It had been some time since the preliminaries of the chunin exams had come to an end. Considering they had a month to prepare for the finals, the past week was particularly taxing: not just for the body, but the mind too.

Sasuke was off training with Kakashi, so she'd had been told.

She was training too.

It was just that when she wasn't training, she found herself in a purely unmotivated and distress-riddled state. Even right now, she lied across her bed, curled into herself and trying to convince herself that she should have been getting up by now. It wasn't like lying there that way was comfortable for her, so she wasn't sure why she continued to persist. While laying around, she was just reminded of things she didn't want to think about, it was just a roulette of which it was.

Sometimes, thoughts of her failure in the chunin exam preliminaries would breach her mind. She won her match. She should have been happy that she did, and yet pervasive thoughts seemed intent on reminding her of the way she floundered in that fight.

Her opponent was arrogant. The opposing girl was so certain that nothing would be able to touch her, should she keep the fight to close-range where she dominated. It left windows open and enough careless mistakes to create paths for Eri to go in hand-to-hand. She remembered seeing them many times; there was the way the girl widened her arm's arch when throwing weapons, or the way she attempted to lay subtle traps when putting distance in between, then would allow the location of the set traps to be a blindspot out of confidence that they were undetected. It was how obviously her leg unevenly distributed balance when she defended, as if focusing more on grace than efficiency.

It was easy for Eri to worm her way in, and yet she continued playing distance. She kept focusing on trying to slot her mock-ninjutsu coins through the lapses in defense. It made the whole fight unnecessarily strenuous for her, and yet she stuck to her guns, simply because she was afraid for the damage that may have come with her physical strength.

Even once, when she had managed to close distance, she remembered that her fist had risen instinctively. She was in the perfect place to deal a blow, but what she didn't expect was that opponent's delay from poor weight distribution would have left her directly in the path of it. It would have possibly been a sure knockout, and yet... Eri recoiled at the last moment. It forced her off balance from the sudden change, sent her ungracefully stumbling to the ground, and leaving her completely open to the next attack.

Even thinking about it now, it felt so incredibly mortifying. Honestly, she couldn't even focus on the fact that she won when she just remembered that flub. Locking herself from using physical techniques left her exhausted after the battle and without much to show for it. Her peers were good sports about it, sure, but it left her stressing over it for days after.

She was happy her parents hadn't caught wind of it.

More than that, she was happy Sasuke didn't catch wind of it. He had already lectured her about doing that for a time already. He probably would have given her hell for it.

That wasn't the only thing she was glad hadn't reached his ears. Another consistent source of her stress recently was the constant revisiting of that 'backstory' with Sakura and Ino. Contrary to how she carried herself, it was never something she stopped thinking about. It was hard to get the aftermath out of her mind.

Momo was a constant recurring factor. Since moving from the Sand, she spoke on how she didn't have many friends back there. People treated her badly, and from what she had gotten to understand, even her own father tended to. He was a coarse and controlling man, and upon learning that, Eri felt so glad that she had a group of friends to at least make her time away from home a nice break. She was happy she could rely on the misadventures of Ino, Sakura, Eri, Momo, and Hinata, and that hopefully the memories of those adventures gave her some solace when imprisoned in her home.

Unfortunately, she never anticipated that such an emotional rift in the friendship would occur -how Momo had played off her sadness for anger in the moment, and how she floated her strife through bitterness.

Sometimes, Eri could feel the guilt prevail from that time. Maybe if she hadn't started hanging out with Sasuke, Sakura would have been satisfied, and they'd all still be friends, but then who knew what sort of situation Sasuke would have been in without someone to talk these things out to or ease some of his struggle. Then there was Hinata, who was an unfortunate bystander in this situation. She had insisted Hinata be brought along, so maybe if she hadn't, she would have saved her the trouble of a friend circle breaking down.

These 'what-ifs' were just about always prevalent. She'd mull them over to herself for hours and just wonder how much she could have done differently or what could have been prevented. Could she have made everyone happy in the end?

Eri rolled over on her bed, nestling into one of the many pillows that lined the top of it. "I don't know what else I could have done." She spoke so quietly -only really to herself-, and lightly shutting her eyes, she let the beginnings of tears begin at the corners of her eyes. "What else could I still do..?"

