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"Say... what if you wore something nice today to the party? Since it's Katsu's birthday and all." Ryuu batted his eyelashes, trying to give me his most promising look so he could get his way. He tied up the bright red balloon he'd just blown air into around his pointer finger.
I made a face. "...like what?"
"Oh! Oh!" Ayumi bounded into the room and over to me at the mention of 'dressing nice', black table cloths in her hands. She grinned brightly and tugged at the hem of my shirt to get my attention. When I looked down at her, her smile only seemed to double in size. "What if you wore a dress! I've never seen you in a dress before, Kohana-nee."
"There's a reason for that." I remarked, grabbing ahold of the birthday banner and the pins to hang it up. Walking over to the archway beside the kitchen, the hall leading down to the bathrooms and bedrooms, I stood on my toes and pinned one side of the banner to the wall.
"What's that?" Ayumi asked with genuine curiosity.
I paused, before peering at the little girl over my shoulder, hands still holding up the banner. She batted her thick eyelashes at me, dark eyes filled with nothing but honest expectancy.
"Because I feel weird in anything remotely feminine." I said plainly, turning back to the birthday banner after shifting over to the other side. Pushing the pin through the thin cardboard and into the wall, I took a step back and gave it a once over, before deciding it was good enough.
"Aw, Kohana!" Ryuu threw the same balloon he'd been tying up three minutes earlier to the side. Not wasting any time, he ran over and tackled me in a bear hug. I grunted, making a face as he squeezed the ever living life out of me. Thought my eyeballs were gonna pop out of my skull or something.
He pulled away and gave me a pitiful look, but I only continued to stare, unimpressed.
"You're so pretty! I don't know why you say that stuff sometimes." Ryuu pushed his bottom lip out into a pout. "Even if you don't wanna wear a dress, I think you'd look great in one. You only feel a little awkward in em' because it's not something you wear often. I feel that way when I wear nice clothes too. Especially when Oba-chan makes me wear button ups. I hate it."
Ayumi giggled, giving her older brother a knowing look. "You really, really do, nii-chan."
"What's this talk about what your older brother hates?" Asked Masumi, walking into the room with the cake she'd just picked up, encased in a thin cardboard box. She set it on the counter, pushing it off to the side where it would stay out of reach. Especially from prodding fingers such as Ryuu, who was probably dying to take a swipe at the frosting.
"Dressing nice." Said Kamaeta, who had been thumbing through a book at the dining table while listening to our conversation.
Masumi chuckled knowingly. "Well, that was something we already knew. For my cousins wedding you refused to dress even remotely nice without me threatening to fry you like tempura."
Ryuu stiffened, the traumatic memory resurfacing at his aunts playful teasing. "Forgot about that..."
Masumi waved her nephew off, walking over to me and placing a firm hand on my shoulder. Giving me a reassuring smile, she began to push me down the hall, the both of us having to duck under the low hanging birthday banner I'd just put up. "I'm sure we can find something in my closet for you! We're both a little taller than most girls, so our clothes will probably fit similarly. Even if I'm a few years your senior."
Walking into Masumi's room, I sat on the hope chest at the end of the bed. I crossed my arms and made myself comfortable, watching as she slid the closet door open and began to ruffle through the hanging items.
I wasn't all too worried that she was going to give me something crazy to wear. Masumi knew I had limits, and even had a pretty good idea what I liked. Guess I had a little more faith in her than I did most. Especially compared to Momo sensei—that woman had zero sense of fashion.
"What do you say to wearing a pair of those white cargo pants you really like... and this top?"
She pulled out what looked to be a flimsy black peace of fabric sitting on a hanger. If it could even be called a shirt. It looked like a damn scarf for Kami's sake! She held it out to me and gave a promising grin, but I only gave her an unimpressed look.
"What exactly is that supposed to cover?" I deadpanned, making a face.
Masumi rolled her eyes with an exasperated sigh. She pulled the shirt of the hanger and tossed the plastic piece to the side, before holding the article out for me to take.
Curling my lip, I took it from her hand. I held it out in front of me and flipped it around a bunch of different ways, trying to make a point that this shirt was fucking weird. Masumi sighed exasperatedly at my dramatic performance and snatched it from my hand. She made an 'up' motion with her hand.
"C'mon. Take your shirt off."
I sighed and rolled my eyes, but pulled the cropped yellow shirt over my head and tossed it onto the bed. Taking a step forward, Masumi helped me slide my arms into the short sleeves, before she did some crazy wrap around thing around my stomach that still has my head spinning. But even if it was confusing as hell, it only took her about a minute to situate the whole thing. She stepped back and dusted the imaginary dust from her hands, grinning at me.
