This is probably a little exhausting to read because of the many scene changes, but it ties up a lot of loose ends.
I still hope you like it, because it was actually fun to write.
It's only late afternoon. She doesn't want to go home yet, despite the draining heart-to-heart with Sakura.
She swings by the Aburame compound next. At this time of day it's nearly empty. The crickets are chirping and the fruit trees are carrying so many apples and pears that the branches are hanging low enough to pick them by hand.
It's still not as impressive as it is in the evenings but also easier to navigate. She makes a few wrong turns – left by the asters or by the dahlias? – but eventually she finds the beehives and from there she knows the way.
Shizuha's mother awaits her on the front porch. Hisana has gotten used to it by now; there's no surprising an Aburame. She suspects there are several kikai strategically positioned all over the place. It's what she would do.
"Hisana-chan," the woman greets and gently touches her ear with two fingers. "It's good you're here. Shizuha is in her room, please talk to her."
This sounds ominous. Shizuha's room is upstairs. Standing in front of her door, she brushes over her own ear.
"Buzz off," she tells the kikai hiding in her hair, "I know she's worried but spying isn't allowed."
The bug humms loudly in protest but after she shakes out her hair it takes off.
"Shizurin, your mother is worried – that worries me."
The door opens only a little; she takes it as an invitation.
Shizuha is sitting on her bed, cross legged, with a pen and a stack of papers. She's not wearing her glasses or her overcoat, which gives Hisana a start.
"I came to see how it went with your team. Not so well, I take it?"
Instead of taking the chair, she sits down on the bed. It feels a little brazen for her Japanese-y tastes, but 'Sarah' thinks Shizuha's mood might be calling for it.
"Kaede-sensei found us … unsatisfactory."
"You didn't pass?"
Shizuha shakes her head.
"But how? You're good. Shigeru-san is good too, right?" – or they wouldn't have tried to put him into her team, she thinks – "What about the other one – Inoue?"
Without her overcoat covering half of her face, it's easier to see the bitter twist of Shizuha's mouth and the tightening around her eyes.
"Kaede-sensei tested how we react to stressful situations. She … placed us in the middle of the forest outside of Konoha. We encountered bandits. Inoue-san tried to save himself. In the process he abandoned us."
Hisana snorts. Shocked she slaps her hand over her mouth, but it's too late. Shizuha looks at her with annoyed grey eyes.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I don't know why I laughed. I just imagined him trying to barter you off …"
"It was a little amusing," she admits. "Up until the 'bandits' revealed themselves to be Sensei's clones. She said shinobi cannot be selfish, that he isn't mature enough yet. That meant she had to fail all of us. Shigeru-kun is also attending the Academy for another year."
"What about you?"
"Temporarily. Ito-sensei offered to help me look for an apprenticeship. If that is unsuccessful, I will return to the Academy. The Genin Corps are not an option."
Hisana nods in agreement. She's already heard too much about promising careers ending early, because someone's 'temporary' stay suddenly turned permanent as they are bogged down in paperwork.
"Can I help somehow? You'll need recommendations – maybe Genma-senpai can give you one. There might be someone else I can introduce you to."
Gai and Shizuha are not a duo she wants to bring together, but as a last resort …
The eccentric jounin would surely love to rescue a hopeful genin from the very unyouthful Genin Corps.
"That would be great. Thank you."
She gathers the scattered papers and shoves them into a desk drawer.
"You passed," she says without any doubt. "Tell me about your team."
They part two hours later, with Shizuha in a better mood and a promise to see each other on the next Friday.
The Aburame's unexpected failure has unsettled her a little. On the way to the Nara compound she considers that maybe Shiki could have failed the test too. Until her own she'd always thought they only tested for teamwork, or at least the capability for teamwork. Now that she knows better, and has seen how easy it is to fail, she thinks that Dai-sensei might have found team 6 unsatisfactory in another regard.
The Nara compound is different from the idyllic Aburame and the chaotic and confusing Inuzuka compounds, or even the regal and well-groomed Hyuuga compound that she's only ever seen from afar.
It's very simple, surrounded by well groomed, dense grass, and an extensive forest behind. Shiki told her that the forest is so big that it reaches beyond the village walls and that they have their own gate for the deer. It's patrolled by Nara guards and otherwise only used in emergency evacuations.
When she knocks on the door it's Shikano who opens.