"Hey."

"Echk!" Eri jolted from the sudden sound - her door was closed and no one was near her part of the compound right now! She had listened out for it! Sitting up straight, she quickly kept her back turned to the she person knew was popping up in her window.

"Are we too cool for doors now!?" She sputtered, clutching a pillow to her person and attempting to discreetly clear the remnants of tears from her eyes.

There was a mild silence, as if he was actually taking the time to consider the weights of her words, but after just that moment he answered so casually, "No." She could hear the sound of his feet touching down onto the wooden floors of her room, "just figured it'd be easier to bypass all the other stuff."

She knew that he was referring to her family. They weren't always around, but most of them had become accustomed to his presence. It always turned into jokes with her parents, or pokes and prods from her extended family. It probably would have easily killed about twenty minutes, and she was sure that Sasuke got just as fed up with them fishing for a reaction out of him all the time. It was probably exhausting.

Either way, she kept her head turned away from him, keeping light conversation as normally as possible, "well I haven't heard from you in a week, so I wasn't expecting you. I thought you were still off training."

Persistent suspicion began to boil up under the surface. He worked his hands into his pockets, and cocked his head to the side, trying and failing to get a glimpse of her face from this vantage. "I was. Kakashi hasn't really been pulling any punches either." He shifted his head right side up and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, "and what about you? You've been training?"

A covert chill shot up her spine at the mention, but playing it off, she hooked her finger around one of the ends of her hair, twisting it in and lightly giving it an anxious tug, "Mm. Well, I passed through the preliminaries, so training's the natural next step…"

"Right…" It was a brief answer. There were no lead-ins to further conversation, nor any light jabs and playful remarks. He'd only seen her react this way a few times since he'd known her, and in this moment he felt compelled to urge her towards her usual brand of playfulness. It was seldom his job between the two of them. She was the conversation bank or the loudmouth, and he was just a bystander along for the ride. He felt the weight shift to his other foot somewhat awkwardly, "we figured out the whole curse mark deal too. Well. Made it less of a problem."

"Oh! That's really good! I was wondering about that for a while. I'm glad you're okay."

Still she kept her head turned.

At this point he just felt irritable, really. He wasn't short of patience for her, and he wasn't genuinely angry of course, but he found himself assuming that she was playing up her disdain with him from his curse mark episode in his preliminary match. She could be childish like no other sometimes. He approached her now, narrowing his dark eyes further, "…" Something was on the tip of his tongue and yet his lips refused to make way for it. After a few more moments of quiet he finally began, "you wanna take a walk or something?"

"…"

"…"

Eri's brow knit, and it seemed ever-clear in that notion. He was inviting her out. Was he… misreading her? Hesitantly, she peered back at the corners of her eyes. She was sure that if he had gone and done that, he was probably steeping in his own awkward attitude and wasn't looking her way.

Sure enough, he was seeming to mull things over in his head, leading her speak up as she looked away.

"I'm not mad, you know…"

"Tsk," he huffed out a breath of air, the faint twinge of pink coming to his face, "I just asked if you wanted to take a walk."

For a moment the heaviness lifted from Eri's chest, and she felt a new joy easing everything out of the way. Of course, it was none other than the unique joy she got out of poking at her brooding buddy so mischievously. For seemingly the first time that day and the few moments that week, a little kitten-like smile curved at the corners of her lips, "Imagine that. I bet that was sooo scary thinking I was angry at you, huh? So much that you're inviting me out? Did you come here to smooth things over? That's sooo sweet of you!"

"You're damn annoying, you know that?" Regardless of his argument to her glee, he practically had to turn away from her to avoid being blinded by the sudden light radiating off of her.

"And you came all this way just to see me!"

"Do you wanna go for a walk or not!?"

There was little-to-no-time wasted after that. It was a pleasant distraction for Eri to not have to think about all of the problems she had living in the front of her mind a few moments ago, and it seemed taking a walk was something Sasuke did genuinely want to do. So it seemed like a win for both of them.

Regardless of their agreement, they still saw themselves out via the window, climbing out onto the compound rooftop and letting Eri ease the window shut just enough that she could reopen it when she came back later.

