Chapter 9- Just a Trace of Your Existence

Shanan had initially planned to accompany Naruto and Sasuke to their team assignments, but Team Guy's sudden mission deployment changed everything. The mission ended up being their longest, lasting five and a half days. Exhausted, Shanan spent days recuperating at home, catching up on sleep, and nursing a sprained wrist sustained during the mission.

She had hoped to come home and hear all about their new teams and senseis, but the boys were so busy with their intense training regimens that she'd barely seen them, except when they came home to devour their dinner and collapse into bed within minutes. She couldn't recall if it had been the same for her when she joined Team Guy, but she suspected it probably was.

Finally, both boys got a much-needed break, and Shanan thought it was quite lucky they got to have the same day off. She begged them to go to their apartments and bathe, as they both reeked of dirt and sweat from all the training they'd been doing.

While they freshened up, she made breakfast, and once they returned, they could finally fill her in on everything over a well-deserved meal.

The boys returned home within minutes of one another to find Shanan setting the table.

"Perfect timing," she said to Naruto, who had arrived first.

Naruto inhaled deeply, letting out a contented sigh as the aromas of home-cooked food washed over him.

"Will you pour the tea, please?" Shanan asked, turning back to the stove.

Naruto smiled, feeling grateful for a break from training and happy to be home. "Yeah, I can do that, sis. What'd you make?" he asked.

Sasuke walked in, his eyes lighting up. "I could smell your cooking in my apartment," he said, his stomach growling in anticipation.

Shanan smiled. "Oh, good. I hope it was pleasant."

"Of course it was…" he said as he looked over her shoulder, inspecting the spread. "Is that tamagoyaki?"

"Yep… and I made onigiri, because I know they're your favorite."

Shanan expertly flipped the tamagoyaki in the pan, the sizzling sound filling the air.

"Oh, and the salmon for me, right?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Shanan turned to him, beaming with a warm smile. "Of course, you little cutie!" she said, her eyes sparkling with affection. "I also warmed up some leftover steamed rice and miso soup. I knew you guys would be hungry."

Once everything was ready, they took their seats and put their hands together. "Thank you for the food!" they chimed in unison. Then, they dug in, savoring the delicious aromas and flavors.

"Naruto, don't take all the salmon!" Sasuke said, as Naruto loaded his plate.

Naruto looked at him incredulously, "You have half the onigiri on your plate already!"

He reached for one of them, but Sasuke smacked his hand away.

"She made it for me," Sasuke told him as he reached his chopsticks towards Naruto's plate.

Naruto swiftly smacked his hand away in return. "Well, she made the salmon for me!"

Their bickering continued until Shanan cleared her throat to interrupt them.

They stopped, looking at her sheepishly.

"I made everything for everyone, regardless of who I had in mind," she said with a gentle smile.

The boys relented, Sasuke returning a few onigiri to the platter and Naruto relinquishing some of the salmon.

Shanan chuckled gently, glad to have them home. "Anyway, tell me about your teams!"

"Oh…" Naruto's face lit up with a wide grin. "It's just one team, ya know?"

Shanan's eyes widened in surprise, and then a bright smile spread across her face. "Wait, you're on the same team?!" she exclaimed.

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, still grinning from ear to ear.

"I kinda thought we already told you that." Sasuke said, finishing off one of his onigiri. "But we have been really tired."

"Boy!" Naruto said, eyes wide. "Don't I know it…"

Shanan let out another warm chuckle. "So, who's the third teammate?" she asked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, while Naruto's face flushed with a slight blush. "Sakura…" he said, his voice trailing off, a hint of a smile still on his lips.

Shanan gazed at Sasuke, her expression a mixture of understanding and diplomacy. "Well…" she said, her voice rising a bit as it trailed off. "I'm sure it'll be fine." She quickly grabbed her tea and took a sip, choosing not to comment further.

Sasuke shot her a disbelieving look, prompting Shanan to awkwardly shift her gaze as she continued to slowly sip her tea.

"Well, I'm enjoying training with her," Naruto said, taking a bite of his tamagoyaki.

Sasuke snorted. "All she ever does is whine and complain about everything. When is she actually training?"

"Hey!" Naruto said, mouth still full. "She does stuff all the time! Like that time she threw that kunai into the bush!"

"Seriously?" Sasuke's expression turned incredulous. "I was in that bush! She closed her eyes when she threw it and wasn't even doing what she was supposed to."

"She was just using her instincts," Naruto retorted.

Sasuke dropped his chopsticks, his voice rising. "That wasn't the exercise we were doing, idiot! We were supposed to—"

Shanan cleared her throat again, interrupting the argument. The boys stopped, looking at her once more, their faces guilty.

