[17] Haru can be really sassy when annoyed he becomes like [BBC's] Merlin. But he rarely burst or break things when he's seriously upset.
I laughed way too hard at the armoured cat and the guy's facial expression!
No one's POV
"The Land of Purple is far away than the Land of Waves so if everything goes smoothly we'll arrive there five days from now." Kakashi explained while looking at the map. "Land of Purple? Isn't that where knights exist? I read somewhere that they still do executions and has a King for a leader. And the name behind it was because the colour represents royalty, nobility and wealth." Sakura remembered something Iruka taught at the academy. She has always been a brilliant student and the knowledge learnt was becoming very useful for her and the others.
"Good job Sakura. Yes, everything you said is true. Knights, armours, jousting, swords and horses. All of that exist in the country. It's a pretty charming place if I may say so." The sensei praised his pink haired student who got curious about the last sentence." You've been there before, Kakashi-sensei?" Said person gave his pupil a closed eye smiled before responding.
"Yes, it was a mission that I did before having a team. On second thought you still haven't introduced yourself officially to them Haru." Hatake reminded the icy blue eyed boy. His eyebrows flew up before uttering "Ah, right. I'm Nagachika Haru. No need to introduce yourselves Haruno-san, Uchiha-san Shion already told me your names."
The two looked at their pink ombre haired teammate only to receive a shrug in response. "I believe we haven't introduced ourselves either." The chocolate cherry haired boy directed his gaze to their smiling costumer who had her hand out. "I'm Unobore Momiji. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Since the girl grew up where people kissed the back of the hand for greetings and Haru in very a different way, so instead of doing the proper gesture, he held her hand and gave her a handshake while slightly simpering. "Nice to meet you too." The girl was left speechless at his action, but just smiled at his adorableness.
Sakura, Shion, Sasuke and Kakashi were watching the introduction and were left astonished for a while that they stopped walking incredulously looking at the boy. Haruno then broke their shock-like state with a giggle. The silver haired jonin coughed trying to suppress his laugh while the other two silently chuckled under their breathe.
"Sometimes I wonder how he became a shinobi." Myoui said while shaking her head with a small smile. "Passed by default?" The onyx eyed boy joked. "Yeah, that's probably how it happened." They snickered silently again before being interrupted by a slightly demanding and high pitched voice.
"What about you, what's your name?" Momiji uttered staring jealously at the pink ombre haired kunoichi who raised her eyebrow and frowned. She caught Sasuke's eyes before a corner of her lips went up. "There's no need for me to present myself. You'll eventually know soon." Shion replied cheekily while continuing to walk side by side with a smirking Uchiha. When they were in a safe distance, she furrowed her brows "She's faking it."
Confused, Sasuke looked at her and arched a brow. "What do you mean?" He asked making the girl gaze at him. "She's not showing her real personality. I might be wrong about my assumptions, but I think she's faking her friendliness toward us." The black haired boy knitted his brows before glancing towards the too colorful dressed girl who was trying to get to know the uncomfortable brunette better by talking too much.
Haru caught Uchiha's eyes and gestured with them Shion. 'Please get the memo. Get her attention for me!' He thought while forcing a small smile at Momiji who had now her arms wrapped around one of his.
"I think your friend needs help." Sasuke whispered to Shion who looked behind her and stopped herself from eye rolling at the sight. "I knew it was a bad idea to bring him with us. Haru, come over here for a second. I need to tell you something." With that said, Nagachika's face lit up proceeding to politely peel himself off the clingy costumer and jog towards the pink ombre haired girl. 'Ugh, she ruined everything! That insolent brat!' Momiji exclaimed in her head while staring at the people in front of her. She was having the time of her life talking with the person she liked, but the girl had to butt in and steal her -or so she thought- soon to be lover.
"Thanks Shion. Finally I can breathe." Haru put a hand on his chest and sighed gratefully. "Well, seems like someone fancies you." She glanced at the tall male beside her who was about to say something, but paused and blocked a dagger with two fingers that was directed at his face. "It's an ambush. Unobore-san you have to stay close to Haru. He'll protect you. And you might want to close your eyes." Said girl ran besides the chocolate cherry color haired shinobi, clinging onto his once again.
