Author's Notes: Damn this took forever to write! But I wanted to make sure the girls did the guys justice so I re-thought their interactions from the episodes - so it took a while. Enjoy! One more chapter to go after this. If you wonder who some of the names are go to leafninja-dot-com and check them out in the Biography section to your heart's content. ; )

Major thanks to all my reviewers! You guys make this rock, thanks for gracing this with over 200 hits… (though I suspect many hits just got lost on fanfiction-dot-net)

Uber-major thanks to teh zuul! and bite! for glancing bits and pieces over! And to all my online buddies (notably Kilerkki and Chevira) for peskering me to get this done!

Girl Talk Chapter 3: Boys According to Girls

"ANKO! Stop eating the bed sheets!"

Things were going as well as could be expected on the female recovery ward of Konoha Hospital. Tsunade's check-up had been and gone, and it wasn't approaching lunch time fast enough for the liking of one of the ward's residents.

"I'm b-fored Kurefai!" Anko scowled around a mouthful of rayon-cotton blend. Saying she was hungry too would just be babyish. Kurenai tried not to scowl. Or laugh. Anko looked so funny; even Kurenai was amused.

"That's not an excuse to behave in such a way," she snapped, crossing her arms. "The hospital needs those bed sheets and-"

"Kurefai! Thisf really does felp wiff the b-foredom!" Suzume called, having just sunk her teeth into a pillow.

"Don't you encourage her, Suzume-sempai!" growled Kurenai, watching as the smirking teenager stuck the pillow back behind her head.

"Anko-chan, are you just bored cos we're talking about boys?" Shizune asked, glancing up from the list she'd been charged with writing. Set on determining the qualities of their shinobi contemporaries, Suzume and Shizune had begun sketching out a list of their male age-mates. Kurenai had been dragged into the conversation by default, Anko was patently uninterested (and letting it show) and Rin was absorbed in her text books.

Anko released the sheets and made a face, "Ewh! Boys are just stupid, and you can knock them out if you kick them 'tween the legs!"

Kurenai, Shizune and Suzume exchanged highly amused looks.

"This is sadly true," Suzume said, "And the purpose of this conversation is to work out which boys are least stupid, cutest looking, and ostensibly we'd have a vested interest in not knocking out with a kick between the-"

"SUZUME!" yelled Kurenai and Shizune.

Suzume shrugged, "Eh, you'll work it out one day Anko-chan," she said.

Anko gave her a look that said she doubted it. Shizune cleared her throat and smiled cheerily.

"Ne, Anko-chan, why don't you have a nap?"

The glare she received in return for that suggestion would have done Orochimaru proud. Shizune cringed behind her sheets and hurriedly looked at her paper pad. Kurenai groaned quietly at Shizune's little mishap. Suzume decided to have mercy of her friend.

"Oi, Shizune? Can I have some of your paper?" she asked.

Shizune got up (she was feeling better by the hour, and it was much easier than it had been) and handed the other girl some sheets of paper. Suzume grinned at Anko and held up a piece.

"Since it's totally unfair for us to bore you to bed sheet-teething tears, I'll show you something cool - okay?" she said.

Anko gave her a suspicious look, but she seemed to be paying attention.

Folding and twisting the paper Suzume produced an origami crane in a matter of seconds. It was pretty cool. In fact, it was the coolest thing Anko had ever seen anyone do that didn't involve a) killing someone and/or b) being Orochimaru. A few seconds later she made a fish to go with it.

Suzume flicked the paper animals over to Anko and grinned, "Think you can amuse yourself with a couple of these?"

"Where did you learn to do that?" Anko asked, picking up them up.

A lazy shrug, "I work in the Palace Offices remember? Plenty of paper around."

Kurenai sniffed, "You have the time to play games in Intelligence?"

"I have to keep my brain active somehow." she said, working on another little masterpiece. "I'll make you a set, you can have them try to rip each other's heads off or something fun like that, ne?"

Kurenai groaned, Shizune rolled her eyes. Rin read on oblivious.

"Hell yeah!" beamed Anko.

A few minutes later Anko had a miniature menagerie of origami animals to entertain herself with, and Shizune had begun reeling through her list. The first few had met with less than sterling receptions…

"Mifu Shinobu?"

"Stupid hair," said Suzume.

Kurenai nodded, "It is quite stupid."

