A/N: I keep forgetting to mention this… for those of you who have read Crimson Thread… or are reading it right now… or, perhaps, are planning on reading it, I really hope you guys vote for it in the Naruto Watty Awards! Just go to NarutoWattyAwards’s account (she’s the third last person I fanned) and vote! Although, voting opens on the fifth of November, I think… so please vote! It will really mean the world to me! :”>
I'm gonna give you guys that info-dump about Setsuko's race in the next chapter. Since it's Rin and her mission seems to make the info-dump seem more fitting. :)
Village Delicacies
It was already nightfall by the Kakashi and Setsuko had covered half of the entire village. Kakashi was quite quick on his feet while he toured Setsuko, even keeping up his usual cool persona as he kept his strides even. Setsuko marveled at how effortless Kakashi looked when it came to walking in measured steps. She didn’t know whether or not he was doing it on purpose, but it was amazing either way.
“You’ll be staying with Minato-sensei… just remember that he won’t hurt you. He’s a good man,” Kakashi stated, his face as composed as ever. Although Setsuko hardly showed it, her feet were dead tired and her legs felt like jelly—as if they would melt right on the spot. She didn’t want to complain about it though; it wouldn’t be courteous if she did.
They stood right in front of the Namikaze residence, where the two had originally come from before the little tour.
“Minato-sensei isn’t there yet… but Kushina-san most probably finished making supper. Eat a lot and rest well.”
Setsuko lowered her head, timidly chewing on her lip. “Uh… th-thank you, Ha-Hatake-san.” He definitely noticed she was tired.
Kakashi had half a mind to pat the girl’s head, but he figure he would save it for another time, when she Setsuko would open up to them. Perhaps even get over a number of her fears—he’d discovered quite a few of them in just a few hours.
“I-I have a question, Hatake…san.”
“Hm… what is it?”
“Um… I was wondering… if…” all of a sudden, Setsuko trailed off, gradually turning much more diffident than she already was. All the while, her face was a color of bright crimson—seeing as she no longer had any intentions of asking Kakashi her question, more so because she didn’t know how to put it into proper words. Despite her question being very crucial, Setsuko figured that she’ll be able to ask it another time. After all, it may be dangerous to pose such a question at the first day of her stay in Konoha. What if she was to come back to her home—if that was even possible now—and the vital information that Kakashi would most likely earn from her obvious question would be revealed to the entire village?
It would be bad for her family; there was no mistaking the amount of pain the situation may establish.
“Ah… ne-never mind. Good… goodnight, Hatake-san!” She exclaimed and before the young Chuunin knew it, Setsuko rushed into Minato and Kushina’s house.
Slightly puzzled, Kakashi stared at the closed door and finally, with a shrug, departed for his own home.
“Ah, Setsuko-chan! You’re finally back. How was the tour?” Kushina asked vibrantly, setting the last bowl on the dinner table. It sure was strange, having a child in a house which she only shared with her husband, but Kushina could tell that they would enjoy it more than imaginable. They all truly liked Setsuko. Her habits when scared may have been a little unnerving and may cause a lot of concern in their part, but they seemed to find Setsuko charming—despite having met her for only less than a day.
“It… It was nice…” Setsuko murmured, her back still firmly pressed against the door of the house as she fiddled with her thumbs, blushing slightly.
Kushina chuckled through her nose with an endearing smile. “Well, why don’t you sit here, Minato will be coming home soon. We can talk about your day with Kakashi over some—argh, damn it!” She screamed all of a sudden, only succeeding in making Setsuko press against the door all the more.
As the red-haired woman clutched her head in embarrassment, she sat on a chair and slammed her forehead against the dining table with a loud bang, causing Setsuko to jump and thickly swallow in nervousness.
“I didn’t get to ask what kind of food you liked… what if you don’t like the food I made? That would suck y’know?”
For some reason, Setsuko was beginning to sweat, but she tried to disregard this as she waved her hands around frantically, stepping forward. “N-No, Uzumaki-san, that- It’s alright! I don’t really l-like… I mean, I don’t re-really have… any pre-pre-preferences! I’m fine with ea-eating anything! Please, c-calm down, it’s okay! E-Even if I may not li-like the food, I’m sure you-your cooking will com—uh, compensate for it!”
