Heyy, heyyy.
Fifteenth chapterrr.
I'm proud to announce a new character to my story: Hizoku.
With the way I want things to go right now, she's gonna be a pretty big character.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: © Masashi Kishimoto. I own Sorano, Nozomi, Hizoku, Yuzuki, and the plot.
When they had finally completed their mission, it was almost dusk. Sorano and Shikamaru walked hand in hand, back to the Hokage's mansion to confirm that it was completed. Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon followed along, walking as slow as possible.
Shikamaru sighed. "Today's been so troublesome. And long. I wanna go home, snuggle into the covers with you, and go to sleep." He blushed when he realized what he said.
"With me, eh?" Sorano questioned. She laid her head on his shoulder as they walked. "Shikamaru.."
"Hm?"
"What's-what's gonna happen when you go back to Konoha? How are we gonna see each other?"
"Sorano, can we not do this now?" he seemed irritated.
She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked at him, hoping he would look her in the eye. "But, Shika.. if we put this off, we may never get around to talking about it. I don't wanna make last-minute decisions like I've done all of my life. C'mon, Shika. We have to talk about this some-"
"I said no! I don't need this right now!" He let go of her hand, and kept going.
Sorano stopped where she was. He'd never yelled at her before. She didn't know how to handle his anger. She knew how to handle Gaara's, but not Shikamaru's. Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon walked up behind her.
"Hey, Sorano," Naruto said behind her, pushing her to get her to walk. "Why aren't you up there with Shikamaru?"
Sorano moved reluctantly forward. "He yelled at me."
"So? Suck it up." Naruto walked beside Sorano.
"But.." She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. "He's never yelled at me before. After he was saying how he was tired, I just wondered what was gonna happen to us when he went back to Konoha."
"I see your problem, but, you shouldn't be down just 'cause he yelled at you. I know from experience that if he's tired, he gets irritated easily. He'll be alright once he gets some sleep."
"Are you sure? I can't help but to be upset. You didn't see the evil glare he gave me. Like, he hated me, or something."
"Did he say he was tired, first of all? Or when you asked him, he just went crazy on you?"
"Well, he said he wanted to go home, snuggle into his blankets with me, and go to sleep."
"That's him saying he's tired."
They both looked ahead and saw Shikamaru yawn, stretch his arms, and put them behind his head, walking the entire time.
"Does that not look tired to you?"
"No."
"..dattebayo."
"That looks like him all of the time."
"Well, I've known him for fifteen years. I think I have good idea of how he acts."
"I hope so. Do you think I should talk to him?"
"Sure. Go right ahead. Just don't irritate him. Don't talk about confusing or stressful things while he's tired."
"Alright." Sorano left Naruto and walked back to Shikamaru, who was still walking with his hands behind his head. "Hi.." She waited for a reply.
There wasn't one.
"Uhm.. hello?"
Still no reply.
"Shikamaru?" she patted him on the shoulder.
"Nani?" he growled.
"I-I'm sorry.." Sorano began to tear up. "I understand being tired, but why is he being difficult like this?"
No reply.
"Please talk to me, Shikamaru. I understand you being tired. You can go to my place and we can crash there tonight. Then, we can go back to Konoha in the morning. No use going out when you have no energy."
No reply, again.
As she was about to say something once again, she was interrupted.
"Are you gonna sleep with me?"
Shikamaru looked at Sorano and smirked. She smiled, knowing he was back to normal. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a tight hug. He accepted the hug by putting his hands on her waist. The others began to get closer to them.
"Nice to see you two lovebirds have made up. Now, hurry up, so we can get this over with," Naruto said tapping them both on the shoulders.
Sorano and Shikamaru both looked up to see the large Kazekage's mansion. They walked into the massive building and went up the stairs, revealing the office. Sorano knocked on the door and waited for Gaara to grant permission for them to come in. If Gaara was in a meeting, it was usually her job to tell the others outside to wait, and that he was in a meeting, but, she had been on that mission. From the schedule he gave her earlier, she didn't think he had a meeting until later today.
Suddenly, the door cracked open and a little girl's head popped out.
"Yuzuki! What are you doing in there?" Sorano yelled.
"Sh! Gaara-sama's asleep. What would you like?"
"I need to talk to Gaara. Get out of the way, Yuzuki."
"No! Why should I, Gaara's soon-to-be-wife-once-I-am-of-age, let you go see him. You are just his secretary. You know what happens to bosses and their secretaries, right? Keh!"
"I also am in authority over you. I'm his assistant. You aren't."
"But, I'm his wife-to-be-once-I'm-of-age!"
"Sure. Except he doesn't know it. Now, come on. Let us in."