"Ta-da!" Her grin only widened. "You look so good, Kohana!"
She grabbed ahold of my shoulders and steered me in front of the body length mirror. She peered over my shoulder, admiring my reflection.
I did have to admit. It didn't look... bad. But it wasn't anything I was used to either. It was a lot tighter, and the neckline dipped a little lower than usual. Not that it was super scandalous by any means—shit, I just used the word scandalous in a sentence. What was I? An old woman?!—but anyway, it just stopped probably the width of my palm from the base of my neck. Down the center of my chest the two pieces of fabric crossed one another, stretching behind me. I assumed there was some sort of tie in the back keeping it together.
I tilted my head to the side, running my fingers through the bottom of my hair. It was getting a lot longer too. In fact, it stopped just at the neckline, right above my nonexistent rack.
Huh. Maybe it was time for another chop soon.
"So, what do you think...?"
I gave a shrug. "Eh. It's not ugly."
Masumi grinned, giving my shoulders a firm squeeze. "That's better than you calling is ugly! Especially from miss fashion expert. Say, you can even keep it. Haven't worn that thing in a while. Looks better on you than it does me anyway."
Despite my nonchalant attitude earlier, I really appreciated the gesture. Masumi was really the only motherly figure I had in my life. Besides Momo sensei of course, but I never really got along with her. Regrettingly so. I mean, she was my sensei after all. But she and i just didn't... click I guess.
"Katsu is gonna think you look soooo pretty." Masumi continued to smile evilly at me over my shoulder, it only widening as my face turned a deep shade of red from her comment.
"Huh?! What is that supposed to mean?!"
She let go of me and walked out her bedroom door, laughing over her shoulder. "Don't pretend as if you don't know, sweetheart. You're much smarter than that."
I made a face, rubbing at my cheek in an attempt to get rid of the stupid fucking blush on my cheeks.
Why did everyone always tease me about Katsu?! People gave him shit about me too. Annoyed the fucking hell out of me.
Only a couple hours later, sometime into the early evening, we sat around the dining table, Katsu sitting at the very end. I sat to his left, while Ryuu pulled up a seat to his right. We weren't even sitting in a proper place at the table, squished right against his sides. Normally I would have disliked the close proximity, but it was his damn birthday after all, so I guess I could make an exception.
"Happy birthday, Mr fourteen year old!" Cheered Momo sensei, clapping her hands as Masumi lowered a cake in front of him, two candles in the shape of the number fourteen stuck in the top.
Ayumi jumped out of her seat and raced across the room to flick off the lights. The room turned dark, the only source of light being the two flickering flames on top of the candles.
Masumi picked up the camera and practically sprinted over to the end of the table. She grinned brightly, holding the camera up to her eye as she prepared to snap a photo of us. "Okay, okay, smile you three!"
I didn't even make a move to slide closer to Katsu. He didn't budge either, staring straight ahead with a raised brow. Meanwhile, Ryuu practically launched himself out of his seat to throw an arm around Katsu's shoulder. He patted him on the back, laughing eagerly.
"C'mon! Grab Kohana!" He waggled his brows at the boy who was now one year his senior. "Unless you're too scared or something."
"I'm not scared." He rolled his eyes, blowing on a stray piece of hair. "I'm just worried she'll try to bite me if I lay a hand on her."
My mouth fell open. "You jerk! I'm not gonna bite you!"
Katsu snorted. "Sure."
Gritting my teeth, I resisted the urge to actually bite him for insinuating I'd do something so fucking animalistic. He tilted his head at me, raising a brow to see what I was planning to do. He totally expected me to take a chunk out of him now too. It did make sense though—it's one hundred percent something I'd do in retaliation.
So, I did something I absolutely would never normally do to throw the guy off—I threw my arms around his neck and smooshed my cheek against his, grinning brightly toward Masumi. She'd lowered the camera while we were too busy bickering, her mouth in the shape of an 'o'. His face was surprisingly warm and soft against my own, even if the hair that laid across his face was kind of ticking my cheek.
Ryuu made a whooping noise and held up a peace sign. "Aw yeah! We're gonna get a such a sweet looking picture!"
My old man who'd been sipping at his glass of sake quietly most of the night coughed into his arm, leaning back to talk to Masumi. "You'd better snap that picture before Kohana really does take a bite at him."
Momo sensei sniffed, dabbing at the corner of her eyes as Masumi took a good few pictures, the flash going off with each click of the camera. "They're getting so big! I remember when they were these fresh, wide eyed genin..."
