This contains some minor spoilers for Fade to Black!

Five times somebody thought somebody else had

a crush on Kasumi, and the one time they were right.

.

.

1

Kiba crossed his arms over his chest, scowling at Naruto and Kasumi across the playground.

Akamaru yipped at his heels.

"Right?" he grumbled. "Dunno why she's hangin' out with him."

He couldn't even get Kasumi to look twice at him. But Naruto? She always hung out with him, him and Choji and Shikamaru. Every break. Every day.

Kasumi laughed at something and smacked Naruto in the shoulder. This elicited a sharp yelp, followed by a laugh, from Naruto, who rubbed his shoulder as he did. This only made Kiba scowl harder—why wouldn't she punch him?

Kiba would let her punch him. He might, you know, punch her back, but he'd like it!

And Naruto always stuck around her like a puppy or something, never more than a few steps behind her. He sat with her every class, asked her questions and stuff, snuck some of her food at lunch. Whenever they practiced, Naruto snatched her up as a partner before anybody else could.

"What are you looking at?"

He turned to look at Shino wandering over towards him, his hands cradled in front of him. Kiba could see a couple of bugs skitter across his palms. One ran up into his sleeve and two more crawled out and took its place in Shino's hands, little black things no bigger than grains of rice.

"Nothin'," Kiba said.

Shino hummed. "That is a lie."

"What? Nah!"

"Yes, it is. Mother taught me how to detect those a few weeks ago. I can tell you are lying."

"Knock that freaky shit off, man!"

"Okay."

Kiba scrunched up his nose.

Kasumi was scribbling in that notebook she always carried, and before she could do anything, Naruto snatched it out of her hands and danced away. She went bright red and immediately yanked it back out of his hands, holding it to her chest. Naruto pouted. Kasumi stared hard at him.

Served him right.

Then she sighed and handed the book back to him.

"Why does she do that?" Kiba whined. "She never lets anybody look at her drawings!"

"Because she likes him and she does not like anybody else." Shino pauses. He tilts his head, then nods. "Except for Choji and Shikamaru."

"Why doesn't she like me?"

"You are obnoxious."

"Dude…"

"I am fine with it," Shino says. "But I do not believe most other people do."

Kiba huffs.

Naruto is even more obnoxious than him. Like, way more. Everybody knows that. But neither Shikamaru or Choji are obnoxious. So, does she like guys who are obnoxious, or doesn't she? Or does it even matter to her?

Maybe if he makes Akamaru piss on Naruto, Kasumi will laugh and then will hang out with Kiba, instead, 'cause then Naruto's gonna smell like pee. And then Naruto will be sad from being rejected like the loser that he is and leave Kasumi alone. It's a win-win! Kasumi will finally see how funny and awesome Kiba is, and he'll knock Naruto out of the way.

Kiba turns on his heels, grinning.

"What is that face?" Shino asks.

"Oh, heh. Nothing." Kiba jerks his chin towards the field. "Let's just go play Ninja and Civilians."

.

.

2

"Peh, I don't get it. What can he see in her?"

"Dunno. I mean, her hair's pretty? But she has those like, weird, kinda big muscles, and mama always tells me that women should be dainty, not bulgy."

Ino waved a hand. "That's just weak civilian stuff. As long as kunoichi have a flat stomach, they're fine to have muscles."

"Oh." Kimi tilted her head. "Does she have a flat stomach?"

"Probably."

"... oh."

There was a loud slam as Kasumi did some kind of weird maneuver that ended with her spread out on top of him, pinning him to the ground with her smaller body. Iruka called something out and she hopped off of him. She had a familiar smirk on her face.

"Man, she's so lucky," Kimi whined. "I wanna lay on top of Sasuke like that!"

Ino scoffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. She looked annoyed. "He let her do that. No way would she have pinned him, otherwise. Ugh. So dumb."

