Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To say that Sasuke was having a good day would be saying like being stabbed, repeatedly, in a non-lethal area, was pleasant. 

His day started out with his alarm going off, loudly, in his ear, and when he reached to turn it off, he accidentally knocked the alarm clock off of his nightstand, causing it to break into many little pieces. Sweeping up those pieces, half-asleep, did not make for a good time.

Then, when he went downstairs to grab something to eat before heading to his part-time job, the toaster was broken. Having to make toast on the stove, in a pan, without any help nor clean spatulas for flipping the damned piece of bread, and then opening the fridge to realise that there wasn't any butter nor jam or peanut butter, was additionally not a good time. 

Finally, on his way to work, a car drove in a puddle right by him while he was on his bike, splashing him with muddy water. 

Thankfully, when he properly arrives at the mall where he works, the only co-worker of his there is (the thankfully tolerable) Shino. Sitting at the counter of the sacred shrine for emos (that is, one of the more popular alternative stores), Shino doesn't even bother looking up from his phone when Sasuke enters, not even when he heads to the back to put his backpack away and punch in. It's not like the store gets many customers in the morning, so he takes his good, sweet time toweling himself off with a fistful of paper towels before finally heading back out.

"The stock's all set out, so you don't need to worry about that," Shino finally says after a good couple of minutes of silence, not looking up from whatever he's looking at on his phone. "The manager's not feeling well, either, so it's just us for this morning."

Maybe his day won't be so bad, after all.

While the mall's open, there are barely any people roaming about, so Sasuke decides to pretend to look busy by looking through the spinning jewelry racks. Shino doesn't move from his spot at the counter, still scrolling away, dark sunglasses still affixed to his face. 

All is good and peaceful until his coworker finally speaks again.

"Oh, your brother is dating someone."

If someone could choke on air, that's what he would be doing right now. Instead, he sputters, nearly dropping the choker he was holding before managing to hang it back up.

"How the hell do you-" he starts to say, but is cut off by Shino, who raises a hand to signal him to hush up. He does.

"Social media. Well, Kiba messaged me that Shikamaru messaged him that a friend of his said that someone was dating 'the half-blind and-very much estranged to his family save for one person-Uchiha guy,' whom I can only assume is your brother, as I don't know of anyone else who fits that description, and neither does Shikamaru or Kiba."

Sasuke manages to get over his initial shock enough in order to ask, "Did Shikamaru say who was dating him?"

This makes Shino pause, tapping at something on his phone (the whole time he was speaking, his eyes didn't leave the screen). "You're not going to like this."

He doesn't like a lot of things, or people. 

"Just spit it out already," Sasuke grumbles, walking over to the counter and leaning against it. Still, Shino doesn't bother looking up, still looking down at his phone. Maybe that's why he wears those sunglasses all the time--eye strain is a bitch.

After a couple moments of silence, he's finally given a response, too calm compared to the words that were being spoken. "Deidara. You know, that guy that you don't like. Actually, you don't like a lot of people, so that doesn't narrow it down. He's blond and loud, but not like Naruto, and he has very long hair."

Ah.

The last time Sasuke and Deidara interacted, they'd nearly gotten into a fight. Well, they would've actually started trading blows, but a short red-headed man grabbed Deidara by the ear and dragged him off rather comically. He can't remember what they were fighting about, specifically, but he does remember the blond calling him, 'a pathetic son of a bitch who looks like the underside of a duck's ass.'

He's also hard rumors about Deidara, and all of them pointed to him being an unpleasant person being around. Well, save for one, which mentioned that he had a glass eye, and whether or not someone has both eyes doesn't point to them being a jackass. 

How in the sweet and unholy did his brother such have bad taste?

"I see you don't like that news."

"No shit."

A customer enters, so the two of them are forced to stop their conversation, leaving Sasuke with a thunderstorm of thoughts in his mind as he puts on his best customer-service voice to interact with the customer.

Now, Sasuke hasn't actually properly spoken to Itachi in....give or take a couple of years. The last time they'd talked, it was over phone, and it ended up with Sasuke screaming down the line about how Itachi ruined the family and Itachi shouting back that he had done no such thing. In all, the conversation lasted about three minutes, and half of that was just shouting.

Still, he isn't the happiest with Itachi's choices in relationships.

From what he remembers of his brother, he was always polite and respectful, keeping a tight rein on his temper, and always dressed conservatively in jeans (not torn) and a t-shirt in a solid color, or similar jeans with a black or white turtleneck when it got cold. The only time he can remember his elder brother speaking at the volume of a yell was during the big fight where he left home for good (which is something he doesn't like thinking about, he was so young at the time).

Deidara is the complete opposite, from what he knows of him, and he still couldn't even see why Itachi would look at Deidara with any sort of romantic interest. From rumors, his brother hasn't changed significantly in personality, so it couldn't be that.

Either way, he's not exactly thrilled with his brother right now. 

When his lunch break rolls around, Sasuke leaves the store in Shino's capable hands before rushing off to grab something to eat from the food court. Honestly, in his entire time he has worked at the store, he hasn't seen Shino ever take a lunch break, only nibbling at a protein bar as he rang up orders or scrolled through his phone. Hell, he barely even takes a break, except to use the bathroom. 

He's not that sure how Shino's able to do it, and doesn't have the intention of asking him. Maybe he has a small stomach.

The food court isn't as full as it normally is, so Sasuke makes sure he has his wallet before getting in line for one of those healthy smoothie places. He's eaten there before, and, as the smoothies are good and inexpensive, he'll go there whenever he forgets to pack himself a lunch. Today was one of those days, as he misjudged how long it would take him to get ready, and therefore had to bike over to the mall like his life depended on it. 

He wasn't expecting, as soon as he leaves the store with his freshly made smoothie, to see a certain Mr. Hatake sitting at one of the two-person tables, flipping through book he can't make out the cover of. Face mask affixed to his face as always and clothing appearing neat but rumpled at the same time, he looks exactly the same as Sasuke saw him last. 

When Sasuke decides to take a seat at his table, Mr. Hatake glances up from his book, quirking an eyebrow at the teen sitting across him (who's now sucking down his smoothie at a reasonable rate). "Sasuke, didn't know you were working today."

"Wanted to take the extra shift," he mutters around the now-soggy paper straw of his drink. "If I didn't, it would've just been Shino."

"Ah, out of the goodness of your heart?" Sasuke shoots him a glower, but the man appears unfazed, merely humming in amusement. "Either way, I didn't expect you to be out today. I thought you would hole up in your room and text Naruto."

Mr. Hatake gets on his nerves sometimes. But, he's annoying in an endearing way, like a strange uncle. Most of Sasuke's uncles are the stoic silent kind, so he's making a general assumption. 

"Also," Mr. Hatake continues, doing his best to be a pain in the ass as Sasuke tries to finish his lunch. "I heard about your brother. Didn't realize he had poor taste." Okay, maybe not a pain in the ass.

He grumbles quietly to himself, muttering a small curse in his native language, before tapping his fingers against the side of his cup. "I want to kill him. Itachi, I mean. Mainly because he sunk so low enough to date someone who went to juvie for arson two times in one year." Used to the way Sasuke tended to behave, all Kakashi does is sigh quietly, closing his eyes for a few moments. 

"Hear me out: wanting to 'Cain Instinct' your older brother because you don't like his boyfriend is not a good legal defense."

The teen shrugs. "I know a good lawyer."

Mr. Hatake finally sets down his book, rubbing at his temples in an exaggerated annoyed manner. "Sasuke." Sasuke shoots him an unimpressed look, finishing the rest of his smoothie.

"What? I do know a good lawyer." 

"That's besides the point," the older of the two starts to say, sighing for the second time in their conversation, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Murder is illegal."

He does make a good point. Plus, killing people isn't the best way to go about solving all his problems. 

"Fine, whatever."

Chapter Text

Not that today's a special occasion, but it's okay to be nervous.  

At least, that's what Ino keeps telling herself, anyway. 

It's the first party that Ino's going to after she started officially dating her childhood best friend. So of course, she's a little nervous, even though all of her friends have been supportive of her and Sakura's relationship, Choji even offering the two of them a couple's discount the next time they visited his family's restaurant. She's lucky to have a friend like him in her life.

The funniest reaction she got when she told her friends was Kiba giving her a confused look and asking if it was 'in a friend's way.' After an explanation, he seemed to get it, though.

Patting down the fabric of her lavender slip dress, she looks in the mirror, huffing slightly before turning her body left and right, and to the back as well while peeking over her shoulder. The dress suits her, only slightly form-fitting and down to her knees, but the issue now arises of what jewelry to wear. A simple dress like this could go with just about any sort of jewelry, so she snatches a simple silver-colored chain with a pendant shaped like a cecelia flower off of her necklace stand, and then quickly puts on some matching earrings before grabbing her makeup.

Someone lightly knocks on the door to her room as Ino is putting the last touches of eyeliner on, and she calls out a soft 'come in!' to whoever it is. It's her dad, back home from work, with reading glasses pushed up against his blond hair and feet clad in worn house slippers, still in his work clothes.

"Hey," he greets, and Ino sets down her eyeliner to give him a quick wave back, shooting him a small smile too. 

"Hey, dad. How was work?" 

In response, she gets a sigh, Inochi leaning against the doorframe instead of coming inside--he's odd like that, not entering a previously room unless someone calls him in or he's given some other kind of permission. "Tiring, but manageable. Are you getting ready for that party at Naruto's?" 

"Yeah," Ino chirps, a smile on her face. Even though she doesn't get to talk to her dad much, the two have an amicable relationship, and she enjoys talking to him. 

"You know, you don't need to get all dressed up for the party--aren't parties more casual these days?"

She huffs softly in (light-hearted) annoyance. "You haven't been to a proper party since I came into your life, how would you know?"

As soon as her dad's face changes to something looking vaguely hurt, Ino instantly backpedals, feeling a small sort of panic start to set in. "Oh, crap, I didn't mean it like that, I know you've been to work parties and things-" She's cut off with a small chuckle, Inochi's expression changing into one of mirth instead. 

"No, no, you're right, I don't really know how kids these days like to party," he says, smiling now, although he looks slightly exasperated. "Man, the last party I went to was just me and a couple of co-workers and Shikaku dislocated his big toe tripping down some steps because he misjudged one. Craziest thing that happened at a party in a while for me."

The wildest thing that has happened at party that Ino went to was, well....it ended up with a trip to the ER, a broken sliding glass door, and Shikamaru needing her help having to scrub blood out of a carpet. No one died, though, and no friendships were wholly ruined.

"Still, I'm sorry-" she starts to say, but her dad cuts her off again before she could continue. 

"No need, and remember, if anything bad happens, give me a call and I'll drive over there." 

Sometimes, she thinks about how lucky she is to have a dad like him. 

"'Course. Love you, dad."

When Ino finally gets to the party, it's already, as the kids like to say, bumping. Even though it's not a massive party, there are a couple people hanging out on the front porch, and she can hear music and chatter from inside. Sakura said she'd already been inside, according to text, so Ino brushes past the people on the porch with small excuse me's before entering in through the front door. 

Like all of Naruto's parties, there are three separate groups of people that are gathered on the bottom floor of his father's house (the top-floor is off limits most of the time):

1. The people properly (if there even is a proper way of doing so) partying on one side of the living room, some dancing to the loud music and others holding cups and chatting in the same area. Ino sometimes finds herself in that group, but today's a different day. 

2. The people lounging about in the other side of the living room area, sprawled on couches and mostly quiet, save for the occasional ask of someone to pass them something. Shikamaru's there the most, and currently he's next to an open window, engrossed in a deep conversation with a guy that Ino doesn't recognize, while occasionally puffing on a well rolled blunt. Where he got it, she has no idea, considering that they're all (well, not all, but most of them are close enough) adults but still not old enough to legally purchase weed.

3. The people in the kitchen who just want a quieter area to hang out that's not outside. That's where she's heading now, as Sakura mentioned in a second text that she would be there with someone who's never been to a party before.

Well, she hadn't gone to the party to meet new people, but eh. Meeting new people is always fun.

As soon as she sees Sakura, her heart catches in her throat briefly, and the world only seems to focus to her. Her girlfriend is dressed in a bright pink crop top and baggy ripped jeans, numerous bracelets clacking together as she emphatically gestures her hands to the person she's currently speaking to, pink dangle earrings in the shape of popsicles catching the bright kitchen lights. When Ino calls out her name and rushes towards her, Sakura beams, catching her in a hug and spinning her around in a circle before carefully setting her back down. 

"Hey, Ino! You look...wow," her girlfriend starts, looking her up and down, and Ino beams, striking a goofy pose before laughing.

"So do you! I love the earrings, they're so cute." Sakura lightly taps at her earrings with a finger, obviously flattered. 

"Thanks--anyway, there's the person I want to introduce you to," she says, lightly taking her hand in hers in a tender gesture before using her free one to gesture to the person she was previously speaking to. "This is Haku."

Haku's about the same height as the two of them, wearing a shin-length blush pink dress patterned with little swirls that Ino wouldn't be surprised if it was pulled straight from a vintage catalogue, judging by the ribbon tie around the waist and the overall cut of it. They're pretty in a doll-like way, with large brown eyes and long dark hair hanging to their mid-back without a strand out of place, a thick black choker wound around their neck that their hands are now adjusting carefully.

"Hello," they greet, dipping their head in a friendly manner, and Ino smiles back, giving them a small wave with her free hand. 

"Hello to you too--I heard this is your first time at a party, right? What do you think?" she chirps in response. 

Haku seems to contemplate this, allowing the trio to hear the sound of something clattering to the ground, followed by slightly panicked shouts (someone must have dropped a cup and spilled something, easily fixable but messy nonetheless). "It's...a lot, if I am going to be honest. I've been to other parties before, but they were much smaller, and not with people my age."

"A good kind of a lot, or a bad kind of a lot?" Ino questions, cocking her head to the side, and Sakura gives her hand an affectionate little squeeze. She squeezes her hand back.

They shrug slightly, a small smile playing at the corners of their lips. "A good kind of a lot. I don't get out very much."

"I've known Haku for...what, going on four years now? And this is the first time he's come to a party that I've invited him to--all the other outings I've had with him were just with me 'n Sasuke and Naruto," Sakura chimes in. Ino blinks in confusion.

Even though Ino isn't upset, per se, she's a little annoyed. "Wait, you've known Haku for four years and didn't introduce us? I would've loved to meet him sooner." Sakura has the grace to look embarrassed, a small flush on her round cheeks, and Ino can't exactly stay mad at her girlfriend when she's this damn cute.

It's Haku who responds to the question, also looking faintly embarrassed. "That was on my terms...only recently have I become comfortable with being around new people--for Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto's case, we only happened to meet by chance." He tugs at his choker slightly, and Ino wonders if it's too tight around his neck. It doesn't appear to be, but she wouldn't be able to tell unless she got too close. "But, I am glad to meet more of their friends."

"And I'm glad to meet you too." Haku seems to grow less tense now, shoulders slumping minutely.

"Thank you."

Before she could say anything else, she hears the familiar voice of the host of the party, and suddenly she finds her girlfriend yanked away from her and wrapped in a tight hug by said host. Sakura yelps in surprise, and Naruto instantly lets go, laughing in an awkward way while raising his hand. Dressed in a loose white shirt with a picture of a cat on it and jeans, he's much more casually dressed than the trio.

"Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to startle y--oh, Haku! And Ino!" Ino rolls her eyes playfully at the blond, and he visibly pouts when he sees her expression. Haku giggles quietly, covering his mouth with a single hand, and she notices the grey-blue polish on his fingernails. 

"Naruto, watch it, I could've flung you into my girlfriend," Sakura grumbles, lightly socking Naruto in the arm.

He rubs the spot that was hit, still pouting like a kicked puppy. "I was just happy to see you....well, you and Haku and Ino, but Ino was kind of standing off to the side and a bit behind you, and if I surprise-hugged Haku I think he would've actually flung me into Ino."

Ino examines Haku's bared arms curiously. He doesn't look like he's got much muscle, but..you never know. 

"And we're happy to see you too," Haku hums with a soft smile, and Ino finds amusement in the way that Naruto's face sprouts pink splotches like flowers and the way he ducks his head shyly. 

Maybe she'll rib him a little. Should be fun.

"Awe, looks like you like him a lot."

As soon as the words leave her mouth, Sakura bursts into laughter, and Naruto groans in mortification, fisting his hand lightly in his hair. Haku reacts in the same way he reacted to Naruto greeting him earlier, with a quiet giggle and a hand over the mouth. 

"Funny story, there," Sakura starts, cutting off her laugh with a small wipe across her lips which smears some of her lipstick, and the blond look more mortified than he already is. "When we all first met, Naruto thought Haku was a girl-"

"Sakura," Naruto whines, but a small flick on the shoulder from Haku, who accompanies the flick with a smile and a shrug, stops him from saying any more. 

"Anyways, back to the story--Naruto thought Haku was a girl, and like, instantly got a crush." Sakura sounds like she's told this story many times, but finds amusement in it every time. "Fast-forward two months after we all met, Naruto goes over to Haku when him and I were going somewhere together and asks him to dinner."

Haku sighs quietly, clasping his hands together near his middle in an idle gesture. "In part, it was my fault; I didn't inform any of you I was a boy." The pink-haired girl shrugs.

"Eh, no big deal anymore. So, Naruto asks him out, and Haku goes, 'I'm sorry I didn't tell you this earlier, but I'm a boy.' And then, later, Naruto goes over to me after talking with Haku and goes, 'How was he a boy?! He's prettier than you!' I got mad at him for that, but eh, he's not that wrong."

While Haku's objectively pretty in that doll-like way, Ino remains of the firm belief that Sakura's the most beautiful person in the world. Nothing's going to be changing that anytime soon.

"Honestly, with Naruto, that tracks," Ino points out, and this makes Naruto look even more embarrassed, his face now splotchy red instead of a splotchy pink. 

"Okay, today's not the 'let's embarrass Naruto' day, so...I'm going to borrow Haku and introduce him to Shikamaru." And with that, Naruto's intertwined one of his arms with Haku's and is pulling the oldest of the group out of the kitchen and down the hall to where Shikamaru last was. Haku doesn't seem perturbed in the slightest, his face only showing faint amusement as he's dragged off. 

Watching them go, Sakura tuts softly, shaking her head and taking Ino's hand again. "Every time."

"I thought it was a funny story--and Haku seems like a cool guy, a bit strange, but whatever. Everyone's a bit strange," she says, bumping her shoulder lightly against her girlfriend's. Sakura does the same back, leaning in to kiss Ino's cheek right after. "Also, where's Sasuke? Isn't he usually at Naruto's parties?"

