Kiba and I joked around as we walked together down the packed dirt road toward the village center. "There's a great barbecue place a few streets up" Kiba said. Akamaru barked in agreement, the drool sliding off his tongue a second witness to the quality of the food. "Kurenai-sensei takes us there sometimes."
I inhaled through my nose trying to catch the scent of it from this distance away, but there were too many different food vendors. My stomach growled.
Kiba's hand suddenly shot into the air. "Oi Hinata-chan! Shino-kun!"
Two teenagers across the street paused and looked in our direction. One was a shy looking girl with pretty dark hair and pale glassy eyes. The other was a dude wearing sunglasses. Most of his face was covered by his coat collar. They started in our direction.
"Mari-chan, these are my teammates," Kiba said. They both bowed and introduced themselves. Something in my brain finally clicked. She'd gone to the hospital with me that night-
"Hinata-san, thank you for your help before," I said. "Shino-san, it is nice to finally meet you."
Shino's brow furrowed for some reason.
"We're just getting some lunch. Ma trapped the kitchen again." Kiba's mouth twisted in a grimace.
"You should probably make an effort to wake up earlier then," Shino said in a low voice, readjusting his glasses.
My new brother's face flushed. "Yeah, well sometimes Akamaru just needs the extra rest. Right boy?" Not about to betray his partner, the white dog woofed in affirmation.
"If you haven't eaten yet, you both should come with us," I interjected. "We're getting barbecue. I'll pay for everyone."
Smiling, Hinata and Shino looked at each other. At least, Shino's eyebrows raised. Who even knew what the rest of his face was doing under there.
"We'd love to Mari-san, thank you!" Hinata chirped.
They walked a bit ahead of me chatting companionably. Kiba was in the middle of everything of course, shooting questions in different directions and goading the stoic Shino with good natured teasing.
The odor of hot sesame oil and seared meat filled the air in the little restaurant. Hinata and I sat on one side of the booth, with Shino and Kiba on the other. Akamaru curled up next to Kiba's bench seat, as far out of the aisle as he could manage at his size. The table had a grill in the center.
Kiba hadn't been exaggerating. The food was pretty amazing.
My mind kept wandering back to that morning while I chewed. To Kakashi's behavior at the memorial stone.
What exactly had happened? I was pretty sure that Kakashi was on the verge of showing me his face when Gai arrived. My hand unconsciously went to my cheek where he'd pressed his skin against mine.
But it wasn't just that.
The way his voice sounded in my ear, and his pulse pounded under my fingertips. The way he had let me touch him, and the possessive embrace he'd pulled me into felt like something more than close friends having a moment.
I'd definitely felt something more going on when he pressed his hips against mine. He was kind of. . . aroused.
And to be completely honest, so was I.
"Mari-san," a timid voice said. I jumped a little and looked at Hinata. "Are you still hungry? There's some pork left."
"Oh, no I'm full," I lied. "You three can have the rest." Akamaru barked in indignation from where he sat. "You four," I amended.
Smiling, they made short work of the rest of the meal while I got up and paid. It'd significantly lightened my purse but it was worth it to make sure Kiba and Akamaru had a decent meal before going into another grueling night of training.
We parted ways with Kiba's teammates and started trudging through the streets back home.
"Are you okay?" Kiba asked. "Because you kind of spaced out at the barbecue place. And Hana said Kakashi-sensei came by this morning and got in an argument with Ma about you."
"Oh, yeah I'm okay. Thanks for asking."
Kiba stared suspiciously, hands in his pockets. "It's not my business, but if he's bothering you, you have to promise to say something."
"I will," I said with a grin. Kiba really was a good little brother. "It wasn't a big deal. He was worried I was getting in over my head with shinobi training. Then he apologized later when I talked to him about it."
"Is that all?" Kiba sighed and put his hands behind his head. "What a pain. Ma is still pissy about it though."
"She will be for a while probably." The street we were on had a bunch of traveling vendors set up with various handmade crafts and foods. It tended to change fairly often so I always liked to look and see what there was from outside the village.
One cart was covered in small, intricately carved wood and ivory figurines. I stopped to stare. There was everything you could imagine. Turtles, flowers, dolphins, fish, bears, tanuki (Sholpan loved terrorizing tanuki), snakes, and animals I didn't recognize. I wondered if those were mythological or if there really was creatures like them in this world.