Naruto blinked. His gaze swept from Ino and Kimi, huddled together on the side of the practice mat, to Kasumi as she wandered back towards him and Shikamaru and Choji. Sasuke's gaze was locked on her the whole way, his arms crossed over his chest and a sour expression clouding his features.

He didn't get it—Sasuke was too much of a bastard to like anybody. Sasuke didn't like anything, period. Didn't even like ramen! Naruto remembered one time Sasuke mentioned it was nothing but empty food, whatever that meant. And Kasumi and ramen were pretty close on the awesome scale, so if Sasuke didn't like ramen, Naruto saw no reason for him to like Kasumi.

Plus, he knew Kasumi didn't like Sasuke, either. She never said much about him but Naruto knew Kasumi's stinky faces and looks, and she always gave them to Sasuke. He doesn't think she knows she does it, but she totally does. Shikamaru agreed, too, which means that it has to be right because Shikamaru is always right.

Those girls don't know what they're talking about.

.

.

3

"Wonder if he likes you."

It seemed like such a simple, innocent statement, but fuck if I didn't get stuck on it for a solid few weeks. Though, when it came to Shikamaru, it was hard to tell whether or not he knew what he was doing when he said that, what kind of weird shit it planted in my head and what he meant by it.

I paused and let my head roll over to look at Shikamaru, turning my attention away from the book I was reading. Shikamaru's gaze was locked on the sky. His expression was neutral, casual, and I narrowed my eyes.

I knew that Lee liked me—if he didn't, he wouldn't be so thrilled about training with me. Not that I knew many people who Lee didn't like.

But, like like me? No way. Nu uh. Not a chance.

That was Sakura's spot, not mine, and as far as I had seen during their little training sessions, she was still filling that.

"You think?"

He made a vague noise in the back of his throat, one that I knew meant something along the lines of "yeah" to "I dunno, maybe" from years spent interpreting boy noises.

"C'mon," I said. I closed my book over my thumb and thwacked him on the shoulder with it. "Seriously?"

Shikamaru grumbled. "Just a thought," he said, rubbing his shoulder, a sour look on his face. "Jeez. Didn't have to hit me."

"I tapped you. Don't be a baby."

As if anything is ever 'just a thought' with him.

Shikamaru went back to his cloud watching and I tried to get back to my reading, but I couldn't get my head off of the thought. It stuck with me for the rest of the day, the night, and all the way to the next morning when I had training with Lee again.

It threw me off my game for the whole session, to the point that for the first time in a long time, Lee pulled one of his punches.

I let out a sharp breath, anticipation tight in my muscles. A bead of sweat dripped down my nose and plopped onto the dusty ground, right in front of my foot. But Lee's fist stopped short an inch from where it would have at least bruised my chin. Might have broken my jaw. If I was really unlucky, he would have taken a tooth, too.

Instead, it hovered in the air.

"Your Youth is wavering this morning, Kasumi," he said. "What is the matter?"

"I—" I blinked. My muscles unclenched and I took a step back from him. "That obvious, huh?"

He hopped back, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Only because I have trained with you for so long!"

"Cool."

"So?"

"... can I ask you a stupid question?"

"No question is a stupid question! That is what Gai always says."

"Right," I said. "Agree to disagree. Is that a yes, though?"

"Of course!"

"Do you have a crush on anybody?"

Gai's face lit up like the night sky on the fourth of July. "That is your question?"

"Said it was stupid."

"Why are you wondering?"

I shrugged. "Just humour me."

"Yes," he said. "I do."

Something uncomfortable twisted in my gut. "And it… it's not… me, right?"

The horrified deer-in-headlights look this earned me was a bit insulting but mostly relieving; it was all the answer I needed.

"Oh, good," I said. "That's a 'no'."

"You are a Lovely Young Blossom of Youth!" Lee cried. "But I—no, I do not—"

I waved a hand. "Like I said, that was the answer I was looking for. Just wanted to, you know. Confirm."

"If I have done anything to give you such an impression, I am deeply sorry."

"Not you," I said. "Different idiot."

"I see."

