~~**~~WARP! Time Lapse! XD Okay, so, Naruto's left and it's obviously been a while since anyone else has come to the girou. The girls are getting very comfortable with living with the Akatsuki by now, apparently. So, all I have to tell you for this one-other than all of that-is about Hotaru's jutsus. As you all know she was a ninja, almost made it to anbu, Sasuke leaving made her abandon the anbu though and run to start the girou in hopes of pissing him off bad enough to draw him back to her.
What y'all DON'T really know is: Hotaru's father killed himself after coming home from the Sand Village(on business with tiny Hotaru in tow)to find his wife and baby daughter dead(slaughtered by Itachi in the Uchiha Clan Massacre). She became a ninja because of her father's wish for her to. She was taken in by Kakashi(one of her father's closest friends)and has basically become Kakashi's legacy. She is another copy cat ninja, but is known as the Fire Leopard of Konoha. She basically uses a mix of jutsus and so on, that she's picked up from other people, and uses her own Uchiha jutsus; but, she's not very fond of any of the jutsus and prefers hand-to-hand combat over it all.~~**~~
"Unexpected, Unwanted"
"Here, honey." Hotaru glanced up as Usagi set a cup of tea down in front of her.
"Hmm? I didn't ask for any though." She looked back at her cards, playing a game of solitaire to entertain herself.
"No, but I thought it'd be nice. The weather's getting chillier and chillier out there, you don't want to catch a cold." Usagi sat down next to her, pulling a card off her deck and placing it for her. Hotaru frowned a bit, glancing up at her from the corner of her eye again, "It's called "solitaire" for a reason, Usa-chan." Usagi giggled and waved her off, but let her go back to her game and left it alone.
She sipped at her own tea, glancing out of the tiny window on the back wall, sunlight filtering through it. "I suppose we'll have to get out the winter kimonos soon..." She murmured, hating to think about having to go out to that dusty old shed.
"Not for a bit...we've still got a month or so." Hotaru was ready for the change of wardrobe, but not at the same time. The winter kimonos were so thick and heavy, she always felt weighted down with one on; though the summer ones weren't THAT much better. You could still tell the difference though. But, the winter kimonos always had such prettier pictures stitched onto them. She loved to look at them so much more than the summer ones they had been wearing recently.
"Usa-chan! Usa-chan!" Nikoru ran into the room, panting softly as she beamed at them. Hotaru glanced up and over her shoulder, seeing Tobi come tumbling into the room behind her.
"What is it, baby girl?" Usagi smiled, but Nikoru didn't seem to hear her, rather looked over her shoulder with big eyes as Tobi scrambled across the tatami mats towards her.
"Wahh! Tobi-kun's going to get me!" She squealed like a small child, giggling and running to the other side of the table, Tobi laughing almost as hard as she was.
"Tobi's going to eat Nikoru-chan! Nom, nom, nom!" He waved his arms at her, chasing her around the table a few times as she squeaked and squealed, Usagi giggling and watching them. Hotaru shook her head tiredly but, smiled all the same, still studying her next move in her personal card game.
"No-o! Don't eat me, Tobi-kun!" Tobi tackled Nikoru to the floor on the other side of the room from them, wrestling with her gently and tickling her as she laughed and writhed in front of him.
"Be careful, you two. Don't get that kimono hurt." Usagi pointed a finger at them before taking another sip of her tea, knowing they weren't listening to a damned thing she said. Tobi bent his head down and pressed it to Nikoru's cheek, still "nom nomming" at her, but she laughed even louder when just the smooth ridges of the swirls of his mask smeared against her face rather than his mouth.
"Tobi-kun can't bite me through his mask, silly!" She giggled and kicked her feet a little as he tickled her again, lifting his head to grin down at her.
"Tobi supposes you're right, Nikoru-chan." He giggled and she did too, blushing softly before reaching up and pushing him to his back on the floor, tickling him now as he laughed aloud.
Hotaru looked up suddenly, her eyes narrowing as she sniffed the air. Usagi frowned slightly, "What is it, Hotaru-chan?" She reached out and touched the smooth surface of the table, watching Hotaru glance over her shoulder and out of the open dining room door.
"We have a guest." She grumbled and turned to look back to her cards, shaking her head and brushing her fingers beneath her nose, as if getting the smell to go away. Usagi turned and looked at the door too, Nikoru and Tobi pausing to look also. "Someone we need to worry about?" Usagi glanced at Hotaru, but she shrugged, placing a ten of diamonds beneath a nine of spades.
"It smells sort've familiar...but, it's still too far away to tell as is." Usagi gave her a look that said she hadn't helped much. She shrugged again, "I'd put them away just incase. Better safe than sorry. And it's getting closer." Usagi nodded and stood up, quickly walking to the doorway before looking over her shoulder at the still frozen Tobi and Nikoru, who were tangled around each other cutely.
"Nikoru-chan, please go see if you see Zetsu-san outside and tell him to be kind enough to stay out of sight for a bit. Tobi-kun, come with me, let's go tell Deidara-kun and the others what's going on." Tobi scrambled up and beamed.
"Sempai and I can color while we wait! Maybe we can do an art trade!" Usagi smiled as Nikoru got up and resituated herself, listening to them leave the room as she did too. Soon Hotaru was the only one in the room again. After a moment she heard the front door open and saw Nikoru shut the door to the courtyard, coming over and seating herself at the table by her.
"Oh my! What a pleasant surprise!" They heard Usagi coo outside in the hallway, both of them rolling their eyes at how she was polite even to those that disgusted her. Nikoru leaned over, holding up her hand and glancing back at the door.
"Can you smell who it is?" She hissed, making Hotaru look up slowly. She honestly had shut down the chakra to her nose, hoping to NOT smell the person that she most likely was going to have to screw. She didn't like getting heartbroken when she found out it wasn't a friend dropping in, rather a customer.
"Hang on." She closed her eyes and focused thin streams of chakra into her nostrils again. When she did the smell flooded over her, hitting her so hard she jerked her eyes open and coughed. Nikoru looked up at her in some surprise, pulling back a little as Hotaru looked at her with something between awe struck recognition and shock. "Go to your room." There were footsteps coming down the hallway and she could hear Usagi trying to idly make conversation, but it was failing miserably; she was basically talking to herself.
Nikoru looked confused, "Why? I don't understand." Hotaru reached out and grabbed her arm, shoving her away from the table gruffly, causing her to squeak in surprise.
"Just DO IT! You said you'd LISTEN to me!" Suddenly they were standing right behind them. Nikoru looked up first, getting up off the floor and righting herself at the table again. Hotaru's body stilled and tensed, her eyes focused heatedly on the cards in front of her now. Usagi cleared her throat softly, treating it as though the girls simpy hadn't seen her.
"Girls, we have a long awaited guest." Nikoru looked at the table again eyes hardened. She bit at her lip almost hard enough to draw blood. Hotaru could feel eyes boring holes into the back of her head. She closed her eyes and took a breath, then gave a soft, half smile, and slowly turned around, cards in her hands, as if she had been about to put one down casually. Their eyes locked and her breath caught in her throat. It had been a LONG time.