"So Kakashi-sensei has been pretty tough on you, hm?" Eri began as they reached ground-level, walking idly through the streets of Konoha that were now filled with tons of unfamiliar faces and curious foreigners. She took in the sights of the decorated shops and packed town stalls that she had just now seemed to find she had been neglecting for some time until now.

"A taskmaster," Sasuke reiterated, "I'm surprised I'm even allowed out this long." It was brutal. Every day brought some sort of new task and challenge. He knew the reasons; the curse mark branded onto his neck was by no means a trivial matter, and if he hadn't already figured that out himself, the constant focus and attention that the silver-haired Jonin regularly put on it was indication enough that it wasn't to be taken lightly.

A twinge of concern trickled into Eri's expression. She shifted away and back to him, tilting her head and assessing him through curious eyes, "why come ask me for a walk? If it's because you think I'm mad, really I'm not. This is time you should be taking for yourself, don't you think..?"

"If I didn't come back and tell you what was going on, you'd worry yourself half to death," he all but prodded, cocking his head and letting a somewhat challenging amusement grip his features, "besides." Of course, he cleaned it up with a little brush of the topic, "I don't have anything better to do anyway."

"Gee," Eri sarcastically quipped as a lightly dry smile spread across her lips, "thanks for that."

"Heh."

She was admittedly overjoyed to hear the sound of that sarcastic chuckle again. After the last turn of events in the exams, she had a recurring fear that something would happen to him. She had this lingering feeling and sank hours into worrying about the outcome of the curse mark, of that bad feeling she got. She wondered if he would never be the same again; if he would end up hurt worse than he was in the moment, or if they would never be able to have these easy, effortless times together again. Sure, she had been stressed lately over a host of other things too, but just seeing one of them was beginning to clear itself up provided her a wash of relief.

Still, it wasn't without its guilt either.

She found herself thinking about this all way too hard. Was it wrong for her to share this time with him? It was what she wanted, sure, and apparently what he wanted too, and yet her mind wandered with questions of fairness and debate of equity.

"What's with you?" He spoke up, permeating her silent contemplation. She was like this when he first dropped by. It wasn't unusual for her to go off on a tangent thinking of other things, or zone out by some form, but it seemed a lot less lighthearted than he remembered. The look on her face seemed so uncharacteristically serious, and dare he describe it as somber.

"Hm?" She lifted her head quickly, caught off guard by the question. "I…" Her expression became so gut-wrenchingly softened, her eyes still seeking solace in every place but his gaze, "I was just thinking that it's been a long time since we've taken a walk together like this." It wasn't a total lie; that was one of the thoughts in her head, it just wasn't the most prevalent. "We've both been so busy lately, but things like that just happen, you know?"

He could feel his own expression lose its naturally hardened edge. His tongue clipped his teeth and out from the quiet of his lips he sounded a near-silent 'tsk'. She was so sentimental – always hung up over the things that he began to think he just couldn't be bothered to even think about. It came to his mind sometimes, their lack of time together. He mulled over that old conversation they had just after being assigned to squads, about how she predicted their time together becoming more scarce and how she worried over it. He seemed pretty confident that she had nothing to worry about then. Even now, though that certainty was somewhat slighted, he found himself wondering if that were really true. Even if they spent time apart, right now felt no different than back then. After the things they've endured individually, and while displaying the signs of something changed in them, somehow the 'now' right here made those differences seem less apparent. Everything was as it always had been… even though it wasn't.

He didn't know how he was supposed to say that. How did he put her mind at ease?

"It's okay!" She quickly spoke up before he had the opportunity. She waved her hands so quickly and defensively affront her chest, and her eyes took hold of deep flickers of sympathy brandishing themselves shamelessly, "don't worry! You don't have to talk about it or anything. I wasn't trying to make this deep or something like that. I-I just thought it was kind of nice, right?"

"Calm down," he dismissively retorted, leaving her hanging forward so limply. He didn't know how to set her at ease. He couldn't go on some tangent about feelings, not here or like this. It wasn't as if he hadn't done it before, but somehow this seemed different. So instead, he merely muttered out a reluctant, "you don't have anything to worry about."

