[28] Haru's childish nature makes children feel at ease around him.
Hewo :3
No one's POV
Kankuro and Hiroshi were rushing towards the hospital since they almost forgot the meeting with Shion. They had only less than three minutes to not be late and not earn a cold hard glare form the female.
"Ah, seriously! Why did it have to be after the semi finals!" Kankuro whined while running as fasts he could. He could imagine her pearl aqua eyes looking at him in a degrading manner and shivered.
"And why the Hospital in the first place? Couldn't we have met in a barbeque restaurant or something that's much more convenient for us to go?" Hiroshi huffed before the two of them skidded to a stop and ran towards the entrance of the hospital where Gaara, Temari, Yua and Shion were waiting for the two.
"Right on time. Now follow me." Shion plainly said before leading the small group inside.
She had a suspicion that Yua was from their world with how she was acting but she didn't question it since it probably would scare the girl. She was conscious of the fact that Yua was vigilant around her and she could blame her because she knew she could be deemed as aloof and cold at a first glance.
"Speak."
That one word made Hiroshi stand straighter than a board and glanced at Kankuro who raised his arms and shook his head as if saying 'You're on your own here.'
Temari just rolled her eyes and calmed the slightly trembling Yua behind her who was beside an uninterested Gaara. "Don't worry she's not referring to you." She whispered before pointing at Hiroshi who was speaking, trying to calm down the other girl's rampaging thoughts.
"Well, her name is--"
"I know her name. I don't care about her age or any superficial information. Tell me her capabilities and why she's with you here."
In others' viewpoint, Shion's face was void of emotions. Her calculative stare stayed on the new addition without wavering as her older brother talked.
Yua gulped and looked down while fumbling with her hands. She knew she didn't deserve coming with them and join the Chunin Exams but Gaara insisted for her to come and participate.
'I knew it. I'm being a burden again. I shouldn't have come here. I'm interrupting everything...' She thought her eyes slightly becoming glassy before blinking them fast.
"... and she's more than capable of joining the plan, Shion. Yua's reliable and hard working." She raised her head and gazed at Hiroshi in surprise, shocked that someone was actually praising her. The younger Myoui side glanced at said him for a second before sighing and placed a hand on her nape while having an almost tired expression.
"I don't get paid enough for this..." She mumbled before walking towards Yua. Temari walked away from her position to let the two girls have their space.
"I don't actually care what he said about you. And I can see some potential in you being a strong kunoichi. The plan that we're talking about can leave you undoubtedly injured severely if you're not careful with your every single move." She informed with a hard stare.
The four jolted and looked at other and then at the girl who had her mouth sightly agape.
"I will be blunt about everything and order you around. I will not accept imperfections no matter how small it is. If you join, I am not going to be an easy person to deal with. A single mistake and you're out. Are you willing to join?" Shion asked as she crossed her arms and stared down at the girl.
Yua gulped and gripped her trembling hand hard. Shion's presence screamed dominance and authority. She couldn't raise her head as if some unknown force was not letting her raise it.
Thinking about backing down and just bearing through the guilt of not joining was a bit tempting if the mission was very risky and had a high percentage of her dying. She didn't know why Hiroshi said that but she knew that Shion wouldn't believe words. She knew that the female in front of her was more of an "actions not words" type of person.
But disappointing the Sand siblings and Hiroshi, she didn't want that. She wanted to be fully accepted by the group and not just be a freeloader and a burden for them.
Taking a deep breathe she met her eyes and timidly stuttered a response.
"I... I will do my b-best not to disappoint you." None of them said anything after that waiting for Shion to speak up.
"Hiroshi."
"Yeah?"
"I expect her to know everything by the time we meet again."
Yua was overjoyed and looked at Temari who nodded while smiling. "Hehehe! Hai, you got it!" The older Myoui said while walking towards her and placing an arm over her shoulders.
"Ah right, Shion why are we holding a meeting here in the hospital instead of somewhere else?" The white haired male asked. She just sighed and opened the door in front of them and entered.
They all entered and were surprised to see Haru unconscious on the hospital bed. "He's fine. The doctor said that he should wake up sometime today." She informed them while walking towards the window beside his bed.
"What happened to Haru-san?" Gaara spoke up for the first time. "Nothing serious, he was wounded from a mission and lost blood and consciousness." She smoothly lied looking outside and breathing the fresh air.
