"Well, Genma is Weasel," Shikamaru said as Sakura flipped the page. "And I'd bet that Hayate is Owl and Loon is his girlfriend with the long purple hair."
"Any insights on who the writer is, genius?" Ino asked sarcastically, but intrigued.
"I have an idea," he said, the whole group subconsciously moved closer to him. "I'm not going to say it though, it would be too troublesome to explain. I'll hold it off until later."
"You can't say things like that and not explain!" Naruto shouted, frustrated.
"Shut up Naruto!" Sakura slammed her fist into his head.
"Ugh, let's just get back to the book and forget about smart-ass over there," Kiba groaned. The others nodded in agreement. And Sakura found their page.
The mission went fine, as usual. We accomplished what had to be done in the given amount of time without complications. I collapsed into my bed on our return and slept for two days. Now, I am about to head back to the Hokage Tower with our report. Cat wrote it, of course, but I, as the technical captain, will be presenting it.
I don't bother with the whole waiting outside the door routine. That is only for the special occasion of certain mission briefings. Today, I run along the rooftops and glance into Sandaiime's office window, making sure no one else is present before teleporting inside. Sandaime barely glances up.
"Your mission report is late, Hound," he still doesn't look up from the paperwork in front of him.
"I was tired, it was a long mission. The details are in my report, Hokage-sama," I say, bowing lightly; despite the fact that he's not looking, I know he'll scold me like a three-year-old if I don't.
"Any important incidents I ought to know about?" He flicks his eyes up at me now.
"Not a one," I say cheerfully, planting a fake smile on my face. I reach for the scroll in my vest and place it in the center of his desk. He's looking at me suspiciously. He does this after every mission. I can feel his eyes searching me for a hidden truth, like how I really should be in the hospital but I'm not. It's as he's doing this that we hear the sounds of an explosion outside.
"What the –?" His question is cut off as the door flies open. A harried looking shinobi barges in.
"Pardon me, Hokage-sama," he begins, bowing. "It seems Apartment Building 11 has had a bit of a fire emergency. It was put out quickly, but some flames must have gotten to the oil storage in the basement and now the building has blown up. I was only here to report the fire, but now the whole building is gone."
"Ah, well," Sandaime turns back to me. "Hound, we'll continue our discussion later, leave us now." I don't bother to acknowledge it. I have no business with an exploding building, especially one that isn't mine. I form my hand signals and teleport back to the rooftops. If I was at my normal chakra level, I could have gone straight home, but I seem to still be recovering. I don't worry about this though, it happens to me quite often. I have enough precision in my chakra control that the amount I actually have on a given day doesn't really matter when compared to my overall performance.
I leap over the buildings and decide to stop in at ANBU headquarters to make sure my team is all back to off-mission training. We ended up working ourselves pretty hard, even our back-up squad got a couple fights in. Ah, the life of a shinobi.
Sure enough, I find most of Team Ro at the training grounds, practicing on targets. They raise their hands in greeting. I lift two fingers back at them, taking a mental count of who is there and who isn't. One of the numbers surprises me.
"Where's Cat?" I ask, careful to check the chakra levels around all the trees to make sure he wasn't hiding in one.
"We haven't seen him all morning," Weasel swings down from a tree to my left.
"He was around yesterday," says Rat from behind me. "He seemed to be healed from the mission."
"Kid doesn't usually skip," remarks Panda fondly, but worried. I couldn't handle this anymore.
"Back to work, moving target practice now, sparring this afternoon. Let's go!" I say, voice rising out of my normal monotone range to commanding that we are not talking about Cat anymore. He'll show up, I'm confident, he always does.
"Some of the things this guy says and does remind me of Kakashi-sensei. You don't think it could be his?" Sakura ventured before turning to the next page.
"No way!" Naruto exclaimed. "Kaka-sensei wouldn't write a journal! He's too much of a pervert!"
"The lateness is definitely a Kakashi-sensei trend though," murmured Tenten thoughtfully. "Perhaps it is his sensei? Or someone he wants to emulate?"
"His sensei was Yondaime," Sakura said. "Yondaime was never ANBU, so it definitely can't be him."
"Hnn," Shikamaru grumbled, all he wanted was to get back to the story. Otherwise he would rather be watching the clouds. This whole find-the-author scheme was so troublesome.
"Sorry I'm late, Senpai," Cat appears at my shoulder, a little breathless. "My building went up in flames this morning." I raise an eyebrow.
"Apartment Building 11, third floor." I say it as a statement and watch his reaction.
"Hai, Senpai," he responds hesitantly. "Why do you know where I live?"
I shrug casually. "You can spar with me or wait out a battle and fight the winner." I avoid the question as usual. But something else pops into my head. "Where will you live now?" He looks way too surprised that I care.
"I don't know Senpai, I was going to ask Weasel to stay on his couch for a few nights."
"He has a horrible couch," I shudder inwardly. I spent the night on it once, by accident. It had been my worst night of sleep in a long time, which is really saying something for me.
"I know, but I don't have many other options," he murmurs, not meeting my eye. I know he doesn't have any friends outside of ANBU. He'd sleep on a couch in the break room before asking anyone other than Weasel.
"I have a second bedroom that you're welcome to use." I stop. I don't believe that just came out of my mouth. I like the kid, but I don't want him in my space.
"Really, Senpai?" He glances up, now I can't meet his eyes. I still can't understand what the hell I just offered. Instead my mouth fires off a response without consulting my brain. You would love a moment like that.
"Sure."
Its several hours later and Cat is following me to my apartment. I actually love my apartment. It's small, but not too small. There's more than enough space for my vastly growing book collection. I have no doors in it, minus the one for the bathroom because that prevents water from showers escaping to the rest of my place (I would have taken the walls out too, but my landlord probably would have really killed me, I know he wants to anyway). The kitchen is big, my living room consists of an incredibly comfortable overstuffed couch, and I do, truthfully, have a mostly unused second bedroom that had kind of turned into my ninken's room when they decide to hang around post-mission or just keep me company. I'm thinking now, as we run over rooftops, how to explain to them what's going on. I'm also trying to figure out, myself, what is going on. I never offer for people to come to my place. It is mine.
"Ah, Senpai?" Cat catches up to me as I scale the side of my building. "What exactly are we doing?"
"I don't use my front door. You can, but you'll have to get a key made, I'm not sure what happened to mine." He seems confused. I grin a little, good to know I haven't lost my touch for being incomprehensible.
"I see," he murmurs, though I can tell he is still quite puzzled. I stop, nearing the top floor of my building and form my hand seals to release the protective wards.
"Welcome to my home, Kohai."