"Oh thank god, it's only you."
"Hello to you too. What's that supposed to mean?"
He sighs and scratches his head.
"It's that Dai-sensei. He's been turning up here every day for surprise visits. He kicks up a fuss for an hour and then drags away Shiki-chan for 'team bonding'. Sometimes he already has the rest of the team in tow, so that they can eat us out of house and home and babble our ears off before we can get rid of them. And with 'we' I mean me."
She snorts.
"So Shichi passed."
"I wish she hadn't."
"Don't be an asshole. I'm sure your team isn't all sunshine and daisies either."
"No," he admits, "but I've learned to ignore them until they go away."
Someone comes stomping down the stairs.
"Nii-chan, is it Sensei again?"
"No, it's worse!"
Hisana whacks him half-heartedly before she simply steps past him.
"It's just me. I wanted to see if you passed."
"Ahhh."
Shiki comes down the rest of the stairs and loops her arm around Hisana's.
"So you've already talked to bug-girl. Let's go out; jiji's just mowed the lawn, it's nice out."
With 'out' Shiki means the herb garden behind the house. Apart from the large gardens inside the forest, most houses have a smaller private one. There's lavender and basil, mint, chamomile and a handful more that she can't name. Shiki snatches a few stems of mint. She offers one to Hisana and shoves one into her mouth.
"Thanks. So your team is annoying?"
The girl snorts and slumps down onto the grass.
"You already knew that," Shiki reminds her.
"Well, yes. But now that you're a proper team I thought you'd get it together."
"We're ok," she dismisses. "I've known them forever. We might not always get along, but we understand each other. It's Dai-sensei who worries me more."
She plucks a chamomile flower and starts chewing on the head.
"He tries to force us to be friends. I mean they're kind of family? You don't need to be friends with your family. They're special."
They doze in the grass for a while, before it starts to drizzle and then to pour, and they have to take cover.
Sachiko offers them towels and food. It's venison stew and Hisana really doesn't have the strength to say no.
She goes home with a pot full of stew for Sasuke and with a borrowed umbrella.
Her cousin is home and already fed, as it looks.
She shoves the pot into the fridge and ponders how to best tell him about her earlier talk to Sakura. There's really no elegant solution, so she wings it.
"Sasuke did you talk to Sakura today?"
"Hmm," it comes from the living room.
He sounds vaguely constipated, which probably means the girl's pitched the first few ideas to keep their team together.
"I talked to Sakura today," she wheedles. "She was a little upset."
"About Yamanaka," Sasuke guesses.
So he does pay attention. It's good that he's not only fixated on Naruto this time around.
When she comes into the living room Sasuke is not as distracted as his voice has been suggesting. Instead he's sitting on the couch, hands folded in his lap, and attentively waiting for her to come through the door.
"What is it?" she questions suspiciously.
"Nothing. But you sound as if you're working up to something important."
She grimaces. Caught out.
"Can you imagine that Ino could replace Sakura?"
He ponders this for a minute.
"Maybe. Sakura's taijutsu is good, her genjutsu and ninjutsu are passable. Yamanaka's ninjutsu is better, but her taijutsu and genjutsu are only passable."
It's a logical argument, but it disappoints her. Still, she keeps her face neutral. What she wants is the truth, not what Sasuke thinks she wants to hear.
"In her abilities," he continues, "Sakura is nothing special. She is book smart and inventive, but Yamanaka is street smart and shrewd. The one thing Sakura has, that Yamanaka doesn't, is that she's trying. I don't think I want a teammate who stops trying because she thinks she's good enough already."
"So you prefer Sakura because … ?"
"Because she's never satisfied with herself."
And that's feeling Sasuke knows well, she realizes. He prefers her, because he understands her. It's a thing all of team 7 has in common. Naruto and Kakashi, too, are always pushing themselves to their very limits and beyond, because their best is never quite good enough.
"Sakura thinks Ino is a threat to her position in the team," he realizes. "That's also why she's suddenly spewing all these ideas how to keep us together."
"Do you want to stay together?"
And that's the most important question. She has no doubt Naruto wants to hold on to them with everything he's got. Sakura has flat out told her she's scared to lose them. What does Sasuke think?
"I guess I've already got them trained anyway?"
Even as he says it and his brows furrow, his lips quirk up. He's embarrassed; she's not going to get more out of him, but it's enough. The rest Naruto and Sakura will have to work out themselves. She can only encourage them.
