DISCLAIMER! Except for original character Aina, all featured or mentioned fictional entities are from Masashi Kishimoto's manga series Naruto and Boruto. This fan fiction is written purely for entertainment and generates no profit whatsoever.

Note that this story, set within the New Era, makes more sense if you've been following Aina's story on my Tumblr roleplay blog, super-kame-love; it contains numerous references to her official biography. I decided to post this here because B needs more love! And so does Mei, but that deserves its own story.

WASH

Each of their bodies is warmed by the other's and the sun, glowing orange with sleep as it sinks down into the horizon. The blue in the sky melts into pinks and purples. The bejeweled tide laps lazily along the shore, dabbing their sand-caked toes with salt. Most of the birds have gone to bed, save for a few light-night snackers: a duo of lesser sand plovers that scurry across the shore pecking for morsels buried in the sand and silt, and a white pelican making a plunge head-first farther out into the tides.

"B?"

"Yo."

"I, ah…there's somethin' I been meanin' t' tell you," Aina mumbles into his broad chest, pulling his arm more tightly around herself.

"What's up, buttercup?" B's hushed rhyme vibrates through her like a singing bowl.

She pauses to match her breath in time with his. For the past two weeks, she's been looking for the right place and time to share her next secret.

For the past two weeks, Tsunade's words to her in her office all those years ago have been echoing faintly in her skull. It had been the morning after Aina had confessed her love for her in front of the mansion. As she'd headed for the door to start her day with Tsunade's request "for space" lodged in her chest like a knife, Tsunade plunged another one in her back just after pushing back her blond locks and swallowing the pills for her headache:

"Kame, wait. Uh…be careful, not to be so quick to share what you shared with me last night with someone else. The next person might not be so understanding."

In hindsight, it had sounded far more malicious than Tsunade had ever meant it to be. Tsunade may not have seen it that way, but she had condemned her to loneliness all the same.

Nearly three years later, Orochimaru would slash her across the face with his own encouragement, served on a smile sharp as a knife dipped in poison.

"I do love you, Kame. I have seen all your unsavory sides and I love you still. It just isn't the sort of love that makes me inclined to sleep with you. You can try to content yourself with that…or you can keep trying to seduce me. Either way, I'm not going anywhere. You need me. I'm the only one that gets you. Who else would?"

But those two are long gone–from her life, anyway. Now, she's snuggled into B's side watching the sunset on their beach. B, who's been more patient with her than she might have deserved, at times. Ah, but that's another little thing she must remind herself. She deserves as much patience as she gives to others.

She pulls away just enough to look into his eyes, vivid and dark like the thunder clouds that shield his–their–village. Her left hand reaches up to cradle his cheek, stroke his beard. His beard, pale and blond as his receding locks, is dyed pink in the twilight. His copper skin glimmers like the sun itself. They had, after all, just come out of the tide after their swim.

For a moment, her own eyes start to flutter down to the hand he's got cupped over her left knee to keep her tucked to him, but she pins them back to his with a shake of her head.

"I love you."

His smile broadens to show off his teeth, his playful fingers tapping along her knee like her skin plays music only he can hear. "Heh, that's nothin' new."

Her heart flutters. She wonders if he can feel it in her pulse as his fingertips tease the underside of her knee.

Go on. It's awright. You're safe here. Jus' get to th' point.

The more the words repeat themselves between her ears, the more they sound like Mei's voice and less her own. Mei had said something similar when they'd first met face-to-face. Aina had come to Kiri to observe its orphanage, and to get to know the people. She could still remember how Mei's hand felt like silk on her shoulder.

She exhales slowly through puckered lips like she's blowing out a row of candles. "An'…an' I want you t' know…I reckon I'd love you th' exact same way if…if you were a lady. Or–o-or anybody other th'n a man."

B perks up, his sunglasses twinkling to match the insight that touches his brow with one of the sun's rays. "Oh! I get what you mean! You like fellas and ladies an' ev'rybody in between."

The breeze seems to stop whispering in her ears. The whole world falls still and silent, only coming back into motion with the nod and a half she musters.

"Okay."

"O-okay? What's that mean, 'okay'?" asks Aina, curling into herself on reflex. "That's all y'got t' say?"

B raises his brows, loosening his hold on her knee as it jerks against him. "Yeeeeah? What else is there to say?"

