Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shikotsumyaku ❯ DATE?! ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.

 

Author Notes: This one took a while compared to the first three, but…well…yeah, so what? Huh?! I wish I had a point sometimes- anyway, let's proceed to…

 

 

 

The streets of Konoha were alive with activity, as they usually were during the day. Children ran around, merchants called out from behind their stalls, the local (and some foreign) ninja went about their business, and Kimimaro trailed behind Sakura impassively. Sakura had picked out some clothes for him to wear -a fishnet chain shirt under a plain black shirt, dark grey pants bandaged around the ankles- that would make him stand out less. It wasn't quite going as planned.

Everywhere they went he drew much unwanted attention. The snow white hair, jade green eyes, fair skin and athletic build conspired to make people whisper, or stop and stare, when they passed. And more than a few times small groups of girls would flock to him and ask for his name. His cold stare and demeanour frequently revealed that he was, in fact, a ninja, but since nobody seemed to know who he was and the fact that he wasn't wearing a headband with the symbol of a village on it was somewhat confusing. Nobody actually found out that he used to be a member of Otogakure, since the only people who knew who he was beside himself, Sakura, Tsunade and ANBU had been instructed to keep that quiet. An ANBU squad was definitely keeping an eye on him from a distance, but they never caused trouble if they didn't have to.

Some red cloth caught Sakura's attention and she turned to see Ichiraku Ramen, the place where, if you were looking for Naruto- you had come to the right place. With Naruto gone, the stall had been experiencing lower sales that usual, but the food was good enough to attract more than enough customers. It didn't take too long for Sakura to decide to stop there. She was getting hungry after walking around the village for hours and Kimimaro probably was too, though he wouldn't show it.

The place was had a nostalgic feel to it, even if you had only been there once or twice. As she ate, Sakura remembered various things Team 7 had been through together. Some good, some bad, some-

`Hi, Sakura!'

`Hwlghh!' Sakura half swallowed- half spat the food in her mouth before coughing violently a few times.

`Uh, sorry…'

`What do you want, Ino? Suddenly-'

`Hey, I just saw you sitting here so I thought I'd…' Ino trailed off when she noticed someone observing her. Someone she didn't recognise, and who was sitting next to Sakura. `Someone you know?'

`…Oh, this is Kaguya Kimimaro. He just came here from the country of Water.' Kimimaro nodded his concurrence to this statement. Ino looked at Sakura, then at Kimimaro, then back at Sakura. After a moment of assessing the information, Ino's expression smoothly transitioned between surprise and confusion a few times before settling on a sly grin.

`Sakura…' Ino pulled Sakura slightly to one side and lowered her voice. `I didn't just interrupt your date did I?'

`Date?!' Taken off guard, she blurted it out without thinking. The only thing that broke the silence that followed was a quiet slurping as Kimimaro finished his Ramen, unperturbed by Sakura's sudden outburst.

 

-----

 

`Hey, wait! What are you so mad about?'

`I'm not mad!'

`Then slow down for a second!'

`Why did you have to say something so strange?'

`You mean that you two are-ahhg!' Sakura pulled Ino into a headlock while still walking.

`We're not on a date-'

`-Let go!'

`I'm just showing him around.' Ino managed to wriggle free, jumped out of Sakura's reach and fell back into pace with her when she didn't try to get her into a headlock again.

`Is that all?'

`Mm.'

`Really?'

`Mm.'

Ino eyed Kimimaro, who was still following a short distance behind, absently taking in the scenery. `…Then you won't mind if he goes out with me then? Kimima-aaah!' Ino found herself in a headlock again.

`Don't.'

`Why not?!'

`…Just don't, ok?'

`So you are interested in him!'

`I told you, it's not like that!'

`Then what's the problem?!'

`Just leave him alone!'

`No! Kimimaro-kun, help me!'

`Why you…!' Even if they had made up somewhat after their fight during the Chuunin Exam, some habits died hard.

 

-----

 

The room was dull and bare, and Kimimaro couldn't help but feel his presence did nothing to alter the atmosphere. The small house, in a quietly crowded part of the village, had very little furniture and judging by the thin blanket of dust over everything, it hadn't seen habitation in a while either

Putting that to one side, he had to admit that he liked it. It didn't have any unnecessary objects (since, really, the only thing there was a bed), and he could come and go as he pleased. That might take some getting used to, but he looked forward to the experience.