"Pretty," I breathed.
"They're netsuke," Kiba said, stopping beside me.
The black haired man with the cart stepped forward and began presenting various carvings for me to examine. "See here, they open and you can keep precious things inside." He pulled out some flowered ones and some reminiscent of fancy goldfish. I brushed my fingers over the polished scales of the fish in wonderment.
Something like this would be perfect for Boone's ashes. I could wear it and keep him with me.
My gaze drifted over the carvings on the cart, drawn to a boar's tusk covered in leaves.
Oak, just like the witness tree marking the border of papa's land back home.
"How much is that one?" I asked.
"The tusk with leaves? 700 ryo."
I grimaced. "That's fair," I said. "How long will you be here?"
"I'm leaving Konoha tomorrow," he said.
Dammit. I wasn't going to be paid for working at the hospital for several more days.
"Thank you," I said. "They're very beautiful."
Kiba and I turned and left. He waited until we were out of sight of the vendor before sheepishly apologizing for using up my money. "It's fine," I said. "I didn't have enough before taking you to lunch anyway. It just, that one made from the boar tusk would have been perfect for Boone."
We were both in a somber mood when we got home.
Unfortunately for us, Tsume was blocking the front door. Arms folded and a deep frown on her face, she and Kuromaru launched into a perfectly synchronized Fang Over Fang.
Straight toward us.
Kiba, Akamaru and I screamed as we scattered in three different directions. I regretted not believing Kiba all those times he described how scary moms are.''
Inside the archives and records division, Shimura Danzo thumbed through yet another file.
Apparently Inoichi had been interviewing a foreign girl, and he'd had the hardest time locating her records.
Even more curious, she had two files. A semi-public one under 'Inuzuka Mari', which had extraordinarily generic information. It didn't even mention her foreign origins.
The classified file was more interesting, but left him with more questions than answers. Namely, why were pages and pages of Inoichi's reports blacked out? And why conceal her origins in the public file? Also, why would the Inuzuka go so far as to adopt someone of her status?
He flipped between two identification photos. One showing a badly scraped up woman's face, distinctly lacking in Inuzuka tattoos. The other, completely healed and with the traditional clan markings.
Why would Tsume agree to that?
His brow furrowed. What was Tsunade hiding from him?
The file didn't even have a damn country of origin. Simply, 'Refugee brought to Konoha by Hatake Kakashi, subsequently adopted by Inuzuka clan'.
It was possible that she was of no consequence. However, Inoichi's behavior in the hallway and the fact that two of his reports had been redacted in a classified file pointed to something completely different. Something that could jeopardize the safety of Konoha, and Tsunade was hiding it from him.
This potential betrayal bore further investigation. He was just glad he'd been able to recruit his own Yamanaka into Root, since Inoichi's report was of so little use to him.
Author's Note:
Thank you to everyone who has been sticking with this story. I really appreciate all of your reviews! It helps me know what I'm doing right and what is effective, and what is unclear and needs to be rewritten. Based on reviews left, I will be tweaking things once I go back and can do some refining and rewriting of older chapters.
Also, I'm super excited because I finally got a wacom tablet and have been able to start drawing again! As a warmup I did a black and white sketch of Mari. Over time it will probably be colored if I can do it without it sucking, Sholpan will be added, and maybe I'll be able to do some of other characters as well. If you want to see it, there is a link on my profile page. I'm also completely open to doing sketches of other people's OCs because I need the practice and it's fun so if that sounds interesting to you then shoot me a message.
Actually, I am having trouble getting the link to work on my profile, so if you try to check it out and there is no link or it doesn't work, please let me know so I can try to fix it!
Lastly, thank you everyone who shared stories about their dogs. It really touched me, and I totally cried more than a few times reading your comments. Obviously, I love dogs and think they don't live nearly long enough, and losing a beloved friend is looming closer and closer as my most favorite, first dog is now 10 and a half years old. He's the best, and my heart goes out to everyone who has lost their friend too soon.
Boone is dead, but his role in this story is not over. He still has some important work that only he can do.
Thanks again everyone for sticking with me.