Hello my darlings! How are you? I'm fine, thank you for asking, in fact, I've brought a little chappie with me to hopefully brighten your day a bit.

This is about Rin and Karin's teammate Nanami. The italic parts that interrupt the flow are Nanami's thoughts (she's crazy. get over it.) The story is not one of my best, but it is a lot of fun to write Nanami. I had fun, so you better too.

Or else. Muwahahaha.

(There is no real threat here. In all actuality I'd give all of you cotton candy and hugs if we ever met.)

Well then, please proceed, my dearest ones.

They were running. That was a normal thing ninjas did, Nanami knew, but she wasn't all that sure that this was the right kind of running. Ninjas ran towards danger, towards missions and glory and the greater good. But this running was different.

They were running away.

Retreat. A part of her mind reminded her. It's a tactical retreat. You were far outnumbered and their power far exceeded yours.

Karin ran beside her, panting as she looked over her shoulder occasionally to check the—Is it a mob, A pack, a flock or a group? A murder of crows to come and scratch out our eyes with blood tinged claws?—enemy that followed close behind.

They were big and powerful and thirsty for their blood, and they were getting so close that Nanami could feel their breath—So foul, the smell of cinders in a bloody hearth—brushing over the hairs at the nape of her neck.

"I should have listened to Rin." Karin whimpered—Small lost child, searching for a mother in the night—and Nanami agreed with her wholeheartedly.

They had found a camp of rogue-nin, a small camp of eight or nine, and Rin, the team leader, had told the two girls to keep an eye on the—Beasts, men who are no longer men but are men—group while she went and got backup. But Karin—The little girl who reaches out for the glory with already cupped hands, eager for the pride of the father and the pride of the mother—had figured that they could take them. There weren't that many.

They had been in the middle of it all when the other twenty had arrived, all of them far exceeding the power of two-over eager teenage girls who were already running a bit low on chakra.

So, they ran.

There was only a momentary tingle of her senses warning her of the danger, but that fleeting moment was enough for her to duck and roll, the kunai passing harmlessly through the air where she had previously been, and Nanami quickly regained her footing, though it was a few paces behind where she would have been had she gone on uninterrupted—Better the loss of footing than the loss of a head, especially when there is not one to spare.

They broke through the trees and their eyes widened when they saw that their desperate race would be interrupted. Quite a rude and unavoidable interruption, really, what with the cliff just suddenly appearing there. They started to slow as they got closer to the edge, coming to a stop a few yards from the end, able to see the furious river below that churned and thrashed within itself.

But those ninja were still coming, and now they were so close that the two girls should have been dead already. But they were toying with them—The prey that fights a useless fight tastes better going down that one who only fell—and they wouldn't let it end so soon.

What does the mouse do, when faced with the malicious feline and the obstacle that is nothing but air?

Fly.

Narrowing her eyes, Nanami grabbed onto Karin and ran, and even though the pale haired girl fought against her hold she did not win because Nanami held tight and dragged her away from certain death, instead running and pushing off of the edge of the cliff as they leaped, catapulting through the air before dropping down, down, down.

Down to the gates of wrath we go.

They hit the water hard, like a water filled balloon hitting concrete, though thankfully they did not burst. Nanami felt it throughout her entire body and she opened her mouth on a gasp, and the rushing river water quickly filled it. She struggled for a bit as the current pushed her under and to the side, left and then right and then up and then down, but suddenly she was up, all the way up, and for a moment she was free.

Coughing and hacking, she tried her hardest to stay up, but all she could do was struggle as she was forced under again.

"You know what, Nanami, I think I love water more than dry land. Maybe I'm a fish!"

Narrowing her eyes at the murky darkness she couldn't see through, Nanami ordered her body to work like she wanted it to, and she relaxed even though her mind and her lungs protested. She relaxed and allowed the river to beat at her—Taunting and laughing and so foolish as it plays—until she moved with a single and desperate punch of the final dregs of her chakra that momentarily blew the water away to allow her air before it rushed quickly back, though this time she was on top of it.

And then she saw a tangled mop of messy white strands struggling so hard, so she reached out and grabbed on, and after the initial fight Karin calmed down when she figured out that it was Nanami. And as the river once again roared—They were the cats but this is the king; no feeling, no heart, only power you will bow under—dragging them under and squeezing them until their lungs threatened to pop, the two girls did not let go, keeping everything within them focused on maintaining what was left of their chakra to enhanced grip.

