I own not either Naruto nor One Piece though I wish I do...Oh well have fun reading the story while I mope in the corner!
My warning is still in effect.
Snake Sisters
Chapter 9: When in Konoha...
Shady Leaf Hotel, room 503, Konoha, one week later
A change of clothes and at most shampoo as a beauty product put to use. That was all it took to nearly everyone who wasn't at minimum a chunin, a mildly grizzled one at that thanks to one or two missions, falling head over heels for Hancock. With a little effort it reduced the general number of those who did resist her almost effortless power to charm others to the majority jonin in the village, the Hokage included of course.
However she learned that one the hard way thanks to an uncontrolled thought slipping from her lips when it became apparent she was not going to get her way.
"Old or not, she hits like a battering ram..." Hancock seethed as she gingerly rested an ice pack upon the top of her forehead as she lay atop of her bed while wearing nothing more than a gray tank top and red shorts garnished with a small black stripe for each leg. "Now I see why that knucklehead warned me about her..."
"Sister, we're back!" Sandersonia announced upon the opening of the door, an arm laden with shopping bags with a similarly burdened Marigold a few steps away from her as they entered the room. "How'd the meeting with the Hokage..." Her voice left her as she gained a more decent view of her injured sister. "Oh dear god, what happened!?"
"She's really touchy about her age..." Hancock groaned.
"A violent old biddy, isn't she?" Marigold surmised as she frowned, setting her own collection of bags upon the opposing bed.
"Grouchy too," Hancock grumbled.
"... So what did she say?" Sandersonia broached, earning an exasperated sigh from her sister in return.
"According to her we're not eligible to become shinobi. We're "too old for the training" as it were. At the most we can find some tutors but ultimately we're not going to be on their payroll as kunoichi."
"There goes our sure shot big checks then..."
A sigh escaped Marigold as she traversed the room to a available chair to which she sat upon, hunching herself over with her elbows resting upon her knees and her hands come together in a steeple between mild frustration and contemplation. "We still have about three months left before we have to leave this hotel..." she murmured.
"True... yet most of the villagers are falling head over heels for our big sister here," Sandersonia teased. Like before she earned a response from her sister, this time a semi-disgusted snort.
"If there is one thing Naruto has above those drones is that he isn't a mindless sheep awed by beauty alone..." A smirk played at her lips. "Or cowed by that old hag at the least," she added with a dignified sneer to her tone.
"Speaking of which, wasn't he suppose to be with you at that meeting?"
To this Hancock adopted a smile that was a mix between impish, embarrassed, and mirthful all at once. "I may have used him as a human shield when I... 'talked' about... her... 'age...'"
"Oooh!" they cooed evilly with slightly sadistic grins. For a good moment they persisted till the realities of their situation came to inevitably bear itself upon their minds.
"I guess we should consider normal jobs then seeing we can't get the high paying ones."
Hancock gave a silent "bleh" as her eyes darkened in mild agitation, a sentiment shared by her younger sisters.
"I managed to get a good look in the want ads in a newspaper," Marigold halfheartedly groaned aloud. "The only difference between them and what we use to do is that we finally get paid for the work."
The audible "bleh" with a small hint of venom to it came from Sandersonia this time whereas Hancock settled for clenching her eyes shut and lightly grounding her teeth.
"Well the village seems to be head over heels over our big sister," Sandersonia piped up.
"No."
"Hm?" Both sisters turned to the eldest of the three on the bed.
"I can barely stand a few moments of them let alone five minutes with those drones and men," she grumbled.
"I guess that just leaves us with either leaving town or get cozy with one of the shinobi," Marigold sighed.
... With the latter they were hard pressed to name names that were met with approval. For the course of twenty minutes they either named or described shinobi they knew, the ones with connections or at least earned a decent living on their own merit especially. One by one they were whittled down just one in particular.
"Why him?"
"Because the other is an ass as far as I'm concerned."
"If worse comes to worse we have Salome. He practically looks over his should every minute to see if he's sneaking up on his shadow."
"True, so true," Sandersonia giggled a tad devilishly. Her delight washed away with time. "But still," she intoned, "you're not really giving so much as a half second's worth of even considering otherwise, big sister."
With a frown Hancock rolled herself onto her stomach, eyeing her sleeping pet snake that made its home in the corner whilst doing so, as she faced way from either sibling. "He's more tolerable than most..." she said quietly.
"We could still leave though once we have to vacate the hotel. We might even find better prospects outside of town!"
Hancock's lips twisted into a small, uncomfortable frown. "... I honestly feel safer here than out there."
Sandersonia gave a quiet, exasperated sigh while Marigold contented herself with a mild roll of her eyes.
With a sigh of her own Hancock rolled back onto her back and got out of bed. "Sister?"
"... I'm at least going to see if the option's open," he stated after a moment's hesitation that was masked by seemingly setting her mind to rifle through their closet for suitable wear. In the end she picked out a capri version of her shorts save for a black lotus image engraved at her left hip just before the black line. Finding a first aid kit she ended up planting a sizable amount of gauze over her bruise to hide it and even then she obscured it as best as she could with her bangs.
"He's probably at that ramen place by now if he isn't at the hospital," Sandersonia half-sighed in a defeated fashion.
"Where is that place again?"
