"Your performance has been unsatisfactory as of late."
The comment was thrown out as if words weren't the most insulting thing the man could say to her.
"Go fuck yourself."
Kagomi retorted with all the eloquence Kagome knew she could muster in her enraged state.
"The circumstances of the mission-"
"-I am aware that the circumstances were dire, I am simply stating that I expected more from you, Rat."
"Who the hell do you think you are? You're not her dad, you wrinkling piece of shi-"
"-I weighed the benefits of eliminating Momochi against the losses we would suffer. From your own words, I recall you had asked me to prioritise the success of Nara-Sama's mission over my own." Kagome explained, steadfastly ignoring Kagomi's continued rant. Besides the constant use of profanity, Kagome couldn't find much fault in her elder sister's words.
Danzo had no right to tell her she hadn't done enough.
The man remained silent behind his desk, of course he wasn't aware that Kagomi was venting her anger right beside his ear and so the scene before Kagome was a little bizarre.
'It's getting worse, she's never popped up during a report.'
"I stand by my words then and I stand by my words now, Rat. You should have been capable of doing both tasks, regardless of difficulty." Danzo concluded monotonously.
Kagome hated doing mission reports like this. It had been an entire week since she'd returned from the mission to Kusa's border and she had completed three other missions afterwards, and yet the man seemed to focus on the one situation in which she had been caught off guard.
"Yes, Danzo-Sama. I'll strive to improve my performance in future." Kagome replied passively.
Danzo stacked the papers on his desk and placed them to the side.
"That concludes the missions you have overseen since our last meeting, you are ordered now to meet with the Hokage to provide these papers detailing the Root's recent activities." Danzo said, handing her the documents he had been writing on since the beginning of their meeting. This was around the same time that Kagomi had exhausted herself, having reached the peak of her angry venting.
"This lazy prick… Gah, I'm out." Kagomi declared, suddenly vanishing from Kagome's view.
It was incredibly concerning to her that her sister could appear and disappear seemingly on a whim. It really didn't speak well for her mental health, but Kagome felt confident in saying there was nothing about her perspective beyond it that had changed.
"I have an appointment with Genba-San soon." Kagome tried to excuse herself.
Danzo remained impassive, arm still extended with papers in hand.
"Then I hope Hokage-Sama is quick with you, he requested your presence specifically." Danzo replied curtly.
Kagome sighed gently and got up from her kneeling position before the desk to take the documents from Danzo's hand.
"When will my next mission be, Danzo-Sama?" Kagome asked.
Danzo huffed in mild irritation.
"Hokage-Sama will be in charge of that for the foreseeable future." Danzo answered, reigning in the perceived frustration.
Kagome nodded, exiting the office without another word. She knew something was wrong, because she'd never heard Danzo refer to the Hokage as anything other than 'Hiruzen', the man's first name. The sudden decision to up the formality, worried her.
Hurrying to the Hokage's office, shinobi and personnel alike made way for her, each and every one of them sharing varying looks of concern for that conveyed sympathy for the apparent Genin making her way hurriedly to deliver papers to the leader of the village.
One such shinobi didn't share such feelings as his shoulder barged directly into her, had Kagome been more awake, or sound of mind, she might have seen the vagrant looking young man chewing on a cigarette and storming down the hallway.
The papers scattered across the floor.
"You should watch where you're going, kid." The older shinobi groaned loudly, making a scene.
"You're not that much older than me, maybe a year or two difference perhaps." Kagome replied formally, she'd begun to pick up the scattered papers while idly keeping an eye out for if anyone attempted to snatch them. Of course no one did but it was always a precaution.
"How the hell can you tell that?" The grumbling young man asked, not at all in a rush to go anywhere else, much to Kagome's chagrin.
"You are the son of the Sandaime. Sarutobi Asuma, you're seventeen or eighteen years old." Kagome answered curtly, collecting and stacking the papers properly once more.
Asuma Sarutobi scowled at the mention of his father.
"Che, try not to sound too excited about it. What's a Genin doing delivering mission reports on her own anyway? Where's your sensei?" Asuma asked, rubbing his chin where the faintest bit of stubble was starting to grow. Kagome noted the immediate change in subject.