Nanami wondered how long they had been beneath the water. It couldn't have been minutes, because even the slowest minutes pass faster than their time did. It had been hours. Days. Months.

Impossible. Part of her whispered, but every other part of her whispered back that it was true.

But true or not, suddenly she hit something hard, something that made her nearly let go of Karin, though she managed to hold on with sheer force of will alone.

And the pounding of the river was gone, it stopped pulling at them and pushing at them and rushing through and past them—and Nanami knew that they weren't dead because she had heard once on good authority that your clothes wouldn't be wet on the other-side—and then, even more suddenly and astoundingly, their heads broke up to the surface.

The coughed and hacked and gasped and croaked until they both regained their breath, occasionally spitting out the water that crept into their mouths and they kicked their legs so that they could stay afloat.

It was dark. That's all there was, the darkest darkness Nanami had ever seen, and the cold and wet water that had only moments ago swallowed them alive without mercy.

"Oh God." Karin choked, and she moved with a mad rush of water as she blindly punched Nanami with the hand that wasn't holding onto her desperately.

"You are CRAZY!" She shouted, her voice echoing endlessly, "You threw me off of a cliff! Who does that? I mean it, really, what sane person does that?!"

"I did not throw, I merely dragged. And we're both alive, aren't we?" With her free hand Nanami started to feel around, drifting away slightly as she held on tight to her lifeline as she searched. "We also established far before this moment that I am not sane. I do wish you would remember that. Also, you should know that I found a rock." A rock in a storm, though it will be quickly weathered by the rain.

There was silence before Karin finally sighed.

"A rock?"

"Yes. One we can hold on to since I don't think that we can continue like this for too much longer." Giving the girl a tug, they both quickly got on either side of the rock and held on, keeping skin to skin contact with each other all the while.

"I think we're in an underwater cave or something since it's so dark. Not to mention the echo and the miracle of air."

"If we are, that may mean that we could run out of air." Nanami murmured as she pressed her cheek to the cool stone, wishing that it were warm.

The silence that blanketed the two of them after that comment was heavy until Karin sighed.

"Thank you for that, Nanami. It makes our situation so much easier."

"I'm not saying it will happen, only that it is a possibility."

Karin simply sighed—words restrained from the tongue come out in a breath of barely held civility—and they fell into silence before the white haired girl suddenly spoke up.

"Talk. I'll go crazy if you don't say something to get my mind off of the fact that we'll die from drowning. Or hypothermia. Or, hey, according to you, suffocation."

Nanami thought for a moment. "This water feels to be roughly about fifty degrees, so hypothermia shouldn't actually set in for a little less than half an hour or so." She said conversationally, and Karin groaned as if in pain.

"Thank you, Nanami. That is exactly what I wanted to hear right now." Sarcasm is carried upon a sharp tongue that stabs others thoughtlessly; watch how the blood bleeds into the black.

"Okay, how about this? You tell me the story of your braid. I've been dying to know, and since we're about to actually, you know, die, it might be nice to tell someone."

"I never thought I'd be here again." Nanami said in an amused tone, and Karin groaned, wondering if she'd ever be able to get the blonde to mentally stay in one place.

"...What do you mean?" She finally muttered, her voice slightly muffled from burying it into her arm.

"Clinging like a leech to the skin of the earth as the water tries to swallow me whole. It tried so hard the last time, beating and rushing and swirling, pulling at me as if it were begging me to play. But I refused. Maybe now..." She chuckled lightly, "Maybe now it has come back because this is where I belong." The water reaches into the lungs to pull out the air that is left, bubbles rising to the surface as water embraces you in its place.

Sinking down, down, down...

There was silence. Utter silence but for the sound of water lapping at distant cavern walls.

"Nanami, what are you talking about?" Karin asked carefully, lifting her head up as she strained to see through the nothingness that surrounded them to the other girl.

It was true the girl was crazy, but this was different crazy. This was dark and painful, a weeping crazy that chilled the unknowing girl far faster than the water that surrounded them would ever dare to.

"Did you know," Nanami said lightly as she closed her eyes, pressing her forehead to the rock they clung to now, "That I once had parents? Sometimes I barely believe it either, but it's true. But even better than that, I had a friend. She was the best, really. A best friend if there ever was one." She laughed as she thought back to it, and grinned widely.

"Oh yes. The best..."

The little girl walked quickly to the small watering hole, repeating to herself again and again all of her excuses. She already knew them, of course, but her parents always said that repetition led to excellence, so if she repeated the lies enough in her head, maybe in theory they'd be even better lies.

