[X] Let it Ride
Click.
... click.
Shikamaru's expression is unreadable as he hears you out. You keep your tone light, and as sensible-sounding as you can manage. His dark eyes reveal nothing but the reflection of the game between you both. His chakra sounds sort of... melancholy.
You wonder if he's disappointed in you for not trying harder, for just giving up on Chouji like he never meant anything to you.
He picks up the shogi board, sets it to one side, and for the first time in your life, he hugs you.
For a moment you freeze. Shikamaru barely tolerates physical contact from his own parents. As far as you can remember, he has never initiated a hug with anyone.
"It's okay," he says. "You shouldn't force yourself."
You squeeze him so hard you feel his spine pop with released tension.
[X] Let's Lighten Up A Bit, Shall We?
[embed=425,349]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1bb2lDm1Cg[/embed]
Ami's hands might not be as quick as yours, but you'll freely admit she surpasses you in her grasp of profanity. You thank your lucky stars for roughly the fiftieth time that you don't live in a traditional house; if the walls were thin enough for mom to get an earful of this, she'd inflict her momkra kinjutsu on the poor girl.
You're not sure she hasn't already, actually; Ami never really seems to be at ease around your Mom. All quiet and polite and stuff. You wonder if it's because she doesn't have a mom herself.
After her tenth accidental stabbing in as many minutes, Ami throws down her sewing with a noise of disgust. "Why're you learning this stuff anyway? Clothing stores were invented specifically so women
don't have to toil over stitching anymore."
"What about the women who make the clothes in stores?" you ask, turning the next stage of your work over and lining up the edges. Hinata's birthday is in a month or so, and you promised her something handmade. "C'mon, think of it like a mission; what if you have to pose as a worker in a textile factory in order to get proof they've been scamming your client?"
Ami snorts. "That's just weird."
"It sounds like a pretty standard C-rank to me," you say, shrugging. "Maybe a B-"
"No," she says, petting Menka idly, "I mean, the way whenever you talk about missions, you always seem excited about the ones where you don't
do anything."
You quirk an eyebrow at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Don't you want to
fight to defend the village?" Ami persists. "Punch out your enemies, or crush them elegantly with powerful jutsu? I'd think a tomboy like you wouldn't be interested in infiltration stuff."
A noblewoman's laugh rings out as you raise a hand delicately to your mouth. "My dear Ami, don't you know?" You leap to your feet and strike a pose. "I was
born to perform."
Ami looks sceptical.
"I can prove it," you tell her, offering her a hand up with a grin. "Unless you'd rather stay here and keep failing to thread needles."
[X] Here we observe the common Konoha civilian in its natural habitat...
Ami shakes her head. "... I can't decide if it's cool that you can do that, or if it just makes you creepier."
You grin, dropping the posture and voice of a bent old man rebuking a grandson weighed down with packages. "I'd settle for a little of both. Can you name
any awesome ninja who aren't creepy?"
"Jiraiya of the Sannin," she says confidently.
"... I'll be honest, I wouldn't have thought you'd pick a pornographer." Dad has pulled you away from the inviting displays of new volumes in the Icha Icha series more than once. You can't help it! The cover art's always really nice; all those pretty ladies~
"They're romance novels!" Ami protests, flushing in embarrassed anger.
"Well, yeah, but don't they have illustrations and-?"
"I wouldn't know, I've certainly never read one," she says immediately.
... but... she's... did she...
No, you decide.
No. This is a conversation for another day.
Even if this does explain some things.
"Anyway, you're one to talk! You're the one who corrupted Sasuke-kun's purity by telling him about sex!"
You groan. "He asked! I'm not gonna lie to a friend when it's basic information he would've learned eventually anyway. And besides," you add, "you should be glad he learned about it from me and not from one of the
boys."
"You
are one of the boys!"
"That's so cruel, Ami-chan," you say in your most delicate tones. "To speak to a friend that way, after I've done you a favour-"
"What favour? And stop using 'atashi, it's gross on you."
"If Sakkun had heard about sex from the boys first, all the focus in the conversation would have been on how to
get it," you state matter-of-factly. You're... not sure if you want to know why you know this to be true, but you know it anyway. "As it is, I told him the whole point is that
both people have a good time." You wink. "So if your wedding night is pleasant, you owe me big time."
"Pervert!"
"You're welcome~" 8)
=
Ever since that incident with Hinata, Menka has been obsessed with refining his henge. He uses it whenever any task could conceivably involve it and volunteers for chores that require the use of opposable thumbs. He particularly likes the sensation of turning doorhandles, for some reason.
The problem is that, aside from the clearing in the woods where you spar, the more secluded parts of the back garden, and inside your house, there's really nowhere he can practice during the day. This means he spends a lot of time lounging around your bedroom as a tall human boy, taking up too much space. Your room isn't all that big, so if Menka's in there in human form, he's either cross-legged on the floor (blocking the lower shelves of your bookcase), sitting at your desk (blocking access to your crafting supplies and other books), or reclining on your bed (blocking access to your damn bed).
Dad seems even more dismayed by this new habit than you, but he won't say anything outright because Mom clearly thinks Menka is the most adorable thing on the planet not named Ino. She even includes him in family dinners and corrects his table manners.
