Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shikotsumyaku ❯ Troublesome ( Chapter 7 )

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

Author notes: Just when I thought it was going to take another month- HERE IT IS! This chapter's a little on the slow and confusing side, but you've gotta get that out of the way at some point. Now then…ENJOYS!

 

The clouds wafted past airily. It was a beautiful day. Trees were swaying, birds were singing, and Shikamaru was lying on his back and yawning. He didn't much like the murmured conversations he had been overhearing recently, but then he didn't much care. It wasn't his problem. So the Sound guy -whom he had only seen for a few seconds while he was fighting the Sound woman- was in Konoha for some reason. The Hokage had OK'd it, so why should he care?

`Troublesome…'

He sighed. Even though he was thinking that to himself, he got this nagging feeling at the back of his mind that something ugly was going to happen sooner or later. But, the guy was probably being hounded by ANBU day and night; Tsunade didn't seem worried about it… There really was no point in trying to convince himself. He just couldn't relax, no matter what. Maybe he should go for a walk… or go hang out with Chouji… hmmm.

Chouji was still eating his way to recovery, so he wouldn't want to be disturbed… the walk was a safe bet.

Probably.

 

A few minutes later he had to change his mind about this whole “walk” thing being a good idea. He was currently being attacked by a worrying image. This image included Ino, Sakura, the Sound guy, and he was sure he could see Rock Lee barely managing to conceal the fact that he should have been better hidden from view in the background.

Worse still, the image was moving. Towards him. And he wasn't too sure he liked the fact that the three main components of the image seemed to have seen and recognised him. Maybe this was the ugly thing he had been expecting to happen. He could only hope, this was better than what he had imagined, but he still wasn't looking forward to it.

No sliver of recognition passed across Kimimaro's face as he was led by the arm in Shikamaru's direction by an overly energetic Ino. Sakura had given up trying to stop Ino from hanging off Kimimaro, since he was technically a part of the village now.

`Ooooy, Shikamaru!' Ino bounded over happily with Kimimaro in tow. `Have you met Kimimaro-kun yet?'

Shikamaru looked Kimimaro in the eye for a second, pretending to try and remember his face. Kimimaro looked back at him and blinked… Well, he wasn't quite sure what emotion he could attach to that expression. “Blankly” would do.

`Are you planning on introducing him to everyone in the village?' It wouldn't be strange for him to know that Kimimaro wasn't from Konoha.

`Hey, there's no need to be rude-'

`Alright, sorry. No, I haven't met him' he scratched the back of his head casually. `Well, I think I've seen him once before… Oh yeah!' he pretended he had just remembered `I was talking to some red-haired woman, and he walked past.'

`Huh? If she was telling you that she liked you, I feel sorry for her. How cold.' Ino, obviously, didn't know the very significant meaning behind these words. But Kimimaro did. His eyes widened slightly as he fit the blurry face he had caught a glimpse of all that time ago to the dull-eyed shinobi in front of him.

`Nara Shikamaru. Nice to meet you.'

Kimimaro managed to regain his composure quickly, and introduced himself in turn.

-----

In the end, meeting Shikamaru hadn't been so bad. He had been quiet, and careful to not turn his back on Kimimaro if he could help it, but he didn't seem inclined to tell anyone about him. They had even exchanged a pleasant conversation. But what was more interesting, was that he had fought Tayuya and…well, he wasn't exactly sure of the circumstances- but he had fought her and managed to survive. With an outcome like that, it wasn't totally surprising that Orochimaru-sam -Orochimaru's invasion had failed.

Ah- he was getting distracted again. He had to try and keep his mindset as a distantly curious new arrival. He had had some success with this outward image so far. Although, a few of the shinobi he had met had all but challenged him to a fight on sight. He still couldn't say he readily understood how these people thought, but he was a little closer now.

At the moment, he was training. He had practiced using a sword the day before, so it was back to unarmed training today. He had been adding scars to the log that already bore the marks of years of physical abuse, but practice was practice. Come to think of it, he hadn't-
Snap. `Ah-!' Scuffle.
-seen her for a few days either.

He straightened up, turned around, and saw…nobody. He wasn't expecting to see anyone, but he was sure that someone was still hiding close by. Probably behind that tree over there…

Hinata was in a pinch. She didn't want the tall boy to think she was spying on him -well, she kind of had- but she wasn't spying as such. More like watching. He was good at Taijutsu, obviously better than she was, so she thought that if she watched his movements for long enough she might learn something. So far she had learned that trying to emulate his movements caused her to sacrifice stability in favour of marginally more powerful blows, and she usually ended up falling over. He was built differently than she was, so it made sense.

More importantly, she had just stepped on a twig by accident, yelped in surprise, and hurriedly moved further behind the tree she had been watching from behind of. She couldn't run away- he would see her, and think she was strange. She didn't want him to think she was strange, because then he would hate her, and she didn't want that because she could learn a lot about Taijutsu from him. But what if he came over here to investigate the strange noise? He'd definitely find her hiding- and think she was strange.

But she couldn't hear anything. It didn't sound like he was walking towards her. It also didn't sound like he had gone back to training, or walked away. She decided to hazard a peek around the side of the tree. Much to her distress, his was standing quietly where he had been before, and looking in her direction. She darted back behind the tree as the thoughts “oh no! Now he will think I'm strange” passed through her mind.

