichi's chair and the wall and the weight of him was a welcome constant.
"That...would seem most likely. But for what?"
…
"Pass me that golden cord, would you, my love?" Yuri's soft voice interrupted the quiet concentration of the workshop, the ticking of the wall clock and low scratch of fabric being sewn.
Not even lifting my head from where I'd smooshed it against the tabletop, my hand plucked the loop of cord from the tray beside me and handed it over with a sigh. A clatter of the tea tray announced Hoshiko coming over, pouring Oba-san a cup with a soft murmur and then placing another somewhere in front of me.
"Thanks, senpai," I mumbled.
"Cheer up, Kiharu-chan," The older girl tried, still fluttering beside my grandmother's workstation and no doubt fiddling with her hair. "You've fallen out with Shisui-kun plenty of times before! You'll make up in no time, I'm sure."
"He said he 'needed to think'!" I wailed into the wood, which frankly tasted gross. "What does that even mean?"
"Do you remember," Yuri-oba chipped in, still serenely sewing cording along the trim of a nightgown. "When you and Shisui-kun didn't talk for three days, just because he forgot you were meeting for lunch and went fishing instead?"
Yeah, okay, not my finest moment but that boy totes stood me up!
Slowly, I peeled my forehead from the wooden surface, settling my chin down instead and then shuffling to the side half a foot because my tea blocked the view. "So?"
Eyes cast down, Yuri-oba smiled at her stitching. "Three days for such a simple fall out and it's not even been one for this one, my dove."
"This is different," I insisted.
Yuri-oba, Hoshiko and Gin, who turned around from where she was fixing a piece of cloth to a mannequin, simply looked at me. I didn't pout, promise.
"You don't think he's sick of me, right?"
Hoshiko, ever sweet, blinked in utter bewilderment. "Why would he be?"
The sheer mischief? All my scheming and shit? God, I wasn't toxic, right?!
Something must've shown on my face because Yuri-oba immediately slid a pile of tangled thread towards me and I obediently started picking at the knots. Slowly, as Hoshiko wandered off to organise the displays for the next week, as Yuri-oba kept sew-sew-sewing away and Gin started draping more and more fabric over the pinned designs, I felt myself relax. Idle hands and idle minds, after all, and I'd always been a bit of a stress baker. As it was, it was Mikoto's night to do the baking and the house was empty with dad and Hitoshi on patrol for the evening. Nothing worse than going back to an empty house to let my mind run fucking rampant. I'd always been a chronic overthinker and I was upset enough to know I'd probably convince myself that Shisui hated me if left alone long enough.
Also, Yuri-oba was making dumplings tonight.
I'd thrown myself into work today, rolling countless pancakes and focusing on everything but Mikoto's younger relatives with laser focus. I'd had a bath the previous night, shedding a few frustrated tears that dropped into he steamy water before Hitoshi had come in and licked them away. Funny how licking had never been considered uncouth to the stuck-up cat. He didn't ask questions - he could be surprisingly tactful like that - but simply started commiserating over his own hunger until my bath water had cooled and, wrapping myself in Kaa-san's fluffy dressing gown, I'd gone to pull him a haunch from the cold room before he'd left again to check on Mama Tiger and FuFu ("don't call her that!").
The sun slipped behind the horizon, shining Amber and purple through the high windows on the back wall, and Yuri-oba eventually packed up for the night. Wishing the girls a good evening, she rested one aged hand on my shoulder and shepherded me towards the stairs, flicking off the shop lights for the night. Upstairs, to the back of the building, her kitchen looked out onto the next street, dusky as the sky flushed pink and plum, and Akane-sama soon came padding up the back steps to the back (front) door.
"Good evening," I smiled, small and slightly sad (I couldn't help it), from where my grandmother had set me to chop the peppers.
Akane, the silver at her temples looking a little whiter than it had in the winter, smiled back. She had come with dessert, cooked apples and sweet preserves, and her hand brushed Yuri-oba's as she passed the basket over.
Soon enough, between the three of us, dinner was prepared, cooked and served, and I sat back to appreciate the simple evening. Shisui still lingered on my mind, how his eyes had bore into mine and the slow, disappointed shake of his head, mouth set in a clamped line-
"Pass me that towel please, Kiharu-chan," Akane's voice snapped me back and I wordlessly did as she said, setting the dishes in the cupboards and helping tidy up.
I set off home when the sky was dark, a homemade jar of apples in my pocket and leaving Yuri and Akane sipping tea behind me.
It was on the walk when my thoughts turned back to the issue at hand.
I didn't abide violence but, fucking hell, why couldn't Kabuto fuck off?! He was slimey as a snake and aggravating to boot and I wanted him gone.
But doubt wouldn't stop niggling in my mind. What if he was innocent? Pre-ROOT and Orochimaru and everything? Just a little orphan boy.
I wasn't...sure how to feel about that.
I knew I'd had a lot of difficulty as a kid 2.0, coming to terms with the reality of everyone here and the people I'd known from Canon. Itachi for one, was much more tolerable and I actually liked him. For people like Kabuto, it was much harder. Danzo had been an evil asshole long before I was born...but Kabuto was, possibly, just a little kid before it all went to shit.
Not to mention, with Shisui still unsure and Ensui seemingly barely existing between shifts at the Station, I was at something of a dead end. What even could I do? Steal his file? Even if I managed it, he was probably flawless in there. Either in performance or, thinking on his Chuunin Exams, purposefully fault-riddled.
And even if it was perfect, what was that supposed to tell me? There was a reason no-one had yanked me off to T because there were people like Itachi, who acted almost as weird as I did and I had a reason, and no-one ever thought anything beyond 'wow, much talented very prodigy'!
Honestly, Kabuto was weird for having re-sat the exam so many times! How in the ever-loving fuck no-one had looked at that teenage boy, dropping out for no reason and with so much dirt on everyone else, and hadn't thought he was suspicious, I don't fucking know.
Regardless, his files wouldn't tell me much.
But...maybe getting to know him might.
….
March was a miserable time for a fight with Shisui. Not only did I just plain miss him, not only were his physio sessions going so well he'd be back in training in a few more weeks, but it was only two weeks to my thirteenth birthday!
I was literally about to join him in teenhood and we weren't even talking!
Okay so 'not talking' might be taking it a little harshly.
"Hey, Kiharu-chan!" The older boy in question smiled, leaning crutches against the counter and pulling his coffee closer.
"Shisui-kun, good morning," I replied, smiling around the swallow that visibly bobbed my throat.
My eyes were fixed on the macaroons I was arranging, Shisui's apparently fascinated in his very normal looking drink and I could almost hear the crickets chirping awkwardly.
Saint Mikoto chose that moment to step forward.
"Good morning, Shisui-kun," The Matriarch smiled, handing an Officer his change and fastening the lid on a take away box. "Any plans for the day?"
"Oh, er," Shisui coughed and I felt his eyes on my face, turned away as I was to refill the napkin tub. "N-Nothing much actually."
Sometimes. I couldn't help but marvel at Shisui's success as a Shinobi, and a regretfully impressive one at that, when he was such a shit liar. Drama technique, 2/10.
I snorted and Shisui sat up straighter.
"Good," Mikoto, ever the saving grace, kept up the conversation. I was but a priestess at her noble shri-
"-Then you're free to keep Kiharu-chan company in her lunch break...in five minutes."
'Angel', did I say 'angel'? I meant meddler.
Stupid, stupid, stupid Kiharu! Never mess with a woman who wanted daughters but got sons, you idiot!
Nine-year-old me had fucking had it right and I was a damned fool to be blinded by that serene, maternal smile and the way her sooty hair pooled on her shoulders like some kind of Elven Queen-
Whilst I was having internal appocliptions, Shisui was wildly jabbering as he backtracked like an overweight Shetland faced with Olympic dressage. That is, with all due haste.
"Oh, Mikoto-hime, I'm sure Kiharu-chan-!"
God, this wasn't going to go well and Shisui was going to tell me he'd reconsidered and I was crazy and I'd have to lie and say-
"That's fine!"
It was only when the two Uchiha turned to me, Shisui jerking in surprise and Mikoto with catlike smugness, that I realised that ridiculous squeak had come from me.
I'd…said that out loud, hadn't I?
Well, I had to roll with it now.
"That's fine," I reaffirmed, smoothing down my apron like I was perfectly calm, even though I'd be taking it off in a few moments for my break. "I was just going to sit at the bar anyway, I brought food with me. No need for Shisui-kun to go out of his way."
I'll admit that last line was pretty petty, especially when Shisui finally met my eyes to give me a flat look. Never mind, #noregrets.
"I'll bring you your tea, then," Mikoto nodded as if everything was settled and I found myself reluctantly hanging up my apron, grabbing my bento and sliding into the stool between Shisui at the wall. At little cagey, yes, but it was more private too.
"How have you been?" The Jounin finally asked, sipping his tepid coffee.
Unconsciously, the corners of my mouth curled up. "Since the day before yesterday?"
Pink ears flushed red where they peaked out from Shisui's dark curls and I shifted guiltily when his shoulders slumped a bit. Ahhh… I was a mean person.
"Not the best."
Shisui turned slightly towards me and I hastily took a bite of tuna.
"...really?"
It was his turn to crack a faint grin when I glared, chewing my mouthful as quickly as possible.
"Yeah, really," I grouched, pouting. "You think I didn't miss you when we've been attached as the hip since aug-urk!"
"You're not mad!" Shisui grinned somewhere into my hair, an arm around my shoulders and the other squeezing my back as the older boy dragged me into a bear hug that almost had him in my damned lap. "You don't hate me!"
Laughter bubbled up in the chest against my cheek and, rolling my eyes, I hugged my best friend back fiercely.
"And here I was thinking you didn't want to be my friend any more!"
His arms tightened slightly and, the next time he spoke, Shisui's voice had dropped down much quieter. Rolling out a pancake further down the counter, Mikoto started humming an airy tune. "What- Why- Ki-chan, I told you I needed time to think!"