"My sensei is busy right now, I'm doing them a favour." Kagome said, making sure not to make eye contact as she rearranged the paper's order to make sure it was sorted.
She'd never had a teacher that had officially been listed, it was always different masked practitioners from Root who taught her everything she knew. To this day she didn't know the name of the man who had taught her, the moment she found him she had a lot of fantasies she intended to act out, all of them involved beating the man to a bloody pulp.
As Kagome stood straight, a chill overcame her and her instincts screamed at her to turn around. The brief look of distaste that flashed across Asuma's face indicated that there was in fact someone behind her before they even spoke.
"It's so heartbreaking to see young ones lie so easily." A deep, but high pitched voice spoke behind her, she didn't recognise it.
Asuma bowed his head briefly and spoke. "Orochimaru-Sama." He greeted the man.
After a moment of silence it became apparent to the man that Kagome had no intention of turning around to face him, so he moved to stand beside Asuma.
The first thing Kagome noticed was how pale the man was, his skin looked like it could burn at the slightest exposure to sun, and yet they lived in the Land of Fire, so surely he was exposed to sunny weather almost all year round.
The man's yellow piercing eyes were the second thing she noticed.
Oh how she wished she hadn't looked in those predatory eyes.
"There's no need for such formalities, unless you wish for me to refer to you as 'Honorable Son', of course." Orochimaru said, his grin fell just the wrong side of friendly.
Kagome had heard so much about the man that he'd felt more like a myth to her. One of the legendary Sanin and arguably one of the most talked about shinobi in the Leaf, besides Minato of course.
Whatever he was, whatever she'd heard of his mastery of ninjutsu and the like, he clearly hadn't mastered the common smile. Kagome suppressed her shudder.
"Anyway, I was more interested in discussing Kagome-San's tutelage." Orochimaru said, not turning his eyes away from her.
Kagome found herself frozen in place but not out of fear, but out of a lack of response. Cover stories were always to say her sensei was away and leave the person asking to fill in the gaps on their own.
Asuma looked painfully confused, and he was probably regretting having spoken to her.
"Did you know, Asuma, that this Genin had a run-in with five Uchiha? Two of them were Chunin. I read the report later and it states that even with three Genin and two Chunin with their Sharingan activated, there wasn't a single blow landed on the girl before you." Orichimaru said, a playful lilt in his voice.
Asuma's eyes narrowed.
"I specialise in Taijutsu, I don't have much in the way of Genjutsu or Ninjutsu." Kagome excused. "And I didn't instigate the fight with my comrades either." She added, a small amount of embarrassment creeping in.
Orochimaru tilted his head to the side resting his chin on his hand, staring at her. He didn't even try to seem convinced as his grin grew wider. Kagome felt some muted horror in the fact that the pale man had singled her out so clearly, what could he possibly gain from calling her out as an Anbu? She must've said something wrong though, because Asuma's face shifted from confusion to grim realisation.
"This really isn't a conversation I should be a part of." Asuma excused himself waving his hands before him before shoving his hands in his pocket and started walking away. Kagome noted that once again, he didn't make way for other people walking down the hall.
"I'm sorry for interrupting the two of you, I'm sure you would have 'hit it off', splendidly." Orochimaru apologised, his tone indicated the words 'hit it off' weren't part of his normal vocabulary.
"I do however, have some questions regarding a mission your sister was a part of little over a year ago now. I believe it was her last." Orochimaru explained, his face turning into an only slightly more serious expression.
Kagome tensed, she didn't even try to mask her scowl.
"No." Kagome replied simply, entirely prepared to walk past the slender man.
A pale hand caught her shoulder as she tried to walk past him.
"I understand your hesitation but I shall need a more affirmative answer eventually. I'm in no rush though, again I'm sorry for taking up your time." Orochimaru said, it was more of a promise than a threat, but all the same, the man's words made her shudder.
With no more rude and invasive interruptions, Kagome found herself in front of the doors to the Hokage's office. Slowly, Kagome inhaled gently and exhaled, closing her eyes as she slowly pushed the doors open.