What was she doing? The girl with white eyes and blue hair was definitely a strange one, but only in the sense that she didn't act like his best friend as soon as they met. And she didn't bother him at all, unlike the guy he had met yesterday. He couldn't recall the name, but he did remember he was very unsettling. He kept a dog on his head, he had red triangle marks on his cheeks, and had a look in his eyes that made Kimimaro feel like he was about to get a knee in the face. Compared to him, the girl was a much more pleasant type of strange.

If only that would make her actions easier to interpret. He was pretty sure that she had been watching him the day before last, or at least he was pretty sure now. Come to think of it, this was probably one of those times that his “newfound friendliness” was supposed to come into play. He cleared his throat.

`Good morning.' There was a faint noise of surprise from behind the tree, and a face flushed with embarrassment came partially into view.
`G-good…morning' she replied in a tiny voice sheepishly.
`You don't have to stand all the way over there.' Contrary to his expectations, this did not encourage her to leave the safety of the tree. She even moved -very slightly- further behind the tree. He decided to go over to her instead.

When she realised he was moving towards he, she shrank further out of view, but she was too nervous to get her legs to edge around the other side of the tree, so he managed to come almost-face-to-face with the shorter girl. This was where he was really on shaky ground.

`We haven't been introduced yet' he said in a tone of voice that made it hard to tell if it was a statement or a question. `Kimimaro Kaguya. Nice to meet you' he said, bowing politely.
`E-eto, Hyuuga Hi-inata. Nice to meet you too!' she squeaked and bowed violently enough to almost unbalance her.
`Hiinata?' Kimimaro asked, not sure if he had heard her correctly through the stuttering. Hinata shook her head meekly. `Hinata?' She nodded at this. `Are you interested in Taijutsu?'

 

-----

 

Some days you could just walk down the street, minding your own business, when suddenly; …nothing happens. But it happens suddenly.

Unfortunately, Kimimaro did not have one of those days. Where had it started again? Going out for breakfast with Sakura and then bumping into Ino who subsequently dragged him all over the village and introduced to a number of people. She had also invested quite a bit of his time in deciding where he should wear his forehead protector.

He had thought the forehead was an ideal place to wear it, but apparently it didn't suit him. “It was a shame to cover up his face” according to Ino. She had then decided to help him figure out where it looked best. The neck had failed both the “casual glance” and “careful inspection” tests (“a look out of the corner of the eye” and “stare-at for five seconds” respectively), and the upper arm had been rejected on similar grounds. Ino was pushing to have him wear it around his waist (possibly so that they would have one thing in common), but that reminded Kimimaro of Rock Lee too much, so that was rejected as well. Ino had slung it over his shoulder out of sheer disappointment, which gave Sakura an idea. Since then he had been wearing it as a sash. “It works” Ino had to admit.

And then he had actually had a chance to introduce himself to the girl he sometimes saw training. She was quiet and polite, so she was easy to get along with, and he had somehow ended up giving her some advice- he wasn't sure what it was advice of anymore, but he counted that as a great success on the road to acceptance. His circle of friends was growing, at the very least.

And then he had visited the Hokage's office to report Sakura's strange behaviour of the previous day. Come to think of it, Sakura was leaving when he arrived, but then she was learning medical jutsu from the Hokage (and giving regular reports about Kimimaro, of course). Tsunade had been interested by what he told her, and she considered it to be a useful piece of information, thus successfully concluding his first mission.

And lastly, Sakura had dropped by a while ago, and filled his cupboards and new fridge with groceries. Now, still not being certain he was interpreting the gesture properly, he assumed it was a gift of some sort as congratulations for officially becoming a Konoha shinobi. After a short conversation it became apparent that it was also partly a “sorry-for-losing-my-temper-and-taking-it-out-on-you” gift. But how was he supposed to know that? He'd never gotten one of those before, so it was still a victory as far as he was concerned, and he was indeed beginning to understand people better. Either that or it was beginner's luck… He was getting too excited over this…

He was shaken from his overstimulated thoughts by a knock at the door. He had almost left his bedroom before he even realised that it was odd to have someone come by after Sakura had left. It was good that he was settling into life here, but it was still strange for him to have any visitors apart from Sakura. So, logically, she had probably left something here by mistake and had come back to get it.

He was about to be extremely surprised.

 

-----

 

`…'
`…'
`…'

`Do you think he actually wants to stay here, after all?' Some surprised rustling, a thump and a nearly-silent curse seemed like an insufficient response, so the ANBU member who had sat up too fast decided to properly answer the question.

`I still don't trust it- he changed all of a sudden-'

`Not really, he's been changing a little ever since he left the hospital…' a yawn escaped from behind the mask `…maybe the situation finally sank in?'

`You do remember who you're talking about, don't you?'

`Mnmkeh nno s t theh dehr' a third ANBU interrupted pointedly.
`…'
`…What?'

`Pfff! -Pd mahsk. Pffff! Yamanaka Ino is at the door.' There was a sudden surge of activity, punctuated by a large amount of foliage shifting.

`Are you sure?'

`Pfff! Yes.'

`What's the plan?'

`…Haaah' the second ANBU said dejectedly and sat back against the tree trunk. `We don't have a reason to interfere, so just keep watching until something happens… If something happens, that is.'

`So you're not sure!'

`Oh shut up, I have a headache. Why did we get stuck with surveillance this week?'

`Pfff! You lost ah -pfff- at poker.'

`Oh yeah…'