This question seems to befuddle Sakura, and she reaches into her jean pocket with her free hand, pulling out her phone and checking something on it. "Uh, apparently he had to deal with some family issues, and couldn't show up." Ino winces in sympathy.

"Yeesh, poor guy. Family stuff when it comes to the Uchihas or Hyuugas never make for a good time," she grumbles. 

"He said that it shouldn't be anything major," Sakura continues after a moment, still looking down at her phone (and Ino resists the urge to peek over her shoulder). "So things should be fine with him, and he'll be at the next party so he can mack on his boyfriend."

What?

Ino blinks, slowly. "Boyfriend? Since when did Sasuke have a boyfriend?" Sakura has the grace to look slightly ashamed of herself.

"Ooh, yeah....he started dating Naruto, like, around the same time we started dating," her girlfriend replies, giving her an awkward little smile. "Hasn't exactly made it public yet 'cause of his family, but Naruto told me, so...."

Poor Ino is flabbergasted. 

Chapter Text

Omoi's been waiting for Karui for about thirty minutes. 

She's fifteen minutes late. 

Now, any normal person would probably assume that she'd run into traffic, or something, or stopped to see her Konoha boyfriend that Omoi doesn't know the name of yet (and that worries him). But Omoi has enough anxiety to take down an elephant, and it's seriously kicking in now. 

What if she'd gotten hit by a car on the way here? What if she's in the hospital and mad that he's not there? What-

(Worrying so much isn't going to help, Omoi. Give yourself a break.)

He sighs, pressing his fingers against his temples and leaning forward, propping his elbows on his knees. The bench he's sitting at, that overlooks the small skate park that Karui said she'd be meeting up with him at, since she needed to go to Konoha and she offered to take him with her for some reason. The most likely possibility is that she ran into her boyfriend and was talking to him, because she's a safe driver and she's even safer when she's in an unfamiliar place (although her road rage is terrifying no matter where she is). 

Omoi nudges his worn-out skateboard with his foot. The only reason he isn't skating now is he'd left all his safety gear with Karui, and she wasn't there. Maybe he'd chew her out a little when she got here. 

The older teen is pulled away from his thoughts (and his movements to take out his phone) when he hears footsteps, accompanied by a small curse and the sound of a skateboard clattering to the ground before rolling away. 

The person who'd made all that noise doesn't appear to be much older than him, at first. A girl, probably slightly shorter than him, is sitting at the edge of the main bowl of the skatepark, holding a cane with both hands and staring morosely at a skateboard that looks like it's seen more than a few rough days idling at the bottom of the bowl. Long rust-red hair is pulled back into a ponytail, several strands already coming loose, and her baggy jeans have white paint stains on them. From the looks of it, she'd dropped her skateboard by accident, and it rolled away. 

"Hey," Omoi calls out, standing up. "Do you want me to get your skateboard?" The girl looks up, surprised, but nods with a small grumble.

"Yeah, I'd get it myself, but if I fall down I could break something," she responds, grumbling again and kicking her sneaker-clad feet against the concrete. "Got weak bones or somethin'."

This confuses Omoi, as why would someone with weak bones want to go to a skatepark, with a skateboard, and no other protective gear? But he doesn't let it show on his face, and carefully scrambles into the bowl, grabbing the skateboard before clambering up to the edge to sit beside her, passing the skateboard back. 

She grins, revealing teeth that are definitely sharpened, because no regular person would have all their teeth pointed like that. "Thanks. Sorry 'bout that, I thought I had a good grip on it." At least she's polite.

"Were you planning on skating without a helmet or anything?" he asks, furrowing his brow. "That's incredibly unsafe, you could fall and break something and then I'd have to call the ambulance." 

The girl sighs, adjusting the cane and skateboard in her hands so that the skateboard is resting on her lap and the cane is held in the hand that belongs to the arm pinning the skateboard there. "Thanks for the worry, kid, but I've been through worse."

Kid?

"How..old are you?" You don't look like you're that older than me..." She laughs as soon as he finishes his sentence, putting a hand near her mouth in an attempt to stifle her cackles. Omoi winces slightly at the loud sound.

"You're funny! I'm twenty-five--my name's Ameyuri," she responds, lips quirking off to the sides as she speaks. "You?"

"Omoi."

Ameyuri nods in acknowledgement, tapping her fingers against the cane. "Nice to meetcha.' 

It's quiet for a couple of moments, before she points at his now-abandoned skateboard near the bench."You've got your board, why aren't you skating?" 

Omoi furrows his brow a little more, nipping at the tip of his thumb in a way he does whenever he's worried about something. "I don't like to skate unless I've got my helmet and kneepads, otherwise I could get hurt and then bankrupt my parents with hospital bills and then things just go downhill from there."

There's a beat, then: "Why don't you have your helmet or kneepads?" He sighs, worrying on his thumb a little harder.

"I left them with a friend, but she's running late. Hasn't texted me or anything."

Ameyuri doesn't respond to this right away, but instead stands up, wobbling slightly and setting her skateboard on the ground, in prime position to go down the bowl. Her cane is lightly tossed away from the main structure, lying on the grass just aside of the concrete.

Understandably, Omoi starts to (internally) scream. 

Externally, all he does is say, "Hey, be careful!", before scrambling back and standing up. He's given a wave in response, Ameyuri grinning again and shooting off a mock salute in his direction right after. 

"Relax, I'll be fine, I've been skating since I was ten! And I've never worn a helmet before, and I'm fine."

Very pointedly, Omoi turns and looks in the direction of where she tossed her cane. Ameyuri has the grace to look a tad bit ashamed, but she's still smiling. 

"That's not from any skateboarding injuries." 

Every time Ameyuri opens her mouth, Omoi grows more and more worried. "Just how injury-prone are you?" 

As she prepares to drop into the bowl on the board, shifting her position and balancing carefully, she replies cheekily with, "Very!"

At first, her drop goes well, both her feet remaining on the board as she heads down. Once down, she seems to fist-pump  to herself before attempting to build up speed in order to go up on a nearby ramp, and Omoi has to admit that she's a decent skater. Ameyuri's claims on having skated for over a decade seem more realistic now (not that he was doubting her, per se--oh, forget it, he was, not like he's going to tell her anyway.

Unfortunately, as soon as she tries to get up the ramp, her skateboard seems to go flying out from under her and up the ramp, and she lands flat on her back with a loud thud. For a few seconds, she doesn't move, and Omoi starts to panic, pulling out his phone in order to call an ambulance if need be as he scrambles down to go check on her.

"Hey, I'm okay, no need to panic," Ameyuri calls out to him, raising a hand and waving it at him, still lying on her back. "Just a bit stunned, but I'll be fine."

Omoi nips at the edge of his thumb again. Stupid habit.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

The woman at the bottom of the ramp flips him a thumbs up. "Peachy as the day i was born. Actually, wait, that wasn't peachy, I apparently screamed my head off that day."

He sighs, pocketing his phone, but still continues to walk towards her, eventually sitting on the concrete next to where she's laying. Despite the pain she's most likely in, there's a smile on Ameyuri's face, like she's just had a wonderful time. 

"You look happy," Omoi decides to comment, crossing his legs in order to get comfortable. Ameyuri looks at him curiously, propping herself up on her elbows and moving to cross her own legs (good, she can still move).

"What do you mean?" 

He frowns, picking at the loose piece of skin on his thumb that had come loose while he was nipping at the digit. "Even though you just wiped out in the middle of a skatepark, and hit the ground hard, you seem....elated." 

Ameyuri shrugs. "Well...I mean, I've been through worse, but it's kind of fun, trying and not getting things the first time. Gives you more time to try again, and then when you get it it's the best feeling ever." 

There's a good point that she raises, about the feeling of 'getting something'--but Omoi will still continue to worry. 

Reaching into his hoodie pocket, he pulls out two lollipops (he'd been planning on giving one to Karui, but Karui wasn't there, and it seems like Ameyuri would need it more than his friend would) and offers one to the redhead. With a small blink of confusion, she accepts it, unwrapping it and popping it in her mouth.

"Damn, no one's given me candy in, like, years," she says around the lollipop, humming in contentment. "Thanks, Omoi."

"You're welcome."

Chapter Text

If Itachi had gone back a certain number of years, and told his younger self that he would be, in the same certain number of years, someone with friends outside of his family that weren't Mr. Hatake or Yamato, his younger self would stare incredulously at him before asking if he had lost his mind. 

But, now, as he sits quietly on a couch, listening to Deidara and Hidan bicker about something-or-other while Kisame fiddles with his guitar in the corner, he's happy that he's ended up here.

Nothing can change the fact that he misses his family, but sometimes that pain can be forgotten whenever he's around his boyfriend and friends. 

Speaking of his boyfriend, Deidara promptly flops down on his lap, staring up at him with wide blue eyes. His fake eye is lopsided, lending him a cartoonish look, and Itachi adjusts his own thick-lensed glasses as he glances down at him. "Something the matter?" he questions.

"No, just want affection," is the muttering he gets in response, and Itachi settles for lightly stroking at his boyfriend's long hair, which for once is free from the long blond ponytail he keeps it in. From the kitchen, Hidan makes a loud noise of annoyance, slamming the knife he was holding (why he was holding the knife, Itachi thinks he was cutting orange slices or something) down hard against the cutting board. Kisame pauses in his tuning of his guitar to stare daggers at him.

"Keep this PDA out of my sight, y'all are real fuckin' nasty sometimes."

Deidara props himself up on his elbows, reaching up with one hand to readjust his fake eye and staring at Hidan with a look only slightly softer than Kisame's sharp glare. His boyfriend's bony elbows are digging hard into his thighs now, but he doesn't mind the pain.

(He's felt worse, after all, but now's not the time for thinking of it.)

"I get that you're a clinically diagnosed sadomasochist, but you oughta be more careful with that knife, hm."

The silver-haired man gives the knife in his hand a cursory glance. "You think I'd--you know what, fair, I've done shit like that before." Now knowing that his friend wouldn't do anything too terrible, Deidara flops back down, and he resumes lightly petting his boyfriend's hair. 

The apartment they're in belongs to Kisame, in all technicality--Itachi is is roommate, and together they pay rent to the landlord, who's a strange older man who grumbles in annoyance every time he sees somebody younger than the age of 40. As far as Itachi can tell, Deidara lives with a friend of his called Sasori that he himself personally has only met once or twice and the two had gotten along decently, and Hidan....well, he's not that sure. At some point Itachi remembers Hidan mentioning he was staying with this man called Kakuzu, but as of current, he's unsure.

And then there are Konan, Yahiko, and Nagato. Itachi's never met them personally, but he's seen some pictures of Konan, and he has to admit--even though he is much more attracted to men than he is to women--she's quite pretty, in an elegant way. 

But being pretty was not the only defining feature of the woman known as Konan, as she was also a businesswoman that took care of those that worked for her, and also helped each of his friends and their friends in some aspect or another. He's unsure as to the specifics of this, as he has only heard about her through second-hand information.

Most of his information on Konan came from Kisame, who spoke fondly of the woman who, at one time, had flipped him over her shoulder onto the pavement because he tried to swing at her during an incident in the past (that his friend refused to elaborate on, no matter how much questioning). Knowing Kisame, it was most likely not for any reason of Konan's own doing--rather, it was possible that something triggered his fight or flight instinct, and, since Kisame's first instinct in those situations is to start swinging....it just seems the most likely cause for Konan to send him flying.

And Nagato...Itachi has heard less about him, but knew that after a severe flare-up of his chronic illness, the man was left permanently wheelchair-bound and required nearly around-the-clock care, which was primarily done by Yahiko (who doesn't come around much, but he's heard nothing but good things about him). Even though Itachi hasn't heard much about him, all stories about him pointed to him being incredibly smart, with a strange, sort of philosophical view of the world.

Itachi supposes that he himself has a strange sort of philosophical view of the world, but he isn't one to voice it often.

(Everyone around him now takes care of that for him).

A clatter somewhere behind him signals that Kisame is done tuning his guitar (a simple acoustic one that has seen better days), and heavy footsteps approach the kitchen. "If you blunt my knives by slamming them down like that, you're the one sharpening them again."

"Man, don't get your boxers in a twist, your knives are fine-"

While Itachi does care for his odd group of friends, they can be quite....temperamental, sometimes. Hidan's hair trigger temper coupled with Kisame's willingness to throw down and Sasori's meticulousness never seemed to mix all that well, and Deidara was a wild card depending on the day and even time of day.

As Sasori once so delicately put it, "Having all of us in a room together is like dropping a match above a powder keg and not expecting an explosion."

Depending on whether or not Deidara was there, the explosion could be a literal one, and not a figurative one like Itachi imagines that the older man was implying when he made that statement. Whenever it seems to get near that point, someone normally has to usher the temperamental blond outside before a fire starts.

The last fire that was started scorched a decent part of the apartment balcony, and Kisame nearly flung Deidara off of it. 

He's pulled back to reality when he feels his glasses being tugged off of his face, and his hand snaps up and grips his boyfriend's wrist in order to stop him. All the blond does in response is blink innocently up at him, as if he just wasn't trying to render Itachi temporarily blind by removing his glasses.

"You don't need to take off my glasses to get my attention," he says with a small sigh, and Deidara has the grace to look apologetic. 

"I know, I just wanted to, hm."

Itachi mutters a slightly rude term of endearment under his breath as he releases his boyfriend's wrist and lightly pets his hair. 

Chapter Text

Men can be a pain sometimes. And even though he himself is a man (well, maybe not, he's still figuring out the whole gender identity thing), he can't help but feel that statement holds true. 

Especially when all of his guardian's friends were men, and even more so when they all tend to be...quite loud. Sure, Haku likes his uncles and all, but sometimes, they don't know how to maintain an indoor voice. And if he wanted to crack open the windows to let the noise out, he might get a noise complaint from the neighbors again.

(Considering that one of his uncles has a track record of swinging at cops, it would be good if there wasn't a noise complaint).

The main culprit of noise is Jinpachi, a rather abrasive man with an eyepatch and a voice that could cut through glass. Currently, he's quiet, since his mouth is occupied with a mug of tea, so the second culprit of noise, his boyfriend (husband? Haku thinks they got married at some point) Kushimaru, is the one causing the ruckus this time.

And her auntie Yuri doesn't tend to help. She likes to.....egg them on, so to speak, and thinks it's funny.

"-look, okay, I just thought it would be funny to put those tripwires everywhere, it's not my fault that you tripped on 'em," Kushimaru is saying to Ameyuri, who just looks peeved--but not that peeved, merely a little annoyed.

"I get that you thought it was funny, but I can't risk falling around everywhere," Ameyuri grumbles in retaliation, reaching over and lightly socking the gangly man in the shoulder. "Especially since I took that tumble at that skatepark and busted up my back--nearly gave the poor guy there a heart attack."

It's at this point that Haku decides to step in, trotting over with another mug of tea in his hand and settling down on the coffee table in front of the couch, as there's no space left on it and the table can hold his weight. "Auntie's right, you know. Please be considerate." Kushimaru reaches out and gives the younger man's hair a ruffle, causing him to squeak and raise his hands to bat the errant hand away. 

"Aw, sweetie, I know that you worry, but little miss Yuri is stronger than she looks." If it weren't for the mask he has over the lower half of his face, Haku imagines that he'd be able to see a misshapen smile. 

Ameyuri doesn't seem to appreciate being called a 'little miss' in the slightest, so Kushimaru has to duck out of the way (and land on Jinpachi, who's still slowly slipping his tea) to avoid the cane being swung in his direction. The head of the cane hits the couch with a solid thunk, and the woman holding it waves it threateningly. 

"I am going to beat you to a fucking pulp, Kushi," Ameyuri threatens, and that's time time that Zabuza decides to come downstairs to see what's going on.

At the sight before him (his friend threatening another friend with her cane while his son watches on and the threatened friend's partner just continues to sip tea), Zabuza lets out an annoyed sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "If you're going to kill each other, please go outside--I highly doubt that anyone would enjoy scrubbing the blood out of the carpet."

It's at this point that Jinpachi finishes his tea, gingerly placing the mug on the coffee table before piping up with, "Bold of you to assume I'd let Yuri kill my man."

"Bold of you to assume that you could stop me," the woman shoots back, giving him a solid whack on the knee with her cane. The older man bites back a yelp of pain before making an attempt to swat her back, having to lean over Kushimaru (who leans back to make it easier) to do so. 

Used to this, Haku just watches quietly while occasionally taking sips of his tea. 

Zabuza looks like he's completely done with this situation, which is fair. "You all need to calm the fuck down before I throw you all out for being a pack of idiots." Jinpachi gasps, pressing a hand to his chest melodramatically.

"You could stand to pull that stick out of your ass and, you know, relax for once."

A frown is shot in his direction. "If I ever do, I'll be sure to bash your head in with it." The one-eyed man crows in amusement, a smile stretching across his face, before reaching over and lightly flicking Zabuza on the thigh. The errant hand is quickly swatted away.

It seems like it's Haku's time to step in before they actually resort to blows. Normally, it's Mangetsu's job to do so, but as he's not here, it's his now. 

"You all need to settle down," the youngest of the group quips, causing all eyes to be on him.

It's dead silent for several moments. Ameyuri shifts her position, crossing her legs and propping her cane up on her lap, while Kushimaru leans to the side and plops his head on his partner's shoulder. 

"...sorry, baby," Jinpachi mutters, and Haku internally sighs at the nickname that has been ever-present since the two of them had first met when Zabuza took him in. When asked the reasoning several years back, Kushimaru helpfully explained that it was because Haku is the youngest of their little group, therefore being the 'baby' of it.

(He's got lots of nicknames, and he likes all of them for the most part. The key words being most part.). "Uncle, I'm not a baby anymore."

Zabuza nods in agreement, lightly smacking Jinpachi on the back of the head. "He's an adult, and he was right about you all needing to settle down. And, don't you have an actual baby?"

"Hey, Kiru's not a baby anymore, she turned six two months ago," Kushimaru complains, leaning his head back on the couch to stare directly at the other man. "But I guess she'll always kinda be Jin and I's baby, you know? Like how Haku's always gonna be your kid, and Yuri's always gonna be our kid sister."

It's rare that Kushimaru says something that makes Zabuza pause and think, and he does, brow furrowing and lips turning slightly at the edges. Haku can't fault him for not remembering how old their child was--the two, while doting parents, didn't tend to talk about their little girl a lot, and rarely bring her around the rest of the group (they tended to leave her with a trusted neighbor when they didn't bring her around). Also, Zabuza's memory kind of sucks in regards to remembering specific ages--sometimes he forgets how old he is sometimes.

"Speaking of kids, how's Hiroki?"