Shizune agreed. His name went off the list. The same went for Hijiri Shimon - who they were all pretty sure didn't swing their way, (however, either despite or because of that fact, he did have decent hair).

"Yamashiro Aoba?"

"Spam," was the universal response.

"Alright then we've got Uchiha Obito."

"Gah, not an Uchiha - they're so stuck up!" Suzume griped with a sigh.

"Hey Rin, isn't Obito on your team?" Kurenai asked.

Rin's head didn't twitch up. Anko threw her origami bear at her and nailed her between the eyes.

She looked up and blinked. "Muh?"

The other four just stared at her, quite possibly they had never seen anyone look quite so spaced in their lives. It was funny.

"Is a book on cells really that much more interesting than trying to work out future prospects amongst Konoha's guys?" Shizune asked.

Rin scratched the back of her head and yawned a little, "Sorry, sorry… uhm, what are we talking about now?"

"Uchiha Obito - he's on your team!" Suzume said brightly, leaning forward a little.

Rin gave her a clueless look to equal her sensei's best, "That's true," she said.

Shizune sighed, "Is he a good dating option?"

Going slightly pink, Rin rubbed her arm. "Well he's like my brother. He's my best friend… that's a weird thing to ask me," she said quietly.

"For the rest of us you slow-coach!"

Rin nodded slowly as comprehension dawned, "Obito is absolutely great. He's the most loyal person ever, and he tries hard at everything. Even if it's not all that likely he'll succeed," she said firmly.

"Well that's nice, but he doesn't sound much like the other Uchiha's I've run across," Kurenai said.

"Because he's a million times less stuck up than all those other Uchihas," Rin said with a definite note of pride in her voice. "Obito believes in people - in what they can do and what they're worth. That's kind of his nindou, I suppose."

"Awh, that sounds promising!" Shizune said cheerfully.

"Hang on," Suzume said, "Didn't Jiraiya-sama just say he tried to set your other teammate on fire?"

"Uhm, yes… but that happens a lot," Rin murmured, cringing slightly.

Shizune rolled her eyes, "Okay okay, moving quickly on - Namiashi Raidou?"

"Raidou's cool," Suzume said with an equally cool shrug.

"A bit strung-out sometimes," Kurenai remarked quietly.

Shizune sighed and stared at the ceiling, "Who isn't these days?"

Everyone was quiet for a moment. You couldn't argue with the truth.

"Whatever," said Suzume, breaking the silence with a shrug, "More importantly, he's got a really cute bellybutton."

Everybody gave her a sideways look. Evidently Suzume had decided if you couldn't argue with the truth you could always focus on more important things.

"And how do you come by this information?" Kurenai enquired pointedly.

Suzume shrugged, "Stalked him."

Kurenai, Rin and Shizune just blinked at her.

"Orochi-sensei says doing stuff like that is anti-social," Anko said disapprovingly as she tried to get her origami crane to peck the head off her origami fish.

Shizune clapped her hands over her eyes, "I don't know what to be more surprised about, Suzume stalking Raidou; or Orochimaru-sama giving you diction on what is or is not anti-social," she muttered incredulously.

"Well, I say 'stalk'," Suzume said, cheerfully unperturbed by the other girls' reactions, "It was part of my training to join Intelligence, I had to successfully detail every aspect of a Konoha ninja's movements for two days, and then accurately predict them for the next week and a half."

"Was that to demonstrate you could extrapolate data properly?" Rin asked, interestedly.

Suzume nodded and grinned, "Among other things. But really, what self-respecting kunoichi is gonna pass up the chance to-"

"Spot some cute shinobi tail?" Shizune said, trying to keep her face straight.

"It's the sacrifice we make for our art and our village," Suzume told her with a hand over her heart. It was enough to have Shizune burst out laughing, Anko giving up on both of them and going back to her origami, and Kurenai despairing for the future of kunoichi-kind.

I'm keeping you away from Jiraiya-sama, thought Rin from behind her book, picturing the two of them bent over a manuscript of Icha Icha Paradise and cackling indecently before breaking out the binoculars and Polaroid cameras.

"Well obviously Suzume's staked that one out for training purposes," Kurenai said crisply, (making Shizune snicker, Rin grin into her pages, and Suzume simply smirk 'damn straight') "So who else is there? Preferably someone who doesn't have 'property of Suzume' stamped on their backside."

