A/N: Oniyuri describes a sex scene from Icha Icha in the most basic way. Nothing really explicit, just a lil warning.
A whopping 6k words! Lately, I feel like my writing is feeling strange, so I'm very much looking for some reviews about my writing style.
Please, enjoy!
In her mind, she could clearly recall how the house looked when they first walked in.
It wasn't their first, or second choice; the floor was carpet, a recipe for disaster with a child, the rent was a little more than they were aiming for, and there were several rooms they couldn't think of a purpose for.
But the windows were lovely; it was on the river, the landlady requested payments through the bank, not in person, and the maintenance was fully handled by the tiny corporate council, and the residents put effort into making it livable. The room even came with a wonderful wall vine around the window.
It didn't come with furniture, and the carpet had to go, so move day was pushed back a week. Now, she was sprawled on the couch, watching Naruto shakily prepare some ramen in the kitchen. The walls were decorated with posters of ramen, bestowed by the owner of Naruto's favourite ramen stand, one of Oniyuri's decorative fans and other omiyage she'd picked up from around the world.
The rest of the rooms were mostly bare, although the carpet was gone. One room she hadn't seen yet, Naruto's room, and one of the bathrooms (there were two ) she'd attacked with cleaning products when they purchased it and also left complimenting containers for hygienic substances.
"Alright!" Naruto crowed, victorious. "One normal ramen and one Oniyuri ramen coming up!"
She rolled her eyes as his words. She'd asked him to drain the water out after two minutes and after several minutes of explaining that yes, she was serious and no, don't put the flavouring in yet, Naruto begrudgingly complied. Now the steaming bowl of noodles - her's not soggy, which was her goal - she tore open the flavour packets and poured them on. Naruto stirred up his own bowl, sipping at the hot water.
Interestingly, he didn't slurp. Oniyuri didn't either, it was hard to quell a habit purposely used for decades upon decades, but she would've thought Naruto had no qualms about it. Not only was he a child with no parental guidance, but Konoha was very distinctly Japanese.
Maybe she needed to take another look at the culture throughout the Elemental Nations. That would have to be later, though.
"Congratulations Naruto. Your new home." She held up her open palm and Naruto slapped it with all his might, letting out a cheer. "Now why didn't you tell me Jiji was the Hokage?" She pinched his cheeks.
"Waaaa I jont know?! I jus forgo'!"
Imagine her shock when one moment they were wandering through the Hokage's garden and the man himself stepped out from the wisteria tunnel. It was only Naruto's exorbitant greeting that clued her in.
"Now that you've settled in, I've got a lot to teach you." She began. Naruto looked at her curiously over his ramen. "You're very much living by yourself, Naruto, and you have to be responsible. That includes meals, hygiene and maintenance."
Naruto cocked his head.
"Like brushing my teeth? We did that at the orphanage too!"
"Brushing your teeth is very important, but there's more than that. Let's begin with the kitchen." she slid off the couch (at her height she had to heave herself up) and lead Naruto into the kitchen. The fridge was the best they could buy with Naruto's money and the orphanage fund. The little extra the Hokage bestowed on Naruto had vanished into ripping up the carpet. She opened drawers at random until she found a pad of paper. Naruto would definitely need everything written down.
"To begin with, what do you know about the food pyramid?" He shrugged. "Every food is sorted into different groups, and each food group is ordered on how frequently you need to eat it. First, fruit and vegetables, five to seven servings a day. Next is wheat foods, three to five times a day. This is healthy cereals, bread, pasta, potatoes and rice."
Milk, yoghurt and cheese; three servings a day. Meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans and nuts; two servings a day. Fats, spreads and oils; not every day.
When she drew in the fats into the tiny tip of the pyramid, she could see Naruto visibly deflate.
Oniyuri chuckled and flicked his head lightly. "It doesn't mean you can only eat a bowl of ramen or a chocolate bar once a week. The pyramid is just a ratio check. You can eat a chocolate bar once a day, but you've got to make sure that you eat lots of wheat, fruit, vegetables and dairy. Oh, here's a little trick: eat three veggies and two fruits a day!"
She wrote down the sentence onto the next sheet of paper. The first one was quickly ripped off to be stuck on the fridge, the second one following quickly.
"You got it?"
"Kinda. Why do I have to eat so much?"
"Let me tell you about scurvy…."