She was grateful that she was able to inhale this instead of the polluted air from the city from her old world.
"Right, before I forget. You know about the Annual Kage Festival am I correct?" She turned around and adjusted her ponytail.
Hiroshi and the Sand Siblings nodded while Yua internally panicked and glanced to Temari. "Yeah, it's something that happens once a year. Every year all the leaders of the Great Five Nations reunite and throw a feast in celebration of the Kage's hard work for the villages." The blonde informed her.
"This year, the hosting village is Konoha. Two weeks from now to be exact. I suggest buying your necessities now before the markets get crowded. The finalists are going to be forced to participate in the festival whether they like it or not. Hokage's orders." Shion added before making her neck give a satisfying crack unconsciously scaring the jittery female.
"Well we--" The door suddenly opened making them all look towards it and saw a nurse who just bowed respectfully. "We should go now." Kankuro stated.
The others agreed with him and bid goodbye to Shion who was going to stay for the umpteenth time. She had been waiting for him to regain consciousness and every time she enters the room and finds him still in deep slumber, she'd unconsciously form a small pout accompanied with a frown.
His torpid state never stopped her from telling him what happened with her daily life whatsoever. Her voice barely a whisper as she talked about her team and what was happening outside the confines of the average-size hospital room.
"Is the boy someone important for you? Ah, I mean you've been visiting him whenever you can I suppose since you're here all the time." The pink ombre haired female just nodded while sitting on the stool beside his bed.
"How much longer will he be unconscious?" She asked in while looking at the peacefully sleeping Haru. The medic smiled at this before responding "He should wake up in a moment or another now. Please call us when he does. We need to give him a check up then."
She only nodded before gently grasping her bracelet and playing with it. Haru was the one who always helped her put it on since she couldn't do it by herself. Many that knew her would be bewildered by the fact that she could not execute a task so simple without another person helping her.
"it's half past twelve. Have you eaten yet?" The adult asked making the girl shake her head. "Well you should. Going through the day with an empty stomach is troublesome and bad for your health." She uttered but Shion didn't budge from her seat which made the nurse sigh. Her eyes landed to the boy and thought that maybe persuading her with something he would say would be sufficient.
"I think Nagachika-san wouldn't like it that you're starving yourself just to stay beside him." She saw the chunin-jonin flinch a little and glanced at the boy before looking to sideways, clearly wanting to avoid her words.
The medic smirked, obviously her words had a small impact on the hard headed female. "What if he wakes up and he finds himself alone though... I know he's going to run around like crazy in the hallways." Shion muttered loud enough for the latter to hear.
"Well then you shouldn't waste time and go eat now. The sooner you finish the better." She gave the pre-teen a gentle smile clearly seeing that she was very fond of the boy.
Sighing, she stood up and remained that way before looking at the medic and slightly bowing her head.
"What's your name?"
"Hm? I'm Mizuki Ayumi."
"Myoui Shion."
With that, she flickered in front of Ichiraku Ramen not noticing the woman's amused smirk decorating her tanned face. Glancing towards the boy, she shook her head and picked her pen and walked out of the room.
'Well I think we have another rule breaker, Kozakura-sama.' She giggled at her thought before noticing the man clad in black in the corner of the room and nodding respectfully to him which he reciprocated.
The man was the same Shion saw before and was anxious about. She couldn't find anything about him and didn't know his purpose and this made her worried.
He approached Haru's bed, stopping a few inches away from it. Observing his sleeping figure with his rigid metallic blue eyes, he put a hand over the boy's head before it glew pale green.
'Shion-sama is more worried about you more than her own well being.' He thought pulling his hand away after a few while before sitting on the stool and crossed his muscular arms.
'What is she planning to do? I've seen her speak with the two Akatsuki members and battle with Orochimaru. Her every single move has to be connected. There is no way these occurrence are only coincidences. Is she working with the Akatsuki?' Frowning, he started drumming his fingers he had been following the girl but she had been very careful with her actions and did not let her guard down once.
He knew she had a suspicion that she was being followed despite him hiding his chakra well.
'But if the situation was like that, then Hiruzen would know it by now. By the way he's acting towards her, I'm sure he's aware of her plan and knows what she's going to do in the future.'
