SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE (Naruto)

Chapter 18: Stress

It had been three days since his encounter with Danzo and Imori had yet to leave his brother's side. The boys were inseparable. Despite claims that Kuma would be okay to go pick up groceries by himself, he allowed Imori to accompany him wherever he went.

"What about your friend - Sakura, right? You need to make time to go see her. I'll be fine." Kuma reassured his brother. He groaned when a glare was sent his way, leaving him backpedaling. Clearly Imori wasn't keen on any kind of separation just yet. "I promise that I'll try to be safe when you're out. Heck, I'll go visit Shikamaru since he's not busy and expecting me. Come on, you know I'll be fine with his family."

He could see the hesitation in Imori's body language. All laughter and happiness had been sucked out of him since being punished for Kuma inviting Team Ten back to their apartment.

The elder boy regretted the invitation as soon as he realised how much danger it put his brother in, and how much Imori was willing to put Kuma's safety above his own. Never once, did Imori complain about the pain inflicted within the grey building.

He didn't mention that he struggled to walk for days after and every time he closed his eyes, his lungs filled with cigarette smoke and the touch of rough hands all over his body left him violently aghast. He didn't want to talk about it, knowing fully well Kuma had experienced it before and Imori had no intentions of dragging him to a dark place.

The blue haired boy sighed, nodding. He grabbed extra weapons and hid them away on his person. Tugging on the long sleeves of his grey shirt, stretching them to the knuckles as he had done for the last few days.

His grey shirt with a horizontal blue stripe along the centre, hung loosely and Kuma made a mental note to try encourage Imori to start eating again. He had been off his food and Kuma didn't blame him. He too had been that way the first few times it happened to him.

Kuma clipped on his weapons pouch and followed Imori out the door, locking it we they went. They passed the brunet boy who was leaning against the rail on the staircase, his beady eyes raking over Imori's figure in a sickening fashion.

"So, I heard that you're Taegu's latest bitch." The boy remarked with a predatory grin. "Congratulations, Imori. Although, it was really bound to happen at any time, since you killed Inoshishi and Kaeru. They were his favourites after all."

"You've failed enough missions over the years to know all about being Taegu's bitch. Wouldn't you?" Imori asked, with a flat tone. He didn't have the patience to deal with the asshole on a normal day. This was no different.

The crude remarks had been thrown around for days and until someone else suffered the same fate, they would continue to taunt Imori. It was cruel to wish it upon another, but when it becomes a regular occurrence, it was bound to happen sooner rather then later.

The brunet didn't respond as the brothers left the apartments and headed in the direction of the Nara clan residents, Kuma explaining that Shikamaru had today off after training for the Chunin exams that was going to take place in a few days. Imori didn't ask how he knew that information and just followed him silently as they passed the Konoha Police Department.

Shikamaru apparently knew Kuma was coming over, as he leaned against the wall outside of the compound. His arms were loosely crossed over his chest, left foot propped up flat against the building as the brothers came into view.