"Er, yeah!" I hissed into the leather of his shoulder harness. "Do you realise how bad that sounded?"
Talk about 'it's not you, it's me' rhetoric!
Shisui twisted again, settling his temple against mine as though he wasn't planning on letting go for a while. "I'd literally just said I was with you on this, like always."
"You told me I was crazy!"
Shisui mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "I'm not wrong there," so I pinched his side and shifted back into my own stool when he flinched away.
"I cried. Hitoshi licked me again."
Wincing, Shisui's eyes roved my face like the panther saliva would magically become visible, still on my skin. "Sorry, Kiharu-chan."
"No...no, I'm sorry." My eyes fell from his. I was sooooo mean. "I should've given you time to process… I know I'm a little-" insane, chaotic, unpredictable, ridiculous, "-sudden sometimes and I can get really impatient. So, yeah. I'm really sorry."
His ears were cherry red again but Shisui smiled, small and endearingly shaky.
I had five more tuna rolls in my bento. Shisui ate three.
When Shisui and I fought...it was always like a match striking, we'd explode for a few moments before being blown out barely any time later and our make-ups were notoriously brief too. Legit just breaking the Dam and a desperate hug or two.
It was waiting for the crack in the stalemate to appear that was the worst part. In older fallouts, Shisui and I had said some horrible things to each other. 'You don't care about me' to 'leave me alone!' and we never failed to storm off either. This time had been different. We'd been angry, yes, but it was borne from frustration and impatience and that elephant was still in the room.
Luckily, Shisui hasn't been exaggerating when he'd claimed he'd spent the past two days thinking.
"I asked around a bit, by the way. About that Kabuto kid."
Pausing in tearing off a piece of our shared cinnamon and sugar pretzel, I blinked up at him for a long second. "Huh?"
"Just some kids, a few from the orphanage and one of my third cousins who was in his class last year."
Oh...Shisui had been doing digging. For our investigation. I coughed against the lump in my throat. "A-and what did they say?"
Shisui tore off almost half of the sweetened bread and ate it in one go. I was almost impressed except for the fact that I knew he could eat an entire one in one mouthful too. "He's weird. Like...really, really weird."
Unfortunately, as much as part of me would love to take anything at solid proof of his dodginess, I knew that didn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Especially in this crazy place.
"Is that all?" Unless we're talking Tom Riddle, Mr-I-hang-animals-and-mentally-torture-my-fellow-children, I was holding the sceptical line.
This wasn't Stranger Things.
"He got picked on pretty bad at the Orphanage so he started wandering off, more and more."
"Meeting someone? Oooooh," I forced myself to coo as though the thought was entertaining, "maybe he was training to be stronger?"
Shisui popped that balloon with a rueful scoff. "Nope, no physical improvement." I pursed my lips, like I'd bitten into lemon (I had, t'was life) and the older boy correctly read my own skepticism. "In general, I mean. Not that he was hiding anything in class, but his overall form and health hasn't seemed to fluctuate."
"Where did you get that information?" Health seemed a little more than just 'asking around'.
"Akane-sama," Shisui promptly replied.
My next gulp of tea went the wrong way. "Akane!" I spluttered.
"She's a healer, remember?" He gently prompted, as if I could ever forget.
A stream of nonsense escaped my mouth as I tried to compute that I'd had dinner with Akane the previous night and she'd not said a damn thing about Shisui or Kabuto. I knew she was a private healer but I'd never realised that included helping cover nursing at the Orphanage…
Shisui snickered around the rim of his drink but I ignored it, feeling myself soften at the sight of his twin dimples.
"What did she say?" My voice was unconsciously soft and Shisui's dark eyes snapped to mine before he'd even put his cup back down. They were wide and I couldn't quite read them... had the Elder said something?
"Shisui?" I prompted when he failed to respond, eyes still boring into mine.
That snapped him out though and another faint blush stained the slope of his cheeks and my eyebrows arched. He blushed so easy! Maybe that was a curse of being so damn pale…
"R-right, well," he coughed. "I went to go see her yesterday afternoon-" my eyebrow twitched at the confirmation that she'd even seen him just before me, "-and I got right to it, because you know how she hates when people beat around the bush. Well, first she said that medical health was extremely private and then spent ten minutes scolding my 'thoughtless nosiness' - her words, not mine - but when I mentioned you and Itachi, she got all thoughtful and told me to sit down whilst she watered her window boxes." We shared a look, Akane's red roses a staple outside every window. I was half convinced I'd wouldn't know which house was hers without them. "She finally said that she couldn't reveal anything but none of the children had experienced a spike of fitness and their chakra systems weren't irregular."
I breathed out, slow and deep. Part of me was appalled that getting information was so easy - confidentiality was a loose concept if you weren't a ninja etc. And the only reason orphans had rudimentary healthcare was because they didn't have parents - but I couldn't deny that even that smidgen of information was useful. Did that mean that...Kabuto was innocent?
Ooooooooooh, I'd been mean to him, shit shit shit-
Bad thing about disliking characters? I didn't know shit about them.
Maybe...maybe I could help him? One less psycho in this shit show was always good in my book.
I sat up straight. "I'm gonna make him a cake."
Shisui, at this point, was probably developing whiplash. "Er...what?"
I was already hopping down from my stool, little red shoes slapping against the wooden floor and I quickly gathered up my empty bento and our rubbish (my break was most definitely up by now), twisting around the counter and dumping the lot. Well, except the bento; it was yellow with bunnies, so there was no way I was getting rid of that.
"Most kids like chocolate, right?"
Mikoto, to whom the question was aimed at, hummed in confirmation, spooning hand-whipped cream onto a mug of hot cocoa. "From my experience, yes, Kiharu-chan."
Shisui was still mentally scrambling to catch up. "Where the hell did this come from-!?"
I ducked to pull a bag of rose tea from the cupboard, cracking open the empty jar and pouring the dried leaves in. "Listen, Shisui, the kid might smell weird and disappear into the woods, but he's Itachi-kun's teammate so, before I try and get him arrested, I should probably get to know him first. Ergo, cake."
"You know baking isn't a solution to every problem, right?"
I shot him a flat look, unsure myself if I meant 'I'm not stupid, of course I know' or if I was asking him for proof. Regardless, the Jounin's mouth snapped shut. Huh.
"Well," he huffed a moment later, shuffling his stool closer and nodding when an Officer stepped up to order again. "It hardly worked with Itachi."
I clicked my tongue. We were both still salty about that, for slightly different reasons.
"I'll admit I didn't use every weapon in my arsenal there-" only because the little punk was too good at avoiding me "-but this time he won't escape so easy."
"Oh?"
I poured a ladle of batter into the waffle pan. "This time I won't be going in by myself."
….
Ensui was working late, way past his official hours. However, he'd quickly learned that was just how real jobs worked. They say '9-5' but they mean '7-9'. It was the same with his old teammate, Yuko-chan, who was apprenticing at the Hospital. The common trend didn't mean it didn't fucking suck though.
Kami knew how long Shishou and Kiharu really spent at the stall, how late his Uncle always got in from his own office. Even his own folks...
Regardless, he was one of the last ones left, wrapping up his report on another case of defacement of property. His desk lamp washed the area around him in a sleepy yellow light that did not help his concentration at all, dim like a candle. Detective Osamu was still in his office, the light visible through the misty privacy window that ran along the length of the wall. With the light on beside him, only his hunched silhouette was clear. Then, on the other side of the hall, Ryuu was stamping files...a miracle considering his distaste for doing his own paperwork and staying late.
His coffee was cold and his eyes were inching but Ensui merely sighed, picking up his pen again and trying to remember the proper filing protocol. The record keeper said it was initial complaint, the crime and then witnesses, rig-
The door slammed open with a 'bang'.
Head jerking up, Ensui had his shadows lashing out before his brain caught up with what he was seeing.
The woman, lips beaten and split, shirt torn, let out a low, broken noise before collapsing against the nearest desk.
"Miss!" Ryuu was beside her in an instant, leaping clear over the hall in a chakra-powered jump and carefully approaching the wounded civilian. Ensui, for his part, was only a second behind him, dark eyes roving over the dimly lit atrium, the closed receptionist's desk, the empty street outside. Detective Osamu-senpai's office door opened with a 'snap'.
"Wha- bring her further inside, now!"
The woman started sobbing and Ryuu slipped an arm around her waist when her legs shook. Ensui didn't miss how she flinched from his touch and something cold and furious curled in his gut. Oh but he knew that look.
"I'll check the street." He barely recognized his own voice and didn't wait for confirmation before he slipped out onto the steps, neatly avoiding the streetlamps and ducking into the darkest shadows.
Nothing, nothing, made him angrier than abuse and now, somewhere out here, a fucking low life was escaping after trying to, no doubt, rape that poor girl. She looked hardly any older than him and, from the gentle wave of her dark hair, he couldn't help but imagine his cousins, Kiharu or Hana or his friends in the same position.
The shadow that concealed him writhed.
Unfortunately, after a lightning fast but calculatingly throughout sweep of the neighborhood, he found no-one. Fuck.
When he returned to the Station, the young woman was sat in Osamu-senpai's office (now with all the lights on) with an ice pack for her face, a cup of tea and wearing a spare Constable's shirt. It only made her look all the younger. Rikari-san, the security Officer on night shift downstairs, was also sat beside her and Ensui was fiercely glad that one of their few female Officers was in tonight - being surrounded by men would hardly be much of a comfort, he couldn't imagine.
She was answering the Detective's soft inquiries in a shaky whisper when Ensui came in, shutting the door behind him and shaking his head grimly at Ryuu. The younger Uchiha was sat against the far wall, trying not to loom, and Ensui joined him wordlessly.
"...he- he was wearing a dark shirt, like, like a red or brown colour... His sandals didn't look like a Shinobi's either."
