duty
Asuma

Patrol duty. It's either really boring and tiresome, or bloody and stressful. From day to day it's very different. It depends a lot on who you're teamed with. It's a miserable task if you get stuck with some loser that talks too much or can't get their style in line with yours or bitches at you because they don't like the way you do things. If your team is good and your schedule is good, and you see a nice balance of action and downtime, it's not so bad. I do find it hard to get as excited about it as Gai does, of course. But truth be told, even though patrol can be pretty boring, I'd rather be doing that than some other things I can think of. Anyway, just as Genma had predicted, it would seem that I was looking at a fun few next weeks of patrol duty.

It was a very early morning- five a.m., in fact, and the meeting we jounin had been summoned to was really dragging on and on. We were seated in the meeting room on the hard tatami floor. Apparently cushions or chairs are just not military enough. A white board and an overhead projector is okay, though. I wonder who decides these things?

All of the jounin of the village were packed into the room, along with a few high-ranking chuunin and some office gopher squirts to carry files and stuff. I had wanted to sit in the back row against the wall. Everyone wants to sit in the back against the wall. If you don't get there way early, you're screwed and you have to sit close to the eyes of those standing up front with everyone watching you from behind. I wasn't early enough and so I was maybe three rows from the back, next to Gai. Still feeling the effects of a particularly tough mission from a few days back, I felt drained and way too exhausted to be here for this. To be perfectly honest, I was in a pretty lousy mood.

The Third Hokage stood at the front of the room, clad in his official robes and wide-brimmed hat. When I came into the meeting room, he caught my eye and smiled, nodded. I returned his nod and smile. You have now witnessed, for the most part, the extent of our family communication.

Ever known a very famous and beloved political or religious leader? Now think about their kids. I don't know about you, but I can't think of a single example of one that's turned out normal. It isn't easy sharing a parent with other people. The worst part is that you know that he needs to do it, that it's his duty to do it, and then you feel like you must be wrong for just wishing you had your old man all to yourself. And you end up with a complex.

My dad and I are inherently different from each other. He's able to hold his position with pride and honor and do his job to the best of his ability. But I hated the position his job put us in. I hated the spotlight. I always have. I can't handle it. It's just not me. I'm a supporter: stand in the back and guard quietly.

As I'm sure you can tell by looking at us, my generation is a case of arrested development and interrupted childhood. Sure, they've tried to change all that in relative peacetime. In a time of needing to repopulate, children are precious. Academy students now become genin at the age of twelve, and it's not considered shameful for kids to play in the street anymore. In our day it was really different. War after war ravaged the ranks. Our survival as a nation depended on training and fully adhereing to the almighty Way of the Shinobi. You can guess what that led to. From pretty much the day we were old enough to throw a shuriken we were expected to support the village with our lives.

It was worst for the kids from the big clans. There was always something you had to live up to. In my case, as one of the Hokage's children I was constantly reminded that I was supposed to set an example. You can probably imagine how well I took to that one. I have never taken well to being pushed into things.

I remember getting chewed out over and over again by teachers for wandering around all day doing nothing. I liked doing things at my own pace and in my own way. My dad understood that and all, but there were times when I think I just baffled him. There were things about the Way of the Shinobi that I just couldn't come to terms with. Piles and piles of dead loved ones coming home can do that to a kid.

I ended up a bitter little snot by the time I was my present students' age. If my father had been home, we would have fought. But he was too busy being the village's father to be mine. Work was always his whole life, and he was already an old, old man by the time I came along anyway. The years that the Fourth took over the job were only too little, too late. Soon the Fourth was gone and then my father went back to office. And things happened after that... things that I never fully forgave him for.

He's more my Hokage than my father anymore. That's what he chose. It's easier to respect him if I think of him that way. Puts the killing and bad decisions and lost loved ones into a less personal and less painful perspective. There is still so much I don't understand about any of this that we do, and so much I don't understand about him. I wonder sometimes why it's easy for him now to give to other people the things I don't remember him having much time to give to us. He's downright fatherly with others, but when it comes to him and me, it's strained. I sometimes think that he realizes the mistakes me made with us and that's why he acts the way he does now. Probably he feels sorry and he can't say so. Perhaps there has been too much said between us. Or maybe we simply remind each other too much of what has been lost.

Maybe that's why my C-Rank painting the Hokage's mansion was such a bitch. I don't know. I don't want to think about it. I never do.

