Hey, guys! My summer's been filled with all kinds of activities, but I've managed to find time for this story every now and then. Enjoy!

...and in my opinion, Suigetsu is so confusing. If I were Kisara, I wouldn't stop with the questions. XD

I love all reviews and all people who review.

Disclaimer: *sighs* Nope.

Chapter Seven

The initial two seconds in which my mind completely blanked wore off, and I quickly jerked out of his hold. The bitter cold surrounded me like a parasite as soon as I left the sheets, but I still preferred it to the unpredictable Hozuki taking up the bed.

A flash of lightning revealed Suigetsu's purple eyes blinking up at me in (probably fake) surprise. "What was that for?"

I folded my arms in an attempt to preserve heat… and to look somewhat intimidating. "I could be asking you the same thing! You had no reason to do that."

"Well…" I only heard the sound of the rain for a few seconds as he trailed off. "I'm actually freezing over here."

I was expecting some sort of a witty comeback, not this.

Sighing once again, I unfolded my arms. At least he was being honest with me for once. "Suigetsu… if you were cold, you should have just said so in the first place."

As if in response to my calmer tone, Suigetsu's usual attitude started to reemerge. "Yeah, but that wouldn't have been as fun."

"It's not fun when we're both still dealing with same problem as before."

Suigetsu opened his mouth to utter another response but paused upon registering my words. "Wait… you're cold, too?"

I wasn't one to seek comfort from a storm… and especially not from him. "Very."

Despite his lack of an immediate reply, I felt like I could guess his thoughts pretty accurately. "I don't really have any other option, so let's make a truce."

Another flash of lightning briefly illuminated Suigetsu's slightly intrigued expression. "Depends on what kind of truce it is."

"I wasn't warm until I got into bed with you," I explained, as weird as that sounded. "And judging by your reaction, it was the same in your case. I'll agree to share the bed with you… if you agree to stop doing all these weird and strange things."

He cocked his head to the side. "Like?"

He knew exactly what I meant. "Like what happened with the shuriken. And just now."

No hesitation was needed. "Deal."

Ugh… I really hated putting my foot down like this and acting like a… well, a parent, to be frank. When it came to Suigetsu, I always had to make agreements and draw boundaries beforehand if I wanted to effectively cooperate with him as a teammate. It just proved how immature he was…

But sometimes, in rare instances such as this, he would let down his guard and reveal something more to his personality than first met the eye. I almost pinpointed it as… serious. Whatever it was, it suggested that he wasn't as laid-back and carefree as he seemed.

After watching him for another moment, I slowly lifted the sheets and climbed into bed once more. He thankfully didn't try anything unusual, and having my back lightly pressed against his chest was more than enough to keep me warm. He only said one more thing as his warmth began to lull me to sleep.

"You stopped shivering."

I woke up, bleary-eyed, to scattered rays of sunlight shining through the window above the bed. I remained in the same position as last night, and I could hear Suigetsu's soft and steady breathing behind me as my eyes adjusted to the bright room. As far as I could tell, all signs of the recent thunderstorm had disappeared along with the rain, and I no longer felt frigid, if not a little on the warm side.

As I recalled yesterday's events, however, I was soon reminded of Neji's precise instructions.

Shit.

I leapt up from the bed in a flash, frantically running downstairs and grabbing the Kiri uniform on the couch before dashing back up the staircase. Suigetsu had groaned and rolled onto his face at my sudden movement, but I wasn't in the mood to put up with his crap right now.

"Suigetsu."

No response.

"Suigetsu."

"...Mn."

"Remember what Neji said? We were supposed to take our shift at dawn." Failure to show up on the first day of our mission would really make us look suspicious...

Suigetsu rolled over again and faced the wall, clearly not concerned with what I had to say. Well, fine. If words weren't going to affect him, then I needed to find a different approach.

With a small frown on my face, I reached into my uniform satchel and pulled out a couple of shuriken. Although I was fully aware of their possible uselessness, I still didn't hesitate to flick them at Suigetsu's head. I guess I could have considered it… payback.

I almost smiled at that thought. Almost.

As soon as they came into contact with Suigetsu, his head liquified into a small puddle of water on the pillow. Although I had witnessed this once before, the sight was still very unsettling, to say the least. I was kind of disappointed that the Hydrification Technique was involuntary as well as voluntary, but the shuriken seemed to do the trick, nonetheless.

Suigetsu jolted directly into a sitting position, everything except his dripping hair fully solidified. No trace of his usual demeanor was present, and he whirled on me with a fiery glint in his eye. "What the hell," he seethed. "Do you know how annoying that is?"

Ouch. I didn't regret my actions, but I still felt a little hurt from his glare. I guess he really valued his sleep. "Sorry, but we really need to leave. Dawn was a long time ago."