Once Naruto was sufficiently frightened, Oniyuri bundled him off to the bathroom, showing him all the things that needed cleaning, and promising him to show him soon.
"I also have to make sure that you're cleaning yourself properly, but that's also for later."
Naruto gulped. "Ugh,"
"Don't be a baby! I won't see anything too much." she laughed at his face. "Hygiene is really important though, Naruto, so you have to put effort into it. I'll be helping you for a bit, and then I'll monitor you for a little more. By the time I leave, you'll be self-sufficient!"
Oniyuri turned to smile at him, but Naruto's usual wide grin was mysteriously absent.
"How long until you go away?"
"Just over two months. That's a long time!" she took his hand lightly. "I know that after that, you won't see me for years. But I'll be around, alright? See my fan? The rocks I got from Kumo?"
"Oh," Naruto perked up at the sight of them. They were scattered around, tastefully filling in the living room. "Yeah! The fan! Why is it a decoration fan?"
"Well, I got it from a small village in Water country." She lightly ran her fingers over the beautiful painting. The fan was certainly decoration; it was wider than her toddler's arms and the edges of it were laced with strings and stone. The attachments and the picture - an orb of fire on the horizon at one side, a temple shrouded in mist on the other side - reminded her strongly of the breathtaking sights of the Water islands at dawn. "But it's honestly a struggled to lug around. It can't close, so I had to be super careful not to crush it. That's why I'm giving it to you!" Truthfully, it was safely transported around thanks to the sealing scrolls, but it was often left there and she didn't see the value of the fan if all it was is hidden away.
It looked better on Naruto's wall anyway.
She moved over to the rocks from Kumo. "these rocks are Kumo's local spirits!"
"Spirits?!" Naruto gasped, eyeing the pebbles with distrust.
"Don't worry, they're just local kami's to bless Kumo. Anyway, the local lore is fascinating! We have Izanagi, Amaterasu, Inari, and more; Kumo has their own. Their deities aren't like ours; this one is the Crow Mother, this is the Rainbow Snake, for example. Each has its own legend and sacred ground somewhere in Lightning Country." She recognised the Rainbow Snake from Australia's Indigenous Dreamtime stories, and a few of the others reminded her of Indigenous Americans, the Indians, and Africans. Lightning country was an amalgamation of all of them, made possible by the small towns with little interaction with each other and the size of the country.
She walked through all her omiyage, Naruto trailing behind her, interested.
"Wow! I didn't know that everyone is so weird!"
"Weird isn't the correct word, it'll offend someone. Try 'different' or 'unique.'" she returned to the kitchen, sticking up all the notes she took down on the paper onto the fridge. It was on its way to looking like someone's grandma's fridge. "Make sure you follow these! It's important to be healthy if you want to grow up to be strong."
"Yosh!" Naruto cried, a bright grin showing off his blindingly white teeth. It seems his time without a home hadn't left obvious physical marks. "What do you want to do now?"
She hummed. "I want to see a certain someone. He's got a lot to answer for." Underneath her shirt was a sheet of water, swirling around at her command and almost vibrating with what she had in mind.
"Oh! How are we gonna find him?"
"Ask, of course. But we'll need to be sneaky. Here's the plan…"
Naruto ran down the street, huffing and puffing as he struggled to properly dodge other passersby. Inari, he had to be on time. Their target was finally walking down Shadow Way, and yet Oniyuri was in the unknown.
For a scant moment, he swore he saw the target himself strolling before Naruto, head buried in the same book he was reading since Naruto caught him on the mission room bridge, over the entrance to the Hokage's gardens.
But then he vanished again, and when he jumped up onto one of the public seats, he could see the bright hair of the target way behind him.
Thank Inari that he had silver hair.
Alright alright alright. Naruto had this in the bag. He's pranked plenty of ninjas before! One was even a jounin! But he couldn't get too cocky - Oniyuri warned him that Kakashi-sensei was the best of the best. The tired, sleep-deprived, special jounin he nailed before was nothing like Kakashi.
"But don't worry Naruto." Oniyuri nodded grimly. "he will catch these hands."
He didn't quite get what his little-but-old friend meant by that, but as soon as he figgered it out, he was absolutely going to use that phase. It was unbelievably cool.
Harashima's tree could be seen across nearly all of Konoha - Naruto used it as a landmark when he got lost - but now it was towering over him. When he joined those wondering about under its reach, he didn't stop running until he came to the edge of the pond.