Ashinami Raidou was standing up front next to the Third, calmly waiting through the presentation. I'm sure Raidou can stand still and be comfortable for hours on end. That's his job, anyway, as the Hokage's bodyguard. His hands were neatly folded and his stance impeccable, loose and ready. During my years of bodyguard work I never came close to that kind of precision and control. The man is like a breathing, walking textbook diagram. I caught his keen blue-gray eyes giving me The Look more than once. Raidou is a master of The Look. Today it expressed he was busy, tired, and definitely out of patience for any funny business. In other words, his usual sunny and cheerful self.

Ibiki stood on the other side of him, straight as a rod. Ibiki is huge, huge, and he has an aura more than a look. Ibiki's aura always says the same thing: that he knows your secrets and could make you break down in seconds flat. At which point you would cry like a baby. Not wanting to experience being a broken shell of a man, I try to stay on his good side. The rest of Ibiki's team and the other Special Jounin were seated in the sidelines at the front as usual, facing the rest of the assembly. I could see Anko's spiky topknot over all of the heads inbetween us.

The current presenter was droning on and on. "Enemy activity in the border regions and in certain sectors around the village have seen a sharp increase during the past quarter. The enemy nin are for the most part unmarked units carrying nothing to identify them as a certain Hidden Village's members..."

I found myself dozing more than once. I mean, they could just cut this all short and tell us. "You're on patrol duty. Such-and-such a time, such-and-such a place. Now go." You'd think they would, being as how we are a ninja military. But they never do. No, they have to have a meeting and make a presentation. Before everyone can get down to business, there are some technical difficulties, or someone is late, or someone has an oh-so-important announcement to make about how we fill out our time sheets or whose seal was not affixed properly to what documents. After that there is always something someone else must add, and the meeting stretches longer and longer while everyone fusses around about some handout that was forgotten or some announcement that was not made.

Then there are the warnings. Don't leave your dirty coffee cups on the counter in the headquarters kitchen. Don't wash your bloodied weapons in the office sink. When you enter the head office, make sure you calmly and clearly state your name and rank and reason for being there because the new office chuunin don't know everyone yet and they get flustered easily. When you have a medical claim you must fill out Form 2 in triplicate and submit it within 48 hours or you will not be covered. Blah, blah, blah. I know that they have important things to tell us, but I wish they'd be less bureaucratic about it and waste less of all of our time. I mean, hell. We all know who it was who did the one with the coffee cup. It's Aoba. I always see his stupid bear mug on the counter with a disgusting half-drunken congealed coffee and milk mixture in it. I mean, his name is written on the outside of the cup, for crying out loud. Why not just tell him directly to cut it out and then I can go home and rest?

The first time I nodded off I caught myself and made a valiant effort to force my eyes to stay open. You can guess how long that worked. How long does that one ever work?

"...during the last thirty days, note here in sectors B and D the number of intruders..."

I was out again before I knew it. I awoke to something quite sharp poking me in the arm. Whoa there. Making an effort to stay still and not noticed by everyone up at the front, I glanced over my shoulder. Kurenai was seated just behind and to the left of me. Her dark lips were pressed into a thin line, her elegantly arched eyebrows drawn into a scowl. The senbon in those perfectly manicured hands, then, would be the sharp object. Erm. Hope it's a clean one. No poison, right, Sensei?

She threw me a smouldering glare, clearly irritated. Her lips moved and formed silent words. Wake up.

Oops. I gave her an bashful nod and redoubled my efforts to stay awake and pay attention. Okay. I rubbed my eyes and shook my head a little. I'm in the zone. I'm sharp and fully interested in what Mr. Personality up there has to say. Seriously. This is so important. Wake up, you lazy-ass. Wake up.

"Due to the vulnerability of these areas to siege, it has been proposed that..."

Soon I was not kneeling on the hard tatami floor anymore. I was curled up in bed, a really soft and comfortable bed with warm and toasty sheets that smelled nice. Like the chocolate chip cookies Chouji's mom makes for me sometimes. Mmm, cookies. There were feather pillows. And Gai was whispering to me.

Wait. Gai whispering to me? Yikes. Something was so very wrong.

"Asuma," Gai was saying, cuffing me in the arm. "Hey, man. Come on."

My eyes opened. I was looking down at my own arms folded across my chest. "Ah. Hey."

"May I continue?" Genma drawled from the front, with a good-humored smirk. He apparently was in the middle of presenting something.

