Shinobi Isekai!

Allies

"Tell me."

She quirked a straight dark brow at him, making her feelings about that order perfectly clear. She still obeyed it though, so he dismissed the rebuttal he had planned to squash any further resistance.

"Pros of not knowing," she began, clearly still trying to convince him not to pursue the issue as her voice took on that annoying quality it had when she thought she knew best. "Include, but are not limited to: living a normal child's life, not committing treason, and plausible deniability for when I commit treason."

She paused. Ah, so she thought he would react to that. He smiled and waved a hand. "Go on. What are the cons?"

Her brows furrowed and he just knew her face scrunched under her mask. She was obviously not happy that he wanted her to continue. Too bad. "Cons of not knowing include, but are not limited to: not being included in my decision making, dealing with the consequences of my decisions, and probably hating me in the process."

He looked long and hard at his friend, a look she returned with equal aplomb. "So, you're basically saying that you're going to do something—something potentially treasonous—and you're going to do it with or without my help." He shook his head with a sigh of his own. "Well, now you have to tell me."

"I haven't listed the pros and cons of knowing, yet."

He glared at her. "Oh, please. I'm not gonna let you go off and become an enemy of the state all on your own."

"It'll be a lot of work." He was tempted to take offense, but her serious expression told him she wasn't making a 'lazy' joke. "It'll be so much work, Shikamaru, and we'll be all alone for most of it."

He shrugged. "Better alone together than alone by yourself."

That was the thing that got to her. She slumped, the tension visibly leaving her as she looked at Momiji. The dog had sat quietly through the entire exchange, solidifying Shikamaru's theory that she knew what her human was talking about.

"I will keep watch," the summons said. "If someone comes, I will interrupt the genjutsu."

Hanako nodded sadly. "Thank you, 'Miji."

She turned back to Shikamaru then, eyes closed as she took in a deep breath, likely to calm her nerves. When she opened them, all his theories fell by the wayside as he stared into a red sharingan, two tomoe spinning in her iris. He'd seen Sasuke's, as well as pictures in textbooks during his academy days, but looking straight into one was an entirely different experience.

"This is a secret," Hanako was saying, voice trembling just enough for him to notice. "I know it doesn't look like it, at first, but it's a sharingan. Including you, there are only eight people in the village who know about it. I know keeping it a secret doesn't make sense yet, but it will after you see. I promise."

"It looks like a normal sharingan, to me," was the first thing out of his mouth, his thoughts spilling unfiltered from his mouth in exactly the way his father warned they might be when caught off gaurd. The way her eyes widened told him she wasn't expecting this and he took the moment presented by Momiji confirming that, yes, they were red, to regain control of himself. Her face crumpled, her hand reaching over to grasp at her left elbow.

"I see." Her voice was little more than a whisper and Shikamaru felt the first bits of panic set in as tears welled up in her eyes. "So that's what he meant about the color."

He didn't understand what was going on, at all, but he wasn't so invested in figuring it out that he'd ignore her obvious distress. Chouji was always getting on his case for trampling people's feelings in his pursuit of answers.