How Hiroki--a sweet three and a half year old with a slew of medical issues--came into their lives is a long story that starts with Zabuza spending the night with a woman that he did not make to contact again, and who Haku never laid eyes on. And, around a year later, the same woman had given up a baby with a certain man's name on the birth certificate.

To say that it was surprising was severely understating it. But, to everyone's surprise, Zabuza stepped up and legally took the child under his care.

While he could spend days talking about what had happened after (how little Hiroki would sleep fitfully, how his own father was afraid to touch him at first without fear of causing serious harm to him because he believed he hurt everyone he touched, and the numerous doctor visits because of what the mother did while Hiroki wasn't even born yet), there wasn't much time for that. What mattered was the now and what would happen next, with the future looking unsure on the horizon. 

But Haku has dealt with worse odds before, He could handle these.

"He's fine--he's at daycare now," Haku replies, crossing his legs and lightly fiddling with the hem of his long skirt. "I'll have to pick him up in about two hours." And then help him with the feeding tube, his mind supplies, because since he wants to play at daycare he will play and something would've happened that would cause it to get messed up. The daycare workers would've tried to prevent him from running and falling, but the tube always tangles in something and it pulls and it hurts, and you can only imagine how much that hurts being that small.

Ameyuri frowns, cocking her head to the side much like a bird would. "You're worrying again, kiddo. You've got that look on your face." He blinks a couple of times, reaching up to lightly knuckle the skin below his eyes. 

"Sorry, auntie."

Zabuza doesn't speak a single word, but he's moved from behind the couch to the front, hovering a little closer to the group. If there were space, he would've sat down, but since there isn't he just leans against the armrest, staring directly at him in a way that would be intimidating, if Haku didn't know him so well by this point

"Hon, you don't need to apologize for worrying--you've been worrying about everyone ever since you were born, I bet," Kushimaru jokes in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood, from his place curled up against his partner. "You probably popped out of your ma worrying your little head off about her."

Honestly, his uncle isn't that wrong. Ever since he was small, he's worried about any sort of family figure of his--be it his mother and father, or Zabuza, or his auntie Ameyuri whenever she had a flare-up. He'd do anything he could in his little brain to help.

Sometimes, while appreciated, it wasn't enough. And even though that was out of his control, the guilt still lived in his mind.

When he lets out a small giggle at the comment, the tension that was in the room seems to drain in the way that it tends to do whenever humor is found in a comment. It's most visible on Jinpachi, who's now fully slumped down on the couch while balancing the mug of tea on his chest. Haku's honestly not sure how he lays comfortably like that, but then again, he's seen Kushimaru literally pretzel himself into a ball in a drunken attempt to fit inside of a trashcan.

(It's a memory he'd be happy to wipe from his mind, despite the hilarity of it all).

"You're a worrier when it comes to Kiru," Ameyuri points out, and Kushimaru swats at his friend's leg, sending her scooching back on the couch. "Hey, I'm right! Someone back me up here!" 

Haku giggles again, covering his mouth with one hand, and Zabuza sighs, preparing to take his turn in playing referee. 

Chapter Text

According to Sasori, god was never merciful.

And he sure as hell isn't merciful now, with his cruel reminder that you are not strong enough and you are too weak to do anything right as the redhead tried to clamber out of bed this only to fall directly on his face--because of legs that were missing from below the knee. The accident that took them was called 'an act of god,' due to the combination of a rainy day, a strike of lightning way too close to the road, and a terrified driver who swerved in a panic and struck an oncoming vehicle that a young man with artistic aspirations was driving.  

He can remember the rain, and the glass, and the fact that he could barely feel what remained of his legs. Part of him is glad that he can't remember the exact details of it all.

Sometimes, he curses god. But then he realizes that there's no point.

God (if there even is a god--Sasori's agnostic border-lining on atheist) wasn't merciful to people like Deidara or even Itachi, dooming them to fates such as mothers that hated them or a body that could barely hold itself together properly. God wasn't merciful to anyone, for the matter. 

Maybe there isn't a god, and life just sucks, sometimes. He likes that idea a bit better than there actually being a god and god sucking. 

After fumbling around for a couple minutes, he manages to get both of his legs on and up, bracing himself on the nightstand for several moments before strolling over to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Today would be a calm one; he only had to work at the clinic for around five hours, and afterwards will visit the local art studio to finish up two commission pieces as well as help teach a class considering the teacher got a cold last-minute (and they're paying him). This particular class is just a basics in sculpture, meaning that there would be a lot of molding clay and a lot of, quite frankly, sorry excuses for art. If Deidara didn't have classes around that time, he'd probably be there, making the ugliest works of art known to man just to tick him off. 

Thankfully, Deidara has cleared his things from the stairs, so Sasori has an easier time getting down them than normal after freshening up and changing into work clothes. Slipping and falling would make his already unpleasant start to the day even worse. 

It's quiet downstairs, save for the idle ticking of the clock and the sound of someone shifting around on the couch. The kid must have slept down there instead of his room, probably due to the fact that he had to work a late-night shift and would have been too tired to make it up the stairs. His suspicions are confirmed when a head of messy blond hair pokes out from the other side of the couch, eyeliner all smudged around his eyes. His prosthetic eye is askew, but there's no comment needed for that.

"Good morning," Sasori states before Deidara can say anything, already walking to the kitchen to get his breakfast together. "I have to head into work soon since I overslept, and you...I think you just have classes all day, unless I'm mistaken." Having a conversation with someone barely awake would be rude, but it's their usual song and dance. 

"Three classes, yeah," comes the reply as the redhead gets some instant coffee started (cold brew--he couldn't be bothered to heat it up right now). "Two are online, so I don't have to get going anywhere anytime soon."

Not seeing much point in the continuing the conversation (especially since Deidara has already gotten up and is already halfway up the stairs to presumably clean up), Sasori just sips quietly at his coffee while leaning against the counter. He'll need to bring his cane with him when he goes to work today.

After a quick breakfast and a pit stop to the hallway closet to grab his work bag and cane, he's ready to head to work. The clinic is a twenty-minute walk coupled with a thirty-minute bus ride to get there, and since the weather is nice, Sasori doesn't even need to worry about bringing an umbrella with him. The commute goes quietly as well, with the only notable incident being pigeons pecking at an entire loaf of bread near the bus stop. 

It's quiet in the clinic, the only sounds being from the receptionist, a bright-eyed girl called Sakura with pink hair pulled into a stubby ponytail, tapping away at the computer with violet-painted nails. "You're here early," she remarks, not bothering to look up from what she's doing. 

Sasori sighs faintly, leaning more weight against his cane as he idles by the desk to wait for his patient schedule (shorter than the doctor's, as he's a RN). "I woke up early." Sakura doesn't attempt to make any more conversation, knowing that the older man doesn't like to talk much, and soon enough gives him his schedule and lets him retreat to his small office to settle in.

Most of the patients are rather routine (they were the ones that came in around once every two months for various chronic issues, and would see him or Shizune before seeing the main doctor of the clinic), but there's a new one on the list. They'd managed to snag the first appointment of the day, and the main reason for visiting was the changing of a primary care provider. Essentially, he would be going over medical history and making sure that everything is in the system is correct before said patient goes to see Dr. Senju.

A couple of minutes of looking through the new additions to the patient database gives him more detailed information on the patient: Kimimaro Kaguya, age twenty, with osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis, transferring to a new primary care provider for undisclosed reasons. It also says he lives a good distance from the clinic, and therefore would only visit every two months. 

Hm. Well, nothing too out of the ordinary for the clinic--new patients come in all the time, even though the clinic itself is rather small. 

As Kimimaro's appointment time isn't for another half-hour, Sasori decides to do some tidying up around his office, stepping out to borrow the vacuum from the cleaning closet and wiping down surfaces coated with a thin layer of dust. At some point, he hears Dr. Senju arrive and exchange pleasantries with Sakura, but Sasori doesn't bother to go and greet the doctor. He's more of a recluse, and the doctor gets that.

He's organizing some loose papers at his desk when the time rolls around, causing him to have to set down the papers and head out to the small waiting area to see if this Kimimaro is on time.

There are only two people in the waiting room, seated on the couch and quietly conversing with each other--one appearing to be a young woman with dark hair pulled back in a bun and a long floral skirt, and another appearing to be a pale-haired young man with a light grey cane decorated with miscellaneous stickers balanced against his leg as he sits. 

"Kimimaro Kaguya?" Sasori calls out (not too loudly, since there's no need in such a small space), and the pale-haired man glances at him before rising to his feet, leaning his weight on the cane as he does so. The young woman seems to make to stand up, but the man turns his head and gives her a look that Sasori can't see.

"Haku, I'll be fine," he can hear Kimimaro say, to which the woman (Haku) settles back down on the couch, albeit somewhat grudgingly. Using the hand that isn't holding the cane, Kimimaro gives her a quick pat on the head in apology before glancing back at Sasori. "I'm Kimimaro--am I late?"

Blinking twice, Sasori shakes his head. "No, you're right on time. Follow me."

Working at the clinic pays good, but damn does it tire him out. The walk back home before he has to head to the studio feels better than usual, the air around him blessedly cool.

When he gets back, Deidara's there, tapping away at something on his laptop, the keys clicking loudly beneath his fingers. The sound normally bothers Sasori, but it doesn't really have that same affect as it usually does--maybe it's because he's so tired, he doesn't really care. He probably would only react to a loud noise if the brat chucked a firecracker inside, or something.

"How was work?" the blond questions, glancing over to get a good look at the man that just entered. He's wiped off the messy eyeliner, and his hair is pulled back in a loose bun with bangs clipped away from his face. 

Sasori grumbles under his breath, setting his cane to the side and going to dump his work bag back in the closet. "Fine. Nothing too interesting." Deidara stares at him for another moment, seemingly expecting the other to say more, but when he gets nothing he turns back to his laptop. It's the usual song and dance from them--nothing new. 

What's new in this particular instance is that there appears to be a medium-sized half-formed abomination of clay sculpture cooling on the coffee table, the wood of the table protected by some sheets of newspaper (where Deidara got it, he has no idea--they don't have a lot of newspaper laying around).

"...When did you make that?" is Sasori's first question, and Deidara shrugs in return, turning to face from from where he's seated on the couch.

"Like, an hour ago, hm," he replies, blinking innocently. "Do you like it?"

Does he like it? Hell no. He's seen Deidara put effort in sculptures, and this....isn't that. Sasori can't even tell what it's supposed to be--his best guess is that it's supposed to be some kind of horror movie monster.

"It's.....fine," he forces out, and Deidara can obviously tell, as he stops tapping on his keyboard to shoot him the stinkeye.

"Not to you, it's not." 

He will admit defeat, for now. "You're right. I can't even tell what it's supposed to be, and it's ugly." A melodramatic gasp is giving in response.

"It's not ugly, it's art! Just because you can be a stuffy old man about art doesn't mean it's not art, hm."

"How can something be art if it's just a lump of clay? I know most art is just up to interpretation, but I have no idea how anyone could interpret that."

This kind of argument is common in their household--low stakes and artistic differences galore. Sasori doesn't wholeheartedly hate all of Deidara's art, but he just couldn't get it sometimes. Especially now, of all times.

"Maybe if you looked at it some more, you'd get it, hm! It's not my fault that you find it difficult to do that."

Sasori pinches the bridge of his nose, not bothering to hide the annoyed sigh he lets out. 

Chapter Text

It's nice being able to visit your family once in a while--getting a couple days off from his rather demanding job and getting his stoic and closed-off roommate (however he bagged a boyfriend, Kisame would never know) to come with made things even nicer. 

The drive is a few hours, with Itachi's cheek pressed against the passenger seat window as he napped. A small, small part of him wants to suddenly brake the car and jerk the sleeping passenger awake, but that's a dick move, plus it'd be like waking up Samehada from a deep nap. That cat has claws, and while Itachi's nails are always neatly trimmed short, he can hit like a goddamn pro wrestler despite his external willowy appearance. 

They'd only physically fought once, around the time they first met. That was a difficult time for Itachi, especially--freshly kicked out of his home and full of emotions he couldn't understand. 

Kisame hopes that Itachi would at least get along with his family, and vice-versa. If they didn't, this would sure make things a hell of a lot more difficult. 

To put it politely, his family is full of nutjobs. Sure, he loves them all and would probably kill or seriously maim anyone that tried messing with the ones that couldn't bite back, and sometimes one of them would piss him off enough for him to want to smack them (primarily, his second youngest brother), but most of them are complete nutjobs. 

His mom's probably the most normal of the bunch. Nana Hoshigaki is an imposing woman with a glare that could kill and hair consistently cropped short because she couldn't be bothered with styling it, but she has a soft side for her kids and her husband--Kisame's stepfather. That man is the father of his two youngest siblings, a severely agoraphobic nineteen year old who never leaves his room and an eight-year-old mute girl who likes to jump on people. Sukehiro's pretty damn decent in Kisame's eyes. 

Now, his other younger brother, who's a full-grown man with diagnosed antisocial personality disorder and heavily introverted (and yet, somehow, having a long-term girlfriend), most likely wouldn't be there. But better safe than sorry, as Itachi would mutter whenever he'd grab his cane before going out.

When the car drives over a bump in the rode, Itachi is jerked awake, blinking a couple of times and scrubbing at his eyes. He doesn't have his glasses on today, so his eyesight is severely limited--upon being asked one time, Itachi said that it was difficult for him to see anything past two meters or so without those thick-lensed glasses, and even those weren't much help with the steady deterioration of his eyes. "Are we almost there?"

"Almost. a few minutes out, unless there's a tree in the road or something."

The younger man goes quiet after the question, scratching lightly at a spot above his knee that Kisame assumes a bandaged-over injury is. Itachi is very accident-prone for various reasons, and this injury could have been from running too hard into the bathroom counter and cutting his leg open. Poor guy's skin is thinner than a sheet of plastic wrap.

They arrive at the house a couple minutes later, tucked away from the main road of the town by a winding driveway and some trees. It hasn't changed much since the last time Kisame came to visit about three months back, the only main difference being a new set of curtains in the windows what he remembers to be Ayato's room, now bright blue instead of a drab tan color. Ayato is the second-youngest of his siblings and most likely wouldn't come down to say hi to any guests--unlike the his youngest sibling Suni, who is now barreling down the dirt and gravel driveway as soon as he pulls the parking brake. 

Noticing Itachi's worried look at seeing the child take off down the driveway to the car (most likely just a pale blob with his poor vision), Kisame shoots him a grin and a shrug, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening the car door. "Suni's just like that--she likes having people over." 

As soon as Kisame's out of the car with the driver's side door closed, Suni takes a running leap at him, managing to wrap her arms and legs around his torso before scuttling onto his back like a racoon. She looks scruffier than usual today, with her pale hair all mussed up and her feet bare, the hem of her old floral skirt caked with dirt. 

"Hi, punk," he greets her cheerfully, reaching behind him to lightly pat at her head. The front door of the house opens as soon as Suni wraps her arms around his neck in a play-attack, Sukehiro stepping out and leaning against the railing of the deck. The man is tall, about Kisame's own height, with similar long pale hair and grey eyes to Suni.

Now with her hands in front of his face, Suni signs out a quick greeting before going back to throttling the life out of him. Sukehiro seems bemused by the whole situation, while Itachi (who had stepped out of the car by now with his cane) looks more confused. 

"Great to see you," his stepfather says with a friendly grin, like Kisame isn't in the process of being throttled half to death by an eight-year-old. Kisame grins back at his stepfather, reaching up to tap below his right eye with one finger while his other hand loosens Suni's grip from around his neck. 

"Good to see you too--no eyepatch today?" 

His stepfather shrugs, crossing his arms idly. One of his eyelids is forever closed, due to him losing an eye in some kind of accident before he'd even met Nana. "Nah. I've got the day off from work, so no need. Is that your friend that you mentioned?"

Itachi gives Sukehiro a small nod in greeting, weight leaned against the white cane that doubled as one that helped him survey land and also so his legs wouldn't give out. "My name is Itachi--Kisame told me that your name is Sukehiro, correct?

The man positively beams, and Suni clambers back around Kisame so that he can hold her in his arms (and he does, letting her curl up against his chest). "Mm-hm! It's nice to meet you, Itachi." Itachi inclines his head respectfully, carefully making his way over to the front door. Kisame follows, making a note to grab the bags they'd brought later, considering that his arms are currently full of little sister. 

"Is ma home?" Kisame questions his stepfather, and he shakes his head, making sure that his stepson and his guest take off their shoes at the door (Nana's a stickler for rules, and one of the more important ones being 'no shoes in the house'). 

"She's on her way back from work now. Ayato is in his room, if you'd like to go talk to him." When Suni starts wriggling, Kisame gently sets her down, allowing her to go over to Itachi and curiously stare at him. "He hasn't even left his room other than to use the bathroom for about two months."

So it was that bad, huh.

After glancing back at Itachi and Suni (who now appear to be engaging in a staring contest in the foyer of the home), Kisame gives Sukehiro a brief nod before making his way through the one-story house over to Ayato's room. The door to the room as a Do Not Enter sign hanging haphazardly on it, the masking tape curled away from the wood. He smooths it down before rapping his knuckles lightly on the door. "Ayato? It's Kisame."

A small 'come in' comes from within, and Kisame tests the handle before pushing the door open, entering before shutting the door behind him. Ayato's room is small and cluttered, with numerous strands of pale yellow fairy lights making up for the light that could not get in from behind the blackout curtains (that the blue ones visible from outside must be hiding), the walls decorated with posters and photographs alike. 

Ayato himself is seated on the bed with his legs crossed, dressed in an oversized grey shirt with a faded print, dyed blue hair similar to his own hanging limply around the teenager's face. Not wanting to get too close to his brother just yet, Kisame settles himself on a spot on the carpet--the one chair has some plushies on it, and Ayato hates it when people move his stuff.

"How've you been?" he questions, and Ayato blinks his hazy brown eyes open, looking faintly surprised that his older brother is there. "You've got new curtains." Another quiet blink.

"...Mom thought they would look nice, so I let her in to do them." Ayato uncrosses his legs and scoots off the bed, sitting across from Kisame on the blue carpet all while not looking away from him. "And I'm okay. Everything has been the same for me."

Of course it has. 

His youngest brother hasn't left the house for around four years now save for two doctor's appointments (that he had to get dragged to, no less), preferring the comfort and safety of the familiar space instead of venturing into the scary world out there. To Ayato, outside is scary--outside is not safe, hardly anywhere is safe because of what a cruel bastard did to him when he was younger. If Nana hadn't gotten to them first (and subsequently went to court for aggravated assault), Kisame would have strangled the son of a bitch to death with his bare hands. 

The extended family and family friends never seemed to get it. But, they did, and that's what matters to Ayato. 

"Sure. Has Tenya been coming around?"