As always, ANBU were probably close by, waiting for him to make one wrong move. But he wasn't going to do anything untoward, and if he did he'd make sure they weren't watching. In which case, maybe they knew watching him was a futile exercise, and they weren't actually there… no, that was too far-fetched. They were out there somewhere.

 

`…' A hand swayed left and right above two cards being held in another hand.

`Hurry up and pick a card.'

`…This one!' The speaker was very displeased by the fact that he had taken the Queen of Spades, and proceeded to mix his cards around behind his back.

His opponent took the three of diamonds, without hesitation. `Looks like you're the Old Maid again.'

`…What's the target doing?'

`Target is still inside the house.'

`Alright, get comfortable. We'll probably be here for a while… One more game.'

One of the ANBU squad members smiled under her mask and collected the cards. She never lost with her deck.

 

-----

 

The room was dull and bare, and Sakura couldn't help but feel Kimimaro hadn't exactly gone to great lengths to make it any less so in the few days he had been living there. The place was empty and covered in dust. The only things that weren't dusty were the bed, a chair, and certain foot-shaped sections of the floor. It was kind of…disturbing. Almost like Kimimaro had purposefully foregone cleaning, since it wouldn't matter if the room was clean or not once ANBU got their way. Kimimaro and his precious few belongings could all be swept away with less effort than it would take to clean the small house. Sakura shivered at the thought and turned to Kimimaro.

`The first thing we need to do is sweep up all that dust.' She handed him a broom and suggested he get started with that. Watching him sweep was like… It was kind of like watching an old man, whose heart just wasn't in it, sweep: slightly awkward, a little haphazard and anything but efficient. Most of what he swept flew into the air straight away before settling again once he had moved on. Quite a bit of it was settling on him as well.

After a while of watching him sweep around the house for a while Sakura decided to give him a few suggestions along the lines of “more scraping, less follow-through.” He seemed to understand. When she thought about how he had acted when he first came to the hospital, it was pretty strange how he listened to her. Maybe he had started enjoying her company? Or maybe he had just accepted that she was a fact of life that must be tolerated. Either way, he seemed calmer that he used to be.

By the time he had managed to get everything into a pile, a lot of the dust was still airborne and Sakura felt like she needed a bath. But that could wait until everything was properly cleaned.

Of course, then she'd have to help Kimimaro buy some furniture and decorations. Tsunade had supplied her with a little money for this very reason.

 

-----

 

`Wait a sec-wait-wait-wait-oww!'

Kimimaro failed to take the full weight of the couch before Sakura dropped her end onto her foot. He watched her squeeze her toes for a few seconds. She made eye contact. He looked into her eyes blankly, blinked, and started dragging the couch across the floor.

`Hey! A girl's hurt! Don't just leave!' she yelled and tossed a cushion at him. He set the couch down and smiled at her. Wait, no- that was a grin. He was joking. What? He had a sense of humour all along! SHANNARO!

`Are you alright?'

`I'm fine. Just put the couch…over there' she pointed to a wall, where there was ample space to put it. Kimimaro carefully manoeuvred the couch across the room to the place Sakura had pointed out. The Feng Shui aspect of its placement was fine, she just wasn't sure about the direction it was facing. If anyone tried to sit on it they would have to be cross-legged, with a wall not far from their face. Kimimaro must have been giving that sense of humour a work-out today. Either that or he didn't consider the couch to be a functional piece of furniture.

This was going to take a while.

 

Kimimaro watched Sakura carefully. She was asleep.

After the excitement of the shopping trip, and subsequent introduction of furniture and nick-knacks to his home, she had sat down on the couch to have a rest and left him to arrange several useless objects around the house to make it look more “lived-in.” He had arranged them in a neat pile in a corner of his bedroom, and Sakura would probably have something to say about it when she woke up.

It was…curious that she was able to fall asleep under such conditions. All things considered, she should have been afraid of him. But ever since their first conscious encounter she never seemed to think that he was any kind of threat to her. He couldn't imagine why she thought this way, but that was probably part of the reason he found her confusing.

The real question was: should he wake her up? If he didn't and she woke up by herself in the middle of the night, he couldn't predict what she would do. On the other hand, if she woke up now and saw how he had “arranged” the ornaments she would probably bustle around rearranging everything for hours. Then again, this wasn't the first time she had fallen asleep nearby. But, if he woke her up now, there was a chance that she would panic and scream, quite possibly drawing a lot of unwanted attention from ANBU… She did look peaceful, there, on the couch…

He decided against waking her up.