Though, the probability of this was slim.

When she got to the small pool it was already occupied by another older girl who was happily swimming, but that was what made this secret place so wonderful. That girl.

Said girl looked up when she heard the sounds of footsteps getting closer and grinned when she saw who it was.

"Hello, Nanami." The elder girl called, the seventeen year-old swimming a bit closer to the edge of the deep water.

"Hi Minori." The small child said, a large smile on her face as she went to her friend.

Her only friend.

She was a smart child, so very gifted and able to outsmart men who had lived to nearly the end of their lives, and her parents relished in it. They attempted to mold her, to force her to perfection, and they kept her hidden away from everyone else, studying and learning and becoming so lonely that she couldn't even cry anymore.

But one day she had left, she had rebelled and had never been happier or more confused. Happy because she was finally free, but confused because her parents had always said that she would be happiest to stay inside and study and ignore everyone else.

And then she had come across the pool and the girl with the bright blue eyes and the dark black hair, and had asked her a question because questions were the best way to learn, along with books.

"Are parents wrong?" She had asked, and the teen had laughed.

"Of course they are." The girl had said, "Everyone is."

"And so I had a friend, once upon a time and far far away, in a different story within a different memory." Nanami whispered as Karin listened, curious to learn about the girl who was more mystery than reality.

"And it was quite beautiful."A flower without thorns, but with honey that is sweet upon dying lips.

"I don't like this!" Nanami whimpered as she held onto Minori for dear life, her small arms wrapped tightly around her neck as the elder girl walked out further into the water. Minori merely laughed and lifted the five year old a bit higher, rubbing a soothing hand over her back as they went out further and further, the water rising up higher and higher.

The elder girl sat down when she found the rock that she wanted, and the water went up to just below her shoulders, making the small child panic and start to struggle.

"Hey, hey now. It's not that bad, chick. I've got you, and I'm the best swimmer around. You know what, Nanami, I think I love water more than dry land. Maybe I'm a fish!"

"That's impossible both genetically and physically." The little girl whispered, and Minori just chuckled.

"Alright, smartie-pants, but you'll still be fine."

"People have been known to drown in less than two inches of water."

"But they didn't have me." The teen patiently pointed out, and after a moment of thinking Nanami let her arms slide down so that she could lean back.

They started slowly with Minori's hands holding her up as she went through the movements. Water was swallowed and went up her nose, but throughout the entire thing the comforting feeling of her friend's hand holding her up steadied her.

And then it was gone.

She thought about panicking, but it was a fleeting impulse that she quickly suppressed. She didn't want to disappoint the only person that she knew actually cared for her.

So she tried her hardest. She spit out the water that invaded her mouth and moved her arms and legs rapidly, keeping her head mostly above the water until Minori picked her up again.

"You did it!" She said happily, grinning at the girl as she held her up and patted her back as she coughed. And Nanami grinned, for the first time feeling the delightful burn of accomplishment.

After a little bit Minori brought in a ball that the little girl clutched so that she could float, kicking her legs so that she could swim around and keep her head above the water without any help from the older girl.

"I think water is my element." Minori sighed as she floated on her back, moving her arms lazily through the water to move. "I just feel better in it. I think better because it clears out my thoughts and sort of just... lays them out for me. It's very relaxing." She sighed contentedly and glanced over to see the extremely concentrated look on Nanami's face as she tried her hardest to kick her way back and forth through the pond.

She stifled a laugh, and grinned widely at her.

"I wonder what yours is. I don't really think it's water." She stood up and waded back over to the girl to pick her back up, ignoring the whining protest for 'Just another minute! I almost got it!' "Maybe earth, because you're so steady. Or fire, because you're so determined."

"I don't even believe stuff like that! You can't associate an element to an aspect of somebody's personality!" The child piped, and Minori only laughed.

"Maybe one day," She confided, "You will."

"She didn't treat me like a child. She treated me like a friend, because she knew that I so desperately needed one. She even told me what she would tell a friend that was her same age." Nanami confided to the darkness and her teammate. "She told me about boys. You see, our village was a small one that housed a single clan. I've seen some of them around the village, though I don't approach them."

"Ninja are strong, and I do find strength appealing, but I couldn't be with one. Especially one from here. I feel like I can't really trust a man who takes better care of his hair than his life."

"She told me about everything, as I did to her. My parents..."