Kakashi-sensei entered the Centre Square not long after Naruto (even though he had been running, damn adults and their long legs!), strolling around the edge of the tree's branches. This is exactly what they were prepared for.
Yesterday they stalked Shadow Way and Centre Square. He already knew that sometimes ninjas come down this way in full view, although he didn't quite know why. Oniyuri said it was probably guarding duty, and she was pretty Old so Naruto was going to trust what she said.
Their mission was to find out when Kakashi-sensei was next. But they didn't find that, oh no, they found something better: a guarantee that Kakashi-sensei would be coming down Shadow Way the very next day.
It started when Oniyuri was surveying "ground zero" (as she put it). Naruto didn't really know what she was doing, grumbling and mumbling as she looked down at the pond and up to the branches above, but he trusted the Ancient One.
Then, from behind Naruto, came a vaguely familiar shout of his name. When he (fearfully) turned around, Iruka-sensei stood there. He was one of the teachers in the grade above him, but like he told Oniyuri, Naruto already had a run-in with him.
"Sensei!" He greeted. "H-how are you today?!" Iruka-sensei narrowed his eyes. Uh-oh, this wasn't good.
"You aren't making a prank, are you?"
A splash behind Naruto drew their attention. "No, we're getting revenge," Oniyuri answered, stepping away from the pond to join the pair of them.
"Excuse me?" Iruka-sensei blinked at her, obviously not ready for that answer. Naruto quickly launched into an explanation of their goal and the events that lead them to here.
Iruka-sensei actually gave it a thought. A thought! When every other time Iruka-sensei talked him out of it!
"Unfortunately, Hatake-san was taken off guard duties a few years ago - too many civilian complaints." Wait, then that means this was a failure from the beginning. Naruto almost began to groan, but then the Academy sensei smiled. "It sounds like him, to be honest. I do not like Hatake-san. Not after he handed in that report covered in dango."
"What? How did he even do that? Was it completely covered?"
"Every inch. I had to peel it all of. And of course, it was barely done!"
"Man, sensei, that sucks."
Iruka-sensei nodded - he realised they'd just bonded over how much Kakashi-sensei sucks. There was a pause in the conversation where Iruka-sensei simply stared at the two of them.
"Sensei," Oniyuri said extremely slowly, drawing out every syllable. "I don't suppose you can help us? Get revenge on Kakashi-sensei?"
But that was impossible! Iruka-sensei would never -
He stood up and leaned back, considering Oniyuri's words. "Depends. Hatake-san is a superior officer, and I am busy with work."
"Paperwork? Marking?" His friend immediately replied. "I might have a solution, but I warn you, you need to have jounin-level chakra."
"You drive a hard bargain."
"It'll allow you to leave a copy of yourself at your office, allow other people to interact with that copy, and you'll retain all the information of the paperwork afterwards."
"Uh-huh,"
"And regarding Kakashi-sensei's status? If you're a good enough ninja that shouldn't be a problem."
Iruka-sensei laughed and held out his hand. "You got me. I'll help you out."
"YES!" Naruto shouted, even though he didn't really understand what happened. Oniyuri bagged them a sensei to help them out. That was more magical than anything Iruka-sensei could do.
"Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to be on - around about midday."
"So you can ask Kakashi-sensei to take your shift?" Iruka-sensei nodded at Naruto, a cheeky grin glinting. He held out a hand and shook both of theirs.
"Make sure to get him good. I'd recommend not using any chakra because he's a good sensor."
"Don't worry, I can't form it yet. I've got something else planned. Now, to tell you." Oniyuri stood on her toes as Iruka-sensei bent down obligingly, whispering something in his ear.
"I haven't heard that jutsu in a long time. How do you know it?"
Oniyuri shrugged. "I travel a lot, so in one of the villages I went to, they were using this jutsu for paperwork." she smiled guilelessly up at the older man like she was just a naïve three year old. Iruka-sensei took the performance without realising it.
"I'll have to come off as very frustrated, very stressed. Act like Hatake-san is my last option, instead of my target. Offer a reward, because Hatake-san doesn't like guard duty like the rest of us…. Hmmm…"
"Maybe a skipped report," Naruto said, remembering Iruka-sensei's previous words. "Sometimes the other sensei's offer that to students."
Iruka-sensei raised an eyebrow. "That shouldn't be done, but seeing as I'm doing it for authentic ninja duties, I won't remark."