Ayato hesitates, then nods, tugging on his own fingers. "He did. He came to dinner with his girlfriend and he said that all my worry was me being irrational and I was being a wimp for not wanting to go outside." 

Tenya is a brutally honest person, something that caused him and Kisame to butt heads constantly when they were kids and even up to now. While he may not be wrong, per se, sometimes Kisame wanted to stick his head down a toilet like he did when Tenya was a jackass teenager.

"And before you get mad," he continues, not giving his older brother space to speak. "He said he was sorry when I got upset with him, and that he didn't know what was going on in my head to make me behave like this, and that he'd try to understand." 

Coming from Tenya, that's a lot of growth. Still....

"Next time I see him I'm still putting him in a chokehold," Kisame mutters, and Ayato squeaks not unlike a mouse, putting his hands over his head. 

"Don't do that! That's mean." The older man chuckles, reaching over and flicking Ayato on the forehead hard enough to jerk his head back slightly. He squeaks again, before reaching out and jabbing Kisame hard on the knee.

The two lightly roughhouse for a few minutes before Ayato taps Kisame's arm a couple of times, soon being released from the headlock and able to lean back against the bed. He looks much more relaxed now, a slight smile gracing his face and hair all mussed up. "I heard you brought a friend here--what's he like?"

Kisame nods, crossing his legs and resting his chin on the open palm of his hand. "His name's Itachi--he's a really weird guy, but he's got some good deep down there, and he can cook up a storm. Samehada likes him too, and she normally hates people."

"Cool, cool." They're both silent for a moment, before Ayato reaches out and lightly taps Kisame on the tip of his nose. "You should go hang out with him--he came all this way with you, so you should spend time with him. I'll do my best to try and come down for dinner, at least."

It'd take a minor miracle for Ayato to actually sit at the table for dinner with more than Suni and Nana, but Kisame doesn't say anything to that, only ruffling his little brother's hair.

"I will, and I look forward to seeing you at dinner."

Chapter Text

It's a little cold out today, but considering that it's fall of all times, it shouldn't be that surprising. Even wrapped in a long black jacket and a grey scarf he'd grudgingly allowed Shisui to wrap around his neck with hands that could barely move themselves, Saskue's still chilly.

He's warmed up slightly with Sakura leaning lightly against his shoulder, her body heat helping his own. She's also dressed warmly, in a pink puffer coat and thick black leggings, boot clad feet idly swinging from where she's seated beside him on a park bench. 

"He's taking a while," Sakura comments, huffing out a cloud of air. "But that's kind of expected."

One of her hands is lightly gripping the sleeve of his jacket, and he doesn't make to move her hand. Honestly, he kind of needs the comfort now, even if he'd never admit it to her (or anyone, for the matter).

"It is," Sasuke finally mutters, leaning against her in return. "He'll be fine, though. He'll show up eventually."

Sakura doesn't say it, but the look in her eyes shows that she knows the words aren't wholly meant for her, but for the speaker himself. 

One of the times Naruto didn't show up on time (around a year and a half ago), he showed up at the hospital instead after an accident, with his right arm broken and mangled so badly that even the strong-stomached Kakashi couldn't describe it properly without looking nauseous. It lead to an above-the-elbow amputation, and from that day forward, Naruto either relied on a prosthetic he received from his foster father or working on carrying as many things as possible with his left hand--and it never kept him down. 

Even in the hospital, when Sakura was quietly sobbing at Naruto's bedside while Sasuke stood silently next to her, the sunny blond in the hospital bed had a smile that could rival that of the brightest stars as he told his friends he was going to be fine, and that they could stop being worrywarts. He was in a lot of pain, suffering through something few should have to, and yet he still tried his best to be as optimistic as possible. 

That's always been something Sasuke has envied about him--that seemingly nothing could keep him down. A lot of things tended to keep Sasuke down. 

"He'll show up eventually," the young woman beside him echoes, clutching his sleeve a little tighter. "That, or he'll call to let us know. He knows we worry."

Almost on queue, Sasuke hears a familiar voice shout his name and Sakura's. He glances up from where he's staring down at his feet to see his boyfriend jogging over while waving in his direction, dressed in a garishly orange jacket and black pants, a big smile on his face. Sasuke finds himself smiling back, and as soon as he's on his feet, Naruto's arms (one flesh, one metal and plastic) are wound tightly around him in a hug. Sakura's now standing as well, but Sasuke doesn't notice, attention taken up by his boyfriend's face being buried in his shoulder.

Chapter Text

Does it count as a double date even if all parties do not consider it a double date?

Google says yes.

Konan quickly tucks her phone back into her purse before anyone else could tell that she was frantically looking something up, crossing her legs and settling her purse back in her lap as if she was just sitting there quietly and gazing at the trees. Good timing on that, too, as Yahiko and Nagato have just arrived at the park bench she's seated at.

As per usual, Yahiko greets her with a kiss, which she gladly returns. "You're the first person here, as always. How was work?"

She smiles softly at him. "Work was alright, thank you." Konan works at and owns/manages a small custom clothing shop, and while it may be small, she's able to make a good bit of money. All for the better, considering that bills can get expensive. 

Especially so when Yahiko had to quit his own well-paying job a few years ago to take care of Nagato's steadily worsening medical conditions. 

The man himself is seated comfortably in a manual wheelchair, a worn blanket spread over his lap with his hands neatly folded over it. Red hair, still the same brilliant red that he had when he was a child, is pinned away from his face with a couple decorative clips--most likely Yahiko's doing.

"I'm glad that it was alright." Soft-spoken as always, and Konan smiles faintly, reaching out a hand to lay it atop of Nagato's folded ones. "Nothing interesting happened, I presume?"

"Nothing interesting happened," she echoes, giving his hand a light squeeze. "Just peaceful. I like it that way."

They all prefer things peaceful and quiet--after all, they'd gone through so much as children. It would only feel right that they should be allowed peaceful lives.

The three of them chat quietly amongst themselves about mundane things (Nagato mentioned that Yahiko had been really getting into baking lately, to which Yahiko turned red and swatted the back of his boyfriend's head) until Konan notices Itachi and Deidara arriving. As per usual (according to what she's heard from Kisame--all her information about Itachi is from him), they're hand in hand, Deidara mainly just guiding the glasses-less Itachi along so he doesn't walk right into someone's dog. It looks like they're still in work clothes, as Deidara's in a paint-stained t-shirt and jeans while Itachi is in all black, appropriate considering that he works part-time at a funeral home.

"Yo!" the blond calls out cheerfully in greeting, giving them all a wave. Yahiko's the only one who returns the wave, while Konan gives him a friendly nod. "It's a good thing y'all have bright hair, hm. Could spot you from a mile away."

Itachi chuckles under his breath, the sound difficult to hear over the sounds of nature around them. He has dark eyes that betray little emotion, but when he smiles, there are lines around those eyes. 

"Hey, Nagato and I naturally have bright hair--Konan's the one who did it on purpose." She doesn't take offense to this, seeing the humor in his statement. 

There's quiet in the group for several moments, before Nagato decides to speak. "It's wonderful to meet you, Itachi." Konan quickly echoes this, offering him a little smile. Itachi doesn't smile back, but his body seems more relaxed than when he initially walked up to them. 

"So, the plan is to just hang out at the park, yeah?" Deidara questions, bumping his head against his boyfriend's shoulder.

Yahiko nods, a bright smile on his face. "Yeah--hey, this is kind of like a double date, no?"

"Kind of." 

Maybe her frantic googling was right in the end. Or it wasn't. She's not sure yet. 

The five of them decide to start exploring the park, Yahiko the most animated and chatty out of all of them. He's the one asking the questions and answering ones thrown to him--as per usual.

"I've been told you wear glasses, Itachi, is there a particular reason that you're not wearing them today? I wear reading glasses sometimes, but they give me a massive headache about half the time."  A bit blunt, but Itachi and Deidara don't seem to mind it. 

"They give me a migraine if I wear them for too long," Itachi replies, flicking his eyes in Yahiko's general direction. "I have chronic pain already, I do not need a migraine on top of that."

Deidara decides to chime in that very moment, since he'd gotten briefly distracted by a bird pecking about the grass for bugs (and Konan can't say anything to that, as she was also watching the bird). "He wears 'em for movies and stuff, hm. Otherwise he doesn't see the need to wear them."

Yahiko hums in confirmation, going quiet for now. The conversation topic shifts, and Konan gazes quietly around her as the others talk.

(She's never been the talker of the group. Yahiko always has.)

"-and this lady said 'oh, you don't look disabled at all, you don't need a cane' to me, and Konan told her that she'd make her disabled if she kept that up." At her name being mentioned, Konan returns her attention to them--moreso Nagato, as he had been the one who had just spoken.

"Damn," Deidara whistles, sounding remarkably impressed. Itachi hums in agreement, the corners of his lips quirking up in a smile. "You did not pull any punches, hm. Respect."

She finds herself flushing at the mention of the incident, which had happened three months ago, about two days before Nagato's severe flare-up. "I was very tired that day." 

"Sure, sure." Yahiko apologizes for this with giving her a kiss on the cheek, which is appreciated. 

Their walk draws to a close around an hour and a half later, with Deidara and Itachi wanting to head back to their respective homes. Konan herself is also getting rather tired, so a small part of her is glad when Yahiko suggests that the three of them head back home as well.

Thankfully, Yahiko's car (the one car shared between the three of them) wasn't parked that far away, so Konan settles in the passenger's seat while Yahiko helps Nagato get situated in the backseat. 

She pulls out her phone to check her emails, and there's one from a sender she wasn't expecting.

Jiraiya.

She deletes the email without reading it.

"Something up?" Yahiko asks as he gets in the driver's seat. "You got an upset look on your face."

Konan schools her face into an expression of pleasant neutrality. "I'm alright, just thinking."

While she's sure that Yahiko knows that she's lying straight to his face (they've known each other since they were ten, they all know each other's tells), he doesn't push it, merely starting the car and pulling out of the space. 

Rain starts after a couple minutes of driving, and Nagato rolls the window down, ignoring Yahiko's pleas of you're gonna get soaked and it's cold, keep that window closed. In the mirror, Konan can see the redhead in the backseat reaching his hand out of the window, catching raindrops on his palm and fingertips.

Nagato's done this since he was a child--whenever it would rain, he would go to a window and open it, reaching out a hand to catch the raindrops. Konan never saw the appeal of it, and neither did Yahiko (he always complained of the cold, and wanted to go somewhere warm), but if made Nagato happy?

They would accept it. They wanted him to be happy--each of them wanted the others to be happy.

Chapter Text

Having a hereditary eye condition is annoying when one's realized they forgot to pull the curtains over their windows before going to bed, leaving their vision splotched with bright blobs when they wake in the morning. Shino solves this problem quickly by rolling so that he's facedown on his pillow. It's hard to breathe like that, but it's comfortable, and he'd be damned if he moved right now. 

He can hear someone rattling around in the kitchen, and since his dad usually sleeps in and his aunt eats through a tube and therefore doesn't need to cook, it's probably his new roommate making breakfast, or something. The noise thankfully isn't that bad, so Shino remains nice and comfortable on his bed for a bit. 

Sasuke's a good roommate, considering that he minds his own goddamn business. All the Aburame family minds their own goddamn business, so he fits right in.

Realizing that he himself should probably be getting up, Shino rolls right off his bed, sitting up with his eyes still closed and fumbling around for his glasses. As soon as they're on, he opens his eyes with a small sigh of relief, getting up before getting started on what he needs to do in the morning. 

Getting dressed and washing up doesn't take up much time, and he's soon out the door to his room, peering into the kitchen. 

"Was I making too much noise?" is the first thing Sasuke says to him, holding a frying pan that he seemingly just pulled out of a drawer (he didn't know they even had one). 

Shino shakes his head. "No. If Aunt Nenna isn't getting cranky with the noise, then you're not making a lot of noise." While most of his family is sensitive to noise, his Aunt Nenna is especially so. Her room's farthest from the kitchen, though. 

He goes to get breakfast ready, leaving Sasuke to his own devices. 

Honestly, it'd come as a surprise when Sasuke had showed up at his doorstep four days ago with a suitcase in tow, asking if he could sleep there for a bit. 

Upon being asked why (as Sasuke's family is on the wealthier side, and he could easily just rent his own place), he didn't get an answer, and Shibi decided that it would be okay for Sasuke to stay there for a time.

The guest room took clearing out, though. Shibi stores all of his research samples in there, and there's probably some still in there.

In order to sit at the table to eat, Shino has to shuffle away some of his dad's research reports and a couple of small boxes. It's a rare occasion that their family all sits together for meals, save for holidays and the occasional family reunion, so the dinner table is primarily used as another storage space. Shino doesn't really care, though--he mainly eats in his room, at his desk. 

Sasuke joins him eventually, also shifting some of the things on the table to a chair. He's made some scrambled eggs, albeit on the runny side, and he's digging into them with chopsticks while Shino quietly eats his his cereal with a spoon. The kitchen is a small and sparse one, with the only real cooking having been done by Shino's mom.

(His mom travels for work a lot, so she's almost never home. Like his dad, she's also an entomologist.)

"Quick question," Sasuke starts, and Shino glances up from where he was staring at a funny shaped piece of cereal. "When's the last time anyone here went grocery shopping?"

"Two weeks ago."

This seems to surprise Sasuke, as he sits back and blinks a couple times. ".....Why?"

It shouldn't hurt to answer. "Why? Because my mom travels for work more often than not, my dad usually eats at work, I don't eat a lot in general-" he's never had much of an appetite, and since he's at a healthy weight, he doesn't see a problem with it "-and my Aunt Nenna eats through a tube."

"Oh."

They go back to eating in silence, and once Shino's done (he finishes first), he washes his dishes before putting them in the drying rack. He doesn't have a shift at the mall today, but Sasuke does. 

Shino decides that it'd be best to go back to his room for the time being, shutting the door behind him. His room's dark and a little cramped, but he likes it that way--it's comforting.

He decides to boot up his computer and sit at his desk, holding a plush toy of a cockroach in one hand as he does so. The plush had been a gift from Kiba three years ago, and while it's technically a dog toy (his friend had been very honest when giving it to him), Shino doesn't really care. It's cute.

There's not much going on in his few socials, besides some messages from friends and updates on entomological research from various websites. He checks the messages from his friends first, zooming in on the text due to his poor eyesight.

One message is from Kiba with a picture of a beetle, accompanied by the words bro i didn't know you went out today, you shoulda said hi. 

Another's from Hinata, and she's just asking how he's doing. Par for the course. 

The last message is from his mom, also asking how he's doing. Unlike Hinata, she's also sent him some pictures of what she's researching. He appreciates them, although his mom doesn't understand good lighting. 

The first message he replies to is Kiba's, as it would require the least amount of time. In response, Shino types every time you see a beetle doesn't mean you have to send a picture of it to me. if you do see an interesting looking beetle though, then feel free.

Hinata's comes next. i'm par for the course. how are you?

His computer pings out a notification, and it's from his mom, again--this time she's sent a picture of herself, flashing a peace sign, standing somewhere outside of a building surrounded by trees. She looks happy in the photo, sunglasses pushed up on her head and a smile on her face.

Shino sends back i'm doing okay, and it looks like you are as well. dad is letting one of my coworkers stay at our house for a bit. we had to clean out the guest room.

It seems like his mom is actively on her phone, because the message is marked as read before she starts typing up a response.

which coworker? i hope he isn't a nuisance 

Sasuke...well, he's alright. A bit broody, but so is Shino. sasuke--the one with the weird hair and the brother issues. he's fine.

i'm glad. how is nenna?

Aunt Nenna is an oddball in the Aburame family--she's extroverted and refuses to keep her mouth shut when she feels like someone is doing something wrong. Her two children (Shino's older cousins) took aspects of her personality, and despite all their differences, they're all still a tight-knit family.

she's fine. someone grabbed her wheelchair at the pharmacy +started to push her and she turned around and punched them in the crotch.

There's a laughing emoji sent in response. Maybe he'll elaborate on the story.

we almost got kicked out, but when we explained what happened to the manager, everything kind of stalemated. dad only seemed annoyed with nenna causing a scene, but he did say that she had the right to defend herself.

!! that sounds like something they'd do! i hope it didn't bother ur sensory issues

Honestly, it had, with the shrill angry voice of the woman who Aunt Nenna had punched alongside the bright lights of the pharmacy. But it wasn't too bad, all things considered.

only a little. it wasn't that bad, dad was there

His mom sends him a thumbs up in response. i have to get going now, but i hope that you have a good day. take care of yourself, little bug

Huh. His mom hasn't used the 'little bug' nickname for him for a while. It kind of makes him feel warm on the inside, and Shino squeezes the plush toy against his chest momentarily. 

take care of yourself too.

The message is just marked as read.

When he sees his dad, he'll have to tell him that mom messaged. Or, she probably messaged his dad too--they're married and have a very good relationship, so it'd make sense that she would've done that.

Kiba had replied to Shino's message in the time that he's been messaging back and forth with his mom, so he decides to check it. 

sorry man. next time i see a cool bug i'll send u a picture :D

thank you, kiba.

Since his eyes are getting tired from looking at the computer, Shino decides to close it and get up from his desk, going back to his bed and settling down on it. Maybe he'll go back to sleep. 

Chapter Text

Sakura really loves spending time with her girlfriend. Even if it's just something as simple as watching movies while snuggled up on the couch, it's something that she really enjoys.

Hence, Sakura's happy to be spending time with Ino even though her poor girlfriend is sick and she's tending to her. Thankfully, as long as Sakura's careful and washes her hands before touching her face and all that, she shouldn't catch whatever Ino's got. 

"This sucks," Ino laments for what feels like the thirteenth time this morning. The blonde is settled comfortably in her bed, propped by pillows with a box of tissues in easy reach. Sakura sighs softly and pats her on the cheek, brushing some strands of her hair away from her face. "I hate being sick. The only good things about this are you being here and Choji bringing me soup."

While normally Sakura wouldn't want to be on the same par as soup, Choji's cooking isn't anything to scoff at. "Yeah, at least there's soup."

This apparently sends Ino off into a fit of giggles before she breaks off into a couple weak coughs. Thankfully, they subside pretty quickly, and Sakura lightly rubs her shoulder in comfort. 

They sit in silence for a time, Sakura fiddling with her phone and Ino snuggling deeper into her pile of pillows. Her long blonde hair is out of her trademark ponytail, spilling out over the pillows in a messy halo. She feels the urge to start playing with it, but manages to resist--for now.

It's a bit of time before Ino speaks, mumbling, "...'m real lucky that you're willing to take off work to take care of me." 

Sakura pauses, fingers hovering over her phone screen to where she was about to send Sasuke an old picture of a funny looking duck she saw. "What do you mean? Of course I'd take time off work to take care of someone who's important to me."