Aina presses her free hand to his bare chest, his slow and steady heartbeat thumping against her palm. "W-well, it's jus', um…I kinda reckoned you'd have more…questions, a'least."

"It's really not that odd to find genders other than your opposite hot," says B, his hand bouncing in front of him in rhythm. "Lots of animals in the kingdom do that a lot!" B starts counting off some examples he can think of off his fingers: "Y'got seagulls, penguins, dolphins and bats; elephants, whiptails, lions and macaques…even tortoises! It's been seen in over 450 different species! I'd tell you them all, but I ain't got enough fingers," he adds with a chuckle that washes the tension from out of her muscles. "But only humans have doubt about it that lingers. Fool! Ya fool!"

"Ah. That's…a mighty good point," says Aina, her trembling hand clenching along his chest with a sniff of her nose. "Maybe you could count 'em all on Gyuki's tentacles? With the–with th' suckers? Ah. Goodness! How could I f'rget that? I'm…I'm so silly."

B abruptly stops his gesturing to lift up her face by the chin. "Baby? What's wrong?"

"N-nothing! Nothin' importn't, really. Not anymore. I jus'…th' first person I ever tol' this to–somebody I loved very much–she di'n' react very well to it. B-but then, I think she was bothered more by th' fact she was th' specific wom'n I loved…th'n by th' idea I could love women a'tall. But she still said I couldn' let other people know about this part of me…'c-cause they wouldn' understand. Might not? Would not? I-I don' know…I don' think she ever realized how much that hurt me. Sh-she might as well've said nobody'd love me as I honestly was." She dries her eyes on his wrist, which he offers.

With a shaky breath, she continues, "Sec'nd person I loved, 'fore I met you…they said plum near th' same thing. Said they could be th' only body that loved me as I am, faults-n-all…which I've since realized was not much on their part. Their love, I mean.

"S-so t' hear you tell me it's okay…I…i-it's like a weight's done been lifted off me. That's really how it feels! Like I c'n breathe more fully! Even if th' whole world might not accept it…yet…it's enough t' know you do."

She sniffs again, hugging B's muscular forearm to herself, feeling the pulse in his wrist with her fingertips. "But I…I need t' know for sure you're speakin' fr'm your heart. An' you ain't jus' tellin' me what you think I wanna hear."

"Yo! When have I ever not spoken from the heart? Here! Bump fists with me and you'll see I'm for real."

Aina lets go of his arm and does as he requests, their bent fingers interlocking in the spaces of their knuckles as their fists bump together. Instantly, her whole being fills with sea foam from the quieted sea baked by the disappearing sun. By now, the pinks and purples bathing them wash away into the dark blues and silver of nightfall.

B's face softens. "I can't know for sure what your first love meant to say…but I'm sorry she made you feel that way. 'Cause it ain't true in the slightest. As for your second…hmph! Only a bona fide bastard would say something nasty like that. 'Nuff said," he declares with a brief flare of his nostrils.

Aina doesn't argue. The problem with Orochimaru had been far too profound for her to mend. Heaven knows how hard she'd tried, even if Orochimaru never would.

"Now, I can't tell you how far out the closet you should go. That's for you to decide; go by your own flow," raps B, swaying gently from the waist up. "But I do want you to be happy, and whatever you decide to do…I've got your back! Just be honest with me, and stay true to you. Whether it's keepin' this thing of ours one-on-one…or bringin' a third party into our home."

A jolt causes Aina's fist to rip away from his. Which part of this is more shocking: that the notion of Aina wanting to see other people could cross his mind, or that said notion doesn't upset him? "What? No! Nonononono! Tha–that's not why I d'cided t' tell you this! I-I ain't lookin' f'r nobody else! You my one-n-only, B! I-I jus' wanted t' be, ah, be honest 'bout who I am with you. But I ain't act'lly int'rested in seein' other people!"

A blush that captures the previous splendor of the sunset splashes across B's face as his smile turns sheepish. Now and then, his silver tongue melts into a silver foot in his mouth. "Oh! I-I didn't mean to suggest you were. I'm just, uh, tryna say I'm cool with whatever happens, is all," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

A bubble of laughter pops out of her as relief and the whisper of the tide washes back over her. "I gotta say…e-even if I was thinkin' 'bout takin' on another lover–which I'm not!–you don' sound very upset 'bout th' idea…"

B shrugs. "Why should I be? I know you, and I know how you feel about me. I know your heart is big enough. Plus I'm hot stuff!" He jabs both thumbs at himself. "None of that's gonna change."