Setsuko felt like slapping herself for using the word “compensate”. How was that supposed to make Kushina feel better?
“See, Kushina? Even Setsuko-chan thinks your cooking is delicious! She hasn’t even tried it yet!” Minato reassured his wife, carefully placing a hand on Setsuko’s head. Surprisingly, she didn’t flinch as much as she did. Maybe Kakashi said something to convince her to loosen up…? Hopefully.
“You’re my husband, Minato… I don’t think you really count…” Kushina muttered sulkily, pressing her cheek against the hard, smooth surface of the wooden table, facing Minato and Setsuko.
Minato pouted playfully, patting Setsuko’s head. “Well, if that’s how you look at it… Kakashi, Rin and Obito seem to love your cooking! Our friends included too!”
When Kushina said nothing in reply, Minato urged to Setsuko to go to the dining table, gently coaxing her to eat with them. Without any other choice to go along with it, she neared the table, and as she did so, the delectable smell of what seemed to be Gyoza, Yakisoba, bowls of fried rice, Yakitori and Agedashidofu—all of which Setsuko liked, yet hardly ever had the chance to eat.
“I’m surprised though, Setsuko-chan. You said the word ‘compensate’. For a ten year-old, that’s a pretty big word. Not that I’m insulting you or anything, y’know? I’m just pretty amazed, I guess. I was thick-headed when I was your age… unlike Minato here, who was a natural genius,” Kushina mumbled enviously, her shoulders slumped in a sulky way—to which Minato chuckled at once he took a seat across his wife. He couldn’t wait to start eating her cooking.
Setsuko hesitantly slid onto the chair at the end of the table, where the couple could easily converse with her.
“U-Uh… my mom—mother and father t-taught me everything I know by themselves… they, um, are, quite formal and… they tend… to-to use enhanced vocabulary when, er, talking to me,” she stammered clumsily. Setsuko wasn’t comfortable with talking about her parents at all—the same went for talking about herself in general. Being cautious was her top priority at the moment. She needed to remind herself that she was in a different domain she was completely unfamiliar with and slightly unused to in terms of atmosphere (climate-wise).
“That’s really nice.” Kushina said, and both Setsuko and Minato could hear the far-off, distracted tone in her voice.
Clearing his throat, Minato smiled and picked up his chopsticks. “Now, why don’t we start eating?”
“Itadakimasu!”
Shyly, Setsuko kept her head low as she muttered, “I-Itadakimasu…”
“So did you find out anything about Setsuko?” Obito asked Kakashi, excited to know if Kakashi had failed in his first attempt.
“A lot of things,” Kakashi said, staring blankly at Obito. He knew what Obito had been thinking—his over-eager face was too much of a straight-forward expression.
Grimacing slightly, Obito narrowed his eyes nonetheless. Who knows, the info Kakashi gathered may have been worth jack-shit.
“Setsuko’s afraid of children our age … well, she’s more afraid of them at least. She’s also afraid of adults, teenagers, five year-olds… frankly, everyone, and that includes dogs, cats… most harmless animals. Setsuko hasn’t really tried much common food like dango, yakitori or ramen. She told me that all her family ate were usual homemade meals… but even the meals they had weren’t really enough due to ‘circumstances’.”
As Kakashi spoke, Obito’s face was a string of different, conflicting emotions, all of which were as straight-forward as the past ones… then again, all of Obito’s facial expressions were clear-cut.
Once the young Chuunin was done, Kakashi simply stared at his former teammate (still his teammate for most of the time, according to the Third and Minato) in the same blank manner he usually regarded the young Uchiha.
When Obito’s face broke into a grin, he began to talk to himself excitedly. However, seeing as Kakashi couldn’t care less, he turned on his heel and walked away with his hands stuffed in his pockets. There was no surprise at all that Obito yelled curses at him for being rude.
“Don’t forget to tell Rin and Minato-sensei,” Kakashi called back unaffectedly, earning himself the finger from an enraged Obito.
“Yeah, seriously! After rescuing Rin and taking her back to sensei, I also managed to rescue that loser Kakashi! It was a really close call, you know? If I hadn’t been there, those rogue ninja could have taken him as hostage,” Obito boasted, a smug grin enlightening his face as he crossed his arms, puffing his chest out as well.
