With a deep breath, Yasahashi, age 17, tightened her high ponytail, grabbed her briefcase, and joined her superior, Tanaka, at the gates to the Uchiha village. The 21 year old smiled at her.
"You ready for your first big job?" He asked.
"I think so," she said nervously, "I remember reading that the Uchiha have a lot of specific design requirements…"
While the Uchiha village had mostly been left untouched by the nine-tails attack, there was a request put in by the Uchiha clan for a city planner to work with them on some remodelling for their close knit community. Yasa had just started at the civil engineering department half a year ago and previous to this had just been assisting in drafting.
"It's kind of a big deal that the Uchiha are trusting the village with this kind of thing," Takamaru yawned, "So, we can't screw this up and betray their trust."
Yasahashi clutched the handle of her briefcase. Disappointing one of the strongest ninja clans in the village was not something she wanted to do.
"Relax," Tanaka patted her shoulder, "You'll do great! And don't worry, if you're lost, I'm going to be right here to help you out."
They first stopped by the Uchiha police building to speak with the representative of the clan, who was to meet them there. Tanaka got distracted talking to an old friend outside, so told Yasahashi to go in and wait for him. As she entered the building, she encountered an old friend of her own.
"Kaeda, is that you?" Yasahashi called. Her friend from academy days was sitting outside of a door in some kind of waiting area. She held a pink slip in her hands.
When she saw Yasa's face, she beamed, "Yasa!? Really?" Kaeda leapt up and gave the urban planner a big hug, "What happened to you? You look so different… so… sharp!"
It was true, Yasa carried herself a lot differently now than from earlier days. She wore a freshly pressed shirt and pants, and her hair was neatly tied instead of flying about loosely and tangled.
"I could ask the same as you," Yasahashi exclaimed. Kaeda looked different too, after all. She was also dressed in civilian attire, and she wore make up. Her hair was still in a sporty style, but had a sheen to it and was also less astray as most ninja's hair tends to be.
"What are you up to at the police department?" she asked, then she got a sheepish look, "Are you here to pay a fine, too?"
"Oh, I'm here for work."
"You are?" she got an interested look on her face, "what do you do for work?"
The receptionist called Kaeda's name and Kaeda swore under her breath, "Well, I gotta go pay this. But hey! Let's go out to eat later!"
The two made quick plans to meet up after the work day was over, and Kaeda vanished down one of the hallways of the Uchiha Police Department. Soon, Tanaka entered the lobby and they got down to business.
The clan representative gave them a huge binder. It included information on all the architectural requirements of Uchiha clan buildings. Certain colors were to be strayed away from, very specific building techniques were to be understood and followed. The weight of all the tenements was burdensome in Yasahashi's arms.
"Oi, talk about limiting the creative process…" she muttered as soon as Tanaka and her had a free moment.
"Well, it's like what Professor Ayame says: 'The most beautiful garden is formed despite the boulders and slopes.' I have to agree," he sighed, "I sometimes find I am most creative when I have limitations."
The village elders met with them and walked them through the Uchiha quarters to the areas which they were looking to remodel. They emphasized the information given to them in the tenement binder, and presented them with various documents sharing their visions. The two urban planners interviewed the village elders and took more notes and drew sketches. At the end of the day, Yasahashi and Tanaka found they had their hands absolutely full with reference material.
"Let's get this back to the department, and we can start on it first thing in the morning!" Tanaka said. They dropped everything off in the bullpen where Yasahashi cursed suddenly. She realized she had forgotten to fill out a crucial piece of paperwork.
"I was supposed to do it while we were at the site, but I had my hands full." Literally, with all their reference material.
"Ahh, yeah," Tanaka muttered, "We do need that for the ground study."
"I'll run back real quick before I head home and fill it out really fast. Shouldn't take that long."
Tanaka grimaced, "Ok, well, don't overwork yourself."
She left her superior and hurried back to the site in the Uchiha village with the paperwork pinned to a clipboard. As the sun grew low in the sky, she recorded the elevation in various spots. Her stomach began to growl. Soon she'd be getting food and chatting with an old friend. But, until then, she wasn't going to mess up her first big job as an urban planner.
"Koizuma?" came a voice to her left.
Yasa squinted into the orange glow of the sunset, seeing a tall Uchiha woman about her age. She wore an police uniform, and looked dreamy in the lighting. Yasahashi felt her cheeks flush.
"Do I know you?" she asked.
"Kohaku Uchiha," she said solidly. Yashashi took a step towards the young woman in recognition.
"Oh," she replied.
"We used to spar together in the fields outside the academy."