He stood straight and offered Oniyuri a hand. "We've got a deal. Now get him good."
That happened yesterday, and Iruka-sensei was evidently good on his word. Kakashi was on guard duty - out in full gear, walking in daylight down the main streets, and generally looking like a reminder of security.
But he wasn't walking under the tree branches and was nowhere near the pond. So, Naruto easily plucked up the courage that enabled him to break through everyone's stares to start a prank and filled his lungs with air.
"YOU!" he bellowed, dashing as fast as he can from the edge of the pond to Kakashi-sensei's silver hair. "YOU DIDN'T KEEP YOUR PROMISE!"
He launched at the ninja, knowing that his shouts had already forewarned him. Kakashi-sensei simply held out his hand and caught Naruto's head, stopping him.
"Oh it's you," he lightly said, already moving on. No! Kakashi-sensei was going the wrong way! Quickly, he began to tug on Kakashi-sensei's leg, back towards the direction he came from.
"Nuh-uh! You still gotta teach me! Oniyuri was looking forward to it!"
"But I did help you," the ninja grumbled tiredly. "who do you think sent Gai to you?"
"We wanted you! Gai-sensei might be awesome at taijutsu but we asked you!"
"Well, I didn't feel like it."
Kakashi-sensei still walked on, ignoring Naruto's tugs at his legs. Fine! Naruto had to be even pushier. Hey, people never liked it when Naruto took something of theirs without asking (although, sometimes even after he asked). Maybe Kakashi-sensei would follow him if he did?
He picked up a few tricks and abilities while living it up in the slums. Pickpocketing wasn't nice but damn was it easy. But one thing he learnt was to go for something easy rather than valuable first. If those two things coincide, great! If not, well, move onto another target.
The only thing he could be reasonably sure he could take was an orange book, small and thin, half-tucked into Kakashi-sensei's pant pockets. He slipped it out when he was attacking Kakashi-sensei's leg again, and quickly surveyed the area around him. Yes! There was a small cart of cabbages about to pass the two of them.
Naruto quickly slipped around the front of the horse, dashing back to the pond. Hopefully, Kakashi-sensei wouldn't recognise what he'd done until Naruto got a little head start and didn't bother chasing after him with full speed.
He looked back, just in time to see his target drop his hand to the pocket that once held the orange book. When his hand returned empty, Naruto grinned, safely sitting at the edge of the pond.
"HEY, old MAN! Look at THIS!" he waved the book. A group of ladies beside him gasped. Oh, so it was a famous book? He cracked it open, falling to a random page. There was a lot of complicated kanji and although he'd been improving this last few weeks, he only understood a few words. "She raised her… weapon? until it was resting just under Eiko's chin. She um, said something? I can't read that… very slowly, she traced the tip down-"
"Please," a voice, finally edged with impatience, spoke right in front of Naruto "stop. This book isn't for you." It was Kakashi-sensei! He'd teleported from across the Square to right in front of Naruto. When he looked up to make eye contact and maybe offer the book back, he caught sight of something else. It was - Oniyuri falling from above?
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
Fwoooooosh!
Naruto stumbled back, flinching and covering his eyes with his arms. Kakashi-sensei was… less fortunate. The load of water - where the hell Oniyuri got that much?! - landed squarely on the ninja, and he was soaked.
"Hahaha!" Oniyuri crowed, standing on top of Kakashi-sensei's head! The man in question looked like a sad, wet dog. His hand was still reaching out to Naruto for his book. At the reminder, Naruto clutched the bait tighter in his hands.
"Take that, you meanie! You broke our promise!" Oniyuri leapt down, and instead of landing awkwardly as every other civilian student in the academy did, she slowly glided down until she was standing next to Naruto. Then, she struck the Gai Pose. "But Gai-sensei is very cool! He, unlike you, has a fiery soul!"
Oniyuri tugged on Naruto's arm. "Come on, let's go! Before he gets angry!" His friend reached out towards Kakashi and suddenly the water soaking the man's clothes began to act very weirdly. Instead of slowly dripping down to the dirt road, it rose, joining together in one big tunnel to the pond. In seconds, Kakashi was dry again - well, except his hair. That was still sopping.
"BYE LOSER!" Oniyuri shouted, and bolted. Naruto only followed because of her hand clamped around his arm.