"I didn't stamp anything on him! Though the idea is very kinky of you, Kurenai…"

Before Kurenai could do anything drastic, Shizune waved the list she'd written in the air, "Alright - next is Genma! Shiranui Genma, what about him?"

There was a moment's silence as the latest name was considered. Anko, having no idea who Shiranui Genma was, occupied herself by pitting what was left of her origami animals in a death match of impressive proportions.

"He's cute," Shizune insisted, a little shyly, off-set by the other girl's silence - interrupted only by the ferocious rustlings of paper from Anko's cot.

"Yeah, but he's so laid-back he's practically perpendicular," commented Suzume, flopping back on her bed and grinning a little.

"That's not a bad quality," Kurenai said, "It's nice to be around people who don't get worked up easily."

"Yeah but he doesn't get worked up about anything! I mean, the one time Ebisu and I stole his bandana and filled it with itching powder. He didn't even notice!" Suzume's grin grew even more pronounced and she graced the other girls with a cat's-got-the-cream grin. Shizune laughed and Kurenai rolled her eyes and shook her head. Anko decided she liked Suzume's style.

However Rin, looked up from her textbook and raised her eyebrows from across the room.

"That wasn't about three months ago by any chance was it?" she asked, peeking over the top of her book.

Turning as best she could, Suzume gave her a surprised look, "Yep, it was..." she grinned slowly, "Why? Did Genma appeal to your medical talents to-"

Rin bit her lip and gave Suzume a pained look, "You stole the wrong bandana. I was wondering why Ibiki-sempai came to me asking about-"

There wasn't even time for a moment of dawning horror. Suzume's eyes widened like saucers, and she clapped her hands over her face. Two seconds later she doubled over in her bed, nearly concussing herself on her leg-cast.

"You filled Morino Ibiki's bandana with itching powder?" Shizune screeched incredulously, "Do you WANT TO DIE?"

Suzume looked up long enough to hurl a pillow at her. Rin and Kurenai swapped glances and Anko wrote down the new curses she'd just learned

"Shut UP Shizune!" Suzume yelped, glancing furtively to the closed door of the ward, as if Ibiki might be lurking on the other side with a stethoscope pressed to the wood.

Kurenai decided to just say it, "If he finds out that was you, you're as good as dead Suzume-sempai," she said.

While Suzume glared at Kurenai, Anko filed this information away for future reference and resolved to introduce herself to Morino Ibiki as soon as possible.

Rin tried to make the news a little less desperate. "Well... uhm... I didn't tell him that's what was wrong with his head. I think he just thinks it was a heat rash or something, okay?"

"Okay," Suzume sighed, deciding that having a freak-out-panic-attack was a bad example to set for the others. Clearing her throat she took a sip of water and glanced to Shizune.

"So who's next on the list?" she asked, all business.

"Morino Ibiki," Shizune said, deadpan as she could manage.

If Suzume's leg hadn't been broken she'd have kicked Shizune's ass.

"But after him we have Mizuki," Shizune said quickly, scanning down the list.

"Jerk!" Anko said immediately, and the others turned to her with eyebrows raised.

"Oh yeah?" Suzume said, interested and momentarily distracted from her glaring at Shizune.

Anko frowned and pointed her origami cat out the window - presumably to where Mizuki would be listening if he knew what was good for him - "That jerk wouldn't know loyalty if it bit him in the ass! I was in his class at the Academy - he's still there by the way - and he was just always out for himself," she scowled, crossing her arms and glaring fiercely.

"Well then he's off the list," Kurenai said simply. And Anko blinked at her just a little in response to the instant acceptance.

Shizune and Suzume nodded. Rin was lost in her book. Shizune struck him off the list and pointed her pen at Anko. "Well advised Anko-chan," she said sagely.

Anko gave a self-satisfied nod and went back to playing with her origami.

"Next up is… Akame Iwana? Hey, isn't that the guy with the eye patch? Brown hair, thin face?"

"He thinks he's a pirate," Suzume said with a dismissive wave.

"His eye got gouged out Suzume!" Kurenai snapped.

Suzume shook her head, "No it didn't, he just wears that patch cos he thinks he's a pirate," she said.

Kurenai and Shizune gave her an 'are you kidding me?' look. She told them to aim it at Iwana next time they saw him, and to check the patch was over the eye they last saw it on.

"Tobitake Tonbu?"