"Guys, they seem to not have any knowledge about jutsus, this is not a fight like the last one but you still have to be careful. Their weapons might be coated with poison." Kakashi warned at the three while glancing at the numerous armed men in front of them.
The first one to engage in battle was Shion who threw a kunai with a string at a bulky man's forehead, instantly killing him. She tugged it back and leapt in the air avoiding a possible slash in the stomach by a colleague of the man she just killed.
She didn't want a slash on her stomach thank you very much. Kakashi already did the damage and that was more than enough for her. Sasuke then joined her and started to run towards a person who growled before raising both his arms to strike the genin with his chisa-katana only to be strike by Sasuke's kunai straight in the middle of his neck and forehead.
He tried to gasp before his eyes rolled back into his head and fell on the ground lifeless with blood pooling under him, the diameter of the imperfect circle steadily increasing.
Suddenly Sasuke stopped moving and closed his eyes. He felt a person running towards him and when he was about to strike, the black haired boy snapped his eyes open to reveal the Uchiha clan's dojutsu; the Sharingan with two tomoe.
He continued with attacking the opponents with the eye technique making it easier for him to charge towards them.
Shion saw a man creeping behind Sakura and threw a kunai towards him instantly killing him while dodging a shuriken performing a cartwheel backwards and landing on her feet.
She sighed and reached for her sword which was given by Zabuza and went into a 'ready' position, said object held in front of her with both hands, and perpendicular to the ground. She was no master at kenjutsu, but she was not an amateur either and was a decent fighter with the weapon giving the credits to Zabuza who was a pretty acceptable teacher.
She instantly blocked a blow that would have slashed her head in two placing her sword above her head and threw off the balance of the overweight bald man by kicking him in the stomach.
He stumbled a few steps behind and Shion took this opportunity to strike and pierced her sword through his stomach twisting it and then swiftly removing it from the man's gut.
She got distracted while looking at her teammates and sensei not sensing that the man laying on the ground beside her raised his machete and injured her on her upper left arm.
She jumped before turning around and slashing thief's chest. The pink ombre haired girl clenched her teeth and grunt at the injury inflicted before making a decision.
She was really getting tired about the men who were like an army of ants, giving the illusion to never decrease so she put her sword back before throwing a shuriken to a man who was going to attack her and ran to where there were as many ambushers as possible and performed a jutsu.
"Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura retreat!" The three snapped their head towards her and without a second thought they jumped behind her. "Doton: Yomi Numa." Shion's eyes narrowed at the attackers and suddenly the ground beneath them transformed into chakra-infused sticky mud where they would sink into.
The aggressors who were trapped desperately tried to escape yet their efforts were useless. Until they succumb fully under the mud, the pearl aqua eyed kunoichi hardly stared at them wiping any emotions on her face; a stoic façade was what she wanted them to see as they scream for help.
The few who weren't involved in the torturous jutsu watched their colleague get engulfed into the mud with fear in their wide eyes. One dropped his weapon while taking shaky steps backwards before sprinting, the terror not leaving his mind. The others copied his example and ran for their lives.
They didn't care where were they running, where their feet were bringing them, they didn't care about their destination at all, they just wanted to get away as far as possible from the place where their comrades' submerged bodies were.
They returned to where Haru and Momiji were last seen and the scene in front of them was the epitome of ridiculous. The girl, sitting on the ground was crying as if it was the end of the world because of a small injury on the knee while the chocolate cherry haired boy had this 'weird and confused' look in his face.
"I'm bleeding everywhere!" She whined while lightly touching the surrounding of her knee. "What?" The ANBU couldn't believe such people exist. It was just a small scratch when she tripped on her own dress and she made it look as if she had a critical wound.
"You scraped your knee, you didn't get stabbed. You're fine." Upon hearing the voice, Haru looked towards the source and immediately sprint towards Shion leaving an astonished and angered Momiji. The pink ombre haired girl was clenching her jaw and pressing her hand to the slightly deep cut made by the now-dead assaulter to try and stem the bleeding.
"Shion!" Nagachika exclaimed, he gazed at her bloody left arm and his eyes went wide before narrowing dangerously like how it did at Ichiraku. Only this time, Sasuke and Sakura were the one to freeze. They never saw anyone, not even Shion, with that look; a look that says he wasn't afraid to kill anything in his path.
