Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto. This story is purely a work of fanfiction.
Nina- is my original character (I do own her)
Chapter 89
"I thought Kakashi-sensei totally would have won that."
"It did look like he had the upper hand. I don't think anyone expected Nina's move. Even my sharingan didn't distinguish the difference in Shikaku."
"It was a very admirable display."
Kakashi was slouched over the table listening to the conversation from the rookie 9.
"That was awfully gentlemanlike of you to allow Nina to win."
"I didn't."
"Huh?"
Kakashi straightened up enough to have a drink from the glass in front of him.
"I didn't allow her to win. She won fair…" Well not entirely fair but the match had only one limit. "I never expected any of that."
"So, all is forgiven then?"
"Hardly."
Asuma slid in beside Kakashi. Fully healed after his match with Guy however, he'd missed the third match.
"I told you she was a lot of work."
"You did. If Genma had kept his …" What did it matter anyway? She clearly wasn't willing to forgive him but, there was the moment. Actually, several moments scattered throughout the match that indicated otherwise. Nina's resolve wasn't completely swayed one way or another. And Jiraiya had stated that she didn't hate him. She was just … Ugh. Grovelling wasn't his forte.
Kakashi signalled to Asuma that he wanted out and he allowed the shinobi to leave with some difficulty. Leaving the building his all but stumbled into Shikamaru.
"How about a game of shogi later Kakashi?"
Kakashi paused. The offer was kind of perfect. From one tactician to another, perhaps.
"Alright. Let me get er… fixed up and I'll meet you at your place?"
"Sure."
He wiggled his pinky in one of his ears. Shogi had provided an outlet whenever he was having trouble with Temari, maybe it would help Kakashi with whatever was going on with Nina.
Jiraiya found her, bent over at the water's edge using the stilled surface as a mirror to self-heal.
"I must admit. I am surprised you have enough chakra left."
"Barely but it's too deep to leave untreated."
"And whose fault is that?"
"What's it matter. I won."
Shinobi rule 13: Hesitation is death.
"Won what, Nina?"
"The match. What else?
"Oh I don't know. Did you get the answer you wanted?"
Nina was far too exhausted to expel any more chakra to avoid Jiraiya and someone other than her inner self was a welcome change.
"Gah." She sat back on her bottom. Saved from falling onto her back by Jiraiya who had plopped down just in time so that his thick white mane supported her tiny and beaten body. "No." She grumbled a few inaudible words. "Nothing I didn't already know."
"Nina. What happened at the festival?"
Nina shuffled until she found a moderately more comfortable position. "Why ask a question that you already know the answer to?"
"Who told you then?"
"Bull, who found out when Pakkun relayed the information to Kakashi."
"I see." So the little pug hadn't kept his muzzle shut after all?
"Nina, it was just a bet. Why are you so hung up on it?"
Normally the outburst would have Jiraiya leaping out of harm's way instead, he kept his position as Nina's fist pounded into the earth. Her lack of chakra meant that the impact was no more than a small crater, slightly larger in diameter than her fist. The outburst was followed by a sigh, however not a complete one. It was shaky.
She'd kept very little from Master Jiraiya over the years and in the depths of her heart she knew this was not a time to play possum with her confidant.
"I...I kissed… I mean… we kissed. At the festival. Then there was the letter from Ayame and I overreacted, and once we sorted that then this whole bet thing come to surface. How the hell am I meant to trust anything? Trust him? The whole time it's just been a shambles." Nina ground her fist further into the dirt; she could feel that she had worn away some of the material of her gloves and was now grazing the skin of her knuckles. "You may be content living a life of a fool, but I'm not."
He wasn't accustomed to this sort of conversation with his little sunflower. It was juvenile in a sense. But at the same time Jiraiya was welcoming the outpouring of her scrambled thoughts and feelings.
"You forgot to mention you had sex."
"What's that even matter? He fucking lied."
"No. He just didn't tell you. And can you blame him when this is your reaction?" Jiraiya could sense her unease with her constant movements against his back. "Furthermore, the bet didn't change how he felt about you. But it does appear to have altered yours."
"Of course it has… I mean why shouldn't it have?" Nina had flung her body forward leaning on her knees and her fingers pulling at the blades of grass at her feet.
"That's not for me to answer, that's on you, Nina." Jiraiya stood up and dusted himself off. "It's time you stopped tarring him with the same brush as others in your past."
Nina jaw clenched hard and taut as she stared out at the lake in front of her.
Jiraiya roared into laughter. "But then again I am just an old fool, as you say."
Nina no longer sensed the Sage's chakra and didn't need to turn around to know that he was long gone. She picked up a rock and hurled it across the lake's surface. It almost made it to the other side. Dammit. They couldn't go back, and Nina wasn't sure how or if they could go forward. They were stuck. There was no use in having a lonesome pity party by the lake. So, she decided to take a page out of another one of her mentor's book to seek salvation at the bottom of a sake bottle. If she couldn't will herself to switch off from the calamity of it all, enough alcohol would certainly force her to.