It was the Uchiha’s turn to continue the tour, and thanks to the information that Kakashi had passed onto him, he took on the liberty of showing Setsuko the few famous food stores. Although Obito had money from his last mission, Minato was kind enough to give the pair some cash to be able to stuff themselves with the village’s famous cuisines with no financial troubles. And because Obito still had his pride, he had sworn to pay Minato back for the money spent. Minato never told Obito that he didn’t have to, neither did he want to tell the black-haired boy that there was probably no way that Obito would manage to pay him—what with the amount of money Minato offered.
As usual, the sky was as blue as ever and the clouds were puffy as well, though less in number. It was sunny, like every other day in Konoha, and Setsuko couldn’t help but think how foreign the weather was to her. Sure, it was a little bit sunny where she lived, but usually the skies were grey and the air was chilly, perfect for her kind.
Setsuko also tried her best to keep calm amidst the vast crowds of villagers on every side of the place. She had no right to complain—this wasn’t her home after all. At least, that’s what she liked to assume.
As long as people kept their distance from her and stopped staring at her (mostly her weird skin), Setsuko felt at least a little safety. Besides, what were the chances of Obito letting anyone hurt her? The boy may be loud, sometimes obnoxious and self-centered, but (according to Minato and Kushina as they saw her and Obito off) he meant well. Of this, Setsuko was now sure of because of how palpable Obito’s energy almost seemed to be.
“I-I see… I hope you were all uninjured in the end…” Setsuko said quietly, a small smile slipping across her face when she knew that Obito was no longer looking at her. Really, she didn’t believe in Obito’s little tale, for a reason that Obito really just didn’t give the vibe of the “cool type” of hero. He was more of the “righteous, happy and justice-loving type”, but just to be nice (and oh, how it amused her to see Obito so happy when spinning his heroic tale), she kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t like she wanted to let Obito down, the boy just seemed so happy.
“Well, Kakashi and I were kind of in a rough shape, but Rin cured us in less than a blink!” Considerably, Obito’s dark eyes seemed to brighten up all the more beneath those goggles. There was a notable blush on his cheeks, and Setsuko couldn’t help but fully smile and point this out.
“You like, Rin-san, don’t you?”
Now, Obito was full-out blushing by the time he looked at Setsuko’s knowing smile. He couldn’t believe that she noticed right away! Oh how he was, for once, thankful that Rin wasn’t around!
Gulping slightly, Obito suddenly turned away, hot in the face. His steps slowed and he continuously tugged at his collar. At this, Setsuko almost giggled.
“Have you told her yet?” Unsurprisingly, Setsuko was getting more and more interested in this romantic topic. She liked Rin, the brunette was a really nice person and she wasn’t as scared of her as initially she was of Kakashi and Obito. It wasn’t really a shock that at least one of the two liked her in a romantic sense. Maybe Kakashi liked Rin as well?
‘Who knows?’ Setsuko found herself thinking.
“Er, no… not yet…” Obito murmured sheepishly, pressing the pads of his forefingers together.
Setsuko felt disappointed. “Um… why-why not?”
Suddenly, the sheepish look was gone, and replaced by a face of jealousy and moderate bitterness. “Well, she likes Kakashi…”
Unable to say anything else, Setsuko muttered a small, awkward “oh”.
It was a silent as they made their way through the throngs of people (carefully, due to Setsuko’s fear of them), until an idea dawned on the young yuki-musume.
“I know!” she exclaimed a little too loudly for her liking, “Why don’t you give her some flowers? I’m sure that will slowly make her like you! Girls do love flowers!”
Obito seemed to smile gently at the face of naïveté that was Setsuko’s. There was a small chance that something like that could happen… but, now that he thought about it, the idea wasn’t entirely unwelcome. It was a known fact that girls were suckers for pretty things, and flowers were probably the very manifestation of “pretty”.
“You’re right! Maybe I should do that!” Obito said brightly, finally managing to make Setsuko give him a close-eyed grin.
It was never really one of Obito’s main priorities for the day, but he could consider making Setsuko smile a “mission accomplished”.
Except maybe for one other thing that he almost forgot—dango.
A/N: Sorry, Setsuko is kinda OOC in this chapter... but hey, this is Obito she's with :) That cutie-pie~ XD
I'll just proofread later... I'm too lazy at the moment.