Before her was a short, elderly man sat at his desk smoking on a long pipe. The large hat that rested atop his head was emblazoned with the kanji for 'Fire', a symbol that above all other things made the man before her the leader of Konoha.
"Come in, come in. Make yourself at home why don't you." The elderly man grumbled while he pushed an ink stamp, still biting down on the pipe in his mouth. He didn't seem to be in a good mood.
Kagome faltered but walked in anyway, it was awkward to point out that Root Anbu never announced their presence, she'd assume that was true for any Anbu. It was a nice spacious room, thinking about it this was the first time she had ever actually entered the Hokage's office despite having met the man himself in her early childhood.
Finally Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up from his papers, his eyes widening and then wincing as he realised who he had just been flippant to.
"Sorry young one, my son and I just had a disagreement and I assumed he'd come back for more." Sarutobi explained.
Kagome frowned. "Asuma?" She asked and Hiruzen nodded in confirmation.
"He didn't look like he wanted to stick around, sir." Kagome said, as politely as she could.
Hiruzen huffed and nodded while taking a long drag of his pipe. "I suppose he wouldn't, I ripped him a new one, let me tell you." He chuckled while setting his papers aside.
Kagome shuffled uncomfortably, she had no idea how to talk to the man, he was so friendly and informal, in stark contrast to his clothes and setting. Everything about the room screamed 'This man is important' besides his actual face, that smiled like he was her grandfather. She had to remind herself that this man was dubbed as the 'God of Shinobi'.
There were so many achievements to his name, he'd mastered five chakra natures and completed countless impossible missions, even experienced shinobi spoke of the man in hushed whispers. Yet currently the man was chuckling to himself about having troubles with his teenage son.
"I'm sure you did, sir." Kagome said, hoping to avoid the awkwardness of talking to the leader of her village like he was her grandpa.
Hiruzen ushered her over and she complied, taking a seat in front of the desk.
"I heard from Koharu, my former teammate, an Elder of the village, that you'd had a run in with Zabuza Momochi." Hiruzen said, his face turning only slightly darker as he turned to a more grim topic.
Kagome nodded, more comfortable to talk professionally even if it was about a failure.
"I understand I should have eliminated him and I'm sorry for my lapse in judgement there Hokage-Sama." Kagome said, bowing her head briefly.
That was apparently the wrong thing to say because Hiruzen's scowl looked like it would raise the temperature of the room by a few degrees.
"I also heard that my dear friend Danzo had some incredibly warped ideas about what should have been done there." Hiruzen spoke, his voice rumbling with resentment, sarcasm practically dripped from his voice when he referred to Danzo.
Kagome balked in shock. Silence reigned over the room.
"Kagome-Chan, do you know how many missions Shikaku Nara has completed over the span of this decade?" The Third Hokage asked.
Kagome paused for a moment, this wasn't a test, surely.
"I don't know, sir." Kagome answered honestly.
Hiruzen pulled a piece of paper from a draw beneath his desk. He read the details of the paper.
"Neither did I. I had to ask for this to be delivered to me from the Intelligence division. Shikaku has over a thousand successful missions under his belt." Hiruzen read out loud with a tone of mild interest. He whistled after reading it out.
Kagome frowned, she didn't get exactly where the elderly man was going with this line of conversation.
Hiruzen stared at her expectantly as she stared back blankly.
"Killing an enemy shinobi like Zabuza might have been a boon to the village, but at the cost of a commander as successful as Shikaku? What Danzo wanted you to do would have certainly doomed this village." Hiruzen said solemnly.
Kagome didn't know how to respond, no one spoke ill of Danzo, well she didn't exactly spend any time in the company of people higher up than the man, The Hokage certainly was though.
"I hope you tell Danzo-Sama that the next time you see him, Sandaime." Kagome said as levelly as she could manage.
Hiruzen burst into a fit of laughter, gently slapping his hand on the table. "Dear girl, telling that man he's wrong is like speaking to a brick wall, he couldn't dream of a world in which he wasn't the picture of perfection." He explained.
Once again Kagome was lost for words, the God of Shinobi was laughing as he insulted the man who dictated her very life.