There was a titter from a few of the chuunin. I felt a large number of eyes on me. Namely, Raidou's silent blue ones from the front, and Kurenai's crimson ones burning holes into me from the back. I didn't dare look at the old man's face. Didn't feel quite so sleepy anymore. Probably simply the shock of having Gai appear in a dream was enough to prevent me from dozing again for a while. I raked my fingers through my hair, ashamed. "Right. Um. Sorry."

"Okay." Genma clapped his hands and surveyed the crowd, his toothpick perky despite the early hour. "Listen up. As I was saying, everyone will patrol in two-man teams. I'm supposed to ask you to refresh your memory at home with your procedure manual, page 331 and 332. You all know how this goes. It's been a while since the last time we needed to call out most of you for patrol duty, though, and we have some new faces in the room today. Let's review the basics yet again, shall we?"

Genma paused here and pointed to someone in the back, signaling. The lights dimmed. Near the front, a bespectacled chuunin I knew as Iwashi slapped a transparency onto the overhead projector and switched it on. Rubbing his palms together, Genma continued. "This is important stuff, so don't forget. We lose more lives yearly because of these points than anything else, so remember. Okay?

"One-- Be where you are supposed to be at all times. I can't say this enough. Check in early before beginning patrol. Stay in your designated sector, even if nothing is happening there. We need to be able to find you if something goes wrong. At the end of your shift you've GOT to check in again and sign out. Otherwise we have no idea what happened to you and we'll start searching for bodies. Now let me tell you right now, just as a personal comment," Genma paused, raising one eyebrow at the assembly. "If I have to go through corpses looking for your ass, and then we find you chilling out at home after hours of searching? I will let Ibiki do whatever he wants to you."

There was a mild chuckle from those gathered. Ibiki blinked, surprised to hear his name brought up. Then as the giant, scarred man realized the joke, he cracked a rather daunting smile at us. Nodding at his teammate, Genma continued.

"Two-- If there are more enemies than the two of you can handle, don't get into a hopeless fight. Retreat and call for backup at a check-in point immediately. "

Hayate began coughing rather harshly at this point. I saw Anko wave to the Third and then sneak out for a moment. Genma gave his teammates a glance but left it to them and went on. "Three-- and this one is most important, people-- Know where your partner is and what they are doing. If you split up, meet back up again when business is done. If you are separated, find your partner using the wireless comm. And for the last time-- USE YOUR WIRELESS."

Here there was a grumble from a few of the more veteran jounin. Genma was firm. "I don't care what you think of them. They save lives. And I know you'll probably complain about these rules and being assigned to sectors and signing in and out. Listen and try to comprehend what I'm saying here. The bottom line here is to cut down on wasted lives. Who here wants to go down as having died due to a preventable accident? Anybody?"

There was uncomfortable silence.

"That's what I thought," Genma finished, stepping down trimly. "Let's all do our best."

With a bob of her head to the Third, Anko slipped back in with a glass of something hot for Hayate. Her head bent close to his as she offered it to him, cupped in her hands. It was unusual to see the chipper and caustic kunoichi behave so tenderly. I thought it was kind of sweet. Must be nice to get babied when you're sick. Then again, I couldn't remember when Hayate hadn't been sick.

"All right," the head office jounin barked. "Everyone line up at the stations outside to receive your assignments and schedules. Wait your turns. The tables are arranged according to rank. Chuunin on the left, all the way to veteran jounin on the right. Get moving."

I got to my feet and trailed along behind Kakashi and Gai. I sensed Kurenai giving me a general look of displeasure from behind. She followed us outside, but she carefully kept a distance of about three meters between. It seemed as though she didn't want to stand near me.

We shuffled forward out to the area that had been prepared outside for scheduling. The bright morning light stung my eyes and I blinked over and over, trying to adjust. The sun was pale and golden at this hour, the sky a mess of pastel wisps of cloud. It looked like a painting I remember from an old picture book. The moon was still visible in the sky. Three-quarters, ghostly white. I took out a cigarette and lit it up, sucking the smoke down and waiting for the nicotine to kick in.

Gai turned around from his place in front of me in line. "Asuma, you know our manly friendship is a very strong bond, and Maito Gai is magnanimous enough to forgive even the worst of a friend's habits. However, I don't really enjoy the smell of those things early in the morning."

"Sorry," I said, stepping away. "Here okay?"

"Better," Gai answered with a nod of his glossy hair. "But I must take this opportunity remind you, you should take better care of your body and enjoy your youth while you have it."