"I am your mother, the one that is responsible for giving you the gifts you are squandering! That girl will give you nothingworthwhile, but if you stop acting so petulant and actually LISTEN to me, you will see that I can guide you to so many things! So many better, richer, more worthwhilethings. And you only just have to stop meeting with that girl."

"...They weren't happy. They didn't want me to see her any more."

Even if you swat the moth away from the light, it will still search for the heat.

"I'm... sorry." Karin said quietly, not quite sure where she was going with this. But she'd listen, because it was so much easier than focusing on how cold she was, and how much colder it was steadily getting.

"Oh, it's all right. In the end, when the sky shattered and the mountains bowed, I didn't have to worry about it." Nanami said easily.

"W-What?" Karin stuttered out, her teeth slightly chattering until she clenched her jaw to stop it. Silence was all that met her question, and they stayed like that for a few unbearably long minutes before the eccentric girl turned story teller decided to speak again, a little bit quieter this time, as she remembered.

"My birth-village—well, more of a slim town, really, where you could reach outwards with both arms and tickle the sides—was made in the deep valley of what used to be a lake. It was damned off years before the distant thought of me drifted down like dust in a beam of sunlight, and people grew out from the fertile land and the close and bountiful water supply. I went to the damn once and stood on the edge with the wind pushing at my back from the steep drop of nothingness and the water pushing against the wall in front of it, angry and desperate to be free. And oh, when it finally got its wish, it was a sight to behold. And Minori and I, we had the perfect seats for the show."

There had been no warning of the damn breaking, only a rush of water that tore the trees from the ground with a single furious strike and that roared to the town with a self-righteous fury.

They had been high up on the hill that held the town so they hadn't been toppled by that first unceremonious rush, but the water had caught them as they had ran, gripping their feet and tripping them so that they fell into the frothing water, the current pushing them and then pulling them under.

Terrified, oh so very terrified and so very small and suddenly alone, Nanami tried to scream, but water rushed in. She thrashed and kicked and fought and hurt, but the water was everywhere, and there was no air and no land and nothing to save her. Her body ached. It told her that she had been fighting for too long, and it was so very easy to believe it as you drifted through nothingness, blackness following your eyes everywhere as your chest tightened and your throat seemed to strangle itself.

And so she sank, down down down down, down until she was floating away. But then there were arms, solid and strong and dependable and trembling, and they wrapped around her and held her close as only one person ever had as they started to go up.

The air as it touched her face when they finally broke free from the abyss was cold, and the taste of the water coming out of her throat was rancid and stale as Nanami choked and tried to draw in a breath she wasn't all that certain she had ever had before. After a few minutes, she realized that she heard a voice. A most beautiful and wonderful voice that shook and trembled and held tears and fears, and so little hope.

"... It's okay, everything will be okay. You're okay, Nanami. I'm here now. Just calm down and breathe, because it all will be okay."

Minori continued to repeat this as Nanami choked and coughed, and finally the small girl relaxed into her older friend's arms before realizing that Minori was swimming, her legs kicking beneath the surface as her free arm swept it. Lifting her head, Nanami saw that the dark that had been falling as they had walked back home was now almost solidly set into place, and that they were in the middle of water that had not been there before.

"M-Minori?" Nanami managed to stutter out before being squeezed tighter by the arm that held onto her before being shushed.

"Hey, it's okay. It's just that the..."

"The damn broke." The child helpfully and logically filled in for her after she led off, unsure of what had happened. "That's the only thing that could have happened."

"Right. Okay. Well, what ever happened, we have to find something steady to hold onto because I cant swim the two of us forever."

They swam over to where the top of a still standing tree peeked out from the water, skeleton branches, crooked and bare, reaching out and up to claw at the sky scratching at their skin as they forced their way through them to get to the main body.

"Don't worry." Minori panted as they clutched the tree desperately, wincing slightly as a some sort of debris that was drifting through the water on the current tore at one of her legs as it went past, "Help will come soon. One of the ninja, probably." And then, as if some divine force only wished to torture and laugh at them, there was a sudden explosion that rang their ears and forced them to clutch tighter to the tree.

"What was...?" Minori murmured as she lifted her head to see that a little ways away, at the edge of all the water, a fire burned brightly and strongly and so big and so amazing, reaching out and up, defeating the night and reflecting against the rippling of the still rising—though quieter—water.

"The town." Nanami whispered through numb lips she was surprised to find actually working, "That is where the town is."

Her mind, her clever little mind, started piecing it together from the pieces of the information she was able to see at the time.

The water had probably hit something important, or maybe knocked something over.