Kagome placed the reports on the desk in front of Hiruzen but the man paid little attention, much to her dismay. She'd really hoped the man who'd inspired such awe to those in the village would've been a little less of a gossip. He was rattling on even now about how he and his teammates had been equally as bullheaded way back when.
"-Ah… I'm sorry, I find that light conversation is the best way to alleviate stress, it certainly does for me. From what I've been told, from many different sources mind you, is that you could do with something to help relax." Hiruzen said, cutting the chit chat he had intended the moment he caught the bored look in her eyes.
Kagome stiffened at the sudden change in the man's demeanour, before he had a level of grandfatherly warmth, but in an instant that disappeared and suddenly he himself looked far more tired, weary even.
"We're at war." Kagome replied simply, even then her tone was very hushed. It was an excuse that held a lot of weight, it carried her through the weeks she went through with little more than twenty hours sleep.
Hiruzen nodded, not at all reproachful at her for saying something so obvious.
"We certainly are… I'm sure there are many shinobi in Konoha that are only holding on by a thread, and I sit here, wasting both our time reminiscing about time long past." The elderly man spoke gently.
Kagome had absolutely no clue how to talk to this man, it was like everything she said to him triggered some sort of change in the elder's personality. She had to admit, it was the kind of mental flexibility she'd expect from a Hokage, or a madman. Regardless, she could tell that this was the closest to a normal conversation Hiruzen had been a part of for a long time.
"I don't think nostalgia's a bad thing at all." Kagome replied truthfully. Even as young as she was, there were memories that she knew she'd cherish until her dying breath.
Hiruzen smiled gently. "At my age there are far too many things to look back on, it's best I leave reminiscing to the likes of you."
Finally, he reached across the desk and picked up the reports she had placed down.
"You are being put on leave for the foreseeable future, Kagome." Hiruzen said, not looking her in the eyes as he levelled the papers.
"What? Why wou-"
"-We are approaching the climax of this war, and I believe that Minato Namikaze is essential in bringing victory to Konoha, I know you are familiar with the man. His Genin team will be required in order for his mission to be successful." Hiruzen explained, cutting her off completely.
"You might believe more experienced shinobi could replace his students but… As a sensei, I know how much more Minato will be driven to succeed, knowing the peril his students will be in." Hiruzen explained further, his eyes hardened.
Under any other circumstance, Kagome would have nodded, accepted what she was told and even be grateful her superior had given her an explanation for why they demanded what they did. This time however, thoughts of Obito and Rin skewered on an enemies blade.
Kagome's hands slammed down on the desk, shaking the entire room. In an instant, two masked shinobi fell onto the balcony behind the desk, their weapons drawn. Hiruzen raised his hand in a sign to dismiss them and dutifully they did so.
"That's sick. You-You're sick!" Kagome struggled to find the words to describe the anger she felt.
It wasn't like such methods were uncommon among the shinobi world, and certainty among the Anbu ranks, but to throw away the lives of people she knew and willingly cared for? It was too personal, too real to filter out. On top of that, the man before her knew it was disgusting too, he was once a sensei, by his own admission, he'd taught the legendary Sanin and yet he still tried to use that bond to manipulate Minato.
"If you'll let me finish, dear girl." Hiruzen said coolly, not once tensing or rising from his chair.
"The reason you are on leave, is to prepare you." Hiruzen said.
"When the time comes for this mission, Minato's students will likely need to separate from him in order for Minato to be able to fight completely unburdened. Of course, I intend for Minato to feel the fear of losing his students to push him forward, but I would rather not lose potential shinobi to complete a single mission, that would be wasteful and cruel." Hiruzen explained.
In less than a second all the pieces came together and everything made sense to her.
"You want me to accompany and protect Minato's students." Kagome muttered.
Hiruzen nodded, grumbling into his pipe as he took a long drag.
"I'm old, not insane, Kagome. You should know better than anyone that cruelty is needed sometimes. How else could you kill a fellow Leaf shinobi while also protecting others?" Hiruzen asked, likely referring to Caribou, from the Kusa mission, but Kagome could name a few other similar cases.
There wasn't really anything to say in reply to that comment, for one, Kagome did suspect the man was at least slightly insane, the amount of times Hiruzen had shifted between small talk to openly admitting that he would dangle the lives of Minato's students for the slightest improvement in Minato's performance.