This made Sakura gulp and Sasuke to release an almost shaky breathe before Kakashi placed a hand on their shoulder. "Don't worry, Shion's going to handle him." He reassured his students. He knew that look and what the afterward actions were when they were in the same ANBU team as a substitute for Asahi who was still recovering back then. He only saw it once, but that moment was still vivid in his mind.
The way Haru tortured the person responsible for his teammate's near death experience was surely the first time Kakashi ever felt fear in a person younger than him.
"I'm alright. Its just a little cut." Myoui uttered, not being able to convince the boy even the slightest. While retorting, The icy blue eyed shinobi pulled out a towel from his bag and damped it with water to clean the blood. "That's a lot of blood for a little cut. Who did this to you?" The girl was about to take said object, but Haru shoo-ed her hand away. Sighing and having no energy to initiate a banter, she replied nonchalantly "One of the men who ambushed us."
The grip on the towel tightened as the shinobi asked another question. "And where is he?" "Hell, most likely." Nagachika's action briefly stopped before continuing while suppressing a chuckle.
"Hey, what about me? I'm injured too!" Momiji angrily exclaimed standing up and patting he backside to get rid of the dust. She stomped her way towards the group and crossed her arms "You're supposed to protect me, yet you let me get an injury. What kind of bodyguards are you!? And Haru-kun, you should be treating me not her. Just leave her there to fix her own injury alone!" Shion's eyes widened and flinched upon hearing the last sentence and the chocolate cherry haired boy stopped all his movements.
Only the Almighty knew what happened to the people who Haru taught lessons for trying to pickpocket her, subtly harass her on the street [you know, when some pervert the you don't even know touch you] or flirt with her.
Her eyes darted from side to side not knowing what to do to calm his rising anger. "H-Haru, it's all fine. Calm down. Remember, she's the one we have to protect." Sakura, Sasuke and even Kakashi were baffled when they heard their comrade stutter for the first time. "Did... she j-just.." The pink haired girl incredulously asked and unfinished question. "Yeah.." Hatake, feeling the same sentiment replied while gulping. Haru really was terrifying.
Ignoring the look from the three, Shion put her hand on his shoulder and slightly squeezed it calming him down a little, but the anger didn't leave him. Nagachika sighed while performing the healing jutsu to make the cut smaller and wrapped it with the bandage he fetch inside his bag. "Unobore Momiji, you have no authority to insult us. If we were such terrible bodyguards, you would've been kidnapped by now, or worse, killed. And Nagachika has all the power to aid our injured comrade.
From what I've seen, you were the one who inflicted that injury of yours whilst Shion got it from another person. Now as you said, you should be treating you own injury with the assistance of no one." Sasuke said startling everyone since he never defended anyone before. But since the talk with Shion from the LoW mission, he was slowly becoming more open with people and more protective of the girl.
He turned around and continued to walk away from the group, the feeling of their eyes burning holes on his back was somewhat creepy but tolerable. "Then let's get going. The sooner we arrive, the better." Kakashi cheered following his student.
"Well, you weren't lying about being a pro at packing part. Now let's see if you can handle not losing them." Myoui said slightly smirking at the boy who smiled and crossed his arms. "I won't. I always know where to find my things, you know that."
"I really don't believe you since last week you were about to misplace the gifts you got for your teammates. And the day before you forgot were the book you were reading was, and then that time you lost your report papers and turned the apartment upside down. Three days ago you lost the kunai Asahi gave to you for your birthday and a day after that you-" Haru, seeing Sakura stare at the pink ombre haired girl's listing about his Bermuda Triangle-like life, panicked and shut her up like how he did before in the office putting his hand over her mouth and swinging an arm over her shoulders, laughing awkwardly.
"Now, now. Let's not go personal there. Haruno-san is listening." The icy blue eyed boy said, whispering the last part but it was still heard by the pink haired kunoichi. "Oh no, please Nagachika-san. Sakura is fine by me. And I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I'm sorry." She said watching him nod before the two of them perceived a dark aura near them.
