Chapter Four: Apologies and the Sensei's Pep Talk

After coming home to a lecture from Hachiro-sensei, Shiroki thought it would be best to lay low and practice where she was supposed to on authorized targets, for a change. Anyway, she was ready to pummel something with all she had. After all, this Nara wasn't the mopey type. She began to beat the stuffing, quite literally, out f a training dummy that appeared, suspiciously, to have the likeness more of a scarecrow than a ninja foe. Shiroki wasn't very good at creative visualization or thinking. She kept at it until she heard Seito's voice.

"Ri-chan," said he, "you know that I want to be friends with all my teammates. Shiroki included. Between us, there's nothing more than that friendship. She doesn't have any patience for anything romantic. It's not like that with Shiroki and me. I know my boundaries. Chances are, she won't find anyone unless she shapes up."

Promptly upon hearing the subject at hand, she substituted for a falling leaf, and hid, perched like a vulture. She watched intently. Seito was talking some sense into a very distraught Ritoru.

"Seito... Do you like me?" Ritoru dried her damp eyes, sniffed, and gazed deep into his melted brown eyes. The ninja blushed bashfully, and adverted his gaze.

"I don't know, Ri-chan. I do, but I'm not sure how." He turned back to her. "Ri-chan... Yesterday, I was trying to calm her down. You know how she is..." He lowered his voice so Shiroki couldn't hear what he said.

Ritoru laughed. "Yep, that's her." She looked away. "Seito, I'm not sure if I can trust her. She went all looney on those rogues..."

Seito frowned slightly. "Post-traumatic stress. That's gotta be it."

Rito glared at him. "Look, Seito, I'm not sure if we should trust her. And I'm not sure if I should trust you, either."

"But why? I'm your teammate! You have to trust me, or else things will go terribly wrong!" Seito put his hand on her shoulder gently, and his eyebrows crinkled in a worried fashion, the same look that crossed his face just the evening before when talking to Shiroki.

"I don't care. Y'all look shifty to me." Tears welled up in her eyes. "Why, Seito? Is this something you're both doing to go against me or something?"

On that odd note, Hachiro walked in. "Hello, everyone. You too, Shiroki."

Finally noticed, she jumped from the tree, and walked to circle up with her team. Ritoru looked paranoid. "Yo!" said Shiroki.

"I understand that all of you have been in a phase of distrust. All teams do. Some with reason, some without. From what I see... This will take a while. Have a seat." All the genin took varied seats: Ritoru on the ground, Shiroki on a stump, Seito on a convenient rock. Hachiro continued.

"From what I see, Ritoru is frightened by Shiroki. Seito wants the team not to fight, siding with both girls, not one, nor the other. Ritoru wants him to only side with her, and Shiroki sees it as more of weakness than compassion. Hence, a disagreement ensued, and it ended in the girls not trusting anyone on the team, and Seito doubting his abilities as a mediator. I, personally, would like a team off ninja that trusts each other. That is a necessary part of being a team in the first place. If you aren't willing to trust each other, I can request for a different team."

This made Shiroki very ashamed that everyone felt like that... and on top of that, the Sensei knew. She felt like it was all her fault. Ritoru was afraid of her. That was the first thing Hachiro-sensei had said. Everyone around her looked uncomfortable, not making eye contact, and the Sensei looked very disappointed in them. Just one week prior, they had teamed up on the sensei with their Rito-Shiro-Seito Team Jutsu. Now, they were silenced by distrust and misunderstanding.

"If any of you don't believe you can come to trust each other, get out. Now. You aren't worthy of my training. I told you at the get-go that this would be hard. Either suck it up, and deal, or leave. Now."

They glanced at each other. Other than that, none of them moved a muscle.

Shiroki was walking home alone, when someone tapped her shoulder. She jumped, drawing a kunai, and spun around. It was Ritoru, who drew in a breath and said, "Woah, Shiro-chan. I want to make nice. That's what I came to do."

"Yeah. What else? You're scared of me. I could poke you and you'd die inside."

Scratching the back of her head awkwardly, she mumbled, "Yeah, I suppose you could say that." Speaking up, she continued. "Look, Sensei was right about me. I am kind of afraid of you. But I won't let that stop me from being a good ninja. It's like Seito said... everyone can be a good ninja, just as long as they practice and work hard. I don't want to be a medical ninja like Ino-san, or a person working in the flower shop. If... Shiro... if you wouldn't be so hard on me, maybe I wouldn't be so afraid."

Shiroki narrowed her eyes skeptically. "If you wouldn't be such a biyoch... maybe."

Ritoru looked downwards. "I don't mean to. It's self-defense. And what I wanted to say... was: I'm sorry, Shi-chan."

Shiroki was startled by Ritoru's sudden apology. Having never before been apologized to she almost didn't understand the meaning of the words. "Um... Ritoru...?"

"Please don't be mad..."

"I'm not," Shiroki snapped. "It's just that I haven't heard 'sorry' since before mum and da died."

"If you need to talk..."

"Why does everyone want me to talk about it?" Furious, and turning a red shade in the face, she continued in a snappy tone. "First Seito, now you... is the sensei next?"

"I didn't mean..."

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean!" The Nara was now breathless with aggression. With that, she began to sulk off. Ritoru just stared in disbelief, happy, in a way, now that her thoughts were out and her apology accepted, but bewildered of how Shiroki could be so bipolar.

The next morning, when Shiroki meandered back to the training area, the first sight that met her eyes was Ritoru completely fawning over Seito. Then, Shiroki saw the look in his eyes when he saw her walk in, and she knew he was up to absolutely no good whatsoever.

Shiroki glared at Ritoru. Ritoru glared at Shiroki. It was obvious that the feeling over Seito was mutual.

Stalking up to the pair, she growled, "What are we doing, Seito... Ritoru...? It seems to me that we're getting all comfy-cozy here, aren't we?"

Seito managed to say, "It's not what you think."

"Oh, it's never what I think, is it, now?" she barked with a harsh amount of poison in her tone. "It looks like Seito hit on me the other day, and now Ritoru and he are getting all smoochy. Ohoho, doesn't it look like Seito has a little two-timing problem." At this, he turned red as a tomato.

"I... I... I just like you both, okay?"

Both girls stared at him, getting ready to leave. "Pick one," said Shiroki, glaring at him. "Otherwise, this is over." Ritoru nodded once purposefully in agreement, wearing a similar expression. The feeling, once again, was mutual.

"But... I'm afraid you'd be angry. I know I want to be with Ritoru, but Shiroki needs someone... and even then, I'm not sure it's me she needs. You two decide who you need. I'll get back to you." Exchanging glances, Rito and Shiro shrugged, hands upturned, and began to walk off. "Wait! You haven't decided yet."

With an almost sassy smirk and a playful glint in her eyes, Ritoru retorted in a singsong, "You haven't decided yet...!" The girls kept walking away, despite Seito's protests, as they began to grow quieter and quieter as the kunoichi put him behind them.

For now, at least.