B's self-confidence is sometimes annoying, sometimes enviable, but always astounding. She knows better than to believe it came about without decades of hard work and practice.

"Oh, B!" At once, a wave of love for the man in front of her surges through Aina, and she surfs along its crest toward B's neck, around which she throws her hungry arms. B catches her with practiced ease, and together they fall back into the sand, tasting the salt from the sea and her tears on each other's hot lips as their hands roam each other's bodies. The birds pass by them with not a single glance.

Within B, Gyuki rolls his eyes. Watching the two make out like impassioned teenagers despite them squeezing up to the 50-year mark is the new normal for him.

When they pull away to catch their breath, Aina presses snugly down on B, legs planted on either side of him in a straddle, and she combs her fingers through his locks, feeling the lightest and cleanest she's felt in months. "Thank you. I love you," she whispers to his parted mouth between slowed kisses. It bears repeating. It is her mantra, despite everything. "I will never ever let you go."

"I love you times eight," he pants back, cradling her from her bottom with one arm. "You're so adorable when you smile like that."

Yes, even with the gap in it left by a tooth lost in a fight with Orochimaru.

Her left pinky finger finds his right one and they lock around each other, sealing her promise to him.

After several moments of nuzzling and pecking and grins they couldn't wipe off their faces even if they wanted, B takes his turn to comb his fingers through Aina's curls, thin streaks of silver stretching between thick dark brown. "So…how 'bout Mei?"

Aina perks up at the name, the blush previously on B's face seeping through hers. "Huh? M-Mei?"

His next chuckle tickles her ribs at the same ease as his fingers tease her hair. "Haha, yeah! You really like 'er, don'cha? You're turnin' bright red just from hearin' 'er name! I suspect you like her and me the same?"

Aina shuts her eyes, her posture slackening until she's flush against his body, her breasts pressing against his. The hitch in his breath at the sensation of her nipples gliding across his skin through her shirt does not escape her notice. It's enough to make her own back arch slightly.

Mei Terumi. The former Mizukage. A colleague of A's and a friend of B's–now hers, as well. A phenomenal woman. A pioneer like Tsunade, only gentler and more thoughtful. More humble. Her handwriting large and curly and fluid as the rivers that pool around her village. Her brilliant mane of auburn hair and soft curves of creamy skin flash behind Aina's eyelids. Mei's sharp eyes peek into hers, icy and green as grass shedding its frost in the final days of winter, like how Mei had melted the ice that had once trapped the spirit of the Hidden Mist. Her lips, pink and smooth as pearls, could lift you up or melt you into oblivion.

Unlike Tsunade, Mei doesn't waste chakra hiding her wrinkles. Still, if only she appreciated how captivating she truly was, even now…why no man had ever made her his wife, Aina could scarcely imagine!

Then again, is it not better to be alone than to be with someone who isn't right for you? Maybe Mei's luck had been like her own?

"Ahaha…ain't nothin' gets past you, huh? I…I have gott'n very fond of 'er since we started writin' to each other," she murmurs. "An'…she is beautiful. B-but nothin's happ'ned 'tween us! We're jus' friends. Reckon that's all we ever gonna be." Aina's right hand resumes its place over B's sternum, as toasty as ever.

"F'r all I know, what I got for 'er's just a silly crush. Ain't hardly worth both'rin' 'er for. E-even if I did wanna court 'er, I don' know if she could like women in that way."

She's not making the mistake of assuming again.

"Never mind be awright with sharin' somebody with somebody else…really don' feel like askin'."

"Heh-heh…yo, I don't blame you for crushin' on 'er an' bein' shy! Mei is pretty fly! It's a shame nobody's put a ring on 'er finger by now. But like I said, you call the shots on this. So please, another kiss?"

Beaming down at him, Aina gathers up as much of him as she can possibly can in her arms and legs and lavishes his smiling mouth.

There's no need to come up with any answers about Mei, right now. It's best to keep her at a warm and comfortable distance: far enough so Mei's suspicions aren't aroused, close enough to come when she calls for a friend.

For now, all that matters is another one of Aina's secrets is no longer a burden, and she and B have become that much closer for holding it up to the light. That's enough.