"Hmm…" Shanan's eyes sparkled with amusement as she teased, "Maybe it's not such a good thing for you to be on the same team."

Sasuke glanced sideways at Naruto, a hint of a shrug on his shoulders as he grabbed an onigiri off the platter with his chopsticks. "No, I'm glad we are, honestly," he said. "He isn't the problem. But I suppose our choices for kunoichi were slim anyway."

Naruto's brow furrowed in thought. "Actually, Hinata would've been a really good fit for our team… I think she's pretty talented."

Sasuke's expression remained skeptical, but Shanan's face lit up with a warm smile.

"That would've been a perfect team!" she said. "So, tell me about your Sensei!" She mixed some of her salmon and rice and took a bite.

"He's not too bad," Naruto said, wiping his mouth. "But at our first training session, he tried to trick us!"

"He tried to trick you?" Shanan asked, amused. "How?"

"Well, he told us to skip breakfast and then only brought two lunches." He chuckled, shaking his head. "Can you believe that?"

Shanan's brow furrowed. "That's kinda rude…"

"Even worse," he continued, "Then he told Sasuke and Sakura not to share with me, or they'd fail and we'd all have to return to the Ninja Academy!"

Shanan's expression turned incredulous. "What?! After all your hard work—"

"It was just a setup," Naruto cut in, his amusement evident. "A test to see if they'd choose their teammate over the rules or whatever. And, of course, they passed with flying colors!" he said grinning.

"That's mostly true," Sasuke added, his tone measured. "But there's a bit more to him. Even though he seems tough, he's also surprisingly laid-back and weirdly secretive about himself. But he really does seem incredibly strong. I actually think we're lucky to have him as our Sensei."

"So then, he isn't a complete jerk?" Shanan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sasuke shrugged. "No, not completely…" He paused, considering his next words. "He even let us use shuriken to attack him."

Shanan's eyes widened in surprise. "Attack him?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "He wanted to assess our skills, but… he was way too fast and outmaneuvered us effortlessly. His speed and agility are on a whole different level. It's like… he's always one step ahead. It definitely opened my eyes to how much training I need. Which is honestly why I haven't been complaining."

"You guys have been training really hard." Shanan said, her eyes sparkling with interest. "I should totally come along sometime. I'm curious to see how different our senseis really are."

"Ha!" Naruto's face scrunched up as he laughed. "I don't think our sensei is anything like Guy Sensei!"

"I don't think anyone's sensei is like Guy Sensei," Sasuke said, a breathy chuckle escaping his lips.

"Hey," Shanan said. "Leave my sensei alone! He's… he's… you know what? He… is… very… enthusiastic about fighting… and… being young… and strong!"

Naruto and Sasuke stared at her blankly, before the absurdity of the situation hit them. The three of them burst out laughing.

"You're so funny, sis…" Naruto said, before stuffing his mouth full of salmon, rice and tamagoyaki.

Shanan's smile softened as she thought about her sensei. "Well, Guy Sensei is definitely unique, but I do really love that about him," she said before turning her attention back to the boys. "So, what was your sensei's name again?"

Naruto's mouth was still full of food as he answered. "Mmm… Uhlahshi… Habooray- I wean," he swallowed half the food in his mouth. But it had been comically full. "Hakuhkay."

"Huh?" Shanan asked him, her face scrunched up, slightly perplexed, but mostly disgusted as she watched a bit of rice fall from his mouth.

Sasuke looked over at Naruto, his brow furrowed with impatience, before looking back at Shanan.

"Kakashi Hatake."

Shanan's gaze snapped towards him, her eyes locking onto his with an intensity that bordered on urgency. "Kakashi?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.

A sudden flutter in her chest caught her off guard, and she swallowed hard, her heart skipping a beat. The name seemed to echo through her, stirring a deep-seated familiarity she couldn't quite place. Her brow furrowed, creasing with a mix of curiosity and confusion as her gaze drifted downward.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched Shanan's reaction.

Naruto, still chewing, looked at Shanan with a questioning expression.

For a fleeting instant, her eyes seemed to glaze over, her pupils dilating as if she was staring into a distant memory. A whisper of recognition danced across her face, only to vanish as suddenly as it appeared.

Sasuke leaned back in his chair, setting his chopsticks down, his eyes fixed intently on Shanan. "Do you know him?" he asked, his voice quiet.

She blinked slowly, clearing the haze as she looked back up at Sasuke. She shook her head. "No, I must have just experienced some déjà vu or something. That was weird…" she said, trying to brush off the tension of the moment.

Her expression returned to normal as she forced a small smile to her lips, but a faint crease remained between her eyebrows – a subtle hint that her mind was still trying to grasp something just out of reach…