"The third time you put your hand over my mouth, Haru, I'm going to chop it off. Understand?" With that said he immediately took it off and his movements became rigid like a robot, sweating. While the other kunoichi gripped the shoulder straps of her backpack gulping. 'Not as terrifying as Haru-san, but still terrifying.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's getting late, we should camp here for the night. We'll take turns to guard the area. Shion and Sakura will collect firewood while we Haru and I will survey the territory to be more secure. Sasuke, you guard her here." Because of the costumer's constant whining about her feet hurting, they were forced to camp somewhere.
The Uchiha sighed and sat on a rock while intertwining his fingers. Momiji on the other hand huffed and crossed her arms looking at the boy she wanted to be the chocolate cherry haired male. Breaking the uncomfortable silence in the worse way possible, she started to talk about the Uchiha Clan.
"I heard about your clan. They said to be one of the most powerful in Konoha, but then there was a massacre and you're the only survivor, am I right?" Unobore uttered not receiving any kind of reaction from the onyx eyed boy. She bit her lip and frowned angrily.
No one had ever treated her like this and he was seriously getting on her nerves because of his attitude. After some time they heard approaching and Sasuke sighed gratefully. He couldn't handle being alone with the light caramel haired girl anymore and her prying in his personal life just made him dislike her more.
"You all got your sleeping bags, right? Since we're taking turns to guard the surrounding, after dinner you should do the first round together." The two nodded while Shion and Sakura put down the wood they gathered for the fire.
Minutes after, Hatake and Nagachika returned to them and already felt the gust of uncomfortable wind smacking at their faces. They sweat dropped and sighed shaking their heads, but they couldn't argue with the two genin and the pink ombre haired kunoichi. "Sasuke and Sakura are going first with the patronage, after them I'll go. You both decide whose turn it will be after mine." Myoui suddenly spoke up while searching for something inside her bag. She frowned and exhaled slightly frustrated not noticing Haru approaching and crouching beside her brushing off the glare Momiji was giving to the kunoichi.
"What are you looking for?" He asked tilting his head to have a better view of her face. "You saw me put my reading glasses in the bag, right?" "Yeah. I was the one who gave them to you before you put them in. You can't find them?" Shion nodded deciding to take everything out of the bag. "Here let me help." The brunette offered placing the bag between them. Upon arriving at the bottom of the bag, the pink ombre haired girl got confused as to why she had one of Haru's hoodies. "
Why is this in here?" "What is my hoodie doing inside of your bag?" That question made the other four people raise the curiousness about what the two were doing and decided to secretly eaves drop. She then found another of the boy's clothing and sighed. "Pass me your bag." "Huh? Uh, here you go." Nagachika gave her his and watched as she opened it and find her clothes and things inside. "As I thought. We unintentionally exchanged backpacks. And here it is." She found her reading glasses and instantly put it on before reordering Haru's clothes and things inside the bag.
"So if the keys got lost it would be your fault-" The chocolate cherry haired boy suddenly beamed but was interrupted by the kunoichi. "No, it would still be your fault. You put them in your pocket." Shion then remembered something and immediately asked Haru "You locked the apartment door, right?" "Of course I di-... I don't recall." He inhaled an amount of air with a deep frown in his face while trying to recollect the memory.
"Haru" The kunoichi said with a warning voice furrowing her brows. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! I did! I did! I locked the apartment door! Yes, now I remember!" Still the pink ombre haired kunoichi looked at him pointedly "Are you sure?" She questioned again not wanting their home to be robbed.
"You're making me doubt my memory now." The chocolate cherry haired boy flatly stated after some moments which gain a facepalm from the latter. "We're gonna find out when we return home. Apart from the raided fridge, I hope nothing is out of place."
"I seriously doubt that Naruto would touch any of our personal things at home. And if it's not locked, he could do it since he has the spare keys or maybe he's already done it." Haru picked his bag and placing it behind him.
"You're forgetting the fact that he has a fever and won't be able to step outside Teuchi-san's house for two days minimum. If we get robbed, you know what to do." Nagachika sweat dropped and nodded. 'Shoot, I seriously hope I locked the door. I don't want to sleep outside anymore. Asahi's father snore as if it was the end of the world!'