A slight smirk pulled at my lips. "It's Sakura, though, isn't it?"

"Ah." Lee laughed, abashed. "Perhaps."

"It's cute. I think you two would be cute together."

"... you believe that?"

"Sure."

"Thank you, Kasumi."

"No problem." I cracked my knuckles, slipping back into a defensive position. "Now, try and clock me in the jaw again—I'm ready."

.

.

4

Sakura hated to think it. Really, she did.

But there was a part of her that wondered if maybe Kabuto had a crush on Kasumi.

He always seemed to pay extra attention to Kasumi during their lessons, asking her extra questions and keeping an eye on her, always watching her. She had no idea why. It was her that Kabuto should have been paying that attention to—she was the best healer of the group, after all. Hinata was a close second, once she wrapped her head around the concept.

It made no sense for Kabuto to be so interested in Kasumi, of all of them.

"I think Kabuto has a crush on Kasumi."

Ino froze. When she set down her pencil and turned her full attention to Sakura, there was a sharp contemplation in her eyes, but it was a bit annoyed, too. "Seriously?"

"I mean—I mean, maybe!"

"Why?"

"He always pays so much attention to her! Like, he always looks over her work extra careful, when she gives it to him. And even if she doesn't, he asks her for it, or will just, like, glance at it when she's not paying attention. He asks her all the questions. Double checks that she doesn't need extra help from him! He's, like, honed in on her."

Something twisted Ino's expression. "Ever think that's maybe a bad thing?"

"Oh my Kami," Sakura said. "You're still on that?"

"Yeah. I was the last time we talked about it, so, don't know why you think I'd move off it."

"Because he hasn't done anything wrong!"

"Not yet."

Sakura groaned. She waved a hand, as if to bat the long worn argument away like an errant fly. "Just, like. Hypothetically. For the sake of argument. Assuming he's not some, I don't know. Whatever you guys think he is."

That unpinched Ino's expression a bit and she sighed, leaning back against her bedroom wall, the two of them stretched out over Ino's bed. She tapped her finger against her thigh, her nails painted a soft lavender to match her eyes. The clock ticked in the background. Another expression crossed her face, something bright and speaking of an epiphany, and she shook her head.

"No?" Sakura asked.

"Nah."

"What? Why not?"

Ino scoffed. "Just… trust me. It's somebody else." Her eyes narrowed, cutting back to Sakura. "And it's not you."

"... oh."

"You can do better than him, so. That's a good thing, to me."

"Whatever," Sakura grumbled. "Nevermind."

"Sure, forehead."

.

.

5

Gaara did not understand why his sister and Kasumi spent so much time together.

Kasumi was here as one of the proctors for their shared chunin exams. She spent a considerable amount of time in the hospital, learning about Suna's poisons and their current medical processes. He had the pleasure—which, so he has been told, is the polite thing to say, regardless of how abrasive he might find her—of spending some time with her as they planned for eventualities and the like.

But she spent a significant amount of time with Temari, too. Gaara could not understand why as she had nothing to learn from Temari. Nor did Temari have anything to learn from her, most importantly. And his sister was a busy woman. She did not have time to waste on inconsequential people and interactions. Which meant that she must really like Kasumi.

Gaara turned to look at Kankuro, who was sitting across from him at the breakfast table in their private quarters. "I have a question."

Kankuro picked up his glass of water. He washed down a bite of curry and made an affirmative noise in the back of his throat.

"Is Temari in love with Kasumi?"

An odd choking noise left Kankuro and the water went everywhere, bits of rice and vegetables coming out along with it. It splattered over the table and impressively, some of it landed on the opposite wall, turning the dusty red stone more brick-coloured where it was now damp.

"The hell?" Kankuro asked, wheezing. "Why do you… what?"

Gaara blinked and tilted his head. "Why else would they be spending so much time together?"

"Because they're both assholes and female!" Kankuro said. "They're like a bitch match made in heaven!"

"But, then—"

"Not like that though, man. They're just friends."