He shifted his glare to the window before focusing it on me again. I could tell that he knew I was right, and after a few seconds, he moved to the edge of the bed while mumbling something incoherent. We hadn't even begun our search for Kiba yet, but I really had started to take initiative. It was just as Suigetsu had said…

I still couldn't say for certain why I didn't just abandon him and wander on my own. After much pondering, I had decided that leaving this "mission" would be worth it, even if Suigetsu wasn't there to help me in battle. But for some reason, I felt obligated to stay by his side despite his awful attitude and the dangers involved.

And besides… I had dug a hole too deep for me to back out now.

After quickly changing in the bathroom, I ran back downstairs to find Suigetsu refilling his water bottle. He was still scowling, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "So, what's the plan today? I'm assuming that you at least have some sort of idea of what we're going to do."

He only spared me a glance before he spoke. "We can't waste our time pretending to patrol on the outskirts of the village… I'm thinking about using shadow clones to take our places."

While it was an interesting idea, it seemed… too easy. "I'm pretty sure that shadow clones aren't allowed on these types of missions."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"They're not the most effective. If they ran into the enemy and had to fight, they would disappear with one hit."

"But there isn't really an enemy, is there?"

"Well, yes. But no one knows that."

Suigetsu finished refilling his bottle and hooked it to his belt. "And they won't know that we sent shadow clones, either. This is all about taking risks, Kisara… it's the only way we'll ever get our hands on Kiba."

...He did have a point. And Kiba was ultimately his goal, not mine.

After we created shadow clones and sent them in the direction of the front gate- I just really hoped that we wouldn't get in trouble for being late- I resolved to listen to what Suigetsu had planned in store for us. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he started to complain about his empty stomach. I should have expected this kind of thing.

"C'mon, let's go find someplace to eat," he urged. "I'm starving."

"Sure. But explain everything to me on the way there."

I noticed how warm it felt when we stepped outside of our apartment and began walking towards the center of the village. Aside from a few scattered clouds, the sky remained crystal clear, and I increasingly found it more and more difficult to believe that the storm last night had actually happened. Weren't weather fluctuations here supposed to be... practically nonexistent?

Breathing out a small sigh, I accepted for now that I would always have several questions having yet to be answered.

"Two more, please."

With a polite smile, our waiter nodded and scribbled the order onto his notepad. As he walked away, I regarded Suigetsu's emptied dango sticks with a raised eyebrow. "How can you eat so much of that?"

"The real question is, how could you eat so little of that?"

"Well, I don't have a stomach the size of a cow. Unlike some people."

Suigetsu clutched his chest as if my words had really wounded him. The food seemed to have raised his mood from earlier, thankfully. "Ouch. That hurts, you know. You shouldn't make fun of other people's differences."

"A difference? I'm starting to wonder if you're even human." His ridiculously dramatic expression made my lips twitch into a small smile.

Our waiter momentarily arrived with his order, and Suigetsu effectively ended our banter by resuming to stuff himself with dango. I let my eyes wander around the shop, absentmindedly twirling a dango stick between my fingers. My thoughts were shifting to how nice it felt to actually relax when the table on the right captured my attention.

"And what about Kiba?"

"U-Um, probably at the graveyard with the others…"

My fingers froze, and my eyes immediately flicked to Suigetsu. He was returning my gaze with the same serious look, the half-eaten dango stick motionless in his mouth. I wasn't just hearing things, then. But could that Kiba actually be the Kiba we were searching so vehemently for?

Just for a split second, I allowed my gaze to break away from Suigetsu and wander to the table on the right. It was occupied by three kunoichi immersed in a conversation, all of them wearing Konoha headbands. Judging by their voices, the blonde and the purple-haired one were the two we had overheard.

Looking over at Suigetsu once again, I leaned forward and lowered my voice. "They're shinobi like us," I murmured. "Do you think they were really talking about… the swords?"

He set down his dango stick with a soft click. "I don't know, but there's only one way to find out."

Suigetsu practically bolted out of the shop a minute later, and I was forced to follow suit after slapping money on the table. So much for being inconspicuous… at least we had hopefully found a lead.

We luckily managed to find the graveyard in good time, as we had passed it during our first walk in the village. There were only a few people present as I followed Suigetsu into the graveyard and started to scan the numerous tombstones dotting the grass. If the swords were here, they would most likely be placed below a tombstone of a Kurosuki crisis victim, right?

"Man," complained Suigetsu with a small frown. "This graveyard is huge. At this rate, we'll never be able to find Kiba."

"Kiba, you say?"

My eyes wandered in the direction of the unfamiliar voice until they rested on a guy our age approaching us. His dark hair was pulled into a spiky ponytail, and judging from his chunin vest, he was probably a shinobi as well.

"Yeah," replied Suigetsu. I could sense the hesitancy in his tone as he turned toward the stranger.

The guy shoved his hands in his pockets, regarding us with a lazy look. "Lucky for you, I brought him with me. But you're Kiri ninja, correct? Why are you looking for him?"