"Us? How many of you are there?" Yuzuki pulled the door open a little more which revealed Shikamaru, Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon on her side, and revealed a tied up Gaara on their side.
Sorano ran in through the door as first reaction and immediately questioned him.
"Gaara?! Are you okay? What'd she do to you?"
"Where'd you come from? Why'd you interrupt our game?"
"Game? What game?"
"This one. She said we were going to play a game that went like this: she would tie me to my chair and she would ask me questions about her. If I got them wrong, she would take a piece of my clothing off."
Sorano sweat-dropped. "..keh.." She turned around to find that the rest of the group came into the office.
Yuzuki looked closely at Konohamaru. "Do I know you?" she asked.
Konohamaru looked Yuzuki over and was about to say something when she interrupted him.
"I REMEMBER YOU! You were that guy that I sat next to in the preliminaries for the chuunin exam! You got cuter!"
Konohamaru blushed and Moegi's eyes tinged green.
"Gaara-sama, we're here to report back and to confirm that the mission has been completed. We'll be on our way to report to the Hokage in the morning. I invited them all to stay here in Suna overnight, since we've been up an extremely long time. Is that alright, Kazekage-sama?"
"Yeah. But-" Gaara was interrupted by a scream.
Gaara and Sorano turned to find Moegi practically pulling Yuzuki's hair out, Konohamaru standing there in utter shock, Udon in his usual pose, and Naruto and Shikamaru watching wide-eyed.
"Moegi! Yuzuki! What's going on here?" Sorano ran to the two girls.
"I was talking to him," Yuzuki pointed to Konohamaru, "and she freakin' attacked me!"
". . ." Sorano knew that Moegi had a huge crush on Konohamaru. When she met her five years ago, she could tell. Yuzuki must have been treading on her territory.
"Well?! Aren't you going to tell this bitch to get off of me?!"
"Yuzuki!"
Anger began to harvest in Moegi's eyes. "What'd you call me, slut?!"
"Girls, stop!" Sorano went over, grabbed their shirts, and pulled them apart. "Yuzuki was just talking to Konohamaru." She whispered to Moegi, "No need to get that jealous. You guys will be gone tomorrow, and he won't ever see her again, okay?"
Moegi's eyes lightened up and she let go of Yuzuki's hair. "Sorry," she growled.
Yuzuki put her hand to her head and rubbed where hair had partially been pulled out. "Yeah, whatever." Moegi focused her eyes onto Yuzuki. Sorano elbowed Yuzuki in the side. "Ow." She looked at Sorano. "Sorry." She said, unwillingly.
"C'mon. We need to go find a place for you all to sleep, okay?" Sorano tried to get the large group of people out of Gaara's office. "And, you, Yuzuki, need to go back home and go to sleep. I heard you had a mission tomorrow. You need rest for that, don't you?"
"...keh." Yuzuki didn't want to go home at that moment. She wanted to rip Moegi's hair out of her head, but Sorano was there and she would hinder her from doing anything. But, she then thought of a brilliant way to do even worse. "Hey, Konohamaru.."
"Yeah?" he replied, greatly confused.
"Do you wanna come stay at my place tonight?" she asked him with a mischievous glint in her eye.
"Nani?!" Moegi defended.
"Uh oh.." Sorano muttered under her breath.
"I was asking Konohamaru if he wanted to stay at my place instead of an expensive hotel with his incompetent teammates."
"Uhm, excuse me?"
"You heard me. Now let Konohamaru answer for himself."
"He will not spend the night at your place!"
"Actually, I think I will. God, you're really paranoid today, Moegi. There's no need for that shit." Konohamaru spoke for himself for once. He began to turn, but then he looked at Moegi and pointed to Yuzuki. "You know, she was right. You are a bitch."
Moegi stood in dead silence as Yuzuki motioned for Konohamaru to follow her.
Sorano looked at Gaara who looked at Shikamaru who looked at Naruto who looked at Udon who looked at Moegi. She'd begun to let tears fall down her cheeks.
"He-he's never talked to me like that," Moegi sniffed.
"It's okay, Moegi. No need to cry about it. I'm sure he's just having a bad day," Udon went over and comforted her by putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his chest for her to be more secure. He didn't act or look like his usual self.
Shikamaru, Naruto, Gaara, and Sorano all looked at each other.
"I think we should leave now," Naruto said, desperate for some sleep.
"Uhm.. yeah. Now would be a good time. C'mon, Udon, Moegi. Let's go find a place to sleep," Shikamaru said, yawning.
Moegi dried the rest of her tears and followed the others out of the door.
"Arigatou gozaimasu, Gaara-sama," Sorano told him as they left.