Their eyes met and it was like they travelled together into an unseen dimension within the space between their eyes.
"Do you remember?" Kohaku asked, her voice clear and low.
Yasahashi did remember, but for some reason her voice was trapped in her throat. She found the courage to nod.
The police officer took a step back to leave, but their gaze lingered for a moment, a cool breeze blowing through their hair. She turned away and rose a hand to wave. "Well, I won't keep your from your work," she said.
"Wait-" Yasahashi called.
It was the weekend. Yasahashi just got back from the store with some groceries and was bringing them up when she ran into a strange jonin in the apartment lobby. She recognized him, having seen him around town and at bars. For that reason, she was intent on ignoring him.
"Excuse me," he said, "You live here, right?"
So much for that. "Yeah," she said, peering over the groceries she had in her arms.
"Oh! I recognize you." He saw that she had her hands full, "would you like some help with that?"
"Nah," she said, "what do you want?"
The man paused. For a man with most of his face covered, he sure did have a stupid look on his face. "I think I saw you at a bar once."
She rolled her eyes and started to walk away towards the entrance to the stairwell.
For a moment, she entertained the idea that this macho man ninja was some kind of closetted drag queen and he was trying to tell her that he had seen her at Konoha's #1 gay bar, maybe then she'd be interested, but... she knew his type and that seemed very unlikely.
"Oh, I was going to ask you-"
She kept walking, not interested whatsoever.
"-about Naruto Uzumaki,"
She paused in her gait.
"What about him?"
"Can you tell me about him?"
She scrutinized the man from head to toe. Suddenly, the realization hit her, "Oh, are you his new teacher?" She had forgotten that Naruto becoming a genin meant that he'd be getting assigned a jonin to teach him, as well as two other teammates.
Old man Izukai was coming down the stairs, he had heard the jonin's question and burst into action, "Naruto? Well he's a real nightmare, I'll tell you!" he said, entering the lobby, "Never a quiet moment with him around here! If you've come to take him away, then good riddance."
Another neighbor who was entering the lobby from the entrance piped in, "I asked him to stop banging up against my door when he comes home from school everyday and he still does it."
Yasa sighed, "We're still doing this?"
"You tell him, Yasa!"
"She's the only one around here that can talk some sense into that boy."
Old man Izukai seemed to have forgotten Yasahashi's stern words to him the other night. Forgotten, or ignored. Some people never learned.
Yasahashi watched the old man leave out the door with annoyance. Any one of these neighbors could turn out to be another Mizuki.
"Nosy neighbors…" Kakashi muttered.
"Hmm, yeah. Naruto is an alright kid," she said, looking past the jonin at the gaudy wallpaper, "A bit nuts, but he's got a hard life, so I don't blame him."
"I can imagine."
"He's actually kind of inspiring in that way. Kind of self destructive though, a very 'try till I die' type."
"Ah. A lot of youth struggle with that."
"Tell me about it," she looked at the ninja. Their eyes met for a moment. For some reason she couldn't help but stare at his one visible eye, as if it held something more captivating than the cracks in the moulding.
She looked away, uncomfortable. "He's still kind of lazy though. Doesn't like to do something for longer than 15 minutes. Why are you here by the way? I thought Naruto left an hour ago to meet you, he said."
Kakashi shrugged, "Ah. I forgot to tell them I would be late."
"Seems unprofessional," Yasahashi mumbled.
"Are you single?"
"Oh, I remember you now."
"I think I recall your answer too, but I thought I'd just check."
She sighed and turned towards the stairwell, "yeah, fuck off guy."
The interaction could have been completely over with then, had she chosen to just keep walking up the stairs. But, something possessed her. She stopped and turned to the jonin again. "Hey, what about that purple-haired friend you had with you. She was nice."
"Do you mean Anko?" he looked slightly disappointed, "Ah, yeah you might be her type…"
"Yeah, I see her sometimes. If you talk to her, tell her to meet me at Hanabi's."
He seemed hesitant, but nodded, "I will, if I see her."
"Thanks, yeah, I have to go." She left finally.
"Kakashi Hatake," he called his name after. She just waved at him and headed up the stairs.
Her heart was beating when she got back to her room. Why had she asked him to hook her up with that Anko girl anyway? She thought about that look in his eye.
She went and sat in front of the photograph of her and the other woman. She stared at it for a good long while, until night had fallen. Then she stood up and quickly went to her desk, unfolding Professor Ayame's plans. She looked at them with a sigh and kept working.
'He'd even included a section of the plans for the Uchiha district…' her tears started to fall on the worn paper. She put it away for the night.