The oil. She remembered hearing about the oil reserve that the town used to heat and power itself, and how unsteady it was. How perhaps there should be precautions taken. But they hadn't. After all, what could disrupt their perfectly calm and unchanging little lives?

The fools.

"Oh God. Oh... Oh my God." Minori whimpered like the scared child Nanami was on the inside. The two of them continued to clutch the tree and pray to their faceless gods for what seem to be entire infinities though it had only been less than half an hour, but then Nanami felt her friend stiffen behind her, and she turned her head to see familiar eyes lit by the reflecting flames and determination.

"I'm going to find help." She said firmly, and as the little girl who pretended to be so big watched her only friend pull away, she felt a panic she had never felt before clutch at her throat and threaten to tear tears from her eyes.

"Wait! No! Please! You can't! You don't know what will happen, and you just can't!" Nanami protested shrilly, pulling one of her arms away from the tree so that she could clutch onto the wet and heavy fabric of the older girl's shirt.

"I'm sorry," She said gently, "But I need to. I'm the only one right now who can find a way to save us, and maybe if I was some incredible hero or ninja I'd know what to do, but right now I'm not and all I can think of doing is going to find help." She carefully removed the small and desperate hand from her shirt and shoved herself back into open water, allowing the current to pull her further and further away. "Don't worry though! I'll be right back!" She called back as she swam away, fading from the child's vision as her eyes filled with tears.

"Don't leave me!" She screamed out, but no one was there to hear. No one was there to answer.

No one was there.

Nanami buried her face into her arm as she sobbed, and when that eventually and inevitably stopped she lifted her head to look around and hope the impossible hope that someone—anyone—was there.

But there was no one. Just her, the water that forced her teeth to clack and her muscles to quiver and shiver and shake, and the the fire that burned so high and so bright, begging her to come closer.

Leaning her head against the rough bark of the tree, Nanami watched as her life burned to ash as she wished she could do the same.

"That night, there were only a hand full of survivors that scattered along like dandelion fluff afterward, just wishes on the winds searching for a new home. Some people forgot, turning away and closing their eyes as they pushed it to the backs of their minds to dream about later. Others moved on and kept it quiet, only bringing out the memories in the quiet times as a story to thrill and terrify and be nothing more than a story to those that heard it. But then there are the few that stared that night right in the eye, that watched that fire roar and the water hiss, and then remembered it piece by crooked piece, and they all went positively mad from it." She gave a small laugh.

"I suppose you can figure out which one I was."

Silence stretched between them until it was so taunt that it felt like it was about to break into pieces, but then Nanami sighed, apparently still not done.

"I waited there for what felt like hours, but then I saw a man walking on top of the water like some crooked god, his hair and clothes in tatters and looking so incredibly weary. I was able to tell he was a ninja because his hair was so long, nearly dragging behind him in the water. No one else in our little pocket village would have wore their hair like that other than that little clan of ninja. And I was just a little girl, you see, so young with an knowledgeable old brain and with a sanity that was shredding itself as I just waited for my one and only friend to come back, and all that little child could do was reach out for help with pruned hands and a broken heart."

She tried calling out to him, that shadowed figure of a man that passed by her, but her throat was raw and her words were lost to a croak of a sound that couldn't be heard over the horrors that continued on around them. And he was leaving, her one single flicker of hope and he was leaving her behind.

And so she pushed off of that tree and into the open abyss of water.

Desperation was the only thing that kept her up, the rapid kicking and flailing of her arms and legs splashing the water wildly, but still moving her. It was slow going, oh so very slow, but luckily the man stopped when he heard the frenzied splashing, giving the little girl just enough time to reach out and grab onto his ankle, holding on for dear life as he jumped and nearly sank down.

"Please," Nanami managed, her voice a whimpering and pitiful croak, "Please, help me."

"We found Minori, that man and me. He carried me around as we walked above it all, and we found her floating amongst bodies of people we had once knew." Nanami was mildly surprised to find that she was digging her blunt nails into the rock, undoubtedly ruining them and cutting her skin if the slight sting of pain was telling. But it was easy to ignore that, for the moment.

"The most terrible thing I remember about that night wasn't the deaths or the fear or the flood or the fire. It was that when we finally got to where the survivors—what few there were—had gathered, the children weren't crying. Instead it was the men, men who had gathered together in war and battle, men who had seen bloodshed and death and pain, and they stood there and watched and sobbed like they were broken."