That was beyond detachment. That was heartless.
"Thank you for the holiday Hokage-Sama." Kagome said, standing up from the table, pointedly not apologising for her outburst.
Hiruzen huffed on his pipe. "Please, think of it as preparation, you have at least three weeks to get yourself ready."
Kagome reached the office doors and opened them, but before she left she paused in sudden thought.
"You could've explained that to me a lot better there, Hokage-Sama." Kagome stated, all the anger she felt moments ago gave way to a feeling of irritation.
She could just about see the man grinning as his head tilted down towards the desk.
"Danzo had told me you were the best shinobi the Root had at its disposal; that you were ruthless, level headed and without emotion." Hiruzen said, a smile gracing his features.
"I couldn't help but disagree, Minato tells me you have quite the soft spot for two of his students, and that you enjoy Dango, among other things."
Somehow, Kagome felt more insulted at having been sold out so thoroughly by Minato. What kind of chit chat did he involve himself in that could have possibly made him share everything he knew about her?
"I'd rather not be set up for any other tests of character in future." Kagome responded curtly, not at all willing to regard the fact that the Hokage himself had essentially said that she wasn't Anbu material.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Hiruzen said, doing the familiar shoo-ing motion with his hand, something that he shared in common with Danzo was his form of dismissal.
Kagome left the room without another word.
"That… Was an ordeal. Damn. It was like the guy was playing Shogi and you weren't even trying!" A very familiar voice trailed behind her as she walked through the halls and out of the building, brazenly not making eye contact with any passers-by as she made her way to the Hospital.
"I bet he could tell that you're not as good as Danzo says, fuck, I bet Danzo didn't even say that shit in the first place." Kagomi said, very helpfully.
"You were never cut out to be an Anbu, let alone the Root." Kagomi added, although it wasn't needed, Kagome already agreed with her sister wholeheartedly.
Entering the building, Kagome steadfastly refused to reply or give her sister the satisfaction of seeing her react, and she reached the Genba's door. She was late but she wasn't sure just how late she really was, even if she just snuck into the empty room Kagome considered simply lying in that comfy chair and taking a nap. She was on holiday after all.
"Hey! Kagome!" A familiar warm voice called out from further down the busy hall, the man himself barely avoiding collision with those nearest to him as he limped speedily toward her.
Genba huffed for at least half a minute before he spoke again.
"I uh- hooo- I was told the Hokage was expecting you so I- haa- I ran to his office. But Sandaime-Sama told me he'd just finished with you." Genba explained to her, it also explained his state of breathlessness.
Kagome nodded in recognition and opened the door to the small furnished office, Genba thanked her and entered the room, taking his seat opposite the one she would be seated in and taking out a small notebook from his jacket pocket.
She closed the door behind her and did her best not to eagerly leap into the empty cushioned seat, slowly walking to it and sparing her dignity sitting down casually. Genba was smiling patiently at her and Kagome's eyes narrowed, the Yamanaka were well known for their ability to read people's body language and she had no clue whether it could be perceived as a weakness to relax, even in this private room.
Kagomi leaned against the desk resting her chin upon her folded arms, kneeling besides Genba.
"He is supposed to be assessing you right? If you look too unfit for your duty the holiday might be permanent y'know." Kagomi said nonchalantly, but the implication was definitely a threat.
Genba coughed into his fist. "I hope we can get right into it, you would be amazed at how many shinobi need to go through these assessments." He said, with an apologetic on his face.
"That's fine, go ahead." Kagome said neutrally.
"So last time I asked you about how you grew up and how you'd come into Konoha." Genba surmised.
Flashes of smoke and fire filled her eyes and nostrils.
"You mentioned that you came to Konoha with your sister..."
"You have such a beautiful smile… You should smile more."
Kagome turned to look at her sister but she wasn't there anymore.
"And that you don't remember your parents very well." Genba concluded.
Kagome nodded stiffly.
"So, I dug up the records for admissions and citizenships, boring stuff, and very heavily guarded. And I found that you and Kagomi came to the village seven years ago, when you were seven and she was twelve." Genba said.