Osamu sighed through his nose, a single lock of hair falling to brush his under-eye from where it had slipped from the tiny tail at his nape. "Thank you, Masaru-san. Was there anything...strange about him? Maybe his voice or the way he walked?" The woman, Masaru, shuddered as she slowly shook her head and Ensui's eyes caught how her fingers clutched white around Rikari's. "Maybe a smell?"
The slow shaking paused and, Ensui's eyes fixed curiously on the back of her head, the woman seemed to pause in concentration. "H-he smelled...wrong, musky but not l-like dirt or stale. It was...sweet but," the next words caught in her throat as Rikari rubbed a warm hand up her arm. Ryuu crossed his own. "It was like when someone's sick...y-you can smell it in t-the air?"
Osamu-senpai's back eyes flicked up to meet Ensui's over her shoulder.
Get the files.
His lips barely moved but Ensui knew he hadn't misunderstood. Fugaku-sama told him about the cases.
Slowly, hyper aware of moving too fast and terrifying the woman who had been strong enough to escape her attacker and immediately recount the tale to a dark Station of (mainly) men, Ensui rose from his seat. Beside him, Ryuu followed half a second later.
"I have the clearance," was the only explanation offered once they were back in the corridor, striding down towards the archives shoulder to shoulder. Ensui didn't voice that he had the same level of access too...they both knew it would take him longer to find it. Even in a crisis, he was still treated shit. Ryuu had just never bothered with it before.
The records were empty, lights turned low as was custom at this time of night, and, with Rikari upstairs, only Akihito-san was still at the desk. When the duo came through the double doors, he was filing the last of the documents sent down from the day's work.
His eyes, as always, slid over Ensui like he couldn't even see him. "Ryuu-san, what do you need?"
"The files reserved under 000534."
That was Ensui's private storage locker. They'd figured that, considering Ensui's position, people were less likely to snoop through his under the idea he wouldn't be trusted with files so delicate. Most Officers used their names to file; Ensui was one of the few, like the higher up Detectives and Inspectors, to use his serial number.
(That's not to say he didn't have another under his name, but the only things kept in it were records of his own involvement in cases. Actual files, the originals especially, were supposed to be filed in the actual archives. Fugaku had special circumstances listed for the Nara. Shikaku-oji had been pleased.)
Akihito didn't even blink, lifting up the desk access and allowing the two of them to slip through before dropping it back and opening the doors behind him. Beyond was a long corridor, lined with lockers upon lockers of safety deposit boxes and, further down, rooms to open them without prying eyes.
Ensui kept his key around his neck, pressed into wax inside a chakra-secured locket. Some people would call him overly paranoid. Ensui just knew he was smart enough not to be so careless.
Grabbing the files and rushing to a private room, Ensui waited until he was certain that Akihito was back at his post before he allowed and equally-agitated Ryuu to tug them from his arms.
"This all of them?"
"Yeah. Some robberies but a good number of assaults too. More than a few rapes…and half a dozen disappearances." The words tasted foul in his mouth, like bitter blood.
Ryuu, true to character, snorted derisively. "Would have thought traffickers were fucking better than this."
Ensui's grip on the case file of a 18-year-old's disappearance turned white. "Traffickers?"
The Uchiha glanced up, dark eyes glinting like oil. "Bunch of pretty girls being sexually assaulted or kidnapped? You bet this is fucking systematic."
"And you didn't say anything?"
Ryuu leaned back, mouth twisted down like he smelled something foul. "It is hardly my problem if you cannot-"
Ensui didn't know what made him do it.
Actually. That was a lie.
He knew exactly what made him do it. Frustration, exhaustion, months of sniping and bickering with the only other person he could work with. And, judging by how Ryuu instantly responded, the other Officer felt exactly the same way.
Ensui's fist made the most satisfying crack as it smashed against the other man's stupid, delicate jawline.
"You arrogant fucking pig! You're assigned this case to help me! I'm your superior and I'm privy to details you are not! Negligence-"
Ryuu swung back at him and all conversation screeched to a halt as they concentrated on beating the shit out of each other.
When Ensui managed to throw the other Officer against the wall, Ryuu started swearing up a storm.
"You think I'm petty enough to keep secrets on purpose! You don't even share information with me, how am I supposed to know what you don't! Fucking Nara-"
They twisted again, Ryuu's knee slamming into Ensui's thigh and deadening the nerves. The Uchiha pressed his advantage when the Nara's leg threatened to buckle. But Ensui wasn't done yet either.
"You're one to talk! Arrogant and impossible to work with, how am I supposed to even discuss anything with you when you don't bloody listen?! You think that, just because I'm a Nara and younger, I don't deserve to be here?!"
Ryuu's pale face twisted, bloody knuckles raised to strike again before Ensui wrapped his hands around the thin wrists, his darker skin a jarring contrast."Yo-"
"This isn't about me! This is about them!"
The two Sergeants pushed away from each other. Gulping in heaving breaths, bleeding and bruised and still simmering with anger. Ryuu looked murderous. Ensui wanted to strangle him in frustration.
Slowly, finger shaking in carefully leashed rage, Ensui stabbed a finger at the files still sat on the tabletop. "It's about them. Those girls and their families and the scumbags who hurt them. Now, all of those files have been altered in some way and that means we have a snake in our nest. Someone with full access is covering this up without drawing attention and it's only by pure luck that we even know. Now, I hate you."
Ryuu sneered. "The feeling is mutual."
The Nara's teeth creaked, gritted against another sarcastic barb. "I hate you but-" he leveled a warning glance when Ryuu made to speak up, "- but, we need to work together. It's just us and senpai-" Ensui only narrowed his eyes when Ryuu mockingly mouthed the title, clearly disgusted at his obvious respect. And he did respect Osamu. He was a good man and a good Detective. "And the Chief. That's it."
Ensui didn't mention Mikoto-hime or his Uncle. Even Fugaku-sama didn't know about that.
"Deal?"
The Uchiha glowered and, in the harsh white lights and against the rapid bruising of his split lip, his skin was like chalk. "...Fine."
Ensui took it.
"So...trafficking."
Ryuu snorted but nodded, gingerly touching long fingers to his sore mouth. "Heh. Yeah. See," he moved back towards the files, Ensui slowly following, and flicked through until he found one of the petty theft ones. "These are all unsolved but pretty different from the others altered. Might be connected but, more likely, trying to throw us off the scent."
"Surely they'd be more thorough than that?"
"Criminals like this are often civilians looking to make a lot of money without working too hard. They don't go to school like us, they don't get trained like us. They learn on the job."
Ensui scowled. "I get the point."
They were quiet for a long moment.
"Do you think...it's the same people as the man tonight?"
Ryuu didn't look up to meet Ensui's gaze, dark eyes fixed on the missing persons photo of a young girl, sixteen years old and missing for eight months.
"Yeah," his voice was subdued. "Yeah, I do."
…..
The next day, Ensui woke up at lunchtime to the ferocious growl of his stomach and the throbbing of bruises in time with his pulse.
"Urgh, fuck."
When he dragged himself into the shower, the splotchy purple trailing from shoulder to hip assured him that, for all his prissy assholeness, Ryuu knew how to pack a punch. He had some bruise salve but… well, he was tired. Why not go and get it treated? At least then he'd only be dealing with a run-down body instead of a beaten one on top of that.
Plus, Masaru-san had been checked into the hospital in the early hours of the morning and Rikari-san probably needed her post relieved-
At the very least, he could check on her for a minute or two.
Hair in a wet bun and sans makeup, Ensui grabbed a banana before heading out towards the hospital, stopping off at Nekki's for a pretzel-to-go and skillfully ignoring Kiharu's wide-eyed demands for an explanation on the state of him. He wasn't due in today, Ryuu and him dismissed by a pissed off Osamu to "get yourselves fucking sorted." Ensui hadn't slept a solid six hours in weeks. He had no complaints.
He did, however, get more than a few raised brows when he entered the Hospital reception. The Nara told himself it was just the lack of eyeliner and not the black eye that had negated the possibility of it.
"Smokey eyeshadow tends to be on both lids, Ensui-kun," a friendly voice tittered. The brunette ignored it, bowing politely instead and straightening with a slight smile for his old Genin teammate. Against his will, the memory of the last time he'd sought her out rose in his mind and he repressed a shudder (her lip gloss had been disgusting but, well, he had nabbed the files for Shishou).
"Yuko-chan, it's been a while." And immediately grimaced at the accidental reminder. Unfortunately, the blonde perked up.
"Yes, it has! Finally come to take me for lunch, have you? Well, we'll have to see about that bruise first."
"Ah," the Nara coughed into his fist, shooting a pointed look at the older healer behind the desk. Who was, actually, watching things unfold with barefaced amusement. How dare. "I have an appointment, actually. With another Healer."
Yuko visibly wilted and Ensui sternly reminded himself that pity dates were Bastard things to get roped into. The blonde was pretty enough and friendly enough to get her own date if she wanted one. And Ensui had made it pretty clear he wasn't interested.
(Oh why did she have to fucking kiss him last time?! He'd just wanted the file! Not a steamy make-out!)
…..
Mikoto, no doubt eavesdropping the other day, insisted that I leave at three instead of five on Wednesday.
It was as clear as crystal that she wanted me and Itachi to make up. ASAP.
I could almost hear her mind go 'one friendship good, one to go!' and, honestly, my fondness for her was the only reason I went along with it.
I wasn't sure why she'd insisted on today, maybe it was because Shisui had arrived only half an hour beforehand, but the Matriarch had untied my apron and handed me my coat before I could do much more than gawk at her.
"Off you go, see you tomorrow morning, you two!"
Shisui, eagerly waiting by the door, was just as keen. Suspiciously keen but that was definitely not a influencing factor, thanks.
When Mikoto pressed one of the spare cheesecakes, matcha, into my arms, I knew this was planned against me.
Without ceremony, I was then shoved out of my own damn shop.
Now, the great thing about Spring, despite its general sogginess as the snow melted, was the return of warm sunlight. Being blinded by the sun glinting off snowbanks was all well and good on a Christmas card but I didn't appreciate needing sunglasses midwinter. Warmth and greenery were much more preferable, call me a cat or whatever.