Five steps later, the laughter caught up.
A/N: in this scene, Oniyuri is thinking about sex and H rated books. Not explicit scenes (although she does break down a sex scene from Icha Icha to bare sentences). Just a warning!
She slipped her fingers between the pages, her other hand trailing beside the lines of kanji. Sometimes she still had to guess vocab from the context, but despite her efforts to keep the book hidden from any adults, the content is awfully easy to glide through.
Boy likes girl. Boy dominates girl. Girl puts up a little protest to make it sexy but 'admits' that she wants the boy, making it almost non-con but not quite. Boy gets hard. Girl moans. Boy barely does anything and the girl orgasms. Boy blows a load wayyy too large to be possible.
Oniyuri huffed, disappointed, and lets the book tilt out of her hand to fall into the trash bin. Not only was it poorly written, but the sex was so obviously written by some Nice Guy™ that it was painful. The borderline non-consent also left a nasty aftertaste.
If these Icha Icha series was hailed the best H-books across the Elemental Nations, Oniyuri was going to have a chat with someone. The writer himself, but after that, she'll pop by a publisher and show them a decent story with sex scenes.
If she has to hide that's she's only, what, three, then oh well. She'll learn henge sometime soon.
"So what does it say?" Naruto interjected from the table.
She simply waved her hand. "Really boring and awful writing. Kakashi-sensei has terrible tastes."
"Really?"
"Yes. Just forget the book, Naruto. What's the kanji for げい?" Her friend immediately panics, the book slipping from his mind. The brush moving once more, Oniyuri gives the orange book one more disappointed look. When she sat down at the table, instead of pulling Naruto's curriculum towards her, she produced a fresh page of paper and a pencil.
Now, she couldn't expect a book featuring Icha Icha's writer being transported to another world and falling into hot steamy gay sex and perhaps homoromantic love too to explode into popularity instantly. She had to appeal to the market and slowly gain H readers their trust and love. Slowly nudge (more like shove) them over to proper taste, until authors like Jiraiya have to adapt to the new consumer trend.
She didn't really want to spend too much brain power on what basically consisted of sexual fantasies, so she quickly thought of all the harem anime Oniyuri, unfortunately, watched in another life.
Man transported to a world were less than 10% of the population are male. Of course, the main character would be constantly drunk on Respect Woman juice. Maybe if the publisher was feeling up to it, she could have the man get pegged at least once...
"Whatcha writing?" Naruto leaned over the table until his thick blonde head was blocking her sight. Thank gods she'd written this in English.
"A very, very, very long payback plan to trick not only Kakashi-sensei, and most men in the world, but also mess with the author of that orange book." She pushed Naruto's head back with the end of her pencil. "It has to be extremely confidential, so it's in another language."
"Sick!" Naruto laughed, falling back onto his cushion. "Hope you get them good!"
His naive response contrasted so brilliantly against the dirty details she was writing - it made her giggle. "I hope so too. What's the kanji for れい?"
Naruto hurriedly picked up his discarded brush.
She took a slow and filling breath, sighing through her nose soft enough that Naruto doesn't pick up on it. Next week, Konoha Academy's summer holidays were over and the boy across from her would be returning to the classroom.
Events seemed to line up perfectly: dance practice was picking up now that her first show was less than two months away. She also needed to practice with her water, diving into the teaching scrolls Himawari had on hand. With so many clan secrets to be kept, it would be best that Naruto was busy elsewhere. And even if he didn't have school, Oniyuri would much prefer him to be doing something rather than wondering Konoha's streets alone.
She rhythmically tapped her pencil edge against the page, creating a cluster of dots, as she watched Naruto very slowly go through kanji. Students in the ninja academy were of higher education - the kanji Naruto was writing now was at least highschool level, and some of the maths equations Oniyuri was re-hashing crossed over into physics a few units ago.
But even with the jump in his literacy skills, Oniyuri couldn't see Naruto improving much. The ability to read was crucial, but Naruto had a lot of catching up to do and a little concentration problem too. He found ways around it, but she still speculated if he had enough self-control to use them.
Long, long, long ago she'd had been more or less the same. No ADHD symptoms, but just a lazy jackass who couldn't force herself to do anything. But she'd grown up - training herself and more throughout university life and adulthood, until, in her retirement, she had enough self-discipline to continuously practice and hone several hobbies and habits every day for decades.