"Wait, does that mean that... they live together?" Sakura asked no one in particular surprised at the newly acquired information. Kakashi shrugged his shoulders returning to read his obsession; Make out Paradise. 'They're too oblivious to do things so I'm not worried. And they're responsible.' He nonchalantly thought flipping the page.
Sasuke though, frowned and secretly glanced at the two, but his train of thoughts suddenly stopped when he saw Shion with glasses. He quickly looked away when their eyes met and faked a cough before sitting on the bottom of a tree with crossed arms and closed eyes.
The pink ombre haired girl followed the black haired boy with her pearl aqua hues before deciding to talk to him. "I'm going to take a look again if there are no enemies or ambushers nearby." Haru gained everybody's attention after standing up while putting his hands on his pocket and walking towards the northern part of the woods.
Myoui opened her mouth but was preceded with him predicting her words "Yes, I'll be careful Shion." Slightly flustered, she retorted quickly "I wasn't going to say anything." "Suure, you weren't." The girl rolled her eyes. "Just go." Haru chuckled waving with his back to the group.
After he passed the onyx eyed boy with whom he made eye contact, he leapt from branch to branch and disappearing after a second. "Sasuke. Is it alright if I talk with you for a moment?" Said boy glanced up and found the kunoichi in front of him, still with her glasses on.
He rapidly looked at his right before nodding and standing up. "It's about your Sharingan. When did you get it?" The Uchiha responded frankly. "When we were in the Land of Waves. After you got..." He couldn't finish and Shion didn't push him to say anything anymore. "How is the Sharingan when you're using it?"
"It's alright I guess. But I had to get the hang of it for some time." The pink ombre haired girl nodded in comprehension. "He would be proud." She put a hand on his shoulder and patted it before walking to her previous place.
"Ne, Shion-san." Haruno approached her after the small talk with the Uchiha. "Hm, what is it Sakura?" The genin squirmed under her comrade's gaze through her glasses and slightly regret her actions but she continued nonetheless. "I wanted to ask something... Do you and Haru-san really live together?" Myoui nodded and patted the ground beside her offering the pink haired girl to sit beside her.
"Yes, we do live together since it was too bothersome for me to find a place to live in Konoha when I came there. Why do you ask?" Sakura started to mess with her fingers as a sign of her nervousness and replied "Well, I actually eavesdropped before when you two were talking and because I got curious. I'm sorry-" "It's alright. We weren't talking about personal stuff so you don't need to apologise." Shion cut the genin's apology reassuring her. The latter smiled before hugging her knees staring at the fire.
"What do you do together most of the time?" The genin asked curiously and wanting to know her teammate better. "Hm.. We don't often see each other at home because of missions, but when we have day offs at the same days we train or spend time together. Although I don't know where he gets all his energy. I practically am a zombie after missions and training." Myoui stated jokingly making the pink haired girl giggle.
"You're really good friends with Haru-san." Sakura said turning her head to the pearl aqua eyed girl. "Yeah, but you can say we're more than good friends." The genin's eyes widened interpreting her comrade's words in another way. 'We're each other's family.' is what Shion would've said but was interrupted by a loud noise making her and Haruno's head towards the source of the sound. "Sasuke-kun...?"
Said boy walk towards Momiji who had her arms crossed and a smug look on her face; she finally broke the male by uttering something stupid. He then enabled his Sharingan which made the light caramel color haired girl slightly flinch and take a step backwards.
Before the dojutsu user harm her, Kakashi intervened by putting a hand on shoulder. "Don't you dare insult my clan ever again. I don't care if you're the one we have to protect, if you say another thing about my family, I'll be the one responsible for your death." He menacingly threatened the girl and harshly took his teacher's hand on his shoulder.
The costumer gulped afraid but still didn't back down. "Huh, so the only survivor wants to become a murderer? You really want to shame your clan by killing me, an innocent person who didn't do anything wrong?" She mocked while smirking to hide her fear hearing her own racing heartbeat. "You and innocent in the same phrase? I don't think so."
His response took everyone in surprise, but Sakura. She admired the black haired boy and couldn't stand seeing and hearing the argument anymore. She thought about what she said to Sasuke about Naruto when they were in the academy and frowned.