She puts her foot down at letting him go through his sword kata in the house, however.
So when Ami finally meets him as a boy, it's in the woods.
"Wow, neko-buta; you actually found a weapon ridiculous enough to suit you."
You do
not jump. You're a sensor of the Yamanaka clan, and even if your range is currently shit, you will not give others definite proof that it's shit.
Looking up, you see her perched in one of the trees, watching the pair of you with interest.
You waggle your fan in greeting. "Mornin', Ami." You nod at Menka. "This is-"
"Daisuke," she nods, looking him up and down and smiling. "Hinata mentioned you once. I'm Kuwabara Ami."
"I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance," Menka says with a grin. "What brings you to this part of the forest?"
"Practicing my tree-jumping," she says, clambering on down the trunk. "I don't usually go this deep into the woods, but I heard Ino laugh a little while ago, and, well, you know how distinctive
that sound is."
You 'hmph'. So what if your laugh is silly? Ami owns fifteen shirts and none of them could have been selected by someone who wasn't colourblind, but you don't go around saying so, do you?
"Would you care to join us?" Menka asks.
"Really?" She sounds surprised. "I thought clan kids only really trained with other clan kids or alone."
"The more the merrier," you say, shrugging. "I didn't ask you before 'cause I figured you'd say no way and spout off some crap about not needing my help to become worthy of Sakkun, or something."
Ami scowls. "I wanted to be a kunoichi before I'd even heard Sasuke-kun's name, you know. Of course I'll train with you."
"Cool!" you say. "I'm gonna take a break." You pull a granola bar out of your bag and a spare bokken that may or may not once have been yours along with it. You hand it to Ami, and are pleasantly surprised to see she actually knows how to hold it. "Hit Daisuke as hard as you can with that. He'll tell you how you're screwing up and what you can do to fix it."
You take a seat on the ground to watch the match and munch on your snack.
A few moments later you have a minor coughing fit. You actually forgot to chew before swallowing, so intense and fascinating is the fight. Menka's holding back on his speed, but that's the only way he's holding back.
Ami is a fucking
beast.
It's not her sword technique; in that regard she's about as good as you could reasonably expect a seven-year-old to be.
But god, that ferocity; what was occasionally kind of amusing in taijutsu class is drained of all humour, possibly forever, as a single swing of her bokken misses Menka and gouges a chunk the size of a fist out of a tree
without slowing down.
You can hear the chakra she's pumping into the wooden sword, of course. It's like a steamwhistle pounding in your head every time the pair of them get within four feet of you. You deduce that it must be dissipating off the edge of the blade because her control isn't fine enough yet.
Of course, none of this phases your cat in the slightest.
"Your Joudan needs work," he says, slipping to one side as what was intended to be a shoulder-strike comes down. "The angle you're holding the sword at leaves you too open." He taps her on the back with his own bokken. "And don't overextend."
More advice follows. Always it is answered by cursing and flailing and mass damage to bark, the ground, and very occasionally Menka's clothing.
The clearing is ringed in with heavily-notched trunks by the time she's tired enough that Menka calls for a break. She gratefully collapses, letting out a sigh of satisfaction.
"Where did you learn how to
do that?" you ask.
Ami looks vaguely uncomfortable, though at least half of it is fatigue. "A guy who owed my dad money gave me some lessons for free when I said I wanted to go into the Academy."
You boggle at her. "And he just
happened to know how to channel chakra into weapons?"
She frowns. "What are you talking about? A sword is supposed to be like an extension of your arm - at least, that's what Hotaru-san said. How can you not send chakra through your arm?"
You decide not to mention your little seal-shortcut. "How do you even have the reserves to keep that up? You're seven."
She grimaces. "I don't; you saw how fast I tired out." She rests the bokken on her shoulder. "But I practice the kata every day, so I'm sure to get better eventually."
... she's sure to get better at a chuunin-level technique.
Right.
You grin fiendishly to yourself.
Yeah, Sakkun. All my friends are weird. And awesome.
"I'd be happy to help, if you'd like," Menka offers. "You have a lot of potential, and aniki's been bugging me to take on some students of my own."
Ami blinks at him. "Students?" She looks at you.
You shrug. "Daisuke is kind of older than he looks." Not technically true, but in practice it's pretty far from a lie.
After some thought, the purple-haired girl asks, "How much do you charge?"
"Five ryo a lesson," he says immediately, and you stifle a smile as you recall that's about the price of a glass of nepetajochu at the covert cat bar Yuji-sensei still thinks you don't know about.
Ami slowly nods. "I think I can manage that. Okay. Deal." She holds out her hand, and Menka pulls her to her feet and shakes it.
"Let us celebrate this arrangement with the adding of chocolate to milk," he says solemnly.
"... are you
sure he's older than he looks?" Ami whispers to you.
=
You walk into class, and stop short for a moment. You say good morning to everyone, yeah, but your actual focus is on Sasuke. He seems kind of upset over something.
[X] You can talk with him about it later; he looks like he wants to be alone right now.
[X] Go sit with him and ask what's up. If you're sitting next to him, Kiba can't, and therefore he won't be able to poke whatever wounds Sasuke has festering.
-----------
Did you think for even a second I would include a Kuwabara in my story and not give her a sword?