It was a difference between Naruto and her, between the rest of her (hopefully future) peers and herself - she was old. She knew that being lazy was a dead end. She knew that studying is crucial. She also knew how to enjoy life with hobbies and interests. She could easily pace herself between improving herself and enjoying herself. But they didn't.
They still had to go through childhood, without care for passing time. They didn't see the usefulness and joy of picking up a new skill. They couldn't comprehend that sometimes the biggest villain is you, your laziness and abundance of distractions.
Another sigh. She looked down at her scrawlings, a cloud of mosquitoes imprinted in the top right corner. But she also knew that this was something each child had to realise by themselves. All she could do is prod him in the right direction.
When she woke up, Hanabi was surprisingly still shuffling around the room, gathering things for her day. A quick glance out the window showed that no, she hadn't mysteriously awoken before sunrise.
"Hanabi?" She called, setting aside her lionfish plushie (made and bought in Kiri) gently, taking great care to tuck the spines and stingers comfortably against the body. She liked it because the tendrils were almost as long as her own legs. "Do you not have anywhere to go this morning?"
"Rest day," her caretaker answered, appearing before her bed shortly afterwards. "Do you still want to eat with Asagao and Ajisai?" She almost said no until it struck her that it would be a perfect time for Hanabi to observe Asagao's "parenting."
"If that's alright? Naruto's also coming over." He had been doing so for almost two weeks now; Hanabi had a delightful time teaching him some simple dishes to cook up.
"I'll invite the two of them over for a change. Do you want anything in particular this morning?"
Later, just as she slipped on the day's clothes and pinned her hair behind her ears with some blue hair clips, Naruto tumbled in.
"Mornin' Oniyuri!" He went to sit down at the table, realised he had left the door open, and scrambled back to close it. Joining her once more at the doorway to the kitchen, he grinned. "Today's the day!"
"School begins!" She cheered along, happy and a little surprised at his enthusiasm. Didn't he find it a waste of time? With his teachers, Oniyuri herself would find it hard to gather any other emotion but annoyance.
"I'm gonna do SO well now!" He planted his fists on his hips and spread his legs wider than his shoulders. A small huff of air exited through his nose. "I can READ!"
"You sure you've memorised the vocab?" She teased, poked his arm and turned to the fridge to bring out the ham, cheese and other sandwich ingredients. She spared a laugh for Naruto's yell of confirmation and coaxed him over to the kitchen bench. "Lunch is very important, especially while at school! You need to have a good lunch to have the energy for the rest of the day. Sandwiches are a very good idea. You can use sugary spreads, but I find healthy things like ham and vegetables still yummy!"
She brought out a red capsicum.
"What do you like? The only meat you can take is ham, but you can go bananas with the vegetables."
"Go bananas?" Naruto giggled.
"You can also put bananas on too,"
He tried to protest that all vegetables were awful, but after a simple "you do remember what scurvy is?" Naruto seriously considered what was before him, before choosing cheese and lettuce. After asking his permission, Oniyuri slips in a slice of tomato too. Once wrapping it up with a fresh paper wrap, she puts it into an empty shopping bag, along with a banana, three small hard lollies, and a small tub of nuts.
"There you go! A healthy, filling lunch." She rolled the back until the opening is tucked tightly under it and wedged it into Naruto's backpack. "Now for a good breakfast."
Hanabi returned to take over shortly afterwards. Oniyuri set the table and didn't have to wait long before a polite knock sounded at the door.
"Good morning!" She called, dragging over a stool so she could unhook the latch. When she peered around the door, her first thought was where's Ajisai? All she could see was Asagao's bright, golden yukata. It wasn't until she raised her eyes to meet Asagao's frosty blue eyes that she realised that Ajisai was sitting on her hip, held in place by his caretaker.
That… definitely rubbed her the wrong way.
"Please come join us, Asagao, Ajisai." She hopped off the stool, kicking it over to the side and let the door swing open. "We have another guest with us. He's here to learn how to cook."
Asagao spoke up behind her. "Someone from the clan?"
"No. His name is Naruto."
They step into the small lounge room, and she gestured to the seats for the two of them. The table is long enough for six people, so she sits at one end, intending to be between Ajisai and Naruto.
She settled in time to observe Asagao gently place Ajisai on the ground, right before his cushion.
"Excuse me for a moment," Asagao lightly said, vanishing to where the toilet was. Each hotel room was exactly the same, so she didn't have to inquire of its location.