Eri could feel one of the many stones stacked atop her chest give way, and suddenly it felt a little easier to breathe again. She didn't expect him to say it. She expected him to make a joke about it, or jab at her sensitivities so playfully and start up one of those back and forths they had. Even that would have been acceptable; she didn't really expect him to take what she said so seriously, and yet that simple response seemed to mean a lot. Her fingers curved in towards the edge of her shirt collar, and though she attempted to keep any swells of emotion at bay, she couldn't find the warmest of smiles that so gently took to her lips, "...thanks. That… means a lot, actually…"

He made the mistake of checking the validity of her claim. He searched for proof in her face that what she said was more than just some diversion for her real feelings, or a ploy to make him feel like his brief and blunt comment actually held some weight to her.

He hadn't any expectation for her to look that way: genuinely happy, as if he said everything right. He'd hardly said anything at all…

He lightly cleared his throat, looking away rigidly and lithe with embarrassment, "Hey…" he thought maybe he'd say something more. Maybe he'd rescind his mental restriction and actually let her into his thoughts.

"OH! OH! EXCUSE ME!"

The two looked up quickly to the sudden interruption.

There was a girl around their age, her hair white and falling around her shoulders. She was certainly not a local, and judging by the nature of her expensive-looking clothing and the curious crest that shined on her sleeve, it seemed clear that she wasn't participating in the exams either.

The two appeared visibly confused, but on account of Sasuke already seeming to disassociate himself with this situation, Eri took the liberty of speaking up, "um… Y-yes..? Can we help you with something..?"

"Sorry to interrupt," their girl began so emphatically, practically bursting ahead to close the distance between them. She appeared so feeble and non-threatening, especially as tiny as she was. She seemed to be around their age, and yet her petite frame did little-to-nothing to assure that, "but I was exploring this village, and I was so immediately taken aback by the sheer size of it! It's incredible, but then I thought… How fascinating it would be to be guided through this village by a real shinobi, yes?"

The two of them stared in silence for a prolonged time. What was she saying..? For a time it seemed like she was just spirited, but now it felt like she was talking so quickly that it was hard to make heads or tails of her words.

A bead of sweat dripped down Eri's cheek, and her eyes bat so curiously, but it read in her eyes through her momentary processing that she was lost. "...I'm sorry – you want… us to show you around?"

"I want him to show me around!" The white haired girl spoke again, all but latching onto the dark haired male with a grip far beyond someone her size.

"Pass," he simply responded so bluntly.

"There you are, Sasuke," came another voice, as if everyone had decided to descend upon them in rapid succession. Now Kakashi had decided to crash the party, lingering on the limb of the tree, "when you said you were going out quickly, I expected it to be just that: 'quickly'.- hm..?" He took notice at the way the white haired girl clung to his arm like static to wool, nuzzling roughly whilst Eri stood as if shell-shocked and still lost. "Oh… I see you're a little tied up."

"He'll be my tour guide!" The girl perkily spoke up.

"I'm not doing anything like that. Tell her I'm busy, Kakashi," regardless of the situation's obvious chaotic confusion, the way Sasuke seemed to desperately demand Kakashi's intervention almost felt comical.

"Hmm..?" The silver-haired Jonin dragged his thoughtful musing. He peered down to the girl that appeared so oblivious to what was happening around her, and immediately upon taking in her crest, he appeared resigned, "Sorry about that, but I think this situation is somewhat beyond my control. It's difficult arguing with the desires of a land noble…"

"You're kidding me…"

"Shall we go? I'm awfully hungry!"

"Quit pulling me..!"

Eri still stood in the same spot, watching as everything unfolded. It felt like it had only been a few seconds, and now she was standing in the middle of the village street alone and misplaced. "What just happened…?" She trailed quietly, though after a few more minutes of standing so aimlessly, she came to a more simplistic solution, "Sasuke's… accidental charm strikes again..?" Yes, that would help her make sense of this.

Either way, it boiled down to a simple effect. She was on her own now and so she probably should have been finding something else to do. She could have grabbed a bite to eat, or maybe did some wandering around meeting some of these new faces in the village, or maybe she could have gotten back on training for the finals, and yet… it felt difficult to find the energy. Sasuke had been kind enough to set her at ease, but maybe it wasn't right of her to avoid sharing the whole truth with him. Then again, the same way she swore by his privacy when talking with Sakura, Sakura was secured a certain level of confidentiality with her as well.

