The ANBU Chronicles

File #1; Chapter 9

((A/N: I found out that I was right the first time I spelt his name. His name is Fuchika Genma but a lot of sites have him pegged as Shiranui Gemma. I'm going to go with Shiranui Genma.))

The next morning, Genma and Sasori had woken up within 10 minutes of each other. Genma let Sasori shower first and while she showered, he went downstairs to get breakfast for the two of them. He went to a little breakfast stand a little ways into the market and picked up some seafood breakfast sandwiches. They consisted of little Kaiser rolls that had been split in half and each had some sort of delicious mixture of ingrediants. Genma picked out a sandwich that had a sunny side up egg, some lobster, and a bit of salty spinach in the egg. He chose some other small sandwiches with some tamer ingrediants, paid for the sandwiches, and left the stall.

The market was abuzz with activity even in the early hours were a mist still hung over the village. Mariners of all kinds lined the streets of the market district and threw their morning catch into trays of ice while their wives, girlfriends, and daughters called out to passerby. Genma was one street over from them and he could faintly smell the fresh fish over the delicious smells of cooking fish. He stopped into the same mini-mart he had been in two nights before and bought another bottle of icy cold apple juice. Today, they had to go shopping for outfits to wear to the club tonight and oh Hokage, Genma hated shopping. He couldn't match colors to save his life. Hopefully, Sasori would have some sense of fashion.

He went up the flight of stairs to the room he shared with Sasori and pushed his key into the lock. This time, he ducked as he went in. Laughter like the tinkling of small bells reached his ears. It was the first time he ever really heard her laugh. He smiled warmly at his partner, who was sitting on the bed, and set the bag with the juice and sandwiches down on the table. She stood and dug around in the bags.

"Ooh! You got the good stuff!" she said as she picked up a sandwich that just happened to be Genma's egg, spinach, and lobster one.

"THAT good stuff is mine," he said, plucking it out of her fingers," There is another one in there with lobster and egg but it doesn't have the salty spinach."

"Bastard," she mumbled and dug into the bag again.

Sasori picked the sandwich with the boiled egg slices, green onion and bacon. She took a bite out of it and tried to get him back.

"Mmm.... this ish good!" she said," I pity you that you can't enjoy some of this sandwich..."

Genma stepped towards her and took a bite out of his sandwich, chewing it mere inches from her face.

"Mmmm," he said as he swallowed the bite," Good sandwich."

Her face fell and she took another bite of her sandwich, levelling her glare at him. Her attempts to tantalize him with her sandwich failed as he took another bite, slowly and deliberately chewing it just so.

"You are such a bastard, Shiranui Genma."

A half hour later, Genma had showered and was ready to set about the torture of shopping. He wore a simple dark blue shirt with the words "Women kill me- I don't mind dying!" written on the back. On the front of the shirt, there was a little symbol that was found on most of Jiraiya's "Icha Icha Paradisu" books. For pants, he wore a pair of khaki pants and at Sasori's urging threw on a pair of socks and running shoes. He wanted to wear flip flops but she refused to be seen in public with him if he did. And as always, a senbon needle in his mouth and a blue handkerchief over his hair. Sasori herself had her hair in a high ponytail and wore a black ribbon choker. That paired with short cargo shorts, a purple tank top and black zip-up hoodie and cute black sandals. She looked like a civilian for all intents and purposes.

Then they set out. Money from Fire Country was worth ten times the currency of Wave Country and things were cheap in Wave Country since they had found prosperity and the completion of the Great Naruto Bridge. As a result, a few Konoha dollars could buy them a feast at any local restaurant. The same was true everywhere else on the island.

The first place they stopped at was a store that sold formal attire for men. Grudgingly and dreading what might happen, he went in. The proprietor came over to them and politely bowed, greeting them. The man had a smile that was too big for his face, large front teeth, an awful comb-over, a measuring tape draped over his shoulders unevenly, and a laugh that made Genma want to grab the measuring tape and strangle him with it- which was well within his ninja ability to do so. He decided to let Sasori do the talking since she was easily sharper dresser of the two.

The proprietor whose name was Mr. Mukai, listened to her eagerly and motioned for Genma to step in front of a mirror on the stool- putting the ninja in an advantageous position to hang him. Genma allowed himself a sadistic, dreamy smile of the things he could do to that annoying man who so reminded him of a flea that wouldn't stop. The man whipped the measuring tape off of his shoulders and started to measure Genma in every sort of way. Genma just moved as he was told and let this beaver in a human body get his measurements.

Once he was done getting his measurements, Mr. Mukai rushed him to a large folder that had many different styles of suits and tuxes displayed in glossy sheets. He browsed through. To him, all the tuxes looked about the same but with a few details changed here and there. Mr. Mukai was chattering away in one ear and Genma just wished for the man to shut up.

Sasori saved him by distracting Mr. Mukai. Relieved, Genma took a seat on a padded bench while Sasori picked out a few suits and shirts for him to try on in some rather sleek styles. And speaking of suits, Mr. Mukai wore an iridescent green suit with a deep shirt and a white tie. Even Genma, forever inept at fashion, had to wince at the man's poor choice of clothing. Normally, Genma was very laid-back when it came to other people but this man was down-right infuriating.

20 minutes later, Genma was trying on a few suits. Comments on how they looked on him went in one ear and out the other. At this point, Genma didn't give a sht what he wore- he'd go stark-naked to the party if it wasn't WAY out of line. He liked the black suit with the simple black turtleneck shirt underneath, no tie, bow, or ascot. The suit was cut nicely with three buttons on the coat. Genma liked the suit, a lot. Sasori did have good taste.

They bought the suit along with a pair of socks and shoes that Genma felt comfortable in. It was imperative that he be able to run around and do ninja stuff in the shoes. So after 2 hours of dealing with Mr. Mukai, Genma was finally free and he had a suit as well.

Now it was time to shop for her. This would be the easy part. Genma could sit down and relax while she tried on dresses and various kimono. Sasori was quick to find a kimono shop. The proprietor however looked like Mr. Mukai's evil twin sister and made Mukai tolerable. Genma excused himself from her equally infuriating presence and waited outside. Not even a half hour later, Sasori came out of the shop with a long box tucked under one arm.

"That didn't take long," he remarked, flicking his needle at her.

"I found what I wanted almost as soon as I got in the store," she said, checking her watch," We can hit a few more shops so I can get some accessories."

"I'll wait outside," he said with a smile.

-End Chapter 9-