Him? As in a person? My hopes immediately plummeted to the ground, but when I Iooked over at Suigetsu, he wore an unreadable expression.

"We came here on a mission," he said. "We're supposed to act as extra security for the village, but we have loads of free time on our hands. Some Jonin mentioned Kiba and a few others 'cause we're getting to know Konoha shinobi our age."

I inwardly sagged in relief- I probably couldn't have explained that any better myself. The guy looked at us for another moment with the same expression before shrugging. "In that case, welcome to Konoha. The name's Shikamaru Nara."

Just after his introduction, two more boys the same age appeared by his sides, one of them accompanied by a large dog. The latter took a look at us and grinned. "Who are they, Shikamaru? New friends of yours?"

Shikamaru briefly closed his eyes with a sigh. "They're Kiri ninja on a mission." Looking back at us, he gestured to the boy who had just spoken. "And this is the Kiba you heard about."

Just as I thought… we were basically back to the drawing board. My expression must have given my feelings away because Kiba turned to me with a laugh. "What, are you disappointed? Were you expecting something else?"

After blanking for a moment, I hastily put on a smile. "Oh, no… not at all. I was just thinking."

The only one who hadn't spoken, a blonde, raised his eyebrow at my excuse. "And who're you?"

Wow, what manners. "Kisara Hatta… and you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki." Despite his initial bluntness, he folded his arms and grinned. "Nice to meet you!"

I nodded politely. "Likewise." All eyes focused on Suigetsu, for he was the only one who hadn't introduced himself yet.

Suigetsu smirked in response, showing off his sharp teeth. "And I'm Suigetsu Hozuki. Pleased to make your acquaintances." If it weren't for the obviously ironic use of his last sentence, I would have laughed. Instead, I kept the civil smile on my face and desperately hoped that these Konoha shinobi didn't find us suspicious.

"So," continued Suigetsu, his eyes sweeping over our new acquaintances, "If you guys are up for it, why don't we meet the rest of your friends?"

Why would we need to do that? I shot him a questioning look but only received another smirk in reply. I might as well have just gone along with whatever he was planning. "Yeah," I agreed. "I know that Kirigakure and Konohagakure aren't allies, but it's still nice to promote good relations."

"And we want to have some fun, if you know what I mean," Suigetsu added with a wink.

Kiba let out another laugh as the dog next to him barked happily. "Haha! I can already tell that we're going to get along, Suigetsu. I can hook you up real quick, if that's what you want."

Wait… hook up? With a girl? Although I quickly convinced myself that I didn't care, I still found myself anxiously awaiting Suigetsu's answer to the offer. Did he even… mean to ask for that?

Shikamaru made it clear that he had already lost interest in our conversation by yawning and heading over to one of the graves. Suigetsu's expression didn't look much different from his as he adopted one of indifference. "Eh, I'm not really into that kind of stuff. Parties and social events are more my thing."

Kiba's smile faltered as he tilted his head. "Huh? You sure?"

"Yeah. There are many things more important than finding girls, anyway."

With a small elbow nudge, Kiba gave Naruto a knowing look. "Why don't you tell that to Naruto? He hopelessly likes a girl who'll never feel the same way-"

"Hey, cut it out! Why're you telling him about that?"

"Oh, so you admit that it's true, then."

"No way! You know what I mean!"

As the two shifted their attention to each other, I stole a glance at Suigetsu. I should have predicted that kind of a response from him… he seemed to be completely and utterly obsessed with swords, after all. It was only expected that he probably couldn't care less about anything else.

Before I could return my gaze to the Konoha ninja, Suigetsu caught my eye and raised an eyebrow. "Why so depressed all of a sudden?"

"What? I'm not depressed."

"You're horrible at lying, you know. It's written all over your face."

I normally would have retorted with something else, but his question prompted me to stop and think for a moment. I wasn't aware that I had shown that kind of emotion… and why would I feel depressed, anyway?

"Maybe she wants to get out and be more social."

I turned towards Kiba once more and was met by his smirk and a sulking Naruto. "Just so you know, the offer I made Suigetsu is also open to you. There are plenty of decent guys here who would be willing to-"

"Sorry, but I'm not interested." Men were dead-last on my list of interests at the moment, and I couldn't foresee that changing anytime soon.

Kiba frowned and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Man, you guys are boring."

Suigetsu stepped forward, resuming his friendlier mood from earlier. "Hey, ninja like you must understand us, right? We want to enjoy ourselves, but we're still on a mission. It sucks, but that's the way it is."

"Yeah, I get what you mean," said Kiba as he reached down to ruffle his dog's fur. "So, how about it? You wanna get to know some of my friends?"

I blinked in surprise as the full extent of the suggestion dawned on me. "You mean... right now?"

Suigetsu flashed me an amused smirk. "Yeah, why not? We have the time."