Kagome nodded again, sinking into the chair and trying her best to be less tense.
"That's… If you don't mind me saying, that's old enough to remember your parents to some degree." Genba said, no real accusation in his tone but all the same his eyes made contact with hers.
She shuffled into her chair more.
"Our parents were merchants, they travelled a lot, during the war there was a lot of money for those willing to deliver goods. I guess they were pretty absent. Kagomi practically raised me herself." Kagome replied honestly, the words felt hollow, it wasn't because they weren't true, but because she genuinely didn't care about her parents absence.
Kagomi had been more of a mother to her than her actual mother ever was.
Genba hummed in a somewhat understanding tone, scribbling down something in his notebook.
"I've been having a little trouble getting information on this, so forgive me prying, but I haven't been able to find her on any records. I get it, Root nin are kinda the best secret we have against the enemy so I understand why Intel are so choosy about who knows about them." Genba said while leaning back in his own chair.
"Kagomi died a year ago, on a mission." Kagome said, the words like they were physical wounds being dealt to her, the admission of it stabbed at her.
Genba leaned forward instantly.
"And that's around the time you were recommended to me, I assume that's when the higher ups started assuming your performance would drop huh." Genba spoke in rhetoric.
It was true, Kagome had been given subtle and polite suggestions to have sessions with a psych evaluator from the hospital for around a year before it had actually been imposed as mandatory.
"But it didn't, did it? Genba asked.
After a beat of silence Kagome realised that wasn't rhetorical.
"Huh?"
"Your performance as a Root Anbu. I've had Anbu come in and out of this hospital like clockwork, but none of them have spent as much time on the waiting list as you. The only reason you're even here is because one of the village elders had the spare time to check the schedules and noticed you hadn't been pushed to take these. Koharu-Sama was furious with me… Ugh I still have chills just thinking about it." Genba said, hugging himself in a dramatic display of overdone fear.
"My only excuse when the lady was grilling me was that, surely, it wasn't a problem. Your higher ups hadn't pushed the issue since obviously they care the most about results, and you weren't doing badly." Genba said.
Kagome nodded in agreement, it made plenty of sense.
"Koharu-Sama punched me in the face and said she'd re-break my leg if I didn't do my job right. So, here we are." Genba said finally.
Kagome was a lot more relaxed now, the reassurance of knowing she wasn't being inspected or judged in these sessions helped a lot.
"You're pretty good at this." Kagome said, looking Genba dead in the eye.
Genba tilted his head and smiled. "What do you mean?" He asked, feigning ignorance.
Kagome resisted the urge to groan out loud.
"Sandaime-Sama was acting like this earlier too, really disarming and friendly. It was too awkward though, I mean c'mon, the guy's called The God of Shinobi. It was like he was forcing a smile at the most normal stuff." Kagome said, venting her irritation.
"But with you… I've never met you outside of this, you're friendly and disarming, but there's no way that it's how you are naturally. You willingly changed your name from Yamanaka to Akimichi, that's literally the lowest effort way I could imagine someone getting into a fight with a whole clan." Kagome rattled off.
"Wow, you remembered that?" Genba asked, propping his chin against his hands which were supported by his elbows pressed against the desk.
"We haven't talked that much, there isn't a lot to remember." Kagome replied curtly.
Genba grinned. "Is that resentment I hear?" He asked.
"I guess." Kagome replied.
"The chairs here are super comfy aren't they?" Genba mentioned offhandedly, .
Kagome glared at the man.
"They're luxury recliners. I might be able to get you a good deal on one if you wanna buy one, my cousin hasn't exactly been selling many as of… The last decade." Genba said. The war was awful on furniture sales apparently.
"Give me an address and I'll visit this cousin in my own time." Kagome said, reigning in her desire to threaten him with a kunai knife for the information.
"Sure, sure. I just got a few more questions and I'll rip out a page here for you to keep." Genba said reassuringly.
Kagome nodded quickly, leaning back into her luxury recliner, safe in the knowledge Genba or someone else had furnished the room with them on purpose.
"Be quick." Kagome practically demanded.
Genba chuckled lightheartedly.
"Ok, ok. So before you came to Konoha, you…"
Asuma was pissed.