"Thinks he's a mummy."

"Suzume! He actually has a problem!" yelled Shizune.

"A problem that necessitates the bandaging of his entire cranium? Can you give me the medical reason for that?" Suzume's scepticism clearly knew no bounds.

Shizune rolled her eyes, "What does it matter? I mean, he's a kinda creepy guy but I'm pretty sure he's good at heart."

Kurenai frowned, puzzled. "How does he do anything? His eyes, ears and nose are all bandaged up."

"Maybe he navigates by… sonar or something?" Shizune postulated.

"As in… he goes 'beep! beep!'?" Kurenai was unconvinced, "And hears the echo? How does that work if he can't hear?"

"Good point," Shizune conceded, "Maybe he does it like a snake? You know, tasting the air with his tongue?"

"Can you be a functioning shinobi navigating by taste alone?"

Suzume snapped her fingers for attention, "Hey you two, this is off topic - would any of us date him?"

"No."

"Nope."

"So who's next?"

"Rokushou Aoi?"

"Never trust a man with green hair," Kurenai said immediately.

Shizune and Suzume blinked at her, even Anko looked up from where she'd just had her origami fish gnaw the foot off her origami giraffe.

"Why's that?" Shizune asked.

Kurenai crossed her arms, "My sensei always said that. Plus that boy is horribly vain as well."

"Well that's out," Suzume said, "I don't mind a guy who watches how he looks, all for it really, but vanity only good looking on girls."

"Love the logic you pair," murmured Shizune, nevertheless striking Aoi's name off the list.

"Next up is Sarutobi Asuma," she said.

"Talk about opposites - now there's one who could use a little vanity on his side," Suzume groaned.

"He is a bit scruffy," admitted Shizune.

"He is extremely scruffy," Kurenai said, "And extremely lazy. And… very, very… slouchy."

Suzume and Shizune blinked. "Slouchy?"

"He is, he's lazy, scruffy and slouchy," Kurenai said firmly, looking up at the ceiling. Anko was the only one close enough to spot it - but the smallest smile tugged at one corner of her mouth, for just a second. "But still, he's a good person."

The others said nothing but they did give each other Looks, before Shizune smiled.

"Well you can't ask for more than that," she said.

Suzume nodded and smirked just a little, "Well, since Kurenai's staked that one out for purposes of inventing vocabulary let's move on shall we?"

Before Kurenai could do anything Shizune fell back on the tactic of waving her list around.

"Hey hey! Next on the list is…uhm…uh oh…" she murmured, running out of steam as she saw that she'd run out of names.

"What about that Maito Gai… guy?" Anko suggested, coming totally to the rescue.

"Too unique!" Kurenai, Shizune and Suzume all said immediately.

Frowning, Rin brought her face out her book again, "Hey! For your information, Gai is perfectly-"

"I hope you aren't about to say 'normal', Rin-chan," Suzume said.

Rin gave her a slighted look on Gai's behalf. "Fine. Gai is perfectly fine. Leave him alone."

"Gai actually is too unique Rin, we're not being mean to him," Shizune said placatingly.

"As if that would be difficult," Kurenai murmured without looking up. Rin gave her a dirty look.

Suzume and Shizune exchanged glances. Looked like Rin had a soft spot for the Maito kid. Shizune thought that a bit weird, until she remembered Rin liked Jiraiya. Suzume thought it funny as hell, and kinda cute.

"Alright, he's a good guy, brave as all hell and definitely self-confident. But he's so loud! And he's got those crazy eyebrows! I mean, seriously, they're capable of independent movement - I've seen them at it." Suzume said, mimicking Gai's caterpillar eyebrows with a few amusing squiggles of her pointer fingers.

Not even Rin could argue with that. Gai's eyebrows were… indisputable. Kind of like Gai himself.

"Jeez… that's everybody," Shizune sighed, flicking once more through her list.

There was a collective sigh. The five of them (Anko and Rin were being included if they liked it or not) hadn't really had much luck there had they? Most of the guys were either clueless and careless about girls, laid-back to the point of comatose, or psychotic. Due to circumstances, all were by default homicidal. There may have been some lookers, and some good personalities among them… but… as for datability? When the best option for a boyfriend from the current dating pool does in fact turn out to be Maito Gai well…

"That's a bit tragic, isn't it?" Suzume said with a sad huff. "I mean… damn… it just is…"

"Is that really everybody? I feel like we've missed someone," Kurenai sighed, frowning at the problem. She hated missing the details, and she felt like they had here. A good genjutsu user could never be sloppy in such matters.