Ichiro, Katsu's grandfather, smiled softly over his steaming cup of tea. He sipped at it without saying anything, taking in the scene of his grandson and the two people he really cared about most in the world.
I pushed myself off of Katsu as soon as Masumi lowered her camera, the neck strap still keeping it attached to her body. Scratching at the side of my face, I gave Katsu a look. "Damn. What is up with that hair of yours? It's literally... everywhere..."
Katsu blinked slowly, his face gradually turning a light shade of pink. He didn't say anything to me, merely turning his face away and hiding behind his hand.
Ryuu cooed at him. "Aw! Katsu—!"
"Leave him alone." Hissed Masumi, giving the back of her nephews hair a slight tug.
"Ow!" Ryuu rubbed at his scalp, shooting his aunt an evil look as she gestured for Katsu to blow out the candles.
Still having a pink tinge to his cheeks, Katsu cast a fleeting glance my way out of the corner of his eye, before his focus went back to the cake. I rolled my eyes at his sneaky behavior and leaned forward, slouching across the table. Resting my face against my fist, I gave Katsu a lazy smirk as he stared at the flickering candles. The bridge of his nose seemed to crinkle as he thought pretty deeply about what he was going to wish for. Feeling my eyes, he looked up once again, though he maintained eye contact with me this time instead of looking away.
There was a sharp tug at the pit of my stomach as he continued to stare at me.
I flinched, surprised by the sudden swarm of emotions. Especially as they were physically effecting me... in ways I really was not familiar with. At all.
Still not looking away, he gave a slight breath of air, though it was enough to put the flames out.
"Yay!" Cheered Ayumi, clapping eagerly. She leaned over and tugged on Kamaetas black hair, pulling her attention from the sudoku book she was working on. "You missed Katsu-nii blowing out the candles because of that stupid book!"
"Ow!" Kamaeta shoved her sister off of her, shriveling her nose in irritation. "Don't pull my hair."
Akarui, Momo sensei's older brother, leaned back in his chair and turned the light back on. He also handed Masumi the paper plates as she began to cut the cake into pieces.
"What did you wish for?" Asked Yawarakai, sneaking in between Ryuu and Katsu so she could ask her question. She leaned on Katsu, one hand playing with the thick material of his blue collard shirt, and the other playing with the ends of her wavy red hair.
Katsu pulled her into his lap. "Hm... I can't tell you that, now can I? Or it won't come true."
"Aw, come on, Katsu-nii!" Ayumi shook Kamaeta, even though she was trying to go back to finishing her game. But as her older sister was practically causing an earthquake, that wasn't going to happen any time soon. "Tell us! Please!"
He looked away from the bouncing redhead to meet my gaze once again. A soft smile curled at his lips, causing another tug at my stomach. "Sorry. We'll just have to see if it comes true."
"Alright, we blew out the candles now it's time for some present!" Ryuu grinned, sliding out of his seat and making his way over to the small table covered in neatly wrapped boxes. He tapped his lips, mulling over what one to pick up first, before he grabbed the most terribly wrapped present off the very top.
I made a face, glaring daggers at the idiot as he handed the gift over to Katsu.
He just had to give my gift first, huh? What a jerk. He knew it was mine without even needing to look at the tag either. While I was a perfectionist, I was absolutely terrible at wrapping gifts. Why? I really didn't know. I tried. I really, really did. But I always fucked it up.
Katsu flipped the box over, eyeing the awful folds in the paper and the random pieces of tape slapped everywhere. He shot me a look over the box, smirk curling at the corner of his lips. "Hm. Still as bad as ever at wrapping presents."
"Jerk." I rolled my eyes, letting out an irritated huff. "Just open the gift already. You know, I could have just gotten you nothing."
"No you couldn't have," Chimed in my old man, giving me a look. He took a sip from his sake. "Because that would be terribly rude to do that to your teammate."
"Bleh." I stuck my tongue out. "Teammate 'shemate."
Kamaeta made a face, not even looking up from her sudoku book. "Is that even japanese?"
"No, I don't think it is." Akarui chuckled, looking over to the black haired little girl who was too serious for her own good.
Moving on from how embarrassed I was over my poor wrapping job, Katsu tore at the paper, neatly placing it on the table. Masumi took a break from cutting the cake and pulled the paper into a trash bag. My old man got up from his seat, leaving his glass of sake on the table to help her.
Opening the box, he peered down into it, blinking owlishly. He reached his hand inside, pulling out two viles and a package of rice paper. He set the paper on the table beside the slice of cake Masumi had cut up for him, but continued to flip the vile around to analyze its contents.