"I won't even think about it," She breathed out subtly instead. It had taken up way too much space in her head, and she was actually in the best mood she had been in all week. Even if it was just for now, maybe this was something she shouldn't have felt herself being burdened with.

She detoured through the plaza. It was the quickest way home, even if home was only somewhat on her mind. She just figured the fountain would be the most relaxing place she could imagine right now. Lucky for her, on top of that notion, the shopping strips were more full than the scenic spots. She could have some peace.

She just sat down at the edge of the fountain, taking in the soft scents of the season and the sound of running water.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!? I'm workin-"

The owner of the familiar voice, a displeased and spunky blonde, rounded the corner of the fountain, though both her words and her displeasure became severed upon seeing the one in question. The awkwardness set in, and the atmosphere became heavy with creeping uncertainty.

"Sorry… about that," Eri uttered so quietly, beginning up to her feet the moment Ino spoke up.

"Sit down…" Ino remarked exasperatedly, though teeming with casual dryness.

"But you said…"

"Yeah, and I also said sit down," Ino shot, sitting down on the edge of the fountain, and pulling Eri down to join her by force. "I need a break anyway."

Uncertainty rang momentarily through Eri's eyes. When she thought so constantly about working things out, and beginning to have conversations with Ino and Sakura again, she always imagined it would be Sakura first. Ino and Eri hadn't spoken a single word to each other since the incident. Regardless, the attempt set the brown haired girl alight with an internalized excitement, "What… were you doing that you needed a break from..?" She started, though quickly attempted to supplement and added, "-if! You don't mind telling me, of course…"

"Festival stuff," Ino nonchalantly responded, "my family's in charge of the flower arrangements, so we're sizing up the area, and figuring out the color themes." She divided her attention from the nothing ahead to actually turn to the brown haired girl at her side, "not all of us got lucky enough to make it to the finals, ya know."

"Mm- ah… yeah well," Eri remarked softly, "it's not as luxurious as it sounds."

"Trust me, I know. Shikamaru's been complaining about it nonstop."

"Shikamaru complains about everything though."

"Pff-" Ino took a moment, then immediately began to chuckle off to her side.

The lightness of the lifting tension left Eri with a subtle smile, she almost felt the need to laugh herself. It felt good laughing with her again. Still, it felt difficult doing so without a touch of reservation. Curse her need for closure. "Hey… Ino."

"Yeah, I know," Ino began in a somewhat hesitant hush, "you're still upset with me, huh?"

"Huh? No..!" Eri quickly supplemented, "not at all! I'm just…" she tilted her head gently, slightly evading eye contact whilst entangling the tips of her fingers loosely into her hair, "I thought you were the one still upset with me. For the things that were said and… with Sakura-…"

Ino heaved a heavy sigh, leaning back further against the edge of the fountain and kicking her leg up to cross over her other. "people said hurtful things, and it wasn't just one side. Either way… you guys were right about one thing. It was stupid." Her voice grew quieter, in some ways a little more genuine, "Sakura's a big girl. What she does and what I do are two different things. I really care about her. All of you guys. But just because she chooses to do something doesn't mean I have to do it too. Sooner or later I had to figure that out."

Eri could understand that. In some ways, it was still something she felt she had yet to figure out for herself. She didn't blame Ino – not at all. If put in the same situation, she would have done the same thing, no – she did the same thing. It still didn't go unnoticed by her then, that that would mean Sakura still had hard feelings.

She shook those invasive thoughts from her mind, and in this moment she just allowed herself to be happy. "I-… thanks, Ino. That's...actually really mature of you…"

"What's that supposed to mean..?"

"H-hah!? No it wasn't like that! I'm just saying you decided to be the bigger person and I really wasn't expecting that!"

"Eri! You're doing that on purpose aren't you!?"

"I wasn't at first, but now I am!"

A/N: Ahhh. This was a nice chapter to write. Especially to procrastinate for my midterms. QAQ. It's kinda nice and a little fluffy. Next chapter I plan to have some insight into Eri's fighting and cover some of her battle style. Tho she's hopefully gonna find some lightening in her moods now. ;w; She was really down.

BUT THERE IS GOOD PROGRESSSSS! Waaaah. Chapters have been a little sluggish bc like. ... art school. cRaZy. But I hope you guys enjoyed this little chapter!