She receives a light swat in return. "You know what I meant."

"I...really don't. Sorry."

Ino sighs, propping herself up on her elbows momentarily, long hair now hanging about her shoulders. "What I mean is, I'm thankful that you're here right now, Sakura. Really."

Little comments like that shouldn't make her blush, but Sakura would be a big stinkin' liar if she said she wasn't blushing right now. "Thank you."

Her girlfriend laughs softly. "You think with that giant forehead, you'd have more brain up there."

"I thought we were past the forehead stuff!"

The soft laugh soon turns faintly devious, much to Sakura's chagrin. "We're never past the forehead stuff." The only reason that Ino's pushing it is because Sakura's told her that she genuinely doesn't care if people tease her for her big forehead anymore--she's not a little kid anymore who'd cry if someone called her ugly.

(Okay, sometimes it hurts her feelings, but if someone calls her ugly then that's a them problem and not a her problem).

"You're so lucky I love you, Ino-pig."

She gets a solid swat on the arm from Ino, albeit weakened considering that she's still quite sick. "Big forehead-looking ass."

There's a knock on the door, which interrupts their banter. After Ino chirps a small 'come in,' Inochi steps into the room, offering both young women a wave and a light smile. Sakura finds herself smiling back--she likes Ino's dad, and her mom to an extent (it's not that she doesn't like her, she just hasn't really talked to her that much). 

"How are you two doing?" Inochi questions, leaning against the doorframe. 

"I'm okay, and Sakura's being mean to me," Ino whines, and Sakura gives her girlfriend a look of betrayal. "Okay, not that mean!"

After gauging that Sakura isn't actually mad at Ino and vice-versa, Inochi just hums in response and gives them both a warm look. "Alright. I've got some virtual sessions to attend, so I'll be downstairs in my office--holler if you need anything."

"Got it!" Sakura chirps, and he just nods before leaving the room, closing the door behind him. 

As soon as he's gone, she finds herself clambering onto her girlfriend's bed, tucking herself against her side. Sickness be damned, if Sakura isn't allowed to cuddle up to her girlfriend on her soft comforter, then the world is cruel and unfair. 

Ino wraps her arms around her and pulls her closer, allowing Sakura to put her head on her shoulder and get all comfy. 

"I love you."

The confession makes Sakura turn bright red and start stammering, sitting straight up and looking down at her girlfriend. "Wh-what?" Ino frowns lightheartedly at her.

"I love you, you dummy."

This isn't the first time that Ino's told Sakura she loves her--they'd been saying it to each other since they were kids. Whenever Sakura would cry over bullying, Ino would cup her cheeks and tell her that she loved her and that she was awesome, and Sakura would always return the words while scrubbing away those pesky tears. But this time, it feels more meaningful and...potent, in a weird way.

Sakura sighs in mock annoyance, flopping back down against her girlfriend's side. "I love you too, Ino."

Thankfully, by that afternoon, Ino looks like she's feeling much better. Sakura had even gotten her to take a shower and change into some non-sweaty clothes before going downstairs to watch some TV.

Downstairs is quiet, as Ino's dad is still doing online therapy sessions in his office and her mom is working at the family flower shop. Sakura makes sure that Ino is comfortably situated on the couch before going to grab her some more of the soup Choji had made, since Ino has said she's hungry.

"If you need anything else, just let me know and I'll grab it for you," Sakura tells Ino as she brings her the microwave-warmed soup and a cup of water, setting the cup on the coffee table and the bowl in Ino's eager hands. The blonde smiles brightly, tipping her head at the spot on the couch not taken up by Ino or various flower-print throw pillows.

"You've been doing the most, babe--just sit down and take a break."

When Ino bats her eyelashes at her like that, Sakura's honestly about as coherent as a potato. 

Flopping down on the couch beside her girlfriend, Sakura lets out a dramatic sigh. "Alright, I shall make the ultimate sacrifice by taking a break."

"God, you've gotten so dramatic. Have you been hanging out with Naruto too much?" 

"And you've gotten lazier--you must be hanging out with Shikamaru too much, then!" She gets a swat on the arm for her words, and she pretends to whine in pain before slumping down on the couch even more.

The silence that passes between them is a comfortable one. 

Chapter Text

Never in a million years would Deidara guess that he'd be on kissing terms with the sad guy he had hated at first sight, but things don't go as planned all of the time. Sure, he's not complaining or anything, considering Itachi's a good boyfriend and puts up with his bullshit, but he's still confused as to how exactly he got in this situation.

Even though he's awfully comfortable right now, head tucked against Itachi's shoulder as they watch some shitty B-list horror movies, the blond can't help but feel that something's wrong.

There's something gnawing at Deidara's chest now. Something wholly unpleasant.

Perhaps Itachi's noticed this, perhaps he hasn't--it isn't something he's planning on pushing as his boyfriend squints at the TV screen (Sasori doesn't like TVs, so they're watching the movie at Kisame and Itachi's shared place) with interest. 

"Hey, 'tachi," Deidara starts after a moment (fucking hell, man, he can't hold it in). "Something feel weird to you or is it just me?"

"It's not just you," comes the instant response.

And, around ten seconds later, both of them were apparently very much right, as someone's knocking rather aggressively on the door, loud enough for Deidara to hear even if he didn't have his hearing aids in (he can hear without them, things are just muffled). Groaning under his breath, Deidara rolls off of the couch and goes to the door, standing on his toes slightly to glance through the peephole.

Huh. It's Obito, and as per usual, he looks like someone pissed in his morning coffee.

Deidara prides himself in knowing a lot of very strange people and being one himself, but Obito is one of the strangest people Deidara's ever met. The older man is blind in one eye with a strange swirled scar around said eye, and he refuses to cover it (as someone with a glass eye, Deidara isn't going to shit on him for that). Coupled with his all-black clothing and aggressive demeanor, most people are intimidated by him no matter where he goes, even if it's (apparently) the middle of a barfight. 

Also, he lives in a hearse. A nice, renovated hearse that makes it somewhat habitable, but a fucking hearse?

And it's not like he's lacking on money or anything. Apparently he's just...like that. Deidara can respect the hustle, but the guy is weird. 

"What's up, Obito?" he asks, and Obito just slips past him, shuffling off his dirty work boots before stepping further into the apartment, heading straight for Itachi. Typical Obito, Deidara thinks snidely, but follows on his heels so he can curl against his boyfriend again.

Itachi looks in Obito's general direction when his cousin approaches, brow furrowing slightly even as Deidara tucks up against Itachi's side. 

(Itachi isn't physically affectionate in the slightest, but he lets his boyfriend do this).

"Our family's going to shit." Odd that he says our family when neither of them have been in significant contact with their family (and Itachi is all but disowned, while Obito...well, Deidara doesn't know). "Sasuke got fed up and moved out--to where, I believe it's a coworker's place--and Shisui's mother is considering moving him to an institution because she doesn't want to take care of him anymore."

Dense as Deidara is, he knows that Shisui is a very touchy subject for Itachi. (Sasuke, too, but Sasuke's a slightly different case). 

He's heard Itachi talk about him before fondly, reminiscing on childhood memories of chasing each other with sticks during the summer and huddling under an umbrella together on the way home from school during the winter. Honestly, Deidara can't picture even kid Itachi chasing someone with a stick, but things change when someone gets older. 

And, like said, things changed. While Deidara would never know the specifics, he knows that it was a lot of inter-family problems, and soon enough--Shisui attempted to kill himself. No note, just a broken body at the bottom of a cliff that Itachi witnessed.

By some stroke of insane luck, Shisui survived. Unfortunately, his survival meant that he would have to live the rest of his life unable to do...well, much of anything physical. Apparently he can still talk, crack shitty jokes, and move his fingers just enough to flip people off, but that's about it. He can't do so many of the things he loved to do, like practice fencing with his cousins or chase the little ones around to pick them up and throw them in the air, and it hurt him and it hurt Itachi.

Five days after Shisui's attempted suicide, when he was still in the hospital on life support, Itachi left his family. 

While Deidara's asked as to why, multiple times, Itachi's always shut him down. At first, it felt like a lashing-out, but now, it's the words of a man too exhausted to outwardly care anymore. So Deidara's stopped asking, but his curiosity as to what happened hasn't exactly been sated, by any means. 

(Maybe he'll ask Obito someday).

Obito's words make itachi visibly tense, fingers digging into the fabric of his pants. "...I see. Thank you for telling me, Obito."

"You're welcome." 

Now, Deidara feels it appropriate to pipe up, sitting up a little straighter while still remaining close to his boyfriend. "Did you just visit to tell him that, hm?"

He's skewered with a harsh look, but it's softened very quickly. Obito seems to be in a more decent mood than the other times he's visited.

"I'm bored," comes the plain and simple explanation. "It looks like you're watching a movie, so I'll sit and watch it with you." A little surprising, considering Deidara's pretty sure that Obito doesn't like hanging out with people, but eh. The more the merrier, or something. 

Once Itachi's un-paused the movie, Obito seems to gain more interset, leaning forward slightly and resting his elbows on his knees. Maybe he's a big fan of horror movies, and considering everything Deidara's observed of him, it makes quite a bit of sense. He'd be more surprised if Obito didn't enjoy a good horror once in a while. 

The unpleasant feeling in Deidara's chest still hasn't settled even after Obito's left and Kisame's come back from work, while Itachi's gone to his room to nap (leaving his boyfriend on the couch, but the blond's too damn tired to move right now). 

Deidara's always been awful at hiding his emotions, so Kisame picks up on it as soon as he lays his eyes on him. "Something wrong, Dei?"

"....I dunno. Anxiety or something, hm."

The corners of Kisame's eyes crinkle slightly with sympathy, and he soon sits on the couch near Deidara, remaining at a polite distance. "Want to talk about it? It works pretty well, in my opinion."

He weighs the pros and cons of talking to Kisame about whatever's eating at him. 

Cons: Itachi could hear (he has really good hearing and is a stupidly light sleeper), Deidara's not sure if he could fully articulate what exactly was going on.

Pros: Deidara gets this stupid thing off of his chest, and he can finally chill out properly.

It looks like the pros outweigh the cons on this, so Deidara nods and scooches a little closer to Kisame. The older of the two blinks in confusion, but doesn't make to push him away.

"Something's been chewing at my chest, and I can't figure out what to do to make it stop, hm," Deidara mutters, trying to keep it down so Itachi doesn't wake up. "I thought it would go away after Obito came and left, but it's still there and I don't know what to make of it, yeah? And I don't want to worry Itachi about it, since he's probably real stressed about Shisui and his little brother."

"That does sound difficult." Kisame, juxtaposed to his intimidating appearance, is a very easy person to talk to. "When I was in the military, I'd get those nagging gut feelings before something bad was going to happen--saved my ass more than once. And while this seems similar, it doesn't seem totally similar."

Deidara crosses his legs, holding onto his ankles and leaning forward in order to stretch himself slightly. "You're right. It's probably just anxiety, hm, but anxiety sucks. I don't like feeling like something's going to go wrong."

"...Me neither. But here's to hoping it's nothing serious."

He huffs. "God, I hope so."

Chapter Text

Naruto really enjoys the sunshine. It's his favorite weather, and when the sun is shining, it's like nothing bad can happen in his day, and today doesn't seem like an exception.

Sasuke is here, he's just eaten a big bowl of his favorite ramen for lunch (with Sasuke in tow, and even Choji showed up to congratulate the both of them on getting together, which was sweet of him), and he's going to be going to the gym with Lee sometime in the afternoon since he doesn't have work. All things considered, this day is a damn good one so far.

If anything tries to ruin his good day, he's going to be really cranky. 

Now, he and Sasuke are hanging out at one of the parks, holding hands and leaning against each other. Sasuke isn't saying much, but Naruto doesn't mind--he's so used to his boyfriend just staying quiet or being grumpy most of the time that if Sasuke suddenly was chatty, he'd be getting real nervous. But, so far, things have been normal, and he's happy for that. 

Excitement is fun, but if there's too much excitement, it makes Sasuke tetchy, and Naruto doesn't like that. He deserves a break. 

"....Shino is a good roommate," Sasuke says eventually, and Naruto grins, squeezing his hand tighter. He's holding Sasuke's hand with his non-prosthetic one, allowing him to do this. "So's his dad, and his aunt--his aunt likes me well enough, and they're all polite."

"That's good, Sa-" Naruto starts, but is quickly interrupted, as Sasuke apparently wasn't done speaking. That's something he needs to work on.

"But why do I feel like I'm abandoning my family?"

Ah. "Sas, you're not abandoning them. You're taking care of yourself, and that's important, y'know?" The frown etched onto his boyfriend's face brings a pang to Naruto's chest, and he scoots closer to the other. This doesn't seem to comfort Sasuke, though.

"I left, Naruto," his boyfriend hisses, visibly tensing up beside him. "I left them just like Itachi left them."

Now, Naruto doesn't know the details as to why Itachi left the family in the first place. There was that phone call Sasuke made with his brother a couple years ago (that ended in an argument and Sasuke nearly pitching poor Sakura's phone out a window), but even through that, Naruto wasn't able to glean any significant information. The tipping point was what happened to Shisui, but that's all he's been able to figure out.

Hell, he's even gone as far as asking Kakashi what happened, but got stonewalled. Which sucks--Naruto wants to understand so that he can help Sasuke better. 

(He's always been the type of person to want to help his friends, even if they didn't ask for that help).

"You didn't," Naruto insists, frowning as well. "I mean, I don't know what Itachi was thinking, but you didn't leave them like Itachi did, ya know? You're just trying to take care of yourself, which like I said, is important."

"...Thanks, idiot." 

Normally, Naruto doesn't like being called an idiot, but when it's Sasuke and he's using that tone of you're super lucky I love you....well, he can't get too mad. Especially since Sasuke's frown has visibly lessened on his face and he looks like he's doing better. That's a good sign.

The blond smiles brightly. "Yeah, yeah, I love you too." 

Their lovey dovey moment is unfortunately interrupted by somebody walking past them (maybe on their way to the grocery store, or something), and Sasuke's calmer expression suddenly turns furious. There's only one person that Naruto knows of that can make his boyfriend look that upset at the mere sight of them. 

His big brother, Itachi. 

Now that he thinks about it, Itachi looks a lot like Sasuke's mother. (Hell, both of them take after their mother moreso than their father). Same long dark hair, same dark eyes, even a similar facial shape. Naruto hasn't been around Mikoto enough to note any more similarities between her and her eldest child, but those that he can note are rather distinct ones. 

Before Naruto can say anything (to stop Sasuke, to distract him, to do something), his boyfriend's already on his feet, blocking his older brother's path. Itachi stops in his tracks, leaning on his cane momentarily. He looks tired.

What's got him so tired? Besides the chronic illness stuff, which Sasuke told him about. But, Itachi's got some serious eyebags going on, and the stress lines on his face look more pronounced from the few pictures of him that Naruto has seen. For some reason, the poor guy has had stress lines since he was a small child, because even the pictures of him holding Sasuke when he was a baby show those trademark shadows on his face. 

"-need to move, you know," Itachi's voice cuts through Naruto's thoughts, and he winces slightly at the harshness of the tone, even though it's not directed at him. Maybe he shouldn't have zoned out like that. "I need to get groceries, Sasuke."

"I'm not moving until you talk to me without treating me like I'm a child," Sasuke snaps back, and Naruto figures that he ought to step in before his boyfriend actually starts fighting his brother. 

Itachi briefly glances at Naruto when he steps between the brothers, arms out while facing Sasuke. "Sas, c'mon, let's just g-"

He's lightly shoved out of the way with a single hand, Sasuke stepping closer to his brother. Itachi only blinks impassively, his face unusually calm despite his previous harsher tone. "I'm not moving. I want answers and I'm going to get them." 

Sasuke's stubborn streak is legendary amongst those who know him. Once he's focused on something, little save for a catastrophic event will distract him from it. So, no matter what Naruto says, or even if he tries to drag Sasuke away from his brother, it's not going to work.

(This is something they are going to talk about later).

"You've heard everything you need to know from our parents, Sasuke." Gone is the harsh tone, replaced with a calm and placating one, as if Sasuke is a cranky toddler. "I need to go."

Naruto's hopes that that'll be the end of it (as he's in the process of reaching out to grab Sasuke's sleeve to drag him off), but Sasuke instead reaches out and grabs Itachi by the collar of his shirt, yanking him towards him. Itachi stumbles, nearly dropping his cane in the process. "Did you not fucking hear me?!"

"Sas, you're gonna get arrested for assault at this rate, ya know!" Naruto tries, tugging on his boyfriend's sleeve as hard as he can without accidentally tearing the fabric. He's ignored, however. 

Instead of responding to Sasuke's rage, itachi merely reaches up his free hand and starts to untangle his brother's fingers from the fabric of his dark-colored t-shirt, managing to get them all before taking a step back. "I'm going to go. Goodbye, Sasu-"

Sasuke's fist promptly cracks across Itachi's face.

It's real lucky that nobody called the cops on them. And that all Itachi did in response to getting punched in the face was mutter go and both of them started running. 

Iruka isn't home, so neither of them are asked any questions as Naruto makes Sasuke sit on the couch and he goes to get the first-aid kit for his boyfriend's busted and split knuckles. He put his whole back into that punch, so it was a big surprise that Itachi managed to stay standing after that hit. Naruto knows that he'd probably be laid out on the ground if Sasuke hit him full-force--he guesses Itachi's just built different. 

Sasuke hasn't spoken a single word the entire time, but when Naruto returns with the first-aid kit, he mutters, "......I'm sorry I ruined your day."

"What? No, no, you didn't ruin a thing!" Naruto finds himself saying, but Sasuke just glowers at him until he quiets, then continues to speak, starting to put plasters over his knuckles himself. 

"I did. I'm sorry."

Naruto sighs quietly, just nodding and butting his head against Sasuke's shoulder, making sure not to accidentally bump his injured hands. "I'm not mad at you, Sas. I mean, sure, I am frustrated that you tried to pick a fight with your brother in broad daylight, but I'm not mad at you, ya know? You've got a lot of shit going on."

This makes Sasuke seem to feel a little better, and his face takes on a calmer appearance. Naruto grins, lightly elbowing Sasuke in the side. 

"Wanna watch one of Iruka's old-timey rom-coms to get your mind off things? I know you hate them, but they're pretty funny, yeah? I've seen you smirk at scenes--for you, that's like a full-on laugh!"

"I did not, idiot!"

"Nah, no lying here, I know you did!"

Chapter Text

The whistling of the teakettle wakes Ameyuri up from her nap. Well, the teakettle, and the sounds of more people than usual in the little house.