The blond man stood up and glanced through the window to see Hatake Kakashi coming inside the Hospital, that was his cue to leave.
'I need to report this to ________.'
•••
The pink ombre haired female had ordered a bowl of shoyu ramen. She had no appetite but she knew that Haru would chastise her if ever he saw the slightest change in her weight or health.
"Shion." A voice snapped her out of her thoughts before the person took the seat beside her. "What are you doing here alone? Where's Haru-san?" Sasuke asked before he ordered his meal while trying to conceal his panting and to maintain his cool act.
"You won a race against Naruto, did you?" She raised a brow and smirked when she heard the blond shinobi's whining. "Sasuke-teme! You had a flying start! That's not fair at all dattebayo! You cheated, you cheated you-- hi Shion-chan!" He gave her a grin before returning to scowling and despising the ravenette beside the girl.
"Mou, Naruto-kun stop it. You'll just have to win next time okay? Now let's eat, I'm starving already." Sakura said while jogging towards the three of them after greeting the pink ombre haired girl. "Hai, hai, Sakura-chan. But this is not the end of it Sasuke-teme! Oi, old man give me a bowl of ramen!" He exclaimed, waiving his coupon in the air as if there was no tomorrow, happy that he was able to eat at his beloved ramen shop.
Shion observed the two bickering and the pink haired kunoichi trying to stop the two before the blondie could explode and challenge the other male to another bet he'd most probably fail again.
A small chuckle escaped from her lips as she gazed down her half eaten ramen. She was reminded of the time she visited Haru in the training grounds. The icy blue eyed boy was riled up and flailing his arms up and down as his teammate smirked at his frustration whilst the girl between them acted as a referee.
"Ne, Shion-chan." A voice snapped her out of her reminiscing zone, glancing up and meeting Sakura's eyes. "Hm?" The pink ombre haired chunin-jonin replied as she slurped the broth.
"You've been in deep thought lately. I-I don't mean to infere, it's just that I always see you zoning out. You don't have to tell me anything! Just- um, if something's bothering you and Haru-san isn't there with you, I'm here if you want to talk about anything." Haruno lightly scratched her temple and she spoke with a hint of bashfulness in her voice.
"Yeah, she's right. Even though you're ranks higher than us, it doesn't erase the fact that you're our age." Sasuke chimed in before drinking his glass of water, giving them a side glance.
The Myoui descendant let her lips slightly curve upward. She realized the impact of her presence and felt grateful that they see her not only as a fighter, but as a friend also.
"Pwaaahh!! That was a great ramen! Oi, old man! one more bowl here!"
The soft moment was ruined by Naruto who finished his ninth bowl in a mater of seconds. This made her raise an eyebrow with an unamused expression, still maintaining her small smile.
"Naruto, you dumbass moron." The ravenette grumbled before delving in another bickering session with the other male making the pink haired kunoichi sigh and just give up being referee. She had her fill of hearing them insult each other back and forth for today so she just focused her attention to the ramen she was eating.
After the eventful lunch, Shion decided to walk towards the hospital instead of flickering in front of said location. She needed a breather even if it was just for a moment. Everything was so fast paced these days that if she fell behind her planning might be jeopardized because of herself.
Today was different. She felt it too. The calm and serene breeze, the chattering around her, the warmth of the sun. It was as if everything surrounding her was telling her to take a break.
'Just for a minute. I don't want to feel rushed for a minute.' The female stopped her tracks a few meters from the hospital and closed her eyes, inhaling to calm her mind.
It would've stayed that way if only there wasn't such a commotion inside the hospital.
As soon as she heard disturbance, the flickered in front of Haru's room and slamming it open. Her heart was beating so fast I'm surprised it still hasn't escaped her ribcage. Inside, she found a few nurses and the medic in charge of Haru's situation.
Her mind was racing and having a field trip in Pessimistic Thought city, assuming that something negative happened to the boy. Her breath started becoming uneven, as she dragged her feet toward the bed, each step seemingly heavier than the last.
Her hand trembled slightly as her eyes caught the nurse who she spoke to before leaving moments ago. She was surprised by Shion's appearance but smiled nonetheless, unconsciously calming the chunin-jonin's nerves.
A rasped voice was heard breaking their eye contact. It was laced with exhaustion and signs of sleep could be heard in his tone.
"Where is she?"