"Oh, he does," Kakashi remarked without turning to look at us. He folded his hands behind his head, stretching to look up at the sky. "He gets to have teatime."

Gai and I stared at Kakashi, boggled. What the hell was he talking about?

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kurenai make a strange face all of a sudden. She looked like she had swallowed a frog or something. Three places back in line, she looked tiny compared to the big guys to the front and back of her. Even so, she proceeded forward dutifully. This was probably Kurenai's first jounin meeting, I guessed. I wondered what she thought of it all.

At that moment, someone hit me hard in the shoulder from behind, making me drop my smoke onto the hard-packed dirt below. Takes a lot to get me jumpy, though. Not moving, I glanced around, wondering what exactly was going on.

Ebisu, clad in the usual all-black, paused in walking past me. Turning to regard me, he adjusted hisdark glasses and smirked. "Oops."

I suddenly felt a a large number of eyes on me again. Ebisu is really close with my old man, close enough to get the job of training his heir. He's also a snooty prick, off the job. Always has been. Behind me Kakashi shifted just so, not stepping forward but watching carefully. Gai was there, too. I really hoped they wouldn't say anything.

I stomped out the dropped cig and took out a new one. "You okay, man?" I asked Ebisu, with a note of mild concern.

The Special Jounin Instructor twitched, as though he hadn't seen that coming. "Of course I am." With this he waited as though he expected me to say something more. I didn't give him the pleasure though. He scowled at me and moved on. As he went I could have sworn I heard him mutter, "...deadbeat."

And then he was gone. I calmly picked up the wasted cigarette from the ground and flicked it into a nearby trash can. Gai and Kakashi turned back without saying anything, likely pretending for my sake as though nothing at all had happened. I appreciated it. That's pretty much how it goes with us. In this line of work you don't have much left inside to get real vulnerable with your friends, I guess. There's a lot we don't talk about. Ever. It's sort of our unwritten rule.

Kurenai was watching silently from behind the people in front of her in line. Her expression was somber, unreadable. I tried to ignore her eyes on me. Sometimes I wished she'd stare at someone else.

Genma loped over to our line presently, Danger Smile engaged and everything. "Hey, fuzzy." He tossed me a can of something hot, likely from the breakroom vending machine.

Looking down at the metal cylinder now in my hand, I snorted. It was a can of hot double-shot espresso. MORNING WONDER, the label proclaimed in screaming yellow font. "Thanks."

He chuckled and clapped me on the shoulder. "No prob. Thought you could use it. "

"Sorry about that," I said, sheepish.

"No big deal," The lanky Special Jounin scratched his head under his backwards bandanna. "I woulda fallen asleep too. Besides, I know I'm not the most attractive thing you could be looking up at in the morning." Now he made doe eyes at me, and pointed to the label of the coffee can with a girlish pout. "But, Asuma? You're my Morning Wonder."

I snickered, shifting the smoke to my hand and opening up the can to take a big gulp. "I see."

"It's the beard, man. Drives the girls wild, I hear," he drawled. "Right, guys?"

Gai gave a good-natured chuckle. Kakashi raised an eyebrow, nonchalant. "Oh. Is that why?"

Genma nodded breezily, ignoring Kakashi's crypticism. "Yeah, me and Hayate are gonna try it and see. Apparently all the hottest kunoichi are powerless against the beard. Practically toss their panties at it."

This was almost enough to make me spit out the coffee. For one, imagining Hayate with a beard. For another, the very idea that hot kunoichi toss their panties at me. I didn't think they went for anything other than Kakashi, Genma, and (the kinky ones anyway) Ibiki. I mean, the last time I got laid was... er, wait, let's not think about that. In any case, I ended up red-faced with espresso up the nose.

Gai laughed and patted me on the back. "Asuma, your youthful sense of humor is encouraging."

I wiped my face with my sleeve. "Hope so."

"Hey! Back to work! I mean you, you napkin-headed sonnavabitch! " Anko stuck her head out of the office window to shout to Genma. Her words were harsh, but the grin on her face said she was only joking. "Who said you could go on break! And get me a coffee while you're at it, huh?"

Genma smiled slowly at the sound of his teammate's voice. "Well. Gotta go." He hurried off, dropping us a casual wave. "See you around."

"Later," I replied, and went back to what was left of the can of coffee. It tasted good on my downer mood.