This wasn't news to anyone, it wasn't news to Kurenai, it wasn't news to the people walking through the corridor and it certainly wasn't news to the shinobi guarding Hiruzen's door. Pops had stonewalled all of his questions regarding the weird girl he'd met on the way here and by the looks of it, he genuinely had no idea why the hell Orichimaru of all people seemed to know so much about her.
Sure, the language Asuma had used was crude and sure, he might admit that he'd been all but ready to throw a chair at his old man, but using a wind jutsu to blast him out of the office? That was uncalled for.
"You gonna get up?" Kurenai asked. She glared down at him with loathing in her eyes.
Asuma hated that, the way she seemed to barely tolerate his existence, the way she acted like it was a kindness that she even considered speaking to him. Despite the way she treated him, he did consider her to be a friend, and the fact that she'd been the next person into his dad's office had been a small blessing.
Kurenai stood there with her arms folded, tapping a finger against her forearm as she waited for him to get up. Asuma bowed his head as he got up, hoping she didn't notice the blush on his face.
They both started walking, heading out of the main building and into the streets, Asuma shoved his hands into his pockets and levelled a glare at anyone who looked his way.
"What were you arguing about this time?" Kurenai asked, she did a fantastic job of hiding the condescension from her voice, but this wasn't exactly the first time she'd asked that question over the last few years.
Asuma groaned.
"It's not really ok for me to say." Asuma explained.
"Fine then. Don't." Kurenai conceded.
They continued walking for a while with no goal in mind. For someone that didn't really seem to like him, Kurenai didn't seem to hate his company enough to just ditch him.
"Are you heading to a training f-"
"-I bumped into an Anbu around our age after my mission report." Asuma blurted out.
"What the fuck Asuma." Kurenai replied, completely deadpan.
"I didn't mean to or anything, and I didn't even know she was an Anbu. But that creep Orochimaru butted into our conversation and basically just said as much." Asuma tried to justify himself.
The judgemental glare pointed his way seemed to be saying that Kurenai didn't think his explanation helped.
"Did he explicitly say that she was an Anbu?" Kurenai asked, trying to find the reason behind his belief.
"No, but she's supposed to be a Genin right. Orochimaru says there's a report on her fighting Chunin, Uchiha even, and winning without a scratch on her." Asuma said.
Kurenai shrugged, that sounded impressive but not grounds to assume she was an Anbu.
"Anything else?" Kurenai asked expectantly.
"Orochimaru started pushing her to say where her sensei was and why she was delivering reports on her own. She looked like she was about to run away, but then she said her Sensei was on a mission, super weak excuse considering how long she just stared at the dude." Asuma said.
"Her sensei might've died recently. She might've been upset by the question." Kurenai reasoned.
"But… Uggghh, nevermind." Asuma groaned.
Kurenai smiled to herself at the apparent victory, he doubted she even believed the girl was an Anbu one way or the other, she just loved to argue like that.
"You really should stop pushing such a subjective point of view onto others Asuma, it's aggressive and unhelpful. I mean… If you had proof…" Kurenai hinted, peering at him from the corner of her eye while walking beside him.
She saw right through him, it was irritating at times, this being one of them.
"When I bumped into her, she dropped the papers she was holding, they were reports for shinobi but their rank was blacked out. That's not how normal mission reports are written up, the page I saw had a different ink seal at the bottom too." Asuma said reluctantly.
Kurenai hummed in consideration. "I suppose that's good enough proof, could've been clan papers though." She said, but the grin on her face said otherwise.
Asuma rolled his eyes.
"Sure, bet they were." Asuma grumbled.
The pair had found their way to an open field with a few wooden posts sticking out in the middle of the clearing. It was called training field eighteen but in reality it was more of just an overgrown field.
"You know, it's against the shinobi code to snoop on documentation that's not yours." Kurenai said in a sing-song tone.
Asuma walked to the nearest tree and sat beneath it for some shade from the sun.
"Yep, very unprofessional of me." Asuma agreed half heartedly.
Kurenai's grin turned vicious.
"It'd be a shame if someone were to tell your dad that you were being such a terrible son." Kurenai said, acting for all the world like this 'person' wasn't her.
