The Mask

Single chapter

"No, it's fine." Yamanaka smiled, but that smile was colder than ice. "Don't waste your time here. You must be bored, right?"

"Well..." Uzumaki completely didn't know what to say.

The silence was too uncomfortable to bear.

"I think we better go," Shikadai said and walked away. Soon he way followed by the others apart from Araya, who was staring at the blond.

"What are you looking at, you creep?!" He glared at him, making him nervous. 

"I-I... I don't," he stuttered, but fortunatelu he was saved by Inojin's mother, who stepped outside.

"Inojin! Why is it taking you so long?" she yelled at him. "What does that mean? What happened?" She poined to the broken crates and the scattered earth with flowers.

"It slipped out of my hands," he explained, looking in the other direction. "Sorry."Ino sighed and shook his head.

"I-It's my fault! I bumped into him. I didn't notice him," Araya spoke and bowed himself. "I'm sorry."

"My, my... I guess it won't draw people's attention." She chuckled, but when she noticed that miserable look upon her son's face she stopped. "Nothing's wrong, honey. I'm not mad. Just clean it up, and get the new ones." She smiled at him.

"Yeah," he mumbled in a response.

"I can help you," the masked boy offered.

"Wonderful," Ino replied, since she knew Inojin wouldn't accept that. "You are from the Sand Village, right?" she asked, while the blonde boy was cleaning up. "Good. Inojin will show you our village." The woman smirked at her child, as she heard his sigh. She looked at him. "You heard me. You are free now, but don't forget to bring the flowers here when you finish your small sight-seeing." Ino waved them with a pure smile.

"That woman..." Inojin was embarrassed by his mother's behaviour.

"Your mom is nice," Araya stated. 

"You don't know her. She's evil," he replied and put his hand inside the pockets of his hoodie. He was wearing it whenever he worked at their flower shop instead of his mission clothing. "I'm not going to babysit you."

"You don't have to," he hissed.

They both were standing in a silent, not knowing what to do. How could they talk to each other in a situation like that?

"Well... Do you want to eat someting?" Inojin looked at the other from the corner of his eye.

"Y-yeah..."

It's always nice to share a meal with someone else. It's not like Inojin wanted to spend some time with Araya. Not at all.. At least he would not admit that the was interested in that boy. No, he was not in love with him or attracted to him. He didn't even like him. His character just intrigued him and he wanted to get to know him better. Perhaps the fact that he felt lonely had something to do with that.

"So what are you doing here?" Inojin asked, staring at the other one while sipping a fizzy drink. "I guess you are on a mission, but what's your goal?"

"We were just checking the areas, but then we got a message from Kazekage that a man, who is suspected of robbery, was somewhere around us. We captured him and we handed it over to the authorities of The Leaf. Taking the advantage of the opportunity our teacher wanted to visit his sister," he explained tapping his fingers nervously on the table.

"I see..." He looked at his hands. "Why are you nervous?" The blonde rested his chin on his hand.

 "I'm not," he denied, making the other on lift his eyebrow.