"Yeah, whatever," he yelled as they ran down the stairs.
Once they got outside, Sorano turned to Shikamaru and Naruto.
"Naruto, are you going to need help finding a vacant place to stay? If not, me and Shikamaru are heading to my apartment," Sorano asked.
"Uhm, I dunno. I don't really know the layout of Suna as well as Konoha's," Naruto replied.
"Well, can you follow directions?"
"Of course."
"Well, I know this quaint, little motel I stayed in when I first got here. I'm sure it's still there and just as nice. I'll give you the directions, if you'd like."
"That sounds fine."
As Sorano told Naruto the directions, Shikamaru took a look around. The Kazekage's mansion was large and nice, but creepy. It loomed over the entire village with gloominess. He looked at the sky and saw darkness. He could see few stars because of the bright lights coming from the buildings. The minute stars he could see, though, were beautiful. He was then brought back to reality.
Sorano reached into her pocket. "Now, here's some money for you guys to pay for the rooms."
"No, no, that's okay. We have some money still. You don't have to pay, dattebayo."
"No, I want to. Here. Take it." She gave him the money.
"Thanks."
Naruto, Udon, and Moegi took off, following the directions Sorano gave them.
"Well, I guess it's just the two of us," Sorano said, turning towards Shikamaru.
"Yeah," he yawned.
"C'mon. Let's go to my apartment, sleepyhead."
Sorano took off, Shikamaru following close behind her. They zoomed through the sand village, dodging the buildings and trees they came across along the way.
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She ran through the city, looking for the large tower Tsunade had told her about. "Where is that damned thing?" she thought. She slowed her pace and began a slow trot. There it was, that large residence known to be the Kazekage's. "Finally.."
She walked to the building, up the stairs, and to the office, located at the top of the staircase. It was late, but she was told to get there as soon as possible. She knocked on the door.
"Hello?" she said through the door.
"Come in," a voice replied.
She opened the door and walked in.
"Kazekage-sama," she said.
"State your business," Gaara retorted.
"I'm Hizoku of the Leaf Village. Tsunade, I mean, Hokage-sama told me to give you this scroll as soon as possible."
"Hand it over."
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"Here we are," Sorano said as she opened the door to her apartment.
There were things all over the apartment: trash, clothes, and anything you could pretty much think of.
"Finally," Shikamaru yawned, searching for a bed.
"Right through that door is the bedroom. And- oh, shit."
"What?"
"I forgot something at the Kazekage tower."
"Oh."
"I'll be right back. I need to go get it. You can go to bed. I'll be back soon."
"Alright."
Sorano kissed Shikamaru on the cheek, and ran back out of the door.
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Gaara looked at the scroll very carefully. He nodded in approval and began writing a reply to Tsunade.
"Come here." He motioned for Hizoku to take the scroll.
Hizoku neared the desk and leaned over, revealing her cleavage. Gaara looked up unexpectedly and Hizoku caught him within her jutsu.
"Tell me all you know about the Akat-" She was interrupted by a knocking at the door. She quickly discontinued the ninjutsu, erasing any thoughts pertaining to this from Gaara's mind.
There was a knock again. Gaara rubbed his head, as if he had a headache. "Uh.. come in."
Sorano came through the door. "Gaara-sama, I need.. uhm.. who are you?"
"I'm Hizoku, a ninja from Konoha. I'm here on a mission."
"Oh, okay. I'm Sorano, Gaara's assistant. Nice to meet you."
"Assistant? I didn't get any information on her. She's gonna be trouble. Nice to meet you too."
"Here, Hizoku. Take this to the Hokage. Sorry about the runaround we gave you."
"I'm sorry for the interruption," Sorano apologized to them both.
"It's fine, Sorano," Gaara said.
Hizoku dismissed herself and left to go deliver the message back to the Hokage.
"So, what did you need?" Gaara asked.
"I- uhm.. I forgot," Sorano replied, giving a little smile.
"Leave, Sorano. Goodnight."
"Heh.. sorry, Gaara-sama! Goodnight!"
Sorano zoomed out of the door. She set out for her apartment, but was stopped when she saw a glowing light in the distance. Curiosity got the best of her, and she walked towards the light. It was hidden away in a dark alley. She began walking very slowly towards it.
"Hello?" she called out.
No sound was made except for a faint, constant whoosh.
She turned the corner and looked into the alley. There was a figure standing before the light that looked vaguely familiar. She got a little closer.
"H-hello?" She realized who it was. "Hizoku?"
Well, that was the fifteenth chapter.
I totally hoped you enjoyed it.
Oh, bythaway, Happy Turkey Day!
Hahaaaaa.
And review, 'cause I can't wait to hear from you.
Peace.