"Uhuh." Asuma sighed.
"I mean, if you were to offer anything in return for my silence, I might consider it." Kurenai said, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Asuma.
Asuma hid his furiously blushing face like a champ by turning his face away from her.
"Name your price." Asuma grumbled.
"I'm not doing great on my taijutsu recently, would you mind if we have a spar?" Kurenai asked sweetly.
Asuma frowned, that was actually pretty reasonable of her, normally she'd extort foo-
"-And I get so hungry after some good exercise, so of course you'd be buying my food afterwards." Kurenai added.
There it was.
Asuma sighed wearily. Kurenai always found a way to get a free meal out of him somehow, it was a really stupid talent of hers.
"Sure, sounds reasonable enough." Asuma said, he didn't actually think it was reasonable but he wasn't about to just erase himself from her good-books.
Asuma got up from his spot beneath the tree and started stretching, Kurenai did the same.
"Hope you're ready, 'cus I'm not gonna go easy on you." Asuma confidently said.
Kurenai chuckled gently. "Of course."
The session went on for half an hour before it came to a close, it took Kagome two of those minutes to realise Genba had used the chairs as bait to keep her there until the end of his ridiculous lineup of questions.
Kagome still said thank you at the end of it and gratefully took the slip of paper with the address written on it from the man. Genba was a manipulative asshole, Kagome had concluded.
Stopping by at a ramen stall, Kagome tucked into a delicious bowl of beef ramen and didn't pay anybody any attention as she consumed the heavenly produce. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to sit down and eat cooked food and she wasn't willing to squander the opportunity.
She thanked the shopkeeper and paid for her meal as she left the stall, finding herself without a purpose or goal in mind, Genba had warned her that his cousin wasn't available for the next three days and that alone had almost made her strangle him there and then.
Kagome internally praised her self control.
The sun glared down on the village streets, civilians walked by chatting amongst themselves, giving off a very relaxed atmosphere, not the kind of atmosphere one would consider a village at war to be capable of.
A familiar spiky hairstyle bobbed up and down amongst the crowds of people as well as the Uchiha fan symbol in the back of his shirt.
Kagome upped her pace and walked fast enough to catch up on him gradually.
After three minutes of walking in the same direction as him, Kagome eventually passed him and heard a gasp.
"Oi! Kagome!" A voice called out from exactly where she knew he was walking.
"Oh, Obito, what a surprise to see you here." Kagome lied.
Obito scratched the back of his head waiting for Kagome to turn around and actually look at him.
"Uh, yeah. Are you busy right now? My team's gonna meet up for training but Sensei's on a mission, and you did promise you'd help us with taijutsu and stuff." Obito said.
Kagome hummed to herself, pretending to recall her schedule.
"I've got some time to spare I suppose, and I made a promise didn't I?" Kagome said, thinking aloud.
Obito pumped his fist into the air and jogged ahead of her. "C'mon! I can't wait to see Kakashi's face when you beat him into the mud." Obito exclaimed.
Kagome sighed. It wasn't like she didn't want to follow him, or she wouldn't have followed the Uchiha to begin with. But she couldn't act too excited to follow him, or else maybe he'd figure out that he and Rin were literally her only friends, so it was best for her to pretend their meeting was by chance and not design.
"Which training field?" Kagome asked.
"Number eighteen! It's real big and empty, hurry up!" Obito called out. Kagome complied, upping her pace to match his own easily enough.
It was definitely a nice way to start her holiday.
A/N
Besides the intended pairing here, I'm a big fan personally of Kagome growing old and just sitting in a recliner while the rest of the cannon moves forward without her, but that's not exactly an exciting story (Kagome x Chair is still beautiful tho). This update took a long while to come together and at the time of publishing this I'm dubious as to whether or not this should be drafted and redone, so keep an eye out for when the fic was last updated. Also, vaguely related, I love the third Hokage and Asuma with a fiery passion but at least for the third Hokage, I know that he's a silly garbage man who made terrible/evil decisions essentially for the sake of plot development for Naruto, Sasuke and Itachi as well as minor characters like Neji/Hinata. The dude is such a polarising character though and I wished we could've seen him in his prime.