Thankfully, her migraine is all gone, and she pulls herself up from her spot on the couch, flopping both of her arms over the back so that she can peer into the kitchen. Haku's there, in his usual long skirt and loose t-shirt, fussing with the teakettle and some cups. There are also four people she doesn't recognize hanging around there too--a blond with half an empty shirtsleeve, some emo kid in a tank top, a girl with a shock of pinkish hair, and a pale-haired young man leaning against a worn grey cane. 

Ameyuri's cover of staying quiet to just watch them is promptly blown when a voice behind her chirps, "Auntie, you're up!" and a set of small hands tugs on the back of her shirt. Turning around, she gives Hiroki a sharp-toothed grin, reaching over to ruffle his dark curls. As usual with the boy, he's got his backpack with the feeding pump on his back, and he's practically bouncing on his heels in excitement.

"Of course I'm up, your big brother and his friends are making a racket," she jokes, allowing the boy to clamber up onto the couch and lean against her. In the kitchen, Haku pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers, and the blond one shoots Ameyuri a sheepish, apologetic smile. 

"Sorry, sorry..."

Emo Kid (which is what she's going to refer to him as until she gets his name) crosses his arms and huffs. "Naruto, last time I checked, you aren't a teakettle, and the teakettle made the most noise." The blond (Naruto) gasps in admonishment.

Before anything else can happen (as the blond looks like he's going to start protesting), Ameyuri raises a hand in a wave, offering them a close-lipped smile for the time being. "It's fine, I don't mind being woken up." As she speaks, Hiroki's snuggled closer against her, head on her chest in the way he does with his dad and big brother. 

(Maybe he can hear her weak lungs crackle underneath their own weight, or her heart beating a mite too fast for someone who's just woken up from a nap, or sense the brittleness of her bones). 

"Well, that's a relief, because I would've felt terrible if we'd bothered you in your own house," the pink haired one says with a friendly smile despite the two behind her still looking like they might start arguing, green eyes crinkling slightly at the edges. "I'm Sakura, by the way, and the two bickering just now are Naruto and Sasuke--the one minding his own business is Kimimaro, who's the only guest here that isn't from Konoha." At this, Kimimaro looks annoyed, grumbling something under his breath and slouching even more than he already was. 

Kids these days can be weird as hell. At least this Sakura seems like she's got a good head on her shoulders--plus, it's nice to finally know the faces of the few friends Haku's mentioned a couple of times. 

"I'm Ameyuri--Haku's auntie."

This seems to confuse Sakura, as she glances over to where Haku is preparing some tea for the friends he brought over. "I thought you said Zabuza didn't have any siblings."

"He doesn't," her nephew clarifies, offering Sakura one of the mugs of tea, to which the girl happily accepts. "Auntie is one of his good friends from the military." Smiling, Sakura accepts it, but the Naruto boy decides that it's now a good time some yammering. 

"Oh, like me 'n Kakashi, yeah? Because he's not related to me or Iruka by blood but he's basically my weird uncle," he chirps, beaming after seemingly forgetting about the argument that he was going to have with Sasuke (who now looks a little pouty, in Ameyuri's eyes). "That's pretty nice, ya know. I'm happy for you guys."

He sounds so genuine, I think I might cry. 

Naruto has a loud voice, different from the noises that usually fill this space. They're quiet and gentle most of the time, as it's mainly only Ameyuri and Haku in the home at any given time, the loudest sounds being the click-click-click of the knitting needles wielded by the young man or tapping on a keyboard by Ameyuri herself as she gets some of her transcribing work done--one of the few jobs she's been able to land and hold after being discharged from the military.

There's a whole other crock of shit that she could get into in terms of the Kiri military, but that's not something for right now. 

The mugs of tea are handed out pretty quickly, and the kids decide that they'll sit around various places in the living room area, Naruto and Sasuke cramming themselves onto the creaky armchair while Haku takes a seat next to Ameyuri. Sakura remains standing, just leaning on the back of the armchair, and Kimimaro seems hesitant before deciding to settle next to Haku. 

As soon as his brother's sat down, Hiroki's shifting away from her and over to his brother, climbing on his lap and settling down comfortably after moving so that he can hug onto his backpack. Haku winds his arms carefully around the boy, thin fingers gently working through a tangle at the end of his hair. 

Even though Ameyuri wants to listen to the conversation that the kids are having, she finds herself dozing off again, head slumping against the back of the couch. Noticing this, Naruto makes eye contact with Haku and jerks his chin in Ameyuri's direction. 

"Auntie, do you want us to move?" Haku questions, and Ameyuri waves her hand lazily at them in response, flopping her head back against the cushions. "Naruto and Sakura can get kind of loud, and I don't want you to have another migraine."

Amongst Naruto and Sakura's (somewhat subdued) protestations, she replies with, "Nah, it's fine, just don't set off firecrackers and I'll be fine."

(Firecrackers might trigger her PTSD from getting shot, and it's not a pretty sight).

"I don't think anyone brought firecrackers," Kimimaro mutters, side-eyeing the still-scandalized looking Naruto.

This seems to set Sasuke off, as he shoots a glare at the other kid that's so potent it could be classified as a chemical weapon. "Why the hell do you think Naruto would bring firecrackers indoors?"

"He looks like the type."

If the two resort to blows, Ameyuri would be entertained, but Hiroki's lower lip is wobbling dangerously, and him starting to wail might actually set off a migraine. 

Thankfully, Sakura steps in before anything else could happen between the two boys, lightly smacking Sasuke upside the head while shooting a nearly-as-potent glare as Sasuke's was in Kimimaro's direction. "If you two start fighting in here, I am going to drag you both outside by your necks, got it?" 

There's dead silence before Ameyuri lets out a low whistle of appreciation. Sakura's able to wrangle those two like Mangetsu's able to wrangle his brother and his equally chaotic redheaded friend. 

"....Sorry...." Kimimaro doesn't exactly sound sorry, but good enough for now. 

Haku clears his throat, taking a sip of his tea right after getting everyone's attention. "Now that we're done fighting, let's actually have a nice conversation, shall we?"

Still on his brother's lap, all Hiroki does is sniff in a way that could be read as haughty.

A few hours later, Haku's in the midst of tidying up the now-empty mugs when Zabuza comes back home from work. Hiroki (who'd been napping on Ameyuri for the past several minutes) bolts upright and practically flies off the couch, running over to the door to greet his father. From her spot on the couch, she can't see the two interact with each other, but she can hear Hiroki's excited babbling about his big brother's friends and all the antics they got into while his father just listens in that trademark quiet way of his.

"Yo," Ameyuri calls out, wanting to at least be polite and say hi. Zabuza finally comes into view, balancing his son carefully in one arm while the other holds what looks like a bag of groceries. The bag is quickly tugged out of his hands by Haku, who seems quite keen on doing all the chores today. 

Sometimes, it gets to the point where the poor kid overworks himself. And sometimes, Ameyuri believes that Haku doesn't know how many people worry about him. 

"Hey," her friend responds, giving her a polite nod before making to set Hiroki back down. The boy quietly protests, wrapping his arms around his dad's neck so that he doesn't get put down, much to Ameyuri's amusement. 

It's nice to see the two acting as a proper father-and-son pair. When Hiroki first came around (as a baby with enough health issues to give the chronically ill Ameyuri a run for her money), Zabuza would barely even hold the kid, just sit and stare at him with his hands firmly resting in his lap.

At first, she asked him if he just didn't want to hold a baby, considering that all the babies that Ameyuri's known are loud and smelly. It came as a surprise when her friend stated that he had no idea what to even do, and I might drop him or hurt him, and what if he hates me and cries if I try to hold him?  While in another time, Ameyuri would've teased him ruthlessly about his moping over a baby of all things, but honestly, it just didn't feel right to do so at the time.  

Thank every single deity for the fact that Haku took his role as a big brother very seriously, and also that Zabuza genuinely wanted to get this strange little wiggly creature to like him and to be healthy. 

Honestly, Ameyuri had no fucking clue what to do when Hiroki came about, but hey--she thinks she's doing a pretty damn good job at being the cool aunt, no matter what Haku says whenever she wants to do something fun.

Maybe he has a point, considering that fun to Ameyuri always makes her flare up. Oh well. 

Chapter Text

Kakashi's like a second father to her, and it's something Sakura hasn't actually....told anyone about, yet. Not even Ino, or Naruto, or Sasuke. It's too embarrassing to admit sometimes. 

But, despite all that embarrassment, she's happy to be able to spend time with him. Even if Kakashi can be one of the weirdest people she's ever met (and for the love of god, she knows Sasuke), he always seems to have half-decent to good advice when it comes to sticky situations, and makes sure that she isn't freaking out by means of crappy dad humor or some of the most solid logic she's heard out of anyone besides Dr. Senju. 

Right now, though--if Sakura thought she was tired earlier, now she's tired with a capital T. And it's all Kakashi's fault. 

"You do know that if you go to a hospital, they'd have gotten you fixed up better than me--who is pre med, by the way," Sakura informs her old mentor as she dabs a bit of antiseptic over the knife wound that he'd somehow gained on his upper shoulder. "What if you'd gotten, oh, I don't know, stabbed?"

The insufferable man just shrugs his uninjured shoulder, barely flinching even as Sakura works on cleaning the wound. "Ah, I would've gone to Dr. Senju."

To any deity who's listening, grant me patience. "She runs a clinic that mainly services people with chronic conditions, and occasionally goes to larger hospitals to perform complicated surgeries--do you think she'd have the time to patch up a grown man too stubborn to go to a hospital?"

As she sets down the antiseptic-drenched gauze and picks up a clean folded-up bit (thank goodness that it didn't look like stitches were needed), Kakashi speaks again, scratching lightly over his mask. "Do you think if I asked her really nicely, she'd fix me up? And I'd rather not go to a hospital because they're going to ask too many questions."

Sakura has never been so tempted to smack someone in her life. For now, she settles for groaning in annoyance. 

"Dr. Senju would probably tell you to go to the hospital, like I have," Sakura replies, pressing the gauze against the wound and grabbing some medical tape in order to secure it in place. "She likes you, but she has a low bullshit tolerance."

Under his mask, she can tell that Kakashi is smiling--but there's something sad about it. He tends to smile like that a lot, and it's something that Sakura doesn't feel like pushing right now. "I know, since she's known me since I was a small child." 

The bandaging is soon finished, and her old mentor stands up, rolling his shoulder slightly before reaching for the loose black turtleneck he always wears. Sakura starts to busy herself with cleaning up her first-aid kit (her personal one, since her parent's is just full of plasters), but pauses in her motions, straightening up and peering at Kakashi. 

"....Hey, next time you're too stubborn to go to the hospital, please at least text me first, because if my parents were here and saw you bleeding everywhere they'd shove you in a car and drive you to the hospital before you could say 'hi, how are you?'"

Kakashi lackadaisically waves a hand in response, coupling it with a: "Alright, alright, I'll do that next time." There's a tear in the shoulder of his top, but with the dark color it's difficult to make out any sort of bloodstain. Considering just how many times Kakashi's gotten injured in those, he must buy them in bulk or something.

(Can you even buy clothes in bulk that aren't, like, underwear or socks? She'll have to ask Ino.)

"Thank you," Sakura sighs in relief, shutting the lid of the kit with a neat click and storing it back on the bookshelf she keeps all her textbooks. "Plus, I'd get interrogated too, and my mom's intense."

"Ah, I've heard mothers get like that when they're worried."

Right. Kakashi was orphaned young, so he wouldn't have personal experience with the complexities of having a mom. 

Sakura gives him a smile, returning to the couch and plopping dramatically down on it to get comfortable; it's an old, lumpy thing, but her parents have had it since she was a child and it's grown on her. "She loves me, and with love comes worry, so...."

"I see." The couch cushions shift as Kakashi takes a seat a respectful distance away from her, leaning back and letting his arms loosely flop at his sides. "My dad was the same with me."

It's rare that Kakashi speaks about his father, so Sakura unconsciously finds herself listening more intently to their current conversation. "He was?" He nods, crossing his legs and swinging his socked foot with an idleness that always seems to hang about him like mist in the morning. 

"Yeah. In his defense, I was a problem child, and he didn't want me to get into too much trouble." Kakashi seems to smile under his mask, as the corner of his visible eye crinkles visibly in a pleasant fashion. "I think a part of him was glad that I was standing up for myself, since kids would bully me for being a tomboy."

Bullying was a problem when Sakura was a kid, too. Her getting teased for her big forehead was probably the least of it--her peers would drop her rice wraps in anthills, stomp on her notebooks and empty her pencil case all over the ground, and in one particularly nasty case, an older classmate stuffed her in a tiny broom closet and barricaded the door shut.

What Sakura remembers the most, though, is Naruto's shrieking at the classmate who crammed her in there, and Ino shoving past them to yank open the closet door and tug her out of the smelly and unsafe space. The memory stands out so clearly to her--the bright green shirt that Ino was wearing, the harsh chemical smell of the cleaning products, even up to the small smudge of dirt on the sleeve of Naruto's baggy jumper as he'd reared his arm back to sock the bully right in the nose. 

The school then finally realized that something was going on, and the bullying stopped after Sakura's parents also got involved. She's grateful to her parents, of course, and...

Honestly, she's not sure what she would've done without her friends. If Sakura could give them the world, she'd do that in a heartbeat. 

"I remember hearing from Dr. Senju that you beat up the bullies," Sakura quips, and Kakashi chuckles faintly. "She remembers your dad wishing for the school to actually do something about the bullying issue."

"That sounds like something he would say." Her mentor is speaking quieter now, and almost seems....sad, somehow. "And I did beat up the bullies, but after my dad passed, I stopped. It didn't feel worth it any more--I wasn't able to put words to it then, but I can, now."

There's something that's telling Sakura that this is something that Kakashi has been wanting to get off of his chest for a while, so she gives him a small nod, indicating that he can keep talking. 

"I was angry at my dad for leaving me, but underneath all that anger, looking back on it now--I was grieving for his loss and I didn't know how to process it at the time. Didn't help that people ranging from kids to grown adults would just say cruel things about him, and that just made me feel even angrier towards him." He then seems to smile again, as if reminiscing on something. "I was lucky that Gai, Obito, and Rin were there for me, although they didn't fully understand what was going on at the time. We were all kids, back then."

Sakura doesn't know what to say--hell, she doesn't think anything she can say would be the right call in this situation. What her mentor had gone through was something that no child should ever go through, and it seemed nigh impossible to sum it up with just one's words.

So, instead of speaking, Sakura just leans over and gives him a tight hug, careful to mind his injured shoulder. 

Kakashi freezes, as if surprised by the sudden show of affection from his student, but she can feel his body soon relax and his arms wind carefully around her in return. He's warm, but not too warm, and Sakura rests her head on his shoulder. 

"....Thanks," Kakashi says after several beats, releasing Sakura and letting her sit up properly. "I guess I needed that."

Sakura's getting some coursework done later in the day when her phone starts rapidly buzzing from where it's placed face-down on her desk. Grumbling under her breath (not wanting her parents in the other room to accidentally hear her cuss), she picks up her phone to see what exactly is going on.

What the hell is going on?

There are exactly four messages, and they're all from Naruto. 

heard old man kakashi got hurt hows he doin lol

sasukes dad called me how the hell did he get my number i dont remember giving it to anyone but sas

sakura i dont know what to do i dont want to tell sasuke HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

THEY ASKED ME WHERE HE WENT I JUST KNOW HES AT SHINOS AND IDK WHERE SHINO LIVES AND THATS WHAT I TOLD THEM WQAT SHOULD I DO

Well, this isn't a situation that Sakura was expecting to deal with today after dealing with Kakashi. But, Naruto's one of her best friends, and she's not going to just leave him hanging. 

Chapter Text

It's not exactly a rare occurrence for Choji to show up at Shikamaru's family's place, but his mom always seems surprised when he graces their doorstep. She always lets him in, though, like right now. 

"Shikamaru and Myojo are upstairs--god knows what they're talking about," is the only thing that Yoshino tells Choji as she shuts the door behind him, allowing for Choji to shuck his shoes off at the door. Her brow is furrowed, and her normally neat ponytail has several strands poking out of it.  

"Thanks, Miss Yoshino," Choji responds with a smile, which is only stared at before the older woman turns neatly on her heel and heads back to the living room. Used to this, all Choji does is sigh before making his way to the stairs and up to Shikamaru's room.

Living at home has its perks (which Choji knows well, as he still lives with his parents), and one of those perks is being able to spend time with family. So, it's not a surprise when he finally gets to his friend's room and knocks politely on the door, that Myojo opens the door for him. She's a pretty lady, with loose dark curls pulled away in double plaits for the time being and is dressed casually in an oversized band shirt and star-print leggings, the style that has those pockets low on the sides. 

She doesn't say anything at first, letting Choji speak. "Oh, hey Myojo! Is Shika awake?" 

"He's napping right now, but he'll probably get up soon. He was working remotely yesterday, and was up late." Myojo's around the same height as him, so she's looking him in the eyes as she talks--which is a little intimidating to Choji, since he knows that she could bench-press him. "You can come in if you want. Is Yoshino still downstairs?"

Shikamaru's immediate family has a...honestly weird dynamic. There's the patriarch Shikaku, then his wife Yoshino, and then their son Shikamaru (Choji's best friend besides Ino). And then there's Myojo, Shikamaru's half-sister. 

Choji doesn't know of the specifics, but he does know from Shika that Myojo is a product of an affair that Shikaku had very early into his marriage with Yoshino, before Shikamaru was born. When Shikamaru was around five, something happened, which in turn lead to Shikaku adopting his illegitimate daughter. 

Needless to say, Yoshino was not happy to have the product of her husband's affair living in her home. 

Again, Choji doesn't know the specifics, but things have apparently always been incredibly rocky between the two women. Myojo doesn't use the Nara name, and seems more like someone else that just lives in the house as opposed to being another child of Yoshino and Shikaku. 

When he'd asked Shikamaru how he felt about the whole ordeal, his friend had merely replied with, "It can be a drag, but at least Myojo's chill. She doesn't start conflict, but she'll finish it if she has to."

"Yeah, she's in the living room right now, I think," Choji replies. Myojo's expression doesn't change, but she does nod and step away from the open door so that Choji can finally enter Shikamaru's room. It's a little messy, as is usual, and his friend is peacefully snoring away on top of his comforter. It's rather cute.

"Then I'll stay up here. She's not in a good mood today."

He frowns sympathetically, deciding to settle himself on the carpet for the time being. "Yeesh, that sucks. Is that why you've been hanging out in Shika's room even though he's asleep?" From what Choji can remember, Myojo's room is on the first floor. 

"He said he doesn't mind as long as I don't touch his stuff. I've just been sitting over there-" she points a well-manicured fingernail at a pile of pillows in a corner of the room "-texting my friends and reading webcomics. Something interesting came up with the Aburame household, apparently, about their new tenant."