"It's choji oil." I said, pushing down his wrist so he'd stop shaking it like a baby rattle. "I got you some knowing you've been having trouble caring for your katana. But there's some other stuff in there too."
Setting the vile of oil beside the rice paper, he reached into the box again. He pulled out a book, the pages slightly crinkled and worn.
"It's a book from Konoha. I... may or may not have smuggled it out of the library there."
His mouth fell open, eyes widening at my confession. He shook the book in my direction. "You stole it?!"
I shrugged. "Hey, chill out. There were at least four other copies. Sure they could find some more if they really needed it. Besides, they looked kind of like they haven't been touched in decades."
Katsu shot me an unconvinced look, but turned his attention back to the book nevertheless. He examined the spine for the author, his eyes widening again. "Hashirama Senju?!"
I chuckled, scratching the side of my head. "I know how much of a history nerd you can be sometimes, so I snatched a copy of his diary. It's a collection of his life from the warring states period, the first shinobi world war, and how he came up with the idea to form a shinobi village. Thought you might enjoy it or something."
Katsu flopped through the pages, blinking slowly as his eyes ran over the neat handwriting of the first Hokage. "It's... it's so cool. Thank you."
I poked my tongue out at him. "Guess that makes up for stealing, huh?"
"No, it doesn't." My old man shot a look my way from his seat.
I shrunk under his gaze, laughing sheepishly. "Ah... listen... we can just let it go... right?"
"Next present!" Cheered Ryuu, jumping up to grab the next gift.
The next couple hours continued like that. Ryuu popping gift after gift into Katsu's lap, taking a break in between to laugh or talk about the specific gift he got. Some of the things were pretty nice. He got a set of adventure manga from Ryuu, a blade sharpener from my old man, a book of brain teasers from Momo sensei a long with a new jacket, and a photo album from Masumi.
I stared over Katsu's shoulder, fork stuck in my mouth as I sucked the frosting off of it. Katsu had the page open to a picture of Ryuu and him when they couldn't have been more then eight years old. Ryuu was grinning brightly, his hair a dark black and sticking everywhere, arms thrown around Katsu's neck. Dirt was smudged across Ryuu's face, and he was rubbing some of it onto Katsu's cheek. He wasn't very appreciative of it either, sneering and trying to shove his best friend away to keep himself from getting dirty.
I pulled the fork from my mouth. "Even back then you were disgusting."
Ryuu gasped. "I was not!"
I ignored him, reaching over to Katsu's lap to flip the page.
We sat on the floor in the living room, Katsu in the middle of us with the photo album on his crossed legs. Ryuu sat like Katsu, eating the huge piece of cake on his plate. Masumi had yelled at him for taking it earlier, but after he ran his tongue across the top of the slice she wasn't even going to consider making him put it back. I sat on Katsu's other side, legs strewn out at an angle as I ate at my own slice of cake. Though it was way smaller than Ryuu's.
The next page was one of us when we first became a team. It wasn't the team photo, but it was one a couple months after we began going on missions together. We were at the river toward the outskirts of the village—the one we were training at before Ryuu and I had left for the mission. Katsu laid out in the sun with his arms folded behind his head, obviously trying to take a nap, while Ryuu could be spotted in the background holding a live fish. The fish's image was kind of blurry, making me think it was in the middle of flopping around when the picture was snapped. I leaned against a rock in the shade, legs stretched out and crossed over one another. I looked like one cocky little bitch, smirking as Ryuu fucked around with the fish.
"Awww you guys were such babies!" Momo leaned over us, hands pressed to her cheeks as she cooed over our younger selves.
I raised a brow. "That was like a year and a half ago."
"But you've grown changed so much. Even in that short of a time frame." Chimed in Masumi, clearing the triplets plates from the table as they had gone outside to play about a half hour ago. "Don't downplay that. We're all very proud of you three."
Katsu smiled softly and turned the page again, though this time there were three kids who I really didn't recognize. I tilted my head to the side, scooting closer to the image. "Who are they?"
Masumi looked up at my question, before following my questioning gaze. A look of understanding crossed her features. "Ah, I put that one in there specifically for Katsu."
She walked over and kneeled in front of him, pointing to the picture. "This was your fathers genin team."
"Really?" Asked Katsu in awe, eyes roaming the three preteens to pinpoint who was who.
"Yeah. Believe it or not, but Ryuu's father was actually very good friends with yours. So I found this picture in an old box while I was cleaning up the other day." She placed her chin in her hand, elbow resting on her leg. Looking at the picture for another moment, she reached forward again and pointed to a tall, tan boy, his hair a light brown. It stuck up a lot like Katsu's, though it was much spikier.