Itachi, Shisui insisted as we made our way down through the merchant's sector, was training in one of the closer fields today. And, at three, they were probably wrapping things up.
Butterflies squirmed in my stomach but I told myself I had a grip. They were just kids (-I was just a kid-) and they couldn't hurt me (-they most definitely could-) and I didn't have any grounds to be nervous (-I really, really did have the right-)!
"Itachi-chan!" Shisui suddenly called out and I abruptly realised I'd monged out the entire way here. By the looks of it, we were at the perimeters of one of the training grounds closest to the village, probably number One or Two. Actually….fuck, this was the one where the boys almost broke my bloody nose!
My eyes scanned the treeline before picking out a patch of flattened earth right beside an old oak. There. God, those boys could be arseholes.
My reminiscing had me miss the approach of the Genin team until they were only a dozen or so feet away and I found myself looking to the sensei first, out of sheer curiosity for the figure assigned to teach both Kabuto and Itachi. I knew Fugaku hadn't exactly been a happy bunny but-
My eyes met pearlescent lilac before blowing wide.
Hyuuga. That's...that's a Hyuuga.
It sounded ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, but I'd never actually met a Hyuuga face to face. Oh, I knew that Raven had been one and I'd seen a few in the market place too but...their Compound was far from my usual jaunts and they didn't exactly...mingle.
And they certainly didn't go into Nekki's.
A throat was cleared politely, the vaguely long-suffering expression on the Hyuuga's face letting me know that my reaction was probably annoyingly common for a civilian.
Well. You know I hate to be lumped with a crowd.
"What shampoo do you use, Hyuuga-san?"
Itachi slowly closed his eyes, like he was warding off a headache.
The Jounin-sensei was still for a long moment, almost-non-existent eyebrows rising in a judgemental arch. "It's a herbal remedy."
Smiling naturally, my shoulders shrugged in a smooth, rolling motion. Very blasé, I was proud. "That's a shame. Curls are such a handful." I dipped into a shallow bow. "Dazai Kiharu, a pleasure to meet you."
A minute head tilt. "Hyuuga Hoheto, Dazai-san."
Mikoto had mentioned that the Sandaime had had a hand in Itachi's placement but I hadn't quite realised that that meant placing the Uchiha Heir under the guidance of one of the, apparently, newer Jounins from a rival Clan.
No wonder the Officers on the curb had felt particularly gossipy the past few weeks.
The Hyuuga stayed to themselves. Ensui had admitted to having only interacted with them a few times, Shisui even less so as an Uchiha. They were one of the largest Clans and, easily intimidating the council, they could afford to be so cold and strict. I certainly knew Ino had never met Hinata at the playground.
However, Hoheto seemed to be rather polite, if stiff and blank faced when he returned Shisui's own greeting. The team, Kabuto and Itachi and Fusae-chan, were just about to break for their cool down, as Shisui and Mikoto had no doubt plotted, so Itachi really had no choice but to stick around and bear with me.
Unfortunately for Itachi's ego and Shisui's hopes, the Heir wasn't my intended target.
"It's nice to see you again, Fusae-chan," I smiled, hyper aware of all the botched female friendships I'd had when I was younger.
The Kunoichi's short and sweet, yet professional, blonde pixie cut was, I hoped, a good sign. Maturity was a hurdle for me and if she was taking things seriously, I was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Oh, just watch this backfire, ha!
Her eyes, yellowy green, brightened however at the sight of me. "You too, Dazai-san. Why are you at our training though? Did Itachi-kun-?"
"Ah," I easily plonked myself down on the grass beside her, in the space she patted and ignored how Shisui was trying to get Itachi to sit on my other side. "No, but I had cake and Shisui thought it would be nice to share it with his cousin's teammates. Mikoto-hime, his Kaa-san - Itachi's, that is - suggested it too, so why not?"
"Oh!" Something seemed to click for the younger girl, grassy eyes popping wide as she perked up. "You're the baker!"
The two of us must've looked a little silly because I perked right on up too, preening just a little from the recognition. "That's me! You know it?"
Shisui coughed beside me, loudly.
"Yes! Otou-san bought me a tart for my birthday!"
Shisui coughed again, so obviously fake that I was almost embarrassed. Fusae's eyes flicked, uncertain, over my shoulder and I was forced to turn, slapping a hand between his fake-hunched shoulders a touch too hard.
"Okay there, Shisui-kun?"
"Fine." He choked.
"Good. So, Fusae-chan! How are you finding being a Genin so far?"
Honestly...I kinda liked her. She was cute and happy - a sunflower between Gothic-phase Itachi and Creepy possibly-not-a-snake Boy - and I almost felt bad for her. Living life with two boys could be annoying as hell, I would know. Unfortunately, unlike me, Fusae didn't pick said-boys of her own free will like I had.
"It's...good, thank you." Hmm, maybe it's was a little unfair to put her on the spot with her sensei and teammates right there.
Apologetically, I offered her a slice of cheesecake.
Shisui heaved another bad (bad as in what bad acting) cough and I rolled my chin around to shoot the teen a disbelieving look.
He spluttered pathetically a few more times, to very poor effect.
Oh, fineeeeeeee.
"Itachi-kun!" I smiled, almost like a challenge at the raven-haired boy on Shisui's other side. Obediently, the Genin in question glanced over with all due politeness. Wow, Huh? Never thought I'd actually want to cat-fight with anyone. If he looks at me one more time with those bland eyes-
"Yes, Kiharu-san?"
"How are you liking your new team?"
"We'll do...well together."
"Good," My smile even felt plastic. What can I say, I'm bitter™. "I'm glad."
Itachi made exactly zero moves to continue our exchange and I made sure Shisui saw the hurt expression that flitted across my face. Okay, maybe this was petty but why was I getting so much grief for not trying when Itachi was the one being rude! He bloody well started it!
Time for the low blows. "We're having dinner with Ensui on Friday, you should come?"
Abruptly, Itachi's flat gaze shifted, piercing and bright and I half expected his Sharingan to swirl to life. Well...that was a wild card.
His beef, or closeness or whatever, with Ensui had to be The Most Mysterious Thing going on right now.
"Right-o!" Shisui suddenly sat forward, breaking our stare off and beaming at a very taken aback Kabuto. "Have you tried Kiharu-chan's cheesecake, Kabuto-kun? It's really good!"
"Er-"
"Yo!" A familiar voice called to the left.
Things were getting a little crowded. Okay, there was no fucking way this was by accident….apparently everyone had ulterior motives today!
"Ensui!" I beamed, feeling rather like a certain shark from Pixar. "Fancy seeing you here~"
The older guy waved me off, flapping a dainty hand which was promptly stuffed back into his pocket. "I was in late, so I have the day off. Is this a picnic?"
"Something...like that," Hoheto-san finally spoke up.
"Itachi, a moment?"
My jaw dropped.
What in the hell? "Shisui!" I hissed, smiling at the guilty Jounin. "What?!"
Kabuto's pale grey brows were at risk of disappearing into his hairline and Fusae was frowning suspiciously at Ensui's back, green eyes lingering on the Police badge on his bicep.
Not now, Kiharu! Shisui's eyes yelled, stabbing his wooden takeaway fork into the final bite of his slice with unnecessary force.
Oh, but I knew this old game, we'd been playing it since last summer. Where 'later' meant 'never' and they kept their stupid, boys-club secrets.
"Kabuto-san! Do you happen to know Iruka-kun?"
The gray-haired boy nodded politely, accepting the slice that Shisui had failed to follow his offer through with. "He lives with one of the Sandaime's Guards now."
Okay, I could totally do this. Genma was an easy subject and his ducklings weren't much of a stretch either. "He's on a C Rank right now, his longest yet."
Nodding, I noticed how the two Genin seemed to relax again, the tension draining away as I chattered about all the D Ranks Izumo and Kotetsu had had to complete, including helping with building Nekki's.
Hoheto never contributed again and neither really did Shisui but, somehow, I felt they were listening to Itachi and Ensui more than our own harmless conversation.
Mentally, I promised myself that I'd make my bluff of dinner with Ensui a reality. I wanted answers.
…
The rest of the week was a little bit strange, everyone rather distracted but I kind of put it down to business at work. Kami knows I was up to my neck in it.
Ensui, exhausted (as was his new constant), had rocked up to mine for dinner with Genma (fresh back from Kiri with naught but a million complaints about the weather) and the boys (sans Iruka, who was two weeks gone for his longest C Rank yet) and the added company ensured he was safe from my wrath. I was rather pissed at that.
So, as I usually did when meddling fucked with my zen, I went to Hana.
The younger girl was the personification of common sense, something I knew myself to be lacking more and more as time passed. Honestly, she was a blessing on this earth and I marvelled that she'd never been much more than an empty face in canon.
Maybe I should've been more proactive towards the issue with Itachi, the issue of Kabuto, the issue of...everything.
But I was pretty much done with planting myself in the middle of shitty situations, toxic thoughts that my pre-teen brain was much too young to cope with. It wasn't healthy, living like this, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this up. Call it bullshit self-care or whatever but I just needed to breathe. Life was so… so hectic.
And I was drained...so the cake would have to be enough...for now.
"Ohayo!" I called on Friday morning (my day off), knocking on the door as though any Inuzuka worth their nose hadn't sensed me before I'd even reached the gate.
"Intrude, brat!"
Tsume's call had me pushing open the front door, not pausing to take off my shoes because, a) I wasn't planning on lingering if Hana was out somewhere and, b) they weren't a family who did that sort of thing. The Clan Head was seated in the kitchen, long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle as she wolfed (ha) down a messy wrap of god-knows-what.
"Is Hana in?" I asked, patting a hand over my windswept hair whilst Tsume, her own locks as wild as usual, watched in amusement.
"Nah, she's helping at the clinic. Another litter came in last night and it's her job to wash 'em."