According to Shikamaru (who somehow knows everything about everyone in his personal life), said new tenant is Sasuke. Naruto's emotionally constipated boyfriend with enough going on to fill a book. 

And, well, Choji likes to stay out of gossip for the most part, but things always get interesting when a certain brother-issues guy is involved. 

"Oh, word? Share, please," Choji says, plopping down on the ground and pulling a granola bar out of his pocket to snack on. Shikamaru's fine with him eating in his room, as long as a mess isn't made.

Myojo pulls her phone out of her pocket and seems to unlock it, dark eyes scanning over the screen. "Shikamaru knows more about it than I do, since someone was messaging him real-time updates, but I can say that said tenant's father showed up at the house and things got heated. No violence, but other than that I don't know much about the whole situation."

"I'll ask Shika when he wakes up." And like those words functioned as an incantation, the peacefully snoring bed-resident suddenly stops mid-snore and blinks open his eyes, pushing himself up and off of his comforter. 

Choji finishes swallowing the bite of his granola bar before speaking. "How'd you sleep, bud?" Shikamaru groans in response, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hand, and Myojo seems to have retreated to the pillow-pile in the corner for the time being. 

(She's not the socializing type, which is fine. Plus, she looks tired.)

"I slept fine," he replies, glancing tiredly over at his friend before adjusting to a more polite seating position. "Good to see you."

It's always nice talking to one of his best friends, even when said best friend is sleepy and wearing paint-stained sweatpants (and to bed, no less). "Did you think I wouldn't make time for you because I got a girlfriend? You and Ino are my best friends; of course I'd carve out some time for you guys." Sappy, but true, especially to Choji. He loves his friends like they're his family, and he's always been close to his family. 

"Thanks, man." A pause. "I wasn't fully awake, but I did catch the tail end of your conversation with Myo. The situation with the Uchiha's has gotten more...uh, difficult? That's the best way to put it."

Unfortunately, Choji's mouth is full (he's hungry, okay?), so all he's able to do in response is give him a go on nod. Shikamaru seems to recognize this motion, and starts fumbling around on his bedside table for a hair tie while talking. 

"Naruto and Shino were texting me--Naruto much more frantic considering his boyfriend's dad somehow got his number." How the Uchiha patriarch got Naruto's number starts as a bit of a mystery, but it then clicks for Choji. Rich people have a lot of connections, and connections can very easily get you people's phone numbers. "Shino was texting me because he wanted to document things just in case things escalated to a physical fight. He said he was in the living room at the time while Sasuke and his old man were near the entryway."

Shino's actions aren't very surprising, as he isn't the type to get involved when he doesn't need to. Choji can respect the hell out of that. "Yeah, go on."

By this point, Shikamaru's got his hair wrangled into a messy ponytail. "Sasuke's old man wanted him to come back home, citing that he cared about his son and that his mother missed him, but Sasuke was adamantly refusing while saying he'd stay there until, quoting from what Shino's text said, 'everyone got their shit together.' And then Itachi got brought up."

Although he has zero familiarity with Sasuke's older brother, Choji's aware that he's a very touchy subject. The mere mention of his name always seems to bring a dour look to Sasuke's already grumpy face. 

"Shit."

"'Shit' is right." Shikamaru's scooted off of the bed and is now seated on the floor with Choji and Myojo (although she's still in the same spot). "Sasuke blew up at him. Said that maybe if his father had raised Itachi right then he wouldn't have, and again I'm quoting, 'done the shit he did.' Shino says that he thinks Sasuke noticed him by then, so he clammed up quick and didn't go into detail."

Even though Choji isn't particularly close with Sasuke (to be honest, they've maybe talked, like....four times total directly to each other), the details of whatever happened between him, Itachi, and the rest of the Uchiha family has consistently been one of the hotter topic in their area. No one is quite sure as to what happened, save for the people involved, obviously.

Whatever happened changed everything for that family for the worst. And, it left the previously bright yet still mostly solitary Sasuke a shell of who he once was. 

They weren't friends as young children, but they did share classes together--and Choji distinctly remembers one time little Sasuke sitting off to the side while tucking into a homemade bento someone had made him for lunch, watching his fellow classmates playing together with a wide-eyed innocently curious look about him. Choji remembers staring at Sasuke curiously, and then he got promptly hit in the face with a rubber ball, which made him stop his staring. 

People have consistently told Choji he's got a heart too big for his body, and he guesses that's true, since he feels empathy for someone who he's only (friendly) acquaintances with. 

"....Jeez, that all sounds rough." The granola bar has been finished, and Choji tosses the wrapper into the wastebin next to Shikamaru's desk, mumbling a small 'score' under his breath when it lands. "Poor Sasuke."

Shikamaru nods, pretzel-ing his legs in a way that the mere sight of it makes Choji's legs start cramping up. "I'm not Sasuke's biggest fan, but yeah, poor him. His old man left soon after, and Sasuke apparently apologized to Shino's dad about the ruckus. The dad only showed up because he heard yelling and wanted to know what was going on."

Choji likes to consider himself incredibly lucky that the biggest fights he's had with his own family only involved slightly raised voices and an occasional slammed door. He's been at Shikamaru's place while his parents were having an incredibly loud yelling match during a family dinner, and he's been at Kiba's place when his friend and his mom were fighting over a bad homework grade--and to make things worse, the dogs were barking their furry tails right off. 

Also, all of the family fights that he's been involved in all end in genuine apologies from all parties. However, Choji doesn't think he's heard Yoshino and Shikaku ever apologize to each other, and he's known them since he was a baby.

(Apparently, the bond between the Nara-Akimichi-Yamanaka families go back nearly seventeen generations. Wild.)

"Do you think if Sasuke and his family just sat down over a nice meal and talked things out, then things would be a little smoothed over?"

This brings a chuckle out of Shikamaru's mouth, in the dry-fashion that Choji's gotten more than used to after knowing him for so long. "Emphasis on little, but yeah, it'd be a start."

The two of them (well, three, if he's counting Myojo, who hasn't moved at all throughout this whole thing) are silent for several moments, before Shikamaru groans loudly and buries his face in his hands. "I know it's early, but after all this shit, I need a smoke." He's already fumbling around through a drawer on his bedside table to pull out his lighter and pack. 

"...Shika, it's noon."

"Early enough." Used to his friend keeping odd hours, Choji doesn't bother commenting on it. "I'm going to step out onto the balcony to--you're welcome to join if you want."

Shikamaru's room, on the second floor of his house, has a door leading to a small balcony that only has a deck chair on it. It's a good place to hang out, and Choji's spent many an evening with Ino and Shika out there, just shooting the breeze or doing homework when they were in school together. The lack of space there made it difficult to fit three people, but Ino would always sit up on the railing, balancing her schoolbooks or a drink on her knees. 

As much as he doesn't mind the occasional blunt, the smell likes to linger, Choji's mom does not like the smell, and he's really not in the mood right now (not to the point of being rude about it, though). "Nah, I'm good, but thanks for the offer."

"Cool. I'll be back in ten."

Chapter Text

The rain pattering on the roof of the hearse should be relaxing, but Obito can't find it in himself to stop being so damn tense. 

And partially it's because of that stupid fucking family drama shit. From two families, now.

Grumbling in annoyance, he rolls over and sits up (head lowered, so he doesn't hit his head on the roof) and scoots over to the back doors while cramming his boots on, cracking them open and peeking out to see if it would be safe enough to exit without stepping in a massive puddle. Thank whatever deities exist that there isn't, so he steps all the way out and shuts the doors behind him. 

Normally Obito would get out from the driver side door, since if people thinks he's driving around with a coffin in the back they tend to fuck off, but in such a quiet neighborhood there's no need to frighten off randoms. It's also six in the evening, so. 

He walks up the steps to the front porch of the house whose driveway he's parked in and knocks several times against the lilac-painted door. There's movement from inside, before the door is swung open wide in a way that someone would only do if they recognized the person on their doorstep.

Rin, as of current, is the only person in Obito's life that doesn't make it more complicated. And, is the owner of the driveway he's currently parked in. 

"Hey," she says, giving him a friendly smile as well. She's not in her scrubs, which is a clear sign that she's not going to be working an evening shift today. "I thought you'd be resting or something."

In response, Obito groans in agony, bracing an arm against the doorframe. "To put things simply, Rin, shit's getting wild."

Before he can say anything else, Rin's grabbed his arm and is dragging him inside, closing and locking the door behind her. Obito has half a mind to kick off his boots before being dragged further into the home, since he knows Rin hates it when people track mud in her house, He's messy, but not rude (well, only to Rin).

Obito finds himself ushered into the kitchen/dining area of Rin's small house and sat down at the dining table, one of the chairs taken up by his friend's overstuffed work bag tossed haphazardly over the seat. The interior of the house is very much Rin, light colors and comfortable furniture, walls decorated with paintings and pictures of flowers as well as the important people of her life. 

One of the pictures on the wall is a chunky looking one-eyed cat (right next to the picture of Rin's snapping turtle, Isobu, who he sometimes takes care of), and Obito is confused for several moments before he feels something furry wind around his legs. 

"Oh, sorry--I forgot to tell you about Soba," Rin quickly says upon noticing the cat, leaning down and scooping the furry creature up in her arms. It's not as chunky as the picture, but just as fluffy. "I adopted him a few months back."

As the cat (Soba) wriggles out of Rin's arms and lazily meanders his way over to the couch, Obito shrugs, leaning against the table. "Cute cat."

"Thanks."

He remains sitting as Rin heads into the kitchen, watching her rummage around in the fridge for a minute before coming back out holding two cans of some healthy lemon soda. Both cans are plunked down on the table, and Rin sits across from him, propping her chin on her hands and staring at him expectantly. "Spill. Something's bothering you, so talk about it."

To give himself time to gather his thoughts, Obito cracks open the can and takes a few sips of his soda (a bit too tart for his liking, but decent). Rin continues to stare expectantly at him until he's able to figure out his words.

"Well, for one, the situation with my family has gotten worse, considering Sasuke's up and moved into the Aburame household," Obito explains to his attentive friend, who hasn't touched her soda. "Shisui's mother is still taking care of him, but being a caretaker isn't the easiest thing for her, so she's considering chucking him into an assisted living facility, and she's been looking around at those--don't get me started on how shit they are in this area."

Rin opens her mouth to respond, but then closes it, frowning at him. "...And you know all of this how?"

"Spyware."

As Obito's already gotten several lectures from Rin about his less-than-legal technology usage, she settles with a glare for the time being as she opens her own soda. It's not enough to phase Obito, who's been on the receiving end of worse looks. 

(Itachi comes to mind.)

"For the record, I'm mostly just monitoring their messages and internet usage, not hacking into their fucking cameras or some creep shit." Well, that of them and the people around them, but it's the only way he can keep an eye on his family without getting too close or relying on unreliable gossip. 

"...Well, that's reassuring." Rin takes a long drink of her soda, swallowing and clearing her throat. "Is that it, or...?"

There she goes. Ever since she's know her, Rin's always been good at making Obito tell her the truth, to the point where he can't hide shit from her. If it were anyone else, he would be annoyed. 

"Surprisingly, it's not just my family's bullshit this time."

A quirked eyebrow. "Let me guess--Hyuuga?"

Obito cracks a sideways grin in her direction. "How'd you guess?"

"I mean, isn't it usually your family or the Hyuuga family stirring up trouble?" Considering that both families have an intense amount of sway in Konoha, it shouldn't be surprising that there are conflicts. That much influence gets to people's heads sometimes. "No offense."

"None taken."

Rin smiles at him in return, and it's so bright that Obito feels like he needs to squint. "Anyways, what's going on this time? Last time it was one of them getting piss drunk, causing a scene, and then throwing a rock through Hiashi Hyuuga's car windshield in a parking lot at one of the event halls--I cannot  believe that they just covered that up."

"I mean, knowing what I know about the drunk guy's history-" those words earn him a frown from Rin, since there's no way Obito just waltzed up and asked him about his history "-I do not blame him for that. Wasn't him this time, though."

The two pause in the conversation to drink some of the soda (Obito's getting used to the taste). Soba yawns from his spot on the couch before curling back up, tail over his nose.

"Anyways, it had something to do with Hiashi's nephew, and according to his messages, he's upset with how the rest of their family is treating his mother." Obito leans his head against his hand, propping his elbow on the table. "And another whole part of their family, too."

"You mean Neji, right?" When Obito blinks in confusion, Rin elaborates. "He works at the hospital with me--he's a medical assistant, and he always seems stressed. Good kid, though."

"And now you know part of the reason why. This situation seems to have been going on for a while, but from the looks of it, it's starting to boil over. You just can't keep messed up family shit under wraps--it always ends up exploding in someone's face."

Rin raises her soda in a mock toast. "Damn straight."

Obito briefly taps his own can against hers before setting it down, noticing the concerned expression on her face. Before he can say anything about it, Rin starts talking, fingers tapping at the sides of the can. 

"I just...I know I don't know most of these people well, but I feel so terrible for them. The kids, mainly," she starts, frowning minutely. "I mean, most of them are adults now, but they're still too young to be dealing with crap like this."

She pauses, then: "No one deserves to deal with that kind of crap."

Out of the two of them, Rin's always been the more empathetic one. The more understanding one, the one more willing to lend a hand or an ear or a shoulder to anyone in need, even if she didn't know them very well. It's one of the reasons that she and Obito and Kakashi were so close as kids (and are still close-ish, to a degree), and one of the main reasons that drew Obito to her in the first place. 

"...You're right."

Chapter Text

The weather feels awfully sleepy today, and Hinata's glad that she doesn't have college work that's due within the next few days. Like this, she can just hang out in the living room of the family home with a good book and a warm cup of tea.

It's almost a little too quiet at the family home, but that's probably because her father isn't here and even though cousin Sako is here (the one that put a rock through her father's windshield and scared the ever-loving crap out out of Hinata, who was nearby at the time) after crashing on the front porch for the night, is now working quietly on something in a sketchbook across from another one of their cousins, Okubo, in a small sitting area on the other side of the large living room. She's typing away at something on a computer, but with Hinata having her nose in her book, she doesn't mind the noise. 

After reading for a couple more minutes, Hinata uncurls herself from her spot on the couch and reaches for her mug of tea, which she had left on the side table (with a coaster, obviously). This small movement gains Sako's attention, as he lifts his head to peer over at her. 

Awkwardly, she raises the hand she was just using to reach for the tea to give him a tiny wave, coupled with a smile. He doesn't smile back, but Okubo, who's noticed by now their little interaction, turns and gives her younger cousin a matching tiny smile and wave. Okubo's bangs are getting too long, and could use a trim, but Hinata's not going to tell her that--that would be boundary-invasion. 

Another boundary invasion (at least, in Hinata's head) is asking Neji about what's going on with her father and his mother. 

Shinobu (or, Auntie Bu, as Hanabi dubbed her when she was little) is a kind woman, always greeting Hinata with large smiles and offerings of snacks. Although, as much as Hinata would like to talk to her aunt, she wouldn't be able to properly respond save for a few short words. 

When Hinata and Neji were little, something happened to Neji's father (Hinata's uncle, her father's brother), leading to his death--and, soon after, aunt Shinobu going completely deaf due to an accident. She sustained some brain damage, too, and while Hinata never learned the reason behind the accident that lead to her aunt being so terribly injured, it was something that drove a wedge between Neji and the rest of the family. 

As much as she's curious about the details (considering it pertains to members of her family, after all), Hinata's always been shut down by her father whenever she's asked. 

And, lately, Neji has been more closed off to her and her immediate family. 

Hinata goes back to her book after a couple more minutes, trying to get her mind off of things, but the sound of the front door opening and closing causes all three living room occupants to look away from what they were doing previously. It's Neji, his work bag slung over his shoulder, and he quickly kicks his shoes off at the entrance before striding deeper into the house without sparing anyone else a glance. 

Something inside of Hinata stirs back to life, and after several moments of hesitation, she quickly closes her book before scooping up her cup of tea and following after Neji on socked feet, careful not to spill the still-warm beverage. Sako casts her an odd glance, but just ducks his head back down when Hinata actually looks towards him. 

Not even Sako's piercing stares can stop Hinata from wanting to know what's going on with Neji. They're close family, and after everything that Neji has had to go through, Hinata wants to be able to help him out.

Further into the house is cleaner and quieter, and soon enough, Hinata's arrived to where Aunt Shinobu and Neji live. It's an entirely separate wing of the main Hyuuga home, smaller and more comfortable with its own little kitchen and living room. Neji currently isn't in the small living room (probably washing up after his shift), but Aunt Shinobu is, dressed in an old-fashioned yukata and absorbed in a book while perched on the couch. 

For a moment, Hinata awkwardly hovers, but then slowly makes her way over to the armchair near the couch, sitting down on it before maneuvering her mug of tea onto a nearby side table (with a coaster, obviously).

Aunt Shinobu doesn't notice her for about a minute, but soon glances up after a few more minutes of reading, her soft yet age-worn features curling into a pleasant expression.

"Hi, auntie," Hinata says, giving her a shy wave. As is usual, her aunt doesn't respond verbally, but instead smiles warmly at her niece, closing her book and setting it neatly to to the side, folding her hands demurely in her lap. 

According to some of her cousins, Aunt Shinobu has always behaved in a way that many of the older folk would consider a 'traditional wife's,' always polite and warm and well-dressed, ready to receive any guests and tend to the needs of her husband and children. It almost seemed...expected, of her, and while the family has grown more progressive over the years, there's still those gender-specific 'expectations' that get tossed around every once in a while--even at Hinata herself. 

Outside of those gendered roles that Aunt Shinobu got pushed into, Hinata has also learned many things about her aunt. She noticed that her auntie loves to read all kinds of books, from comics to classics to even the occasional horror, and likes to leave nuts out for the squirrels when she thinks no one is looking (she's not very good at sneaking around). 

A gentle pat on the hand brings Hinata out of her own thoughts, and she soon meets her aunt's concerned hazel brown gaze. 

"I'm fine, auntie." 

"...Sad, right?"

Maybe her face is easier to read than she thinks. Hinata shakes her head several times, trying to give Aunt Shinobu a reassuring smile. "Just...worried. About Neji."

Anything having to do with Neji usually get's auntie's attention quickly--Hinata remembers her father telling her about a 'parent's instinct,' which that might just be. Aunt Shinobu's gaze grows more worried, and she cradles Hinata's hands carefully in her own, giving them a small squeeze.

Before their conversation-of-sorts can continue, Hinata hears the sound of a door opening behind her, and soon enough Neji walks into her line of sight. He's dressed in more comfortable house-clothes, his long brown hair (the same exact shade as his mother's) hanging freely about his face and shoulders. "Hinata? Is there something you need to talk to me about?"