"That's my boy." Ichiro, Katsu's grandfather, stood beside us, cup of steaming tea in his hand. He smiled fondly, eyes closing as he reminisced. "You're a lot like him. Though he tended to be much more abrasive. I believe you inherited your steady nature from your mother."
I looked to the other boy, who stared at the camera with a straight face. His arms were crossed, black hair flat and falling over his face. The thick strands obscured his gold eyes. If anything, Ryuu looked almost like a carbon copy of the guy. Though Ryuu appeared a bit shorter than his dad.
"Who is the girl in the center?" I asked, tapping her face.
It was a really pretty girl, her black hair pulled to the side in a braid, only a few pieces out and framing her tan face. It was long, reaching at least her waist. Freckles were splattered across the bridge of her nose and cheeks, and long lashes practically reached her brows. She smiled with her green eyes open wide, arm thrown over both the boys shoulder.
"That's your mother." Masumi smiled gently. "How do you think they met, hm? They grew up together."
"She's really pretty." I said.
"That she was." Agreed Masumi.
Katsu was quiet, eyes trained on the picture of his parents. No one really said anything, Masumi rising back to her feet and returning to the table to finish cleaning. Kenji helped her gather the trash, taking the occasional sip of his sake. Katsu's grandfather took a seat at the table, helping Kamaeta with her Sudoko game.
"I'm gonna go get a breath of fresh air."
Katsu closed the photo album and set it off to the side, getting to his feet.
Ryuu got ready to stand up too. "Hey, I'll come with—"
Katsu held his hand out, gesturing for him to remain seated. "I'll just go by myself. Thanks though."
Ryuu and I shared a look as Katsu walked outside, closing the front door behind him.
"You should go."
I looked at Ryuu as though he'd grown two heads. "Huh?! Why me?!"
"Because you get through to him in ways others can't. Besides—as much as you like to deny it, you're good with words." He leaned over and gave my arm a little shove. "So go on."
I resisted the urge to groan out loud and begrudgingly got to my feet, walking outside.
Closing the shoji door behind me to the backyard, I spotted Katsu at the end of the deck, leaning on the wooden railing. Fire flies buzzed over the grass, the moon of the mid evening shining down on the house. It was quite the pretty scene, honestly.
"Hey." I said softly, leaning on the railing beside him.
He didn't say anything, staring ahead at the fireflies.
I frowned, trying to ignore the disappointment at my attempt to get him to talk.
Why the hell had I been the one to come out here?! I was not in tune with other people emotions at all. If anything I tended to say things that made the other person feel worse. If anyone should have come out here it should have been Masumi. She was great at this consoling stuff. Me on the other hand—absolutely not.
"You know the house I live in?"
I blinked, peeking up. "Huh? Yeah... I mean it was your parents house, right? They built it together or something."
"We're gonna lose it."
I looked at him in alarm. "What? Why?"
"I can't afford it." Katsu screwed his face up, in pain at the thought. "The money my parents had in savings is practically gone. I have the paycheck of a genin. That's... not nearly enough to keep it. Jii-chan offered to work, but there's no way I'd have him do that. He's already getting too old for my liking... it's just—ugh."
He lowered his head, pulling on his hair. "I don't know what to do. I can't lose that place. It's all I've got of my parents. I just can't."
I swallowed hard, watching how much pain he was in.
Slowly, I raised my hand, placing it on his back. "I know how much you love that house... I'm so sorry."
I frowned, wishing there was something I could do to help.
"When do you need the money?"
"In half a month."
"How much?"
"250,000 ryo."
There was no way I could get that much within half a month, no matter how many missions I did. It was absolutely crazy. But I couldn't just let him lose something so important...
The image of a sly grin popped into my face.
"How do you feel about obtaining some extra cash?"
My gaze hardened.
"Don't worry. I'll help you get the money."
Katsu looked at me with wide eyes. "How the hell are you supposed to get that much? Rob a bank?"
I rolled my eyes. "Pah—no. I've got an upcoming mission. A rank. It'll pay more than that easy peasy."
A look of relief flashed in his eyes. "Thank you... so much..."
"Of course." I forced a smile to my lips, trying to ignore the climbing guilt at the fact I'd just lied through my damn teeth. "I'll always be here for you."
authors note:
heyo! what did u guys think of today's
chapter? i hope u enjoyed it! please
leave some comments. do u think kohana
is making the right choice of affiliating
herself with the gang again? hm... lemme
know what u think!
-kat