I tried not to look that deflated. As a kid (er, when I was a little younger), I'd been allowed to help out a bit with the newborn puppies but, as I'd grown older and moved out of that harmless childhood stage, I knew that it was a bit symbolic. Nothing serious that I had undermined or intruded upon, but I wasn't going to shove in on the Heiress's chance to bond with new members of the wider pack.
"Oh, alright." I rubbed the lipsalve between my lips. "Tell her I came around then?"
Tsume smiled, the corner of her purple-painted lips quirking up at one side to reveal a single, sharp canine. "Sure thing, brat. See you later."
"Later!"
Back out on the porch, I puffed out my cheeks, blindly looking over the Compound with hands in pockets. Fuck, well, what now?
A sharp yell of laughter, accompanied by shrill yapping, sounded as soon as I'd finished the thought.
Kiba and Akamaru were rolling around just around the far corner of the house, coats scuffed with dirt from the rain-dampened grass and panting happily.
"Yo!" I called, smirking when Aka-chibi immediately came scampering over, stooping to scoop the puppy up onto my hip.
"Hana's not here," Kiba greeted me, standing up and meandering over, really kinda similar to his partner, with a curious expression.
"I know," I shrugged, scrunching up my nose as Akamaru started lapping at my chin. "But then I heard this incredible snarling and I thought there must've been a pack of wolves around here!"
The kid's chest clearly puffed up with pride. "That's just me and Akamaru, see!"
The laugh that bubbled in my chest was free and genuine. God, but I couldn't wait until Kiba was all grown up. I wasn't gonna let him forget what a cute kid he'd been. "So I see! You two not going to see the litter?"
A mullish expression immediately pulled at Kiba's lower lip, jutting out with a puppish whine. "Not 'llowed. It's Hana's job."
I paused for a long second, setting down the white dog when he started wiggling and taking in how Kiba immediately plopped the smaller dog into his hood.
"Wanna go to the park, Koinu?"
Kiba's eyes jerked up to meet mine.
"How about we have a good ol' cats vs dogs race, ay? First to the Main park?"
The smile that split his face, eager and raring to go, had brightened the younger boy before I was even finished. He trotted up to stand beside me, arms swinging eagerly and cheeks stretched in an excited baring of his sharp canines, as through I was gonna run off any second. Knowing some stuff from Hana, I grinned wide too, teeth glinting in the sunlight. It wasn't the same for felines but, well, I knew some stuff from Hitoshi.
"Ask your Kaa-san, ay!"
And he was off, up the steps like a shot.
I blinked in bemusement, barely even managing to stroll back to the porch before he came raring outside again, this time with Akamaru at his heels.
I pulled my hands from my pockets, zipping up them up so my keys didn't go flying.
"To the Main park, yeah? No detours and don't push people."
Kiba nodded hurriedly, jumping the steps with his little legs to stand beside me and crouching ready.
"On your marks-!" He snarled playfully.
"Get set!" I grinned.
"Go!"
And we were off!
Fuck! I may have been older and taller and Hitoshi may have kept me from going all Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but Kiba was a ninja kid and I knew Tsume had already started on their endurance.
So, basically, I ended up being the one scrambling to catch up.
"Score!" Kiba howled, skidding on the gravel and twisting to shoot my panting self a look of insufferable triumph.
Hands on knees, I only wheezed in reply.
The park wasn't busy, the overcast clouds that seemed to threaten rain having kept a lot of families home, but there were still more than enough kids to witness my fall from grace. And I wasn't so old that some couldn't be classed as my peers. Fucker.
Well. I wouldn't call myself terribly dignified but that wasn't fucking on.
"I...let you...win…"
Maybe I would've been somewhat convincing if I wasn't wheezing like I'd run a mile. Oh wait-
Kiba certainly didn't look terribly impressed, folding his little arms in that puffy coat and staring at me. The single canine poking out of his lip ruined any kind of judgy look.
"You look dead, Kiharu."
The curve of my spine felt sticky under my layers as I glared, only half playful.
A flash of blonde, like a sunflower against the overcast sky, caught the corner of my eye and I immediately straightened, fatigue comically forgotten as I twisted towards the sunny blonde alone on the swings.
"Naru-chan!"
Kiba, curious, twisted to see who I was calling out to, the jinchuuriki in question (what other one was there, ha!) now trotting over with that constant, careful expression. I mean, he was smiling, but his blue eyes were guarded.
As always, I told myself that he'd been chewed up and spat out by most civilians. It was okay that he didn't fully trust me, even after so long. Hurts were harder to overcome than that. And I wasn't gonna be a selfish asshole and get insulted over it.
Time and constancy were my allies here.
And then I saw the instant Naturo's scent reached my friend's little brother, his nose wrinkling and eyes confused.
I knew the feeling.
Naruto stank of chakra, an almost electric scent that had my hair rising. The effect was barely anything now, my own system well used to the amount he was leaking, but Kiba had to have been unnerved.
Add in the musk of predator and fox and, well...
Hitoshi had always smelled of an apex predator, a twang that dad carried too and I'd been told I'd developed after signing the contract. I was used to it. But, the thing is, that for all their fierceness and bite, Inuzuka weren't quite as close to the top of the food chain as a panther...or a bijuu.
"Kiba," I clamped a hand on his shoulder, pulling him half a step into my side so that my own scent would hopefully flood his much keener senses. "This is Naruto, my imouto's best friend."
I had faith in the brat, though. He'd befriended Naruto in Canon, without any interference whatsoever.
"Is that a dog?"
Well...never let it be said that Naruto didn't have his priorities in order.
"Yep!" I smirked, pushing Kiba closer a step and plucking Akamaru from the space between us. I was so proud of the little guy when he didn't so much as fuss.
Have I mentioned before that my favourite character was the dog?
It actually took me just wondering out loud who was best on the climbing frame for the boys to actively hit it off, running away with a kind of competitive camaraderie that I didn't think was going to get out of hand. And, if it did, Hana would bonk both of their heads!
Whilst the boys got better acquainted, I cast an eye around the playground but, as expected, no sign of ANBU.
Trying not to feel put out as the list of unsolvable frustrations piled up, I trotted over to the boys.
…..
The next day didn't include any dog petting so, understandably, wasn't an improvement on my long week.
Honestly, at this rate, I think I'd take Hitoshi almost crushing me in our sleep than going without fluffy comfort. Literally. Unfortunately, FuFu was reportedly growing bigger by the day and Hitoshi was determined to slot himself into her life as much as possible so that, when the time came for me to meet her, I wasn't at risk of kitty chow.
I was forced to settle for duck-stuffed coconut buns. Well, it wasn't much of a trial, but anyway.
Talking business, dry as sand, was.
"Do you think it's feasible?"
Across the dining room table, reading specs low on her nose, Kaiya-hime sighed. Spread out between us were heaps of documents, most of them ours, some of them hers.
Orange-shadowed eyes glanced up to meet mine, bisected by the gold frames of her glasses. "As things stand now? Yes."
Mikoto let out a quiet, happy breath beside me.
"Unfortunately, there isn't a great number of lots in locations worth the investment. You'd have to really convince the owners to sell and the live will rose accordingly. On top of that, you'd need a slightly different focus, so that your customers aren't split instead of doubled. Also," the Akimichi picked up another sheath of papers, flicking through with clinical efficiency, "you need more hands before anything. Not only will you be too busy with the expansion to man the stall everyday, but you need staff to be ready to take over as soon as construction is complete."
"Oh." I opened my mouth, lips sticky from the duck.
Mikoto glanced at me, knowingly, as Kaiya waited.
"Ah…"
"Stop stalling and say it," Kaiya barked.
I don't want employees.
"I'm not sure anyone will want to-"
'Slap!' A pile of forms, about half the thickness of my pinkie, landed against the table, skidding slightly from the momentum.
"All the people who have expressed interest in working at my restaurants. For most, a food stall isn't much of a difference to matter."
Bugger.
"Why don't you want people?" Kaiya held up her hand when I moved to deny it. "No lies, I see your face. And don't tell me it's that silly independence nonsense again."
My lids dropped to conceal the irritated rolling of my eyes. Gahhhh.
Mikoto had my back very soundly in most things. Especially business.
Unfortunately, she also seemed to have developed her own loophole in her own bloody policy. As in, snaking me when she thought I was being self destructive.
"I believe Kiharu-chan is concerned about the safety of her recipes. They are unique and any kind of betrayal could potentially ruin us. Most of Kiharu-chan's workload is the baking and the recipes themselves; if her menial hours are cut back, we will have to hire someone to handle those recipes."
I slurped my tea, loudly.
Which is how we found ourselves here, at Nekki's, two days later.
"Good morning!" A young girl ducked inside, no older than seventeen with a pretty light brunette bob. Just seeing the shine on her pin-straight hair had my hands twitching to fix the windswept mess of my own.
"Good morning," I swallowed, feeling ridiculous beside the stool.
I felt even worse when she dipped into a respectful bow like, geez, I'm a midgit kid. Way to make me feel even younger.
Gin stabbed a sharp, manicured nail into the curve of my spine and I internally wondered why I'd even asked the two apprentices to help.
"Please take a seat. Tea?"
Ah. That's why.
Hoshiko smiled gently, lifting the teapot to illustrate her point. We weren't standing on any kind of ceremony here but it was nice that one of us wasn't incompetent.
Honestly, Gin was here because, a) she'd basically invited herself when I asked Hoshiko-senpai and, b) she wouldn't let me procrastinate the hard decisions. Like telling someone 'no'.
I hated that part. God fucking forbid I have to fire someone.
Thankfully, the girls proved savvy and helpful and I'd sounded out five girls - three under twenty, one just about to turn the big 2-1 and another with her pregnancy just starting to show - before it got too late.
Tomorrow, Mikoto and I would start seeing how they were with food.
I wasn't looking forward to it.
And I was right not to.
For a girl who'd kinda wanted to be a teacher before, it turned out that I'm a shockingly shit one!