One by one the people before us were dismissed and Kakashi had reached the front of the line. We could see each table had a high-ranking jounin there to carry out proceedings. We found that Raidou was seated before us, with one of those cannon-fodder kids to help with the paperwork. I think this one was Izumo. I can never get their names straight. Which one is the sissy-looking one?

Raidou folded his hands patiently on the table and regarded us mildly. "Good morning, you three." He nodded to the chuunin beside him, who cleared his throat and picked up his clipboard to read aloud.

"Hatake Kakashi."

"Yep," Kakashi answered patiently, signaling that he was ready.

"Proctoring jounin carry the responsibility of managing and training your cells as a first priority. Taking this into consideration, you've been assigned to a limited amount of patrol duty covering Sector E." This mouthful finished, Izumo-- I'm guessing that was his name, anyway-- took a breath of air.

Raidou took over to elaborate. "It's a smaller sector and we haven't gotten much activity there. I'm sure it's a reasonable enough assignment."

"It's fine," Kakashi replied.

"Good to hear," Raidou answered. He looked over at the unfinished schedule that Izumo had waiting. "How about... Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. 1800 to 2300 hours. Your partner will be Maito Gai."

From behind, I could see Kakashi cringe. Gai, however, let out a victorious shout, throwing up his arms into the air passionately. "Patrol together with my eternal rival! We shall be the ultimate team! Kakashi, I am sure you will try to take out more enemies than I myself will, but mark my words, Maito Gai will not lose to you easily!"

I tried not to laugh and instead opted for tossing the empty coffee can into the trash bin nearby. Gai and Kakashi are a good team, despite Kakashi's (possibly feigned) reticence to accept this. Their strengths suit each other. If you watch them in action you can tell that they know each other's fighting style well. It's hard to find someone you can fight with like that. If you don't have someone who knows you really, really closely, someone who can guess your moves and whom you are willing to entrust your life to, it's tough to let go and fully get into it.

Gai and Kakashi initialed the schedule sheet and signed another form, and then it was only me and my smoke left standing there. Raidou regarded me with measured civility. His voice dropped in tone from when he had spoken to Kakashi just a moment ago. "...Asuma."

"Raidou," I returned his greeting with a casual nod of my head.

Raidou gave a sigh and looked away from me. He appeared as if talking to me was making him weary. "Asuma, your schedule will be... the same Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. And since it appears you have trouble with mornings, you can have the 2300 to 0400 shift."

I almost choked on my cigarette. Did he just say 2300 to 0400? As in 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.? Beside him, Sissy Chuunin was trying to hide a smile. Okay, it was obvious. Raidou was just sticking me with that on purpose because of falling asleep earlier.

"I trust you'll find that satisfactory," Raidou was saying, raising an eyebrow at me.

Well, punishment sucked, but whatever. I guessed I deserved it. If they gave me someone I've fought a lot together with, it'd be okay. Keeping in my chagrin, I nodded once. "It's fine," I replied, not really feeling the carefree tone of my voice. "Who's my partner?"

Now Raidou let me have a cold, calculating smile. "Why don't you take... Yuuhi Kurenai."

My stomach dropped. So much for that. Slamming me not only with someone I've never worked with in a battle situation, but a newbie who was half my size... and at 11 to 4 in the freaking morning. It was pretty much a recipe for trouble. Great. Just great. Thanks a lot, guys.

I waited off to the side until Kurenai had gotten to the front of the line. I wanted to see what she thought of the assignment. As it turned out, I wouldn't have to ask. I knew exactly when they must have informed her of who her partner was, because she turned and gave me a dissatisfied glare. I looked away and took a long drag of smoke, humiliated. Looks like I wasn't the only one who was miffed-- and the degree of her miffedness was much bigger than mine had been. Now I felt like a real loser.

Having finished, Kurenai walked over to me primly. She held her files tight against her chest. She didn't speak to me. I sighed, falling in step beside her even though I wasn't sure where it was we were headed. I cleared my throat. "So... we'll be working together, I guess."

"I guess," she returned, her words precise. She regarded the papers in her hands, her scarlet eyes hooded from view. "That is, if you don't doze off on me."

I blinked, unsure how to answer that. "I won't doze off on patrol, no."

"You sure?" she repeated, turning away from me to look off into the distant sun. The line of her shoulders was different from her usual confident posture. I puzzled over this for a moment. Seemed like there was a lot on her mind. Maybe she was feeling insecure. Maybe she was pissed at something. Maybe she was sad. I can't read her at all when she does this. She's really weird sometimes. I have three theories so far why this might be. She's either really indecisive, or she thinks too much about things, or she has two personalities. Whatever the reason, Kurenai runs hot and cold. It often takes guesswork to talk to her.