"Oh hey!" Suzume grinned, snapping her fingers in an eureka moment. Everybody glanced over to her, even Rin and Anko who had been ostensibly involved in other projects during the conversation.

"How about... Hatake Kakashi?" Suzume asked suddenly, turning to stare piercingly at Rin, who would have flushed bright red if she hadn't been so well trained in the art of resisting interrogation. Instead she just gave the older girl a flat stare.

"What about Kakashi?" she asked in a plain tone of voice.

"Well," Shizune said considerately, "We sit here talking about all the guys around and there's one we're over-looking. Probably because none of us have ever really seen him."

"Yeah, I wonder what he looks like?" Suzume said, looking thoroughly curious and tapping her lips with her fingers in an absent staccato beat.

"Tell us Rin, you must have seen what he looks like some time," Kurenai asked, curiosity winning out.

"It's a mystery, come on!" Anko chipped in.

"Yeah, what's he hiding with that mask of his?" Suzume asked, keen to get answers from the one person they all knew had them.

Rin said nothing and went back to her book. Not about to be defeated, the girls looked to each other sharing a canny glance.

"Hn, must be something bad to keep it hidden all the time... maybe he's got really bad acne," speculated Shizune, reasonably.

"Probably, bet he's got stupid beaver teeth too," Kurenai added idly.

"Could have big fishy lips," threw in Suzume, pulling a fishy face.

"Or a nose with a giant wart on it like Jiraiya-sama-baka does!" Anko joined in with gleeful malice, which was enough to have Rin (who had been clenching her teeth by this point) abruptly glare up over the edge of her book and yell "He does NOT!" at the four of them. She instantly saw her mistake when the other four girls turned to smirk at her.

"So you have seen his face?" Kurenai said, raising an eyebrow.

Shizune and Suzume leaned forward and stared eagerly, "So what does he look like Rin?"

Rin bit her lip defiantly, but the four of them pressed in with their enquiring eyes and curious expressions so she darted her eyes back to her book.

"Why won't you tell us Rin-chan? We can keep a secret, it's just us girls!" Shizune promised, hand over heart.

"We won't tell anybody else," Anko wheedled, mimicking Shizune.

Rin remained silent, just calmly turning another page.

Kurenai sniffed, "Maybe she just wants to keep the information all to herself,"

Suzume saw her opening and went for it, "Yeah, in fact, I bet she just wants to keep Kakashi all to herself!" she declared with a grin, knowing that implications of romantic intent would instantly have the younger girl spilling her guts. For god's sake, it was a terrible thing to be accused of and it wasn't like she actually...

Rin turned bright red and quickly buried her nose in the spine of her book to cover her face.

"OH GOD YOU DO!" shrieked Suzume, prompting a gasp from Shizune, a disgusted face from Anko, and a flatly incredulous stare from Kurenai.

"I c-certainly do not!" she replied, quavering voice muffled through a hundred pages of cell metabolite information.

Anko hummed something that sounded like 'Rin-and-Kakashi-sittin'-in-a-tree' and Rin pulled her face out the book to glare at her.

"Look, I do not!" she protested, more calmly this time. Not about the tree thing, she sat in trees with Kakashi all the time, but that wasn't the point.

"Are you sure?" Suzume asked with a teasing smile. Anko just sat and grinned at the whole spectacle, origami abandoned. Watching people squirm was the best kind of fun around. Kurenai clearly couldn't believe any sane, reasonably stable girl like Rin could think that way about… well… Kakashi.

"Of course, we've been on the same team since we were little and I'm his medic - that's how I've seen his face and I'm not about to give up something he wants to keep hidden without his permission. You know all about that don't you, being a medic?" Rin said calmly and clearly.

Shizune nodded, wondering if maybe their assumptions had been wrong. She got the feeling they weren't, but... well... Rin was right in everything she was saying.

"Okay okay, we'll drop it," Kurenai said - keen to keep the peace (and keep her belief in Rin as capable of rational thought) intact, and Rin was careful not to look too mollified. Or relieved.

Lunch arrived not long after and everything was forgotten in exchange for a communal bitching session about the hospital food. Even the stoic Kurenai joined in after nearly choking to death on something that tasted like burnt dango but looked like mouldy ramen. Or maybe it was the other way around.