"Oh! Sorry, I should've said to take it off the heat!"
"-icing sugar, I meant icing sugar-"
"Maybe," Mikoto gently pulled me aside an hour and a half in, "I should do the training whilst you focus on planning the next few steps?"
I wilted like a posey in the bloody Sahara.
"I cook with the kids just fine!"
Mikoto sighed, looking Very Motherly and I automatically backpedaled a little on instinct, shying away. She soldiered on anyway. "That's because they're helping you with simple things, like passing and mixing...it's very different from taking a step back and allowing people to make their own mistakes and learn without interference. And, some things we may find obvious after so long, are difficult for those who have never used them or done them before. Have patience, Kiharu-chan...it will all fall into place."
I breathed in deep...and exhaled slowly.
Yeah...yeah, I could do that.
The weekend was busy, as usual, but I felt...better. More grounded.
The million thoughts buzzing through my head felt so much more settled than before and I internal marvelled that a few well-spoken words could have such a profound effect.
Shisui was feeling better, his legs almost ready for him to scrap the crutches too, and we were essentially back to normal. He knew something about Itachi and Ensui. He was helping me, the two of us getting to know his cousin's teammates.
He still laughed like I was the funniest person he'd ever met and he wasn't tired of my drama.
Ensui was working late, missing the weekly meal with Shikaku and Yoshino more often than his godmother would like, but he was eating and sleeping and, from what I could guess, that would have to be enough right now. He had a friend in the hospital he'd been visiting but not said anything about. He had some kind of secret with Itachi. He'd had a black eye last week.
He'd come round to dinner and smirked and sniped and we were okay, it was okay.
Dad was stressed and Inoichi-oji looked tired but they still lit up when they saw me come in, especially if Ino was on my hip, and dinner was as warm as always. Sora looked better, her cheeks rosy and the flower shop was doing well.
Ino was a precious constant, happy and fussy and petulant. I wouldn't change her for the world when, on Saturday, I was over for a sleepover and we shared another bath. Hana had been around before dinner, smelling strongly of dog and with blissful satisfaction in her eyes that screamed of how well she'd been handling the latest litter. I made her dog-shaped cookies to celebrate.
On Sunday, Mikoto had the girls (Chiemi, Eiko, Ikue, Kira and Maaya) train with Kaiya-hime's servers at one of the less-hectic restaurants (we couldn't exactly throw them in the deep end and expect them to survive, let alone learn). Not only did this have Nekki's open for business as usual (the past few days had been devoted to sorting out our shit) but it wasn't me running it.
"This is a terrible idea." Nee-chan groaned, hair tied back in the cutest little bun with my red bandana to replace his usual blue one. Beside him, Akane ignored the protests. I was perfectly confident in the Elder, not just because of her Sharingan but she just screamed competency, but Genma...well.
Akane had a point that she did only have the one hand. Genma was, for all intents and purposes, her little helper for the day.
"Agreed!" I beamed, tugging on the way my tiny apron fell on his much longer frame and biting back a snicker when the waist ended up sitting just below his sternum, the skirt of it at the pockets of his blue trousers. Naturally, I'd insisted he wear new stuff. I didn't give a hoot how many times it had been sanitised, I was not having murder clothes in my bakery. "But I have to go business shopping and meet some new suppliers with Yuri-oba and Mikoto-hime is with the fresh mea-uhhh-new hires. Kaiya-hime is overdue so this is how it's gotta be!"
"I'm not being paid," the Tokubetsu insisted.
"You're surprisingly sucky at thumb war," I shrugged like 'what can you do?"
We weren't open yet but Raidou was already sat at the bar, smirking in great amusement.
"Izumo-kun and 'Tetsu-kun promised they'd check in on you," I reminded him, as if they hadn't almost wet themselves when they'd heard.
Genma clicked his tongue, obviously missing the clack of his senbon but hey! No weapons in the stall!
"Right," I checked my invisible watch, sharing a firm nod with Akane. "I need to meet Yuri-oba in ten. See ya!"
I high-fived Ensui as I went passed.
Unlike my usual daywear, I wasn't wearing my uniform. I wasn't even wearing a yukata.
The mandarin-collared white shirt fell to my thighs, crisp and new, held close by the beautifully ornate (almost tapestried) amber and blue shawl Yuri-oba had brought me, an early birthday present for today. My legs were sheathed in simple slate gray leggings but I was wearing dressy red sandals that pinched my toes and my hair was half pulled back by two scarlet chopsticks. That was the only good thing about thick hair: stuff stayed stuck in it.
(Well...it was good except for brushes, dammit!)
I was only meeting some new merchants, looking around the few stalls that owners were open to selling but...I'd seen how Kaiya-hime dressed. Well, the answer was nicely. And I was almost thirteen and I didn't have a handful of Clan Matriarchs watching my back this time.
I was spearheading this thing. And I didn't want to look like I didn't take this so very seriously.
Baking may have been a way to escape being a ninja, a way to preserve a little bit of my old self and the recipes of my old world, my old mother and old grandmother. But it had become more than that.
Nekki's was my life now, my future, and I wanted to keep going.
"Oba-san, thank you for taking today to come with me," I bowed low when I reached the older woman, her grey-blonde hair contrasting wonderfully against her soft blue shift, orange dappled Koi fish hand embroidered along the hems and soft pink shadow on her eyelids.
The seamstress smiled, soft and loving. "You're more than welcome, my dove. Shall we?" She inclinded her head and extended her elbow for into link arms.
I swallowed hard, looping my elbow through hers. "Yes, we shall!"
First stop: The lace makers.
A room full of seamstresses, most wizened and having been perfecting their craft longer than my dad had been alive, was a terrifying thing. Despite my extra memories, I'd felt ever do young, bowjng low in respect and pressing a Victoria sponge into the owner's gnarled hands. Madame Chi, the child of immigrant silk workers who had been born in Fruit Country.
Something about her tiny, hunched figure, wispy white hair carefully pulled back from her neck and face, made me want to cry somehow. Just a bit.
(She'd been beautiful, inside and out, and I'd left almost feeling like I was leaving a holy shrine. The pocket square of lace so fine it appeared like spider's web had me shielding that side of my hip from being bumped for the rest of the day.)
The second stop had been to view the first property, which I immediately ruled out.
There was no way I could open up a food stall beside a fish mongers. There was just absolutely no bloody way.
I tried not to think of the only other property on my list. Ain't no crying in the club-er- the street.
"It was a long shot, you knew that from the start," Yuri-oba pointed out fairly, serene as anything. I tried to channel a bit of her unflappable calm but couldn't quite manage it.
That was when I noticed a certain spikey ponytail moving through the crowd.
"Iruka-kun!" I beamed, genuinely pleased to see him. Oh-ho but that boy had good timing.
A tanned face, even tanner than normal, twisted in my direction so I waved my arm so he knew where to head. When he stepped closer, I noticed the young woman following him.
A pale pink scarf rested over her dark hair, her skin dusky like most people from Kumo (I could guess, considering that's where Iruka's caravan escort had been headed). She wasn't much taller than her young Chuunin guide, curvy in a way that had more than a few eyes lingering despite the large basket strapped across her back, a pigeon-sized bird perched on the rattan lid.
"Ohayo, Kiharu-chan," Iruka smiled, obviously relieved to see a familiar face. "I was just escorting Ikeru-san to the potters sector."
"Pottery?" I parroted, eyebrows jumping upwards. I'd never given much thought to it, in all honesty. Most of my bowls, the nice ones, were presents or heirlooms of Kaa-san's. My cheaper ones were just picked up from the shops.
The woman, Ikeru-san, dipped into a polite bow and I automatically mimicked her. "I sell dyes, a family recipes from before I moved to Kumo. Ikeru Amaya."
"Dazai Kiharu, baker." I replied dumbly.
"Hachimitsu Yuri, seamstress," my grandmother continued.
"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything," I glanced between the Kumo woman, who looked perfectly as ease in the business of the foreign street, and an amicable Iruka. "But I hope your journey was okay?"
"It was alright, if a little hard and trying at times," Iruka replied, apparently at ease enough with Ikeru-san to talk about his mission. "Is Genma-san back yet from Kiri?"
The reminder immediately perked me up again, and I bounced on the balls of my feet in wicked delight. Ikeru-san, dark eyes liquid brown, seemed to enjoy the show we were providing. Iruka, knowing me a little better, narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "What…?"
"He's back, yes, but he's a little...busy~"
"Is he on shift?" Iruka blinked.
I cackled openly at that. "Sure, that's not incorrect. In fact, he should be at Nekki's right now with your bros-" a violent, sudden flush burned Iruka's entire face and Ikeru-san's lips quirked in an amused grin. "-if you want to head right over."
"Er-th-that is, Ikeru-san needs to go to the-"
"What is this 'Nekki's'?" The woman in question asked, filling her head and shifting the leather basket strap that rested across her chest.
"My bakery," I chirped back. "I sell homemade desserts on the Market Street and it's something of a favourite for my regulars, like Iruka-kun's family."
The dye-maker tapped a short finger, stained with navy blue designs, against her chin in mock thought. I decided I liked her immensely. "The journey was long and, as a tourist, local delicacies are a must. If you wouldn't mind, Umino-kun?"
With flustered grace, Iruka aquisted and, smugly, I bid them adieu.
But something made me called out after the pink veil that threatened to disappear into the crush of the crowds. "Ikeru-san!"
Her calm face twisted back towards me, openly curious.
"Can you make edible dyes?!"
Red-stained lips pursed slightly in thought (a man tripped over the curb beside us) before opening to reply, frank as anything. "I have never tried."
My shoulders slumped a little.
"But that doesn't mean I cannot." Dark eyes shone knowingly before she turned away again. "We will discuss this later, Dazai-san!"
"Bye…." I called weakly after her, puffing out my cheeks before turning to meet Yuri's gaze. "She's a bit a of a whirlwind, no?"
"You're not wrong there," my grandmother agreed with gentle amusement. "...Nor do you lack a similar effect, Kiharu-chan."