The silence stretched once more as Nanami rested and as Karin cried for that poor little girl, but before she could give out any of her pity or convey any of the pain for her friend she felt, the other girl grinned and began one last time.

"I still remember that fire, how beautiful and bright it was. It dominated and burned and was so fierce and proud that I finally got what Minori meant when she talked about the connection she felt when she was in the water. It was terrible, I know, but I watched it burn away the remains of my old life, freeing me from it all, and I fell so very deeply in love. But you see, eventually, all flames die." She murmured, sliding back until only her hands were on the cool face of the stone, and then she let herself drift back until she could no longer feel its touch.

"Nanami..." Karin said slowly at the feeling of the other girl moving away and leaving her, "What are you doing?"

"I'm not even a true fire. I'm just a candle that was born that night, a candle who might have burned its wick down to the ground," She mused as Karin started to frantically feel around for her while continuing to hold onto the rock.

"Nanami, stop it. Stop it right now." Karin said in a quivering voice, not liking the direction that this was heading.

"I am, perhaps, at my end." Nanami whispered quietly, more to herself than to the other girl. "And maybe, just maybe, this is a bit better."

"Nanami! Get back over here right now!"

The girl giggled, and it was not a sound that gave the white haired girl any comfort. "Let us see who will win, shall we? The water, or the flames?"

And then she sank.

"NANAMI!"

The first clue Nanami had as to her still being alive was that she hurt. Everywhere, within every fiber of her being, she hurt. And though her clothes were dry they were thin and left her a bit chilled, which was something she did not enjoy what so ever.

She slowly cracked her crusty eyes open and after blinking a few times she looked over to the side and saw that Karin was curled up in the chair beside her bed, asleep. She wanted to clear her throat to wake her up, but it was too dry and sore so she instead just reached out and tapped her shoulder.

The girl jerked up and blinked the sleep away for a minute before she looked at the smiling girl in the hospital bed, and after a shocked moment of staring at her she reached out and angrily punched her in the shoulder, glaring at her fiercely.

"Do you have any idea what you did to me in that damn cave?! If Rin and the others had been even a minute later, you would be dead right now!" She shrieked, hitting the girl once more for good measure.

Nanami took the abuse silently, waiting until Karin was done before she grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I am truly sorry for worrying you." She whispered, meaning it completely. She waited for the other girl's acknowledging nod before she continued.

"How did they find us?"

Karin sighed and settled back into her seat, looking up at the ceiling instead of the girl since she was still so incredibly angry.

She had been so scared, those few moments right after Nanami had slipped away and just before Rin had swooped in for the rescue. So, so scared.

"Rin used her eyes to find us, and even if her eyesight is a little less than perfect, it apparently works pretty well when she got desperate enough. And after she figured out where we were they blew through the rocks with couple of nice little jutsus to get to us. Apparently the cavern went up pretty high and the rock above it was pretty thin, so it only took a few minutes to get to us."

Nanami blinked for a few moments before finally asking, "They blew up the cliff?" She waited for Karin's hesitant nod before allowing an enormous grin to split her face. "That is absolutely fabulous. I'm kind of upset that I missed it."

"Well," Karin said with a newer and fiercer glare, "You wouldn't have if you hadn't tried to drown yourself."

Nanami held up a hand to placate her, sighing as she realized that she was never going to live that down. A part of her didn't really mind. It was just Karin's way of caring.

"It was a lapse in what little judgment I have caused by the memories I brought up. It will never happen again." Seeing that she was still faced with that glare, she tried one last tactic. "Cross my heart and if I lie, shove a doughnut in my eye."

Karin couldn't have stopped her laugh if she had tried. "That isn't even how it goes." She pointed out but Nanami only shrugged, and the other girl sent her an amused but warning look.

"Well, you had better be grateful that I'm not telling anyone about it. If I had you would be given a psychological exam, and we both know that you wouldn't have passed that."

The blonde nodded and reached out, grabbing both of the other girl's hands tightly so that she would look at her, meeting her eyes earnestly.

"I know," She said, "And I thank you, my friend."

I'm not satisfied with the ending, but I've been working on this for a long time and just decided to go ahead and end it.

A quick hello to my newest baby electrickpanda (salutations), and I shall now be on my way to work on more stories while also prowling the dark and dangerous streets, serving justice with a righteous hand.

...

...

Hahahaha! Yeah right. I don't even think Owenton (where I live) has any "dark and dangerous" streets.

Welp, see you soon!

For justice! And cookies! (but mostly cookies)