Rin meanwhile, had abandoned her (admittedly horrible) food because she didn't feel very hungry. Her stomach was fluttering and she was getting confused because that wasn't the kind of side-effect associated with 24 hour flu. Frowning slightly at her suspicious meal, she pushed it away and looked out the window, wishing Sensei and Obito and Jiraya and Kakashi were here. It wasn't like they couldn't keep themselves out of trouble inside the village for one day (though... actually, that wasn't true when she thought about it) but she missed them. She missed Obito's chatter and happy smile, she missed Sensei's steady presence, even though he'd just gone she missed Jiraiya's ruddy face, and she missed Kakashi's voice.

Sighing she found herself staring at her knees and thinking about earlier. She wondered why she'd reacted like she had to Suzume's words and the others' teasing. It was just Kakashi after all.

Well, that wasn't right. She never thought of him as 'just Kakashi'. Sometimes she'd think 'don't worry it's just Sensei' or 'oh it's just Obito' but she never thought anything that ended with 'just Kakashi'.

I wonder why that is... thought Rin, also wondering why she hadn't noticed it before. She'd been with Kakashi forever, since before she could remember back when they started the Academy when they were four. The same was true with Obito so why didn't she look at both of them the same way? Obviously they were both very different, every person was different, that was what made them special. But what was it about Kakashi that made her always pay attention? It wasn't like there was anything about him she particularly looked for any more than she would with any of her most precious people. There wasn't anything... was there…?

Like when he cocks his head before he asks a question.

Okay there was that. He'd always done that. It was just... him, that was all. One thing about him she could read.

Or how he's ticklish behind his ears.

That was just reassurance he was human... sort of. He could go so far into himself sometimes...

Or how he looks when he smiles and I can see his face.

Well that was special because even she didn't get to see his face very often and he was rarely in the mood to smile.

And when his eyebrows furrow together when he's concentrating.

That was cute.

And how his breathing sounds when he goes to sle - what!.

Rin's heart ground to a stop and she gasped.

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no...

"You okay over there Rin?" called Suzume, watching the younger girl's face turn a strange shade of purple to out-do her stripes.

"Maybe she's being choked by one of these crappy rice-balls," Anko commented, grabbing one off her tray and hurling it out the window to hit a bird with pinpoint accuracy.

"Don't throw food at birds," Kurenai muttered disapprovingly as the bird cawed weakly and flapped into a tree.

Anko gave her a look, "Orochi-sensei says I should."

Kurenai didn't have much of an answer to that, so she sighed and swapped Anko's rice balls for her bowl of soup. Anko grinned at her and dug in; Kurenai made a half-hearted attempt to eat her additional crappy rice balls. It was hard going, but worth it to keep Anko from assaulting the wildlife and stubbornly starving herself. Soup was probably better for someone prone to projectile vomiting anyway.

Meanwhile Shizune had eased out her bed and padded over to Rin who was going wide-eyed with what looked like shock. She reached over and touched her shoulder and the other girl blurted out, "Shinobi Rule-Twenty-Five!" so fast she garbled the words.

"Uhm, you okay there Rin?" Suzume asked as Shizune looked her over for signs of her flu deteriorating.

Rin blinked and looked up at Shizune and managed a smile that didn't really look like a smile at all. "Oh, yes, yes, I'm fine. I just... erhm... this food is very awful," she said, prodding her bento with a shaky chopstick.

Shizune nodded agreement, and they both turned when they heard the sound of a strangled 'caw!' to see Anko leaning on her tiptoes out the window with a purely vicious grin on her face and a shuriken wire tied to her wrist.

"Don't worry!" Anko informed them cheerfully, reeling in the shuriken wire, "We can have poultry instead!"

Anko pulled up the wire with a crow dangling from the end. It was easy large enough to feed two of them.

"Anybody know any good fire jutsus?" she asked with a predatory grin. "We could have a barbeque!"

Mayhem shortly ensued as Kurenai yelled for Anko to stop killing the village wildlife, Suzume burst into laughter, Rin blinked blankly, and Shizune spluttered into her hands.

Anko tossed the dead bird onto the windowsill and flipped the shuriken on the wire back into her hand. She glanced around, and smirked.

"Hey! Anybody want squirrel?"

Comments always welcome!