I flushed hotly.
And we continued on...to disappointment.
"Why the long face, Hime?" Dad tucked a finger under my chin at dinner later, leaning to speak directly in my ear over the hustle and bustle of the meal. I'd shed my shawl, too warm in the house and far too lovely to risk spillages, leaving me in just my shirt and leggings. The chopsticks had long fallen from my hair so it was just loose too.
"We couldn't find another property for the expansion…" I stabbed a shrimp on my utensil like it was all its fault. "Well. At least the merchants were nice and Akane-sama kept the stall going fine."
"I heard about Genma-san, oh yes," Tou-san chuckled, loud and rumbling in his chest and Shika's eyes bore into the side of my face across the table. Kid probably thought we were going to break into purrs at any moment. "Nice going there, by the way, gave me something to laugh about at lunch when I stopped by for a bite."
Against my will, a smile curled my lips up. Devilishly, I might add. "Must be a nice change to be the one doing the laughing for once, Tou-san?"
Honestly, you'd have thought I had shot him, the way he reacted.
"Ki-chan! So mean!"
"What's the latest comment this time, Seiichi?" Inoichi-oji leaned back to call down to us from the other side of the long table and Sora visibly pinched his hands at the lack of manners. "Ow!"
"Any plans for your birthday?" Oba-san turned to me, even as she wiped at the rice stuck to Ino's chin.
"I might get Hana-chan to go to the Onsen with me," I mused, cheeks puffed in thought. Honestly, given how crazy things had been recently, it had almost slipped my mind. "It is her birthday not long after mine," I reasoned.
"I'm coming too!"
"Er, Ino-chan," I balked at the idea, mental images of a stressful few hours of trying to keep the demanding kid from drowning in the hot water dancing through my mind.
The petite blonde scowled - never a good sign - and I immediately shot a panicked glance at Sora.
"Now, Ino, you're supposed to help me wrap Kiharu-chan's present then," Her mother reminded her with a quelling look and blue eyes turned to bore into her mother's. Out of the Hot Seat for now, I was tempted to fan myself...or make a break for it whilst the coast was clear. "How are you going to do both at the same time?"
The decision was obviously a terrible one to make, judging by how Ino was forced to sit back, still grumpy, and think hard on the stalemate before her. Honestly, she almost reminded me of Winnie the Pooh's thinking pose.
"Well...I guess I'll stay then," she eventually announced, as though the world had been held suspended with bated breath.
I hid a smile behind the rim of my glass, business difficulties temporarily forgotten.
…
The next day, three days before my thirteenth, Mikoto and I had planned to meet up to go over the arrangements and how, without a property even on the table, we are going to move forward.
Plans which were swiftly ditched when, at seven in the morning, my breakfast was interrupted by the arrival of Yoshino of all people, Shika on one hip and Chouji on the other.
I opened the door to her with my hair still in a towel turban.
"Wha-?"
"Kaiya is in labour, thought you ought to know." Yoshino cut straight to the chase before bouncing each boy on her hip to illustrate her next point. "The three of us are heading over to Sora's to wait with her and Ino. Come along if you want. I know I'd appreciate the help with the children."
"Ah," I replied. Intelligently.
And then, in her usual abrupt fashion, Yoshino turned back down the steps and continued down the street. The Nara's didn't even live that far from the Yamanaka so why…?
Honestly, I just couldn't believe Kaiya was in labour! I mean, I knew she was fit to almost pop, almost a week overdue and she'd mentioned offhandedly that the healers had discussed inducing labour if it didn't happen soon but...nevermind Kaiya and Chouza and Chouji, I wasn't ready!
The first non-Canon-compliant baby! This was it, people, the watershed moment where, no matter all other failures, the fate of the world had changed.
Because, no matter what, after today, Chouji would have a baby sibling.
Another Akimichi. Another Shinobi, probably.
They could fall in love one day and get married or whatever. They'd have a butterfly effect on their lives.
They were going to be, in both a very similar but impossibly different way, just like me.
Something...new.
I got dressed in a blur, slamming the door behind me and running all the way to the Yamanaka house, nevermind how I was gasping and gulping by the time I rounded the right street.
"Ensui…" I nodded at my friend, sat on the porch steps with a sleeping Shikamaru in his lap. Really, it was far too early for the kid. "You get time off work again?"
Ensui's eyes, still encircled with bruise-like bags of exhaustion but less severe than the previous week, fluttered half-shut in the bright morning light, nodding wordlessly with a neck as weak as a pipe cleaner.
"Hey." I stepped closer, pressing a hand to his forehead and frowning at the haggard lines that didn't exist when he relaxed. "Why don't you go grab some sleep, I'll wake you if we get any news."
"Nah," the twenty-year-old rasped, swallowing and trying again for a moderately more human sound. "No, I'll be fine."
"You look like crap." I corrected him, flopping down beside him and wrapping my arms around my bent legs, bopping my knee against his. "What's up? We haven't had a quiet chat in a little while and you look like you need it."
As one, we both glanced down at the sleeping boy in his older cousin's arms, completely conked out to the world. Heh, yeah, Shika-chan wasn't gonna be stirring for a good long while.
I turned my attention to the peaceful street, eyes tracing over the different trees that lined the pavement at even intervals. Both of us looking straight ahead, Ensui eventually started talking.
"Why did you fall out with Itachi?"
Honesty begets honesty and I shrugged, a lazily and listless motion. "I honestly don't know. Just after Danzo fled, he talked to Nee-chan about his career options and specialising, and that's why he was with Akane for a bit before he got his new team but...one day he just started walking the other way when he saw me, turning away if I waved. Before I knew it, he was avoiding me completely."
Ensui hummed, eyes fixed on nothing but looking strangely peaceful. Without the stressed buzzing that had tensed every motion in recent months. I was glad.
"I got into a fight at work." He sighed, running a finger down Shika's soft baby cheek before settling his head more comfortably into the crook of his neck, pausing when the little boy snuffled for a minute before falling silent once more. Only then did Ensui continue. "We were supposed to be on a case together but we've been having some...communication issues...and our frustrations got a little… physical."
"The day you had a black eye." I lamented, something like helplessness clenching my chest. Oh, Ensui… I knew you'd been struggling but.
"Yeah, yeah, that was the next morning."
"I'm worried about Itachi's new team. Kabuto smells off and something doesn't feel right. Maybe I'm just paranoid. But Shisui has asked around and I've talked to him a bit and nothing seems to suggest...but I thought you should know."
Hazel eyes slid to meet mine, almost managing to twinkle with dark humor despite the glazed exhaustion that dulled them. "Another thing to keep tabs on."
I snorted quietly, not wanting to wake Shikamaru. "I know the feeling. Expanding the stall, keeping tabs on the kids and Hitoshi, not to mention Tou-san and you and Shisui...did you know he might be back training before the month is out?"
"...fuck, really?"
Yeah, my sentiments exactly.
"Yeah."
"...is it bad I don't want him out there, again?"
It was bad, insubordinate and, god, but I must be a terrible influence but-
"Me too, Ensui. Me too."
At 15 minutes past four, Akimichi Chouko entered the world and, in the sense of a completely new life created where there had once never existed a second child, we kissed another aspect of Canon goodbye.
…
Generally, on my birthday, I was allowed to sleep in. I wasn't a morning person in any respect and it was tradition that I got a lie on my day of the year.
Despite the fact he'd been shoving his way into my bed since I'd upgraded from the kiddie-sized one and full well knew how I treasured every minute of sleep I managed to snatch, Hitoshi decided to flip that shit on its head.
He fucking woke me up at dawn.
Dawn.
As in, it was still dark outside.
(Okay, sunrise was at like, five am but still!)
!?
Conscious returned to me like a slap to the face...or the bat of a heavy, club-like tail to the shoulder, and I swear I almost leapt out of my skin.
Too breathless to scream, my heart immediately dropped to my knees when I noticed the open curtains, Hitoshi waiting ready beside them.
This was some kind of cruel repetition-!
"Nooooooo~" I whined, high in my throat and muffled into my duvet as I flopped back down. "I'm sleeping."
My bed was deliciously warm, fluffy and snuggle and the sheets were fresh...my eyelids weighed down, vision turning fuzzy and then I was driftin-
A jaw clamped around my ankle, hot and sharp and just hard enough to indent the skin. Suddenly, much more awake, my eyes snapped open and down to meet narrowed emerald.
The huge cavern of the panther's chest rumbled in warning.
The teeth pulled away slightly. "Up."
"Low blow." I frowned… it was never fair when he pulled that instinct shit. The amount of times he'd picked me up as a baby and I'd learned to automatically fall limp…
Should've known the damned cat was training me subconsciously. Err, rude much?
Then, the reason said cat was forcing me out of bed at such an ungodly hour snapped into place in my mind.
The duvet was flung away, landing on Hitoshi who batted it off with a kittenish Yoel of displeasure, and I bounced from the mattress, exhaustion forgotten.
"FuFu!"
Quick strides took me to the closet and blind fingers rummaged in the dark for a sweater by touch alone. "You're taking me to her, right?!" I grinned, jittery with excitement and nerves, over my shoulder at the black smudge of my Summon. A thick, fluffy knit brushed my fingers and I yanked it out and off it's hanger, pulling it over my sleep top without a care and leaving my bushy hair trapped down the back. Tucked away, at least I wouldn't be spitting it out on the ride. A pair of dad's trackies went over my matching trousers, the legs rolled up a few times and the waist ties tied tight. (Hehe...ties tied tight..)
A pair of socks and then my boots, which had been placed in my room because I hadn't worn them since the last time they were cleaned, and a coat thrown on top for good measure. No matter the season, predawn temperatures were not a joke.
"Scroll?" Hitoshi asked and I patted the large roll slung diagonally across my back, fetched from its stash.
The panther then placed both forepaws on my window sill, the poor thing creaking ominously, and, with an exasperated sigh at the uncanny Deja Vu, I clambered to sit behind the hunch of his shoulders.