"I think it's... in that one place..." Marigold spoke up only to mutter in the end. Earning a smirk from her green haired counterpart.
"The one with the people?" she teasingly queried.
"Oh shut up."
Shaking her head, Hancock slipped on a pair of black socks and shoes before promptly slipping out of the door.
XVX
Ichiraku Ramen
"Usually you're on your sixth bowl by now," Teuchi commented as he gave Naruto, numerous bandages wrapped around his head to the point it replaced his shinobi headband, a patch of gauze under his left eye whereas the other was blackened, his fourth bowl which he slowly ate in a slightly agitated silence.
"So there you are!"
He stopped in mid-slurp of a relatively small band of noodles to borderline glare at the familiar presence that claimed the seat next to him and fixed him in her own stare. He finished off the noodles at a sedate pace, raised the bowl to his lips and took his time to 'enjoy' the broth inside it as opposed to continuing to eat its more solid contents.
Sluuuuurp.
She scowled slightly but held her tongue. All in all this wasn't some unexpected event given what had happened. He might have even plotted out his revenge at this point or at least was working on it at this very moment. Or perhaps she jumpstarted such a thought by simply announcing her presence let alone sat so close to him.
Her lip curled into a small frown as she relented and shunted those thoughts aside for the moment, such thoughts weren't very productive in any case save for a paranoid defensive stratagem consisting of braining the blond with a frying pan in a preemptive attack. Stowing away her pride, sickening as it was, as well as a heavy, guttural sigh alongside the bile that wished to expelled itself from the deepest recesses of her being, she bowed towards him in her seat, her head low. "I'm sorry. When she snapped like that I acted without thinking and grabbed the first thing that looked like iy could block those meteorites she called fists."
She didn't look up. She didn't move an inch as her seemingly scrutinized her as far as she could tell.
"Apology accepted."
"Here's fifths!"
"Thank you!"
By the time she looked up she spotted the retreating form of a smirking man in a chef's outfit walking away with an empty bowl, its replacement of course was being eagerly devoured by a revived Naruto whose half buried face was turned towards the counter.
A slight escaped Hancock and she shook her head slightly, her eyes rolling slightly as well whilst doing so.
"So," she carefully spoke up. "I have... a favor to ask you."
"Hm?" He turned to her with stuffed cheeks that incrementally increased by a seemingly endless stream of noodles dredged up from the bowl.
"You're... aware of our current predicament, right?"
"Uh-huh," he managed to mumbled with a stuffed mouth. He swallowed it and devoured the train of noodles soon after to give her his full attention.
"Well..." She looked about her immediate surroundings to see if they were eavesdroppers. "... As it stands now we have no... agreeable means of income short of... demeaning ourselves," she bit out.
"What do you mean Aren't there a bunch of jobs in the newspaper or something?" he asked with a perked up brow.
She bit her lip to fight off an oncoming sneer. "Remember back in the... " Her sneer broke through at last for a brief moment, "Old Hag's office when I was trying to get my sisters and I to become kunoichi of Konoha."
Both a smirk and a frown fought for dominance on an otherwise ambiguous face. "Yeah..." he answered carefully.
"Well between the money I heard and what you do for a living... compared to that, everything else that seems available reminded me too much of what... all three of us did before you met us." She looked away from him, partially obscuring the trembling, one sided glower she fought to keep in check lest someone spotted it. Out of the corner of her eye she studied him as best as he could as his face became blank, though a slight frown of his own marred him, in contemplation.
"So what exactly did you guys need help with?"
She blow a silent, relieved sigh on her part as she turned to him with a suppressed smile. "We would like to stay with you once our time is up at the hotel."
Her heart skipped a beat in fright as he turned away from her with an unmasked glower of an unknown origin upon his image, one which didn't disappear even as he worked to finish off his bowl's remaining contents.
"Sixths...! I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Nah! you're fine, old man!" The chef shook his head slightly in mild exasperation as he left the bowl atop the counter before disappearing into the depths of the building-like stand. Slurping down the last remnants of his fifth bowl, he worked upon his sixth one with but a little hesitation on his behalf.
"Not to say I can't help you but I know Sasuke owns a lot of houses or something in the Uchiha district. Maybe if you ask him he'll give you one."
"No," she said tersely enough to draw his full attention to her once more, utterly ignoring a hefty string of noodles and bits of fishcake stuck to them that was held hostage by his chopsticks. "Just..." She shook her to help find the words she wanted to say. "Something about him makes my skin crawl..."
Naruto gave her a confused frown. "He's my best friend you know!"
"I just don't like him," she responded haughtily.
A moment of silence ensued between the two that ended with Naruto sighing in defeat. "... I don't have a lot of experience living with other people," he grumbled. "Been living by myself for as long as I can remember."
"... So is that a yes?"
He sighed again in utter annoyance. "Yes."
"Thank you!" she answered warmly with a matching smile.
"Whatever," he grumbled as he turned back to his bowl. Immediately he paled and froze himself in place.
"Seven—... Naruto... Why is there a giant snake eating your bowl inside my stand?"
"Salome! That's not good for your health!" Hancock chided.
As for Naruto, all he could do was whimper pathetically as the large snake that had rapidly grown since its hatching swallowed his essentially untouched bowl of ramen.