"So with what did Sakura come up?"
"She wanted to do a petition first. Have Iruka-sensei and Genma-senpai sign it; maybe a few others. But Senpai said we're ninjas, we have to think like ninjas. The best idea yet is that we simply fake our test scores. Sakura aims for the best theoretical and the worst practical scores; Naruto aims for barely passing – not that he'll have to fake that – and I'll get the top scores in everything. In theory that would get us into the same team."
"Sounds good to me. But that also means a lot of pressure on your skinny little shoulders; you'll have to get a near perfect score."
He scoffs.
"That's what I'd do anyway."
It's late evening when she gets one last visitor. Genma comes crawling through their bedroom window. She has a little freak out over the unexpected intruder that wakes Sasuke and nearly K.O.s Genma with a shoe.
"For god's sake," Sasuke snaps. "Senpai can't you wait for tomorrow, like a normal person?"
"Tomorrow she'll be too tired again," he whines.
"Then why didn't you come earlier?"
"Because I only just escaped Gai."
Hisana groans.
"He didn't follow you here, did he?"
"No, no. But be ready, he'll come for you at some point. To congratulate you on your youthful team."
She ushers him out of the room to put on a sweatshirt. It's summer, but the nights are cool and she's tired. Sasuke is already half asleep again. When she tells him she'll be back later, he only mumbles something grouchy that might have something to do with kicking Genma somewhere painful, and pulls the blanket over his head.
She shuffles into the living room, where Genma has helped himself to the Nara's stew.
"You owe me so much food already, do you really want to add this to your list?"
He only grins stupidly at her.
"So I heard you've got the Grouch," he starts while shoveling more food into his mouth. "Hey – this is good. Did you make this?"
"'The Grouch'?" she echoes disbelievingly. "And no, you're eating Nara Sachiko's food. Chances are you're never getting it again."
"Aww. Oh well. Your sensei, I mean. You know, he was a few years below me in the Academy, but we did the Chuunin Exams together. He's a mean fucker, that one. Feels like he's got something to prove, because his sister is also some sort of prodigy."
There's something weird in his voice that she can't quite put her finger on. It's not a usual Genma-emotion; he's not the type to dislike people, even if they deserve it.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"To make sure you're careful. About him and about his clan."
"I am careful. I don't just walk up to clans and invite them to use me."
"Don't you? Because it looks as if that's exactly what you're doing."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He shoves the bowl of stew her way, untouched since the first spoonful.
"You're forgetting about your good friends the Nara clan."
"I'm not forgetting them. I've just … temporarily put them on the backburner, because I thought they like me."
"Oh, they do like you just fine. And I doubt they'd let you walk straight into any seriously dangerous traps. But I know Nara Shikarou, and he's a fan of tough love. If he thinks letting you get your ass handed to you in a game with low stakes will keep you from these adult power games you're playing, he'll watch with a bucket full of popcorn."
"I'm not playing games! What are you talking about? And if I were, why would I tell you about it?"
This is getting really dangerous. She's always more or less dismissed Genma, because his 'job' really has nothing to do with her little machinations. He's never seemed the type to be nosey either. It appears she was wrong. They're staring at each other over the coffee table in the dark, none of them willing to back down.
"Maybe you should tell me, because I've watched you not play this game for years now and – unlike your little friends – I know you've been mostly playing it by ear. Which is so incredibly stupid, I don't even have the words. And now I'm watching you try to pet a raging, slavering wolf because you think it's a puppy."
Does he think she's doing this for fun? That she has any choice in this if she wants to protect Sasuke and herself?
"I know," he grits out, more controlled but still obviously seething, "that you take this team business very seriously. Normally I would be all for that, especially because you seem to need all the make-shift family you can get. But some things are just not worth it."
She wants to take a minute, to calm down and collect herself, because that went seriously below the belt. But she's afraid he'll take it as surrender, which it is not. Hisana stubbornly crosses her arms.
"This is my team. If it's worth it or not is my decision. Thank you for your concern, but I think I want to go to sleep now. Take the door out; the window's not for people."
She sleeps badly that night. Whatever it is that spooked Genma so, it's not a triviality. Whether it has to do with the Hyuuga as a whole or her sensei specifically, she'll have to find out. Maybe Gai can help.
She sure hopes so.