I shifted, scratched my head. "Thanks for trying to wake me up," I offered.

"You really shouldn't fall asleep during meetings," she scolded, walking out in front. She was heading in the direction of the training grounds, out among grass and trees. Her arms folded over her chest, hugging the file to her heart. "It interrupts everyone else, and it looks bad."

"Right." I agreed to her back, conciliatory. She was right. This wasn't the first time, though, and it probably wouldn't be the last. However, I opted not to divulge this nugget of truth right now. Instead I followed along behind her into the trees. The woods smelled dark and dusty and the turf underfoot was soft with moss and fallen leaves. "I know."

Kurenai stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder at me. When she did, her seal-brown hair draped elegantly over the shoulder she turned away from. It looked like she was posing for a picture without even trying to. "You were snoring," she remarked, lightly.

I balked. "H-huh?" See what I mean about hot and cold?

"You were snoring," she repeated, and her previously inscrutable expression cracked. A smile teased one corner of her shiny red lips. "Did you know that you snore?"

I rubbed my face, embarrassed. "Well, no, I've never listened to myself asleep." And I've never slept with anyone who bothered to offer me any intimacies about what it was like.

"It was actually kind of funny," she added, her lips curving in amusement. "Not at the time, but now that I think about it."

My ears felt hot and I didn't know why. "Was I loud?"

"No," she replied, thinking back. She tucked her hair behind one ear. "Quiet. Like a big cat."

This description made me snort. I remembered my mom's fat old tabby cat Tiger. He was a brown longhaired sloth of a thing, looked like a pillow with legs. He used to sleep on my lap sometimes. He had a habit of drooling, and his purring was enough to wake the dead. Not to mention he smelled. Wait, hold it. Could it be that we've figured out which family member I inherited most of my traits from?

Kurenai's smile faded and she studied the ground below her still feet. "Well. We have our first patrol tonight, then."

"Yeah," I said. I looked up at the sky, watching the last smoke from my cigarette trail upwards and fade into the mess of branches above. "Maybe we should... go over strategy or something beforehand."

"You think I'll get you in trouble," she observed. I dropped my eyes to her face, surprised that she would say this. Her eyes were dark and placid, her long lashes downcast. "You think I'm not experienced enough."

I flicked my smoke onto the ground and stepped on it with a toe, taking a moment to consider how to best address the issue. You have to choose your words carefully with women who are trained in the speediest methods of ending your life, after all. "Hmm," I hesitated. "Nahh, not really."

"Liar," Kurenai accused, raising her gaze to mine. Her hair shone in the dappled morning sunlight but her powdery cheeks didn't. Her face is smooth, her skin pale and perfect. Mine is sun-browned and marked by teenage acne and years of close-range battle. When she and I are close together, I can tangibly feel my ugliness. "I can tell," she continued. Her eyes were grave as she regarded me."I'd be thinking the same thing."

"Well," I began, and then wasn't sure what to say next. I felt humbled by her sober honesty. "Well. When you're patrolling outside the village, it's usually best if you work with someone you've had a lot of experience with. So... yeah, I felt unsure. We haven't ever fought together before."

"I haven't the slightest clue about your fighting style," she admitted. She sounded as though she wanted to finish that with, I hope it doesn't involve taking frequent lunch breaks.

I ran my fingers through my hair and continued. "But we can get around that if we both make an effort to learn and adapt to each other," I pointed out. If she wasn't teamed with me, she'd be with someone else who probably hadn't fought with her either. At least when you looked at it from her side, she was with someone she knew a little bit. "Let's try our best."

Kurenai nodded in agreement, lifting her blood-red irises to search mine. The angle of her chin was proud, her jaw set with confidence. "I won't let you down," she said, firmly. "I know you'll have to see it for yourself, though." Now she was showing her competitive side. Her eyes are wild and intense when she does, enough to make you dizzy. I had to say I found this appealing and intimidating as hell at the same time.

I offered her a friendly smile, forcing my eyes away from the heat of hers. "I won't let you down, either, Kurenai. I promise." I stuck out my hand. She stared at it as though it would bite her or something for a few moments before realizing my intention. Then she put her tiny, milky hand in mine, and we shook hands. Her grip was sure and constant, a contrast of firm bandages and smooth, pliant skin.