Chapter 9: Hold Me Now

Shikaku looked at the clock, 1am again, shit! This was becoming surreal. He didn't know why Tsunade didn't just order up a cot and keep him there around the clock. He grinned, now that would give them something to talk about, wouldn't it? Inoichi, Chouza, heh, Jiraiya, yeah, let 'em talk.

Tsunade was waiting impatiently at the door yet again, tapping her foot, hurrying him up. Just like a woman, he thought, keep you there forever, then when it's time to go it's time to go and why the hell aren't you ready yet?

He searched around for his house keys, where the hell had he left them? Briefly, Shikaku thought about waving her on, he'd find the damn house keys and lock up later. Then he caught himself. Stupid Nara.

Starting today, it took two keys to open the lab door, two keys to lock it. Tsunade had one, he had the other. There had to be two people in the lab at all times. Of course, the stated reason for this was that it reduced the chances of someone stealing a key and entering – they'd have to steal two keys from two separate shinobi. The unstated, and therefore real reason, though was that there always had to be two of you in the lab – keeping an eye on each other.

He found the keys and walked out with Tsunade to lock up. They bid each other good night, agreed to meet at 7(again!) in the morning and then went their separate ways. The cool night air was refreshing, it woke him up, even if just for a bit.

He thought he'd do something he'd been meaning to do for a couple of days now, since Monday, and that was to check out the duty roster and find out where Yoshino was, and Inoichi and Chouza too, while he was at it. He sauntered on over to the mission assignment room, there was always somebody there who could look it up for him.

Once in the room, he scanned the list, looking for Yoshino Sakamoto and found her name and that she was listed out on escort duty to Wave for a couple more days. And as another interesting note, he saw that yesterday was her birthday. Well, actually, day-before-yesterday since it was now past freaking midnight. But still, he thought, it would give him one more reason to ask her out again when she got back.

He saw that Inoichi and Chouza were out until tomorrow (today, tonight, whatever, dammit he was tired!) They'd had to courier some scrolls to Amagakure. Must be fairly important documents if they were using two jounin just for courier duty. It nagged at him that they'd been sent back to Rain. Probably just coincidence, he was just tired, dreaming stuff up.

He yawned and stretched and poured himself half a cup of the noxious brew in the coffee pot that had undoubtedly been sitting there for several hours. After one sip he winced and poured the rest down the drain. Hell, he didn't care if he fell asleep walking home, no way was he drinking that. It wasn't worth lying awake jazzed up if you were jazzed on motor fuel. Bleah.

Just then he turned around and saw… Yoshino. A very disheveled Yoshino with red-rimmed eyes. There was some tall dark-haired guy with her and they were being accompanied by a mission debriefing specialist. This did not look good. Something must have gone wrong.

He hurried over to her and spoke, "Hey, Yoshino, you back early?"

She turned toward him, "Oh, Shikaku, we…we…we had a casualty, a death on the team. On team leader…" her voice trailed off.

"Who?" he asked. Damn. This was never good news. But what could have happened? They were just shepherding a bunch of construction people. He hadn't heard of anything of concern going on in the area.

"It was… Asako, Asako Miterashi did you know her?"

He shook his head. The name was somewhat familiar but he really didn't know her. "What happened?' he asked.

"She was…she was sick…night before last. I was on guard duty that night. She wasn't feeling well when I left to stand my post. In the morning we found her, in the tent, she was…she must have died in her sleep."

"Oh man, I'm sorry. Were you two close?"

Yoshino shook her head. "Not really – I'd gone on a couple of missions with her before, but no, not really, it's just that it's so, sudden, you know?"

Shikaku nodded "So, they pulled you out?"

"Yes, they sent a new team when…"

He just nodded again. She didn't need to finish that sentence, he knew she meant they'd sent a new team when they'd come to get the body. Typical if they weren't in the middle of a war and could spare the shinobi. They would review all they could with the remaining team members. But, shit, what a way to go, not even in a battle or anything, just …ill.

"So, are you finished with the debriefing? Do you want to get coffee or something? Go somewhere and talk?"

She smiled up at him. "Yeah, that would be nice."

It was 1:30 in the morning and he was going to have to be back at it at 7am with Tsunade. But for now it didn't matter. Idly he thought that maybe he could get through tomorrow with soldier pills, but then hastily dismissed that idea in light of his earlier discussion with Tsunade and Jiraiya. So, maybe he'd go through a couple of pots of coffee tomorrow, drink up all of Tsunade's tea. Yoshino was back and even if it was the middle of the night, he was going to get to spend some time with her.

They walked over to an all-night cafe and slipped into a booth there. Yoshino asked him how his last few days had been and he filled her in on what little he could about the job, what he was allowed to tell. The awkwardness of it began to sink in to him – it hadn't really mattered so much with her and Chouza and Inoichi all out of town the last few days, but how did you go about this business of being on a classified mission and not being able to talk about it with your friends, your teammates, your …girlfriend?

Well, that was an interesting word – how had it slipped in there?

But back to his predicament – he had been on classified/clandestine missions before – plenty of them – but always with Chouza and Inoichi. And they were always away from Konoha. It was …weird …to be working on something right here and not be able to tell anybody about it.

"And you're working on this …project…with Tsunade?" she asked, her eyes flicking over as if she was looking at something just past his shoulder then they flicked back up to meet his. "Anybody else?"

He had one elbow on the table, his head propped up on that wrist. Poor kid, he thought, she looked as sleepy as he felt. "Yeah, with Tsunade" he mumbled, yawning and trying to keep awake. "Nobody else."

"Well, look, Shikaku, I know you're tired. Thank you for the coffee, I really should be getting on home now." She started to get up from the booth.

What the hell? What had happened here? Why was she leaving so abruptly? And her eyes had done that same funny thing as Tsunade's earlier today with Jiraiya – all soft to steel in nothing flat.

Tsunade. Shit – had he actually just said 'Tsunade and nobody else' to her? And why did she keep looking at his shoulder…

"Son-of-a-bitch!' he started jerking back in the booth as if he'd been stung.

"I do beg your pardon!" Yoshino snapped in a voice that he was sure must be a variant of some Water Style Ice Jutsu and if it wasn't it sure as hell ought to be.

"It's Inoichi's shirt!" he yelled brushing furiously at the blond hair still at his shoulder. "It's like living with a damned golden retriever puppy, shedding and hair and shit all over the house!" Fuck this shirt business. From now on he was just going to wear one of those damned fishnet undershirts and his jounin vest – if you spill something on that freakin' fishnet then no stains. No stains, no fucking laundry.

He threw up his hands in exasperation, then let them come to rest, open and facing up on the table. He dared to look up at her eyes, he seemed safe for now, they were twinkling almost with mirth, almost as if she were going to laugh. "Look, you're right, it's late, I'll walk you home."

"I can take care of myself," she said softly.

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I know that. Believe me. I know that. But what I'm saying is…I'd like to walk you home Yoshino Sakamoto."

"I'd like that, Shikaku Nara," she answered. Then hand in hand they left the cafe.

Halfway to her house he paused and pulled her to him, bending down to meet her lips as she turned her face up to him. "I missed you," he whispered to her.

"I missed you, too," she mumbled back, feeling him wrap his arms around her and holding her close. She melted against him and all the tension and worries of the last few days evaporated into the night air.