"Oh."

Kankuro scratched the back of his head. "Man… now I have to clean that all up."

From his gourd, Gaara sends a bit of sand to soak up the excess water, discarding the damp and debris littered sand out the nearest window.

"Dude… nice. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Also, uh—maybe don't let Temari hear you say that, yeah? It's not exactly everybody's business that she's into girls, too."

"What do you mean… into girls?"

"You know. That she, like, will fall in love with and date either a girl or a guy."

"That's unusual?"

Kankuro sighed, wiping a hand down his face. "Shit, man. It's eight in the morning—too early to try and explain the fucking spectrum of sexuality."

"Alright," Gaara said. "I will bring this back to your attention in a few hours."

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

.

.

+1

They were a decent distance away. He couldn't hear what they were saying, save for the odd tidbit here and there from Kasumi. And he'd noticed that more and more. When Maen and Shikaku were around, the two of them never settled beside him. Always away. Always getting their own bit of privacy.

Slowly, his book drooped in his grip until it was flat against his knee.

An elbow wedged into his ribs. "Something the matter?" Shikaku asked. "Look like somebody just kicked you in the back of your knee."

The distance was twofold—Kasumi and Shikamaru got their privacy, but in turn, so did Maen and Shikaku.

"They're into each other."

"Congrats," Shikaku drawled. "Finally figured it out."

Maen's head snapped over to look at him.

Shikaku shrugged. "I figured it out a couple years ago."

Maen felt his face rearrange itself as he tried to process that statement.

A few years.

"And you never said anything?"

"Sorry that I thought you, a genius and a master of body language, would be able to figure it out on your own. Silly me."

How had he not seen it?

Shikaku jostled him again, grinning. "Didn't want to see your baby growing up?"

Maen smacked Shikaku's shoulder with his book.

It did feel weird to think of Kasumi dating. It shouldn't—she was a powerful kunoichi, a jonin already even at seventeen years old. She's taken out S-rank ninja. She helped push down one of the most powerful ninja organizations the nations had ever known. Dating, at this point? Not even a scratch in the mountain. She had done so much else in her short life already.

No. It's not just the dating bit.

"I never imagined they'd get together," Maen muttered. "It was never…"

"Time and distance will do that."

Maen quirked a brow.

"Shikamaru's thing was nothing new."

"I knew that," Maen said. "But I thought that was over once he met that girl in the capital and they had their fling."

"Think that paused it." Shikaku shrugged. "But they went a solid year and a half without really seeing each other. At the most important point for development, too."

"After she and Kakashi went on that stupid trip—"

"Yep."

And now that Maen thought about it?

"I knew they got closer after that, but I didn't read it like that."

"Maybe not right away. And definitely not that either of them noticed." Shikaku watched the two of them for half a minute, his mouth turning up into a slow smile, and he said, "Not sure they even have noticed it. But it's there, now. And it's mutual."

"Huh."

Shikaku snorted. "Well, for now."

"Don't think it'll last?"

"Not a chance," Shikaku said. "Shikamaru'll find a way to fuck it up."

"No faith in your son?"

"With his history? Not a chance. Maybe if he had another five years to mature emotionally, then he could handle it. But I think she's a bit out of his league right now."

"Damn right she is," Maen said. "But I don't think that'll matter."

"No?"

"Nah. Once she's decided on what she wants, that's generally that. She'll stick it out with him."

Shikaku chuckled. "Wanna bet on it?"

Maen was pulled out of the conversation as he heard Kasumi laugh.

It was loud, carefree, her head thrown back and her hand on her stomach. And Shikamaru had eyes only for her. There was something soft in the way he watched her, grinning, laid out on his side with his head propped up by one arm.

Maen has no doubt that whatever Shikamaru just said, all it aimed to do was make Kasumi laugh just like that.

"Yeah," Maen said. "Yeah. I'll bet on it."

A/N: This was commissioned from my ko-fi!

These are canon to the fic and for reference, they're in chronological order.