'I was equally as rude as her with Naruto. No wonder Sasuke called me annoying. He feels the same way. They both don't have a family to return to and only have themselves.' "Sasuke, a word." Shion said after standing up. The Uchiha looked at the approaching girl before undoing his Sharingan and following her after uttering the infamous "Hn." line.
"You shouldn't have said that." Haruno spoke up gaining a raised eyebrow from their pompous and arrogant costumer. "And why shouldn't I have? I have all the authority to speak my mind and-"
"But that doesn't mean that you had to insult his deceased clan members. You don't know half of what he'd been through and you never will. You obviously have the perfect life and don't care about other people since everything is given to you in a silver plate from the day you were born. I don't care if you're a costumer, nor if you're a daughter of a noble man or whatever, you must respect people's family whether you know them or not because you could have had their life.
And seeing and hearing someone insulting your family in front of you isn't very pleasurable, now is it? I wouldn't even be marveled if you said otherwise. With an attitude such as yours, I wouldn't be surprised if you wouldn't lift a finger to save your family to save yourself instead." Sakura snapped at Momiji crossing her arms.
The latter got angry very fast at the moment her family was mentioned. "You don't know anything about my family!!" "And you didn't know anything about Sasuke's, but you still judged. People like you are disgusting."
Little did they know, the two were only behind a tree listening to Sakura defending the black haired boy's clan members. Shion smirked. "Now that is girlfriend material." "What?" Still astonished about the pink haired genin's speech, he thought he heard wrong. "I said let's hurry and head back."
And with that, they walked towards the campsite. "Hey, what's with the tension?" Haru then came out of nowhere and spoke up making the two genin and their costumer to jump out of their skin. "Found anyone?" Shion asked while reading a scroll about earth style techniques. "No, seems like no one's around. What's that scroll about?" He sat beside the pink ombre haired girl and read a few words before quickly shutting his eyes. "Nope! Nope, don't read. Don't. Read."
He gained a confused stare but was replaced with a blank look after the latter realised the reason behind his action. "Yeah, you should eat dinner before falling asleep." Myoui stated before returning to her reading.
A few moments passed after and Haru found something unusual. "Hey, why is she not... attacking me?" He whispered to the kunoichi who looked at Momiji's direction finding her silently sitting there with a frown. "Why? Do you like the attention she gives to you? Go ahead and talk to her then."
The ANBU was caught off guard and quickly shook his head. "No, no! It's not that! And I don't like the attention she gives me. I honestly find it a bit troublesome and she's way too talkative for my liking and she's not my type either." He explained thoroughly with extra details no one asked.
Shion, being the unbothered queen she is, just continued memorizing the technique she would need in the near future. "What kind of person is your type then?" She asked making the conversation continue. She wasn't in the mood to be surrounded with awkward silence for the third time at the same day.
"Well, I don't know. Maybe someone who is real and honest. Someone who is determined and would know the time to joke and to be serious. Someone who calm and collected most of the time and when needed to be. Someone who is..." His eyes trailed towards the pink ombre haired kunoichi. 'you..' His eyes widened before shaking his head to make the thought disappear.
He was just a bodyguard and from a long time the only Nagachika family who could marry the royal branch of the Myoui clan was the Main Nagachika branch. And since he was just from a normal family of the clan, he couldn't in any way like her in that way.
The rules wouldn't allow it.
"Someone who is what?" Shion caught the chocolate cherry color haired boy's eyes. "Uh-- erm.. someone who is... uh- good at cooking too! I wouldn't survive without homemade food. You've spoilt me too much with your culinary abilities." This made the pink ombre haired girl chuckle and save him from the embarrassment.
"Kids, it's dinner time." Kakashi then called them while distributing some kind of hot porridge. "Do you think it's safe to eat what he cooked?" The kunoichi questioned the boy beside him who had now blue lines in the corner of his face. "I don't think so." They took the two bowls in Kakashi's hand and thanked him before smelling it and grabbing the spoon. Some fell in the bowl again making a 'plop' sound.
"Is this edible?" Sakura smelled the 'soup' before shaking her head towards her comrade when the jonin had his back at them and they all skillfully threw the type of chowder behind them before thanking the silver headed male and hurriedly walking away.