"What's the plan for Mama?" I called once we were on the road and out of range of most ears.
"We get there, you are not eaten by the mother and you add Fuji to the Contract."
"Yeah, no," I face-planted his neck, ignoring how my head bounced uncomfortably with each bounding lope. "That doesn't tell me how I'm not gonna die; Her jaws are huge, remember?! Two chomps and that's it!"
The panther beneath me sighed. "Cu-"
"Kami-sama, it'll probably just take one, I'm such a midget-"
"Cub."
"What?"
"I'll scent you enough to put the mother off but, regardless, Fuji should recognise you on an instinctual level; more than likely, she'll come to you."
I breathed in and out, slow and steady. Okay, Kiharu, you can do this. Just a couple more cats is all. Yeah, yeah...just a couple of kitties…
The village sped past, barely more than silhouettes of houses and streets to my poorer vision. The sky was clear of clouds and the stars were just starting to sink back into obscurity as rose-petal red and pale pink streaked across the horizon. Dawn was coming.
Peachy light had just started to touch on the treetops, the edge of the Hokage monument, the cliff side, by the time Hitoshi and I made it passed the boundaries and into the woods. The underbrush and canopy alike fell silent as we tore through the treetops and part of me, the fragment not currently quaking either from nerves or anticipation, wondered if it was the sound or the smell of predator. That had the other animals become so still, I mean.
...probably both.
Before long, no more than a few minutes since we'd hit the training forests, Hitoshi dropped down into a clearing and immediately pitched him shoulders to dump me on my ass. Unprepared for the speed of his assholeness, I landed arse over teakettle and feeling more than a little dizzy.
You know that saying, 'no rest for the wicked'? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I embody it.
Head sore from bumping on the hard-packed, rainless earth, I was given zero-to-no warning before Hitoshi started licking my face.
"Grnnnnnnnnnn-!" I complained, mouth firmly clamped shut because no. The stupid, annoying, gross carnivore was rubbing his fur against me like he wanted to shed a bloody winter coat, like cleanliness was going out of fashion and he was doing my a big ol' favour. Like! Like- like he was about to take me literally into the Tiger's den and I'd not even had time to write a will-
"Does Tou-san know we're doing this now?" I asked breathlessly. My clothes looked strangely sooty with all the cat hair and I didn't even want to think about the state of my own locks.
"Do you see an ANBU platoon?" He parried back, droll as anything.
"Fair point."
"Now," Hitoshi plonked himself down next to me, except he never did anything so uncouth. 'Rested' possibly conveyed the correct level of snootiness that characterised everything about him. "When we arrive, don't breathe too much. Or sweat."
Putting my weight onto my hands, the dew-damp grass sticking to my palms, I pushed off the ground, batting at the wet splodge on my rump with a sigh. The air was cool, misting around the edges of the field and almost wet on my tongue as I heaved another sigh before clambering back onto my panther. "Don't breath and consciously control my glands. Easy."
When we entered the clearing, it was with pure adrenaline-fueled swiftness. I'd scarcely had a second for a shaky, 'calming' breath...before we were plummeting. Landing with a violent jar, that rattled my teeth and seemed to shake the earth, a handful of meters from One Angry Pussycat. And a plus one.
Yeah…maybe subtlety would've worked better here.
Well. No time for regrets!
"Go!" Hitoshi snarled, claws furrowing deep divots into the soil before he launched himself forward in an onyx blur.
Chest heaving, I nodded frantically, casting desperate eyes around for the small figure of Hitoshi's baby brat.
Only for the bottom to fall out of my stomach at the obvious tiger-panther hybrid that greeted my searching gaze.
I didn't...think cubs could grow that fast…
It wasn't a cub that stared at me, yellow eyes like two witch-lamps in the dark, but a hunter. Already half the size of her sire, FuFu's platter-sized paws let me know that she was in no way done with any kind of growing.
"H-hey baby-girl," I cooed, hands raised carefully as I trudged closer. I knew I could die at any moment, a brief but bloody end to another short life but...if I didn't do something, I was as good as dead anyway.
Off to the side, MaMa snarled thunderously, almost seeming to echo off the trees, and the noise went straight to my pulse.
Each breath felt delicate.
But then Hitoshi was there again, hissing like a Tom Cat, and, despite being a third of her size, the panther seemed to huddle her back another step.
Slightly to the side, FuFu cocked her great, black head, the white stripes that cut through her inky fur like smoke and snow fading into the shadows around her.
She looked...inquisitive.
(she looked bigger a bloody German shepherd-)
"Come on, baby," I tried again, reaching to slowly-slowly pull the Summoning Scroll from my shoulder. All I needed was a little blood-
Yellow eyes, deep like honey or topaz or endless golden light, tracked the movement intently.
"Fuji~" I whispered, crouching to spread the large parchment out and kissing my teeth, like I used to do to pet cats before. And still did now, in all honesty.
Her ears, velvet black with wispy white hairs, pricked forwards and, so suddenly my limbs locked in mute terror, she was ambling closer.
Oh shit shit shit-
A damp nose, pink like the tongue that peeked out to blep me, booped my forehead, exactly where my bangs parted to reveal skin.
Oh.
Huge, liquid eyes stared down into mine, the pupils like droplets of balsamic in rich oil, and I could almost feel my own dilate.
MaMa rumbled angrily, like angry, and made an aborted movement to swipe at her boyfriend. Wow...unhappy couples-
Berserker Tiger, Kiharu, you idiot! The Contract-
Fuck, right, er-
"Sorry, pretty baby!" I breathed, even as the too-curious-for-her-own-good cub snuffled through my curls like I'd hidden cat treats in the mess somewhere.
I took a fortifying breath, ducking my neck away from any jaws (incase worse came to worst) and glanced one last time at the vibrant amber animal all but vibrating with rage. As she batted at her baby-daddy.
And then swiped the simple switchblade across one of FuFu's paws.
The reaction was immediate.
The baby - three months, only three months, poor thing - whined, high and confused. Twitching back, even as I smeared the scarlet onto the paper and watched as the Contract completely absorbed it, she gave out what could only be described as...a cry.
Naturally, when my baby girl cries, I cry.
"Done?!" Hitoshi snarled, backing up with every inch of his tense, fur-spiked form screaming 'piss off. My cub'.
"Sorry!" FuFu's fur was heart-clenchingly soft, especially the pale ruff wreathing her face, as I gently cupped her head in apology. Bizarrely, the pain hadn't scared her off, gaze still sad and oh so confused...but, then again, she hadn't fled to her mother when Hitoshi was kicking up a storm.
Maybe she was already used to their domestics and knew her folks are just the tough love kind.
Behind Hitoshi, MaMa swiped violently at a nearby bush, dark eyes boring into mine as she started pacing.
"Why...why isn't she killing me?"
FuFu purppped, rubbing her cheek against mine with that same, childlike bewilderment.
Hitoshi slowly lowered his maws, fangs slipping away as something akin to his usual calm returned. His back was still to me, protective and sending out an unmistakable claim. His tail, long and slightly clubbed, curled around Fuji's.
"She knows."
I blinked, looking up to catch dark eyes again. She did not look happy.
"You carry a trace of my scent, it's part of our bond. Already, a mother can sense a change in her young so she knows, at least for now, that she can't kill you."
"...at least for now?"
FuFu pressed her forehead to mine, effectively blocking her mother, and slow blink at me. I melted.
"She's still a mother, cub. Just watch your back."
…
A good few hours later, well after ten and well after dad would've checked up on me, we were on our way back to Konoha Main.
"Yo!" I shouted - squealed - when I spotted our front door open and dad coming out the greet us. He'd probably sensed our signatures coming-
"Kiharu! Where were you?" Dad called, more aggravated than truly worried. Judging by the apron tied sloppily around his waist, he was making good on his threat to do all the cooking for me today. "The boys are no help with techn- Oh."
Genma-nee, Raidou, the boys and Shisui poured out after him, a range of concerned and impatient expressions twisting their faces.
Only to be replaced with identical confusion at my tag-along.
(And, by 'confusion', I meant 'world-shaking, reality-questioning, is-this-a-dream' confusion.)
"She doesn't know the way," I admitted, following their collective gaze with a fond smile. "So FuFu-chan had to hold on to her Papa for the walk." FuFu, drooling all over her dad's tail, seemed to only preen under the attention. Well, there's no mistaking who she took after.
Behind me, Shisui dropped a crutch when Kotetsu started violently choking.
…..
"Koinu": 'puppy'
'Hachimitsu': 'Honey'. Yuri's last name….it felt fitting somehow.
'Amaya': 'night rain'
'Ikeru': 'revive, resurrect'
For anyone wondering how Seiichi is older than Inoichi but was teammates with his younger brother, Inokumo, it's because Seiichi apprenticed with his father during the war. They specialised in tracking, taught by the Contract, and Seiichi is the only one alive now who knows all the techniques: he was the one to teach Hitoshi about his own Contract :'‹. When Seiichi had learned most of it, he was placed on a team with younger ninja and they got a field promotion of Chuunin together. When Seiichi was 18, his father died in front of him in a battle shortly before the Pride were also killed, leaving Seiichi and Hitoshi the only survivors.
A/N- Yoooooooooooooo!
Okay so, first things first (I'm the realist~), Uni has been so so crazy like whoa. If my dissertation supervisor could see this word count here, maybe he'd chill his tits lol. Anyway! I'm just passing through to drop this here and I hope it brings a smile to at least one person's face, maybe something sweet to read on your own breaks like I've been chipping away at this in mine! Thanks for reading and all the support, as always xxx
P.S thanks to Vi and the Discord crew for making me laugh every day and helping me overcome my writers block since the last update 3
P.P.S- Amaya is actually based off of one of my Discord friends, the ever-lovely Elladora
Follow me on tumblr at 'x-authorship-x' where I reblog utter nonsense and you can ask for a discord invite, drop me a question about my fics or just say hi!