Oniyuri immediately leaned forward once her dazzling yukata disappeared from view. "Did she seriously carry you here?"
Ajisai's lips tightened. They were almost a thin strip. "Yes. She still hasn't stopped."
"We're, what, three? I'm pretty sure other kids have stopped too!"
"Obviously she's not getting the memo."
"Oh hello, Ajisai!" Hanabi's voice snapped them out of their conversation. She placed two jugs on the table, one milk, for Oniyuri, and one water, for everyone else. Naruto was behind her, adorable frown as he carefully placed one foot before the other, carrying a large tray. She couldn't see what they had prepared - from her sitting position, all she could see was the white rims of dishes. "We're having hashbrowns and eggs today, thanks to my lovely assistant."
"Hi I'm Naruto!" he grinned, closing the distance between him and the table and gently set the tray down. "How old are you?"
"Ajisai and I are in our late thirties, Asagao is in her fifties. I'm not sure what Oniyuri is though, she's never told me." Hanabi answered, having returned with glasses.
"Whoa, this Asagao is old!" he exclaimed, and Ajisai barely covered a laugh with a cough.
"If fifty is old, then I'm positively ancient," Oniyuri interjects mildly, pulling apart the hashbrown with her chopsticks, avoiding the egg for now. Her current body didn't mind eggs but she did spend decades hating the faintest taste of eggs. It was a little hard to navigate that mental block.
"WOW!" Naruto exclaimed. Asagao quietly slipped into her seat beside Ajisai, quietly greeting Hanabi. "I'm only nine."
Ajisai haughtily sniffed and completely ignored him. "What are you going to do today?" he instead asked her. She gave him a look - she knew full well that he was tense with Asagao beside him, but it wasn't nice to ignore Naruto.
"I'm going to drop Naruto off to the academy, and then come back to do some dance practice." There was enough time and she wanted to see his peers. If things were approved then one day she'd be sitting in those classrooms with them.
"Oh, what are you studying, then?"
"I'm gonna be a ninja!"
"No wonder why you're interested in him." Ajisai clearly notes. Oniyuri was thankful that he had the mind to say it in English.
"What he say?" Naruto gasped, leaning forward as if it would make him suddenly understand a completely unrelated language.
"Nothing that's polite," she lightly slapped Ajisai's upper arm. "What has Asagao got planned for you?" Ajisai's face transformed from neutral to extreme discomfort and displeasure, very much feeling the venom in her words.
"A music lesson, then visiting Himawari, a little reading time before lunch, and then a music lesson, and she'd going to see if I could get into the finance team sometime in the afternoon." Ajisai poked at his egg. He tapped it a few times and the yellow orb split, spilling golden rivulets down the white sides to pool beside the hash brown. A heavy sigh escaped him.
Shit, she thought and leaned over to lightly rest her hand on his leg. "It won't be long, I swear."
"Come on Naruto, I want to meet your peers." she pointed at his meal, which he had barely touched yet. "You ready to face the day?"
"YEAH!" he shouted, grinning at both of them.
Their departure was as quiet as Naruto could be. He had finished quick enough, but still forgot the morning rituals of brushing teeth and hair. Currently, he went through the tasks with gusto, but Oniyuri wasn't counting down the days until he began to complain about them.
While he was busy in the bathroom and Asagao was braiding her fringe back into the rest of her hair, she watched Ajisai slowly retreat into himself. Hunched down, head forward, his fringe hung before his eyes. When Asagao pronounced her hair done, she leaned towards him again and planted her hand beside his thigh. In very clear English, she stated:
"It might take a few days. A few weeks. But I promise I'll get you out of her hands."
"Come on," Asagao immediately laughed, giving Oniyuri a light slap on the top of her head. "Don't be so rude!"
"Excuse me, but I can speak anything I want," Oniyuri icily said, itching to slap away the hand now smoothing her hair back. Despite her acidic tone, Asagao didn't take notice. When Oniyuri turned back to the table, Hanabi was observing. Nobody said anything more.
"Can we go now, Oniyuri? I wanna introduce you to Shikamaru! And Kiba! Oh, and Chouji!" Naruto came stumbling into the room, backpack hanging off one shoulder. "Also, Kiba's not supposed to but he brings his partner Akamaru to school anyway!"
She smiled and stood up to join her friend. "Then, let's go!"