Astute as always. That's why father always said you were more talented than I. Quickly dispelling that mild bitterness, Hinata nods in response to the previously posed question. "Um, yes. Unless you're busy..."

"I'm not. We can talk on the porch."

It's chilly outside, but if Hinata brings her tea, she shouldn't freeze or anything. 

Aunt Shinobu's looking up at her son now, and Neji soon settles by his mother briefly to allow her to wrap him in a warm hug. She soon releases him, allowing him to stand back up, and gives the both of them a smile before reaching back for her book. Seeing as it's probably time to go outside, Hinata stands up and grabs her tea, giving her aunt a polite half-bow before following Neji out to the back porch. 

As much as she'd like to speak first, Hinata quietly settles down on one of the worn deck chairs and takes a couple sips of her tea, waiting for Neji to say something--of what, she's not wholly sure. 

"...I'm moving out soon, and I'm taking my mom with me."

Oh. That....makes sense. Honestly, it's something Hinata's surprised that she hasn't noticed sooner--like in that one instance where two of her cousins got in a fight and Hinata didn't know it had happened until one threw a plate at the offending cousin's face at a family dinner. No one got hurt, but the plate did break.

"Will you be looking at a place closer to your work?" is the question that Hinata blurts out first, despite the many that are swirling about her head.

Neji gives her an odd look, as if he wasn't initially expecting that particular question. He answers anyway, however, sitting down on the second of the deck chairs. "Yes. I already have a place lined up."

"Does..does my father know?"

"Not yet. I'm planning on telling him when he gets back this evening, though."

That's a conversation Hinata doesn't really want to be a part of. Her father likes to be in control of the things in his life (and some of those things include his immediate family, specifically his daughters, nephew, and sister-in-law), and for Neji to suddenly drop this on him would cause quite a bit of chaos.

Chaos isn't something unknown to her at this current moment. Apparently, the Uchiha situation has gotten incredibly tense, and according to Naruto, Sasuke straight up left the family home because of it all. Shino texted her to let her know that Sasuke would be there if she decided to drop by randomly (which is something she does about once a week, as they live within an easily drivable distance from each other).

"Does auntie know?"

She's shot another odd look, but this one seems more annoyed than the last, causing Hinata to busy herself with sipping her tea. "Of course she does."

"I'm sorry. I should've expected that."

There's a sigh, and Neji rubs the spot between his eyes. "No, I'm sorry. I'm just tired."

Neji's been working a lot of overtime lately, congealing into dark circles beneath his eyes and a certain greasy shine to his hair that he takes incredibly good care of. Hinata wouldn't fault him for being cranky and tired. 

"...It's okay. You...you'll be okay, right? I support you moving out, but I've heard living on your own is..tough."

(She's never lived on her own, so it's not like she would be able to say anything about it). 

"I won't be alone--like I said, my mom is coming with me. However, because she's unable to get or hold a job as of current, it would just be me providing for her. Which...yes, it would be tough, but I don't want to live here with her under the roof of a family that let my father die."

Hinata doesn't know what to say after this--her uncle is always a sore spot for so many people because of what happened to him. But, she reaches out and takes Neji's hand, squeezing it carefully. 

There's a pause, then she finally gets out: "If there's anything I can do to help--and I mean anything--just please let me know." 

Her cousin's face is unreadable, but he responds with, "Thank you, Hinata."

Hinata's up working in her room on some last-minute assignments (because for some reason one of her professors decided to assign something the day before it would be due) when Hanabi bursts in, body-slamming directly on her elder sister's bed.

"Hinata, guess what?"

As much as she loves her sister, Hinata isn't exactly in the mood for playing any sort of game, considering her current assignment. "Hanabi, just tell me, please."

Hanabi huffs in annoyance, but rolls upright into a seated position, adjusting her skirt over her knees before folding her arms and responding. "Neji's moving out with Auntie Shinobu, and dad is pissed! I know you've been up here working through dinner, but man, you should've seen the drama. Dad pulled the 'after everything I did for you' argument, and then cousin Sako started laughing hysterically and calling dad an idiot--no wonder people call him a looney--and at that point I just left because whew."

Somewhat obviously, Hinata knew full well that there would be some kind of argument over the situation, but she's honestly glad it didn't escalate into anything physical. From the sounds of it, no plates were thrown or anything. 

"I see." Hanabi gasps, leaning forward and bracing her hands on Hinata's bright blue bedspread. 

"That's it? Well, you're like, mad busy, so...."

Chapter Text

The afternoon has been quiet so far, much to Nagato's relief. Konan has the night off and has let her hair down (literally and metaphorically) in order to properly relax on the old recliner, and Yahiko has curled up on the couch to work on some of the mutual aid and education organizing for the non-profit that he had started some time ago, focusing on the work he could do at-home through his laptop. While he could no longer lead this particular group (as Yahiko always said that taking care of his loved ones was more important), he always helped when he could, and Nagato loves that about him. 

He himself is watching a show on the television. Nagato's not too sure what it's about, as he started watching in the middle of the episode, but it's entertaining enough. 

Their piece is soon interrupted, however, when there's several rapid knocks on the door. Frowning, Konan rolls into a standing position (having been adorably curled up on the recliner, feet tucked beneath her) and walks towards the door, out of Nagato's line of sight. Yahiko pauses in his work on the computer, craning his neck over the back of the couch to see what she's doing. 

Two voices filter in from the foyer soon enough, one being Konan's and the other louder, with a hint of distress. Nagato recognizes the voice after a moment--it's Deidara, but why would he come over here? 

Sure, Konan does have a bit of a soft spot for him (like she has for her co-worker's son, Gorou, who calls her auntie), but it still doesn't explain why Deidara would presumably bike partway across the city in order to come to their house. Most of the time, they meet each other at parks or at the nonprofit, so this is a certainly odd happening.

From what he can here, Deidara sounds more than just a little upset, as he's sniffling in a way that usually indicates that someone's about to start crying. As much as he cares about the people around him, Nagato's too tired to deal with much of anything right now.

Konan eventually comes back to the living room with the blond in tow, who scrubs furiously at his eye before flopping onto the ground next to the couch, causing Yahiko to pass him a look of concern. "Hey, uh, what's up?"

"My stupid idiot boyfriend wants to take a break," Deidara spits, face twisted into one of distress. "A fucking break!"

Ah. Relationship problems, it seems. 

In all honesty, Nagato didn't expect Deidara and Itachi to end up seeing each other romantically--while opposites do attract, that's only in specific cases, and Deidara's loud and brash nature is wholly different to Itachi's somber and quieter demeanor. They seemed to mix like oil and water at first, and it seems that once the heat is on, things get...unpleasant. 

"Why didn't you go to Sasori about this? You two live together," Yahiko offers, causing a dramatic huff from Deidara. 

"Because my idiot boyfriend-" so the break doesn't seem to be a breakup, at least, from what he can tell through the increasing volume of the blond's voice "-told me he needed a break when I was at the studio and not at home, hm!"

It's surprising that Sasori hasn't ever gotten a noise complaint with how loud Deidara's being right now.

Presumably, this happened over the phone, which is quite rude. Nagato's always believed that important conversations like this one should be held in person, where one could see another and be able to read their body language. Of course, there are some circumstances where people can't meet face to face for these things (such as being in the hospital) and he understand that, but other than that his belief is steadfast. 

"I'm sorry to hear that," Konan tells Deidara, and even though it sounds a little awkward, she is trying. This only seems to worsen Deidara's mood, however, as the sniffling starts right back up and he curls up in a ball, laid on his side. 

Nagato isn't very sure what to do. Of course, he could try and offer some kind of advice--but considering the current situation, any sort of advice would probably piss off the distressed young man even more, and a fight isn't what he wants right now. He had a flare-up earlier that day, and it's still hard for him to move his fingers.

"...I'll live, I'm just...ugh." There's a sigh, mostly muffled by the fluffy carpet Yahiko had picked out a few years prior. "I know his family shit sucks, but I...."

Deidara trails off, digging the tips of his fingers into his scalp. As it doesn't look like he's hurting himself, Konan nor Yahiko make to stop him, although the latter closes his laptop and scoots down to the carpet to sit with the young man. "Family problems, huh?"

"Yeah. He didn't elaborate, and Obito's not telling me shit, hm! And he always knows what's going on, and there's no way I'm going to the Zetsu brothers to ask because they give me the creeps." Not wanting to ask the Zetsu brothers is completely fair--while they always seem to know what's going on with everyone (to a nigh-unsettling degree), they always ask for strange things in exchange. 

For example, one time when Nagato asked for information pertaining to an old friend, Shiro asked for a game of tag in exchange. As he himself can't exactly run anywhere, he couldn't get what he wanted. If it was Kuro (the elder of the twins, a much less cheery sort with a sinister gleam always in his bicolored eyes) Nagato had asked, he might have asked for his medication--which he needs in order to live, thanks.

It seems that all Deidara wanted to do was vent to someone about what just happened, as after that outburst, he goes completely quiet with his face still partially buried in the carpet. If it wasn't so clean from Yahiko's previous stress-cleaning, Nagato would have told him to move. 

Yahiko reaches out after a moment and lightly rubs the young man's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "...I'm sorry about all of this, Deidara. I hope it gets better soon."

"I just want my fucking boyfriend back, hm." 

There's a certain selfishness that comes with his words, but Nagato cannot find himself faulting Deidara for those words. Love can feel selfish sometimes, in wanting the other person to stay even though they can't for a myriad of reasons--even he feels like that sometimes, especially on days where his flare-ups are more severe. 

But, a part of love also comes understanding the other, and he can understand that Konan and Yahiko have their own lives to live. They have things to do, places to be, people to take care of.

"I'm truly sorry, Deidara," Nagato finally says, his voice cracking under the effort. If the blond heard him, he doesn't give much indication, merely rolling so that he's laying on his side instead of his face.

Deidara leaves after about twenty more minutes of laying on the carpet, mumbling something about needing to go bother Hidan about something. Whatever they're planning on getting up to, Nagato wants no part of it. He likes most of their strange circle--keyword being most. 

"Yeesh, poor kid," Yahiko empathizes quietly, nearly a minute after the front door was shut and locked with Deidara's leaving. "Wonder what's going on this time with Itachi's family."

From his own basic knowledge, the conflict between Itachi and his family is a complicated one, with not one grouping being wholly in the right or wholly in the wrong. That leaves things even more complicated, and he would prefer not to get his nose into that kind of business. It's not worth any of his time, or Yahiko's (even with his bleeding heart), or even Konan and her mostly-hidden soft spot. 

"Whatever it is, I don't want to get involved in Itachi's side of things." 

Konan's words, while seeming somewhat harsh, are very logical in a sense--no member of their odd little circle has pried into Itachi's history that much, save for possibly the Zetsu brothers and Obito, although the latter is more on the outside of it all. And, very possibly, no one really wants to. 

(Something, something, getting involved in unnecessary conflicts when another goal is in mind, something something.)

He coughs faintly, drawing concerned glances from his partners--but, as it's a dry cough without much substance, they don't make to go and help him. This kind of cough is so routine for Nagato that he hardly notices them any more. 

"Stil, things are difficult. I hope this is able to blow over without much intervention on our parts," he says, earning him two nods, Konan's more sure with Yahiko's more hesitant. 

Chapter Text

The weather today feels sleepier than normal. And for the record, Hidan's not a very sleepy person--especially when he's hanging around Kakuzu's office, lounging about like he actually works at the place (he doesn't, for the record) and bothering the hell out of his assistant. It's a miracle Kana hasn't tried to beat him with the bat that he knows Kakuzu has her keep under the desk. 

"Hidan, get your ass off of my desk," Kana in the present moment angrily mutters, pushing herself back in her rolling chair to extend a leg in order to nail him in the back with the blunt heel of one of her ankle boots. Hidan is, in fact, lounging on what should be the receptionist's desk, but is also Kana's desk as Kakuzu is too cheap to hire more than one direct employee. 

(She is pretty good at it, according to her boss. Something about 'knowing how to put up with people's shit.')

Hidan turns around to glare at her, only to be met with an unimpressed stare. She looks more worn out than usual today, a washed-out look to her almond-toned skin and dark hair hanging limply around her neck instead of being held back by one of her white or lavender-colored scarves. 

"Damn, you look like shit."

Kana's unimpressed stare only grows more unimpressed. "Get off of my desk." 

Not wanting to start a fight with Kakuzu's assistant because he's not in the mood for another sharp kick to the spine, Hidan lightly hops off of the desk. Kana seems satisfied with this, rolling her chair back so that she's seated properly at the desk there, straightening her blouse and everything. 

"Anyways," Hidan continues, now deciding to continue with his previous train of thought since Kana can't exactly kick him easily anymore, "has that asshole been overworking you again? Because for Jashin's sake, you look like shit, lady."

He's granted a slow, somewhat annoyed blink. "No."

"'No?' Kana, has Kakuzu been tellin' you that I'm stupid or something?" Kakuzu says a lot of shit (some of which aggravates Hidan more than others), and he has no idea what he says about him to his assistant. "Even someone as blind as Itachi could tell that you're being overworked."

Well, now that he thinks about it, Itachi doesn't seem too smart emotionally. But whatever. 

The chair creaks as Kana leans back in it, folding her hands over her stomach. She's not much older than Hidan himself, but when she's like this, she seems almost as old as Kakuzu. "...I just haven't been sleeping well lately."

"Damn, that sucks ass. But hey-" Hidan leans over the desk, like he's telling her a secret "-I can man the desk so you can go nap or somethin.' That, or go for a smoke." Kana seems like she's considering the idea for a moment, then shakes her head, her star-shaped earrings lightly knocking against her cheeks with the motion. 

"Do you remember the last time Kakuzu let you deal with emails?"

Honest to Jashin, he's still a little surprised that Kakuzu didn't straight up murder him after that particular incident (Kana had a bad case of the stomach flu and couldn't come in, so Hidan offered to cover for her during the workday). Apparently there were, like, a lot of angry calls directed to the big guy after Hidan got his hands in the work emails.

Hidan sighs, plopping down on one of the chairs in the small waiting-area that the receptionist's desk is located in. It ominously creaks as soon as his ass hits the cushion, so right back up he goes. "...Shit, yeah, you're right."

The phone rings right after he says that, busying Kana and leaving him all to his lonesome in the office. Kakuzu's apparently out at a work site for a meeting or some bullshit, and wouldn't be back until later that afternoon, which Hidan didn't know about until he got here. Kana probably wouldn't let him even look at any of the work that Kakuzu has her doing, and it's not like the old fuck would assign Hidan anything, especially considering the email incident....

He could call Deidara, but since Itachi apparently wanted to take a 'break' from their relationship (dick move, if he's being real), his friend hasn't been fully in his right mind. Sure, they had gotten piss drunk and threw firecrackers around an abandoned warehouse the other day to let off some steam, but if he invited Dei over to any of that, Kana would probably beat him to a pulp.

(It'd be nice to have her try, though. No one's hit Hidan with a bat in a while.)

Since there isn't anything to feasibly do other than scroll on his phone, he's very tempted to start a ritual and get blood on the linoleum. Sure, Hidan had prayed yesterday, but it never hurts to pray a little more, right? 

As if she can read his mind, Kana glances up from where she's taking notes on the phone call and slowly shakes his head in a you better not do that fashion. 

Damn. Shot down again. 

Hidan eventually decides to sit on a different chair in the waiting area, pulling out his phone and opening his messaging app. Sure, he might not be able to call Deidara, he could still text him. 

u busy?

After sending the text, Hidan shoves his phone in his pocket and leans back, staring at the old clock on the wall across from him. Ever since his, uh, situation started with Kakuzu a year or so back, that ugly clock's been up on the wall, the ticking sound burrowing into his mind like a parasitic worm. 

Parasites leech off of the nutrients of the host, according to Sasori. Would that make Hidan a parasite, attached to Kakuzu?

His phone buzzes, knocking him out of that unpleasant train of thought, and he eagerly pulls his phone back out of his pocket to see a reply.

got outof class. Whats going on

kakuzu ditched me at the office and kana won't let me do anythin

There's a long pause (Deidara's probably getting on the bus, as he's unable to obtain a license due to some street racing when he was a teen), and Hidan slouches in the chair, stretching out his legs.

that sux. do u want to go 2 an adandoned building and wreck shit

Over the many years Hidan and Deidara have known each other (since they were teenagers, the both of them getting up to all sorts of shit, even making plans to just fuck off somewhere in a spurt of teenage rebellion that they didn't follow through on), they've got some similar ways of letting off steam. Destroying shit or getting up to shit in abandoned buildings is just one of them, and the easiest to do. And, right now, it does sound kind of fun. 

y not lol.

Then:

are you still hung up abt itachi. because he can eat a dick

The message dots appear, then vanish, then appear again, and Hidan can clearly picture Deidara's annoyed expression as he tries to figure out a way to word his emotions--and he finds himself chuckling under his breath. Kana, now off of the phone call, just sighs and starts to type something on the work computer. 

I just need 2 vent bc holy shit I'm mad at him

totally valid dude. text me a location and i'll be there asap. i'm so bored i'm about to tweak

Deidara really reminds Hidan of an angry chihuahua when he's mad. Or some other kind of small, somewhat nonthreatening animal....maybe a ferret? 

Yeah, a ferret. Matches that Dei's boyfriend's name means weasel.

"And--get this--Obito isn't telling me shit!" the blond complains loudly, punctuated by the crashing of an old cabinet being kicked straight through. "And I know it's family bullshit, because that's the only thing that gets Itachi that fuckin' moody, hm!"

Family problems aren't something that Hidan and Deidara really have to worry about, since Dei hasn't been in contact with his brothers since he was a kid (something about them being separated in the foster system), and Hidan's mom's locked up in some mental institution back in his hometown. He's also got a cousin and said cousin's got a brat, but he hasn't seen the cousin in over a decade and he's never met the little shit.

"And he doesn't talk to you about this? I mean, you guys have only been together for like...four months, so that might be why."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, as he's shot a glare, Deidara kicking the remains of the cabinet in a violent outburst. "Still! I...what the fuck?!"

When his friend is mad, Hidan knows that it's best to just...let him vent. "Yeah, seriously. Isn't the whole point of a relationship like that being able to talk to each other about shit like this?"

"...I don't like when you're right, because you're always an asshole about it."

Well, he's not going to refute that. 

"True." Hidan pushes himself off of the windowsill he'd perched himself on, walking over to his friend and slinging an arm about his shoulders. "But still, man, this all sucks."

Hold on. "Have you tried talking to Kisame about any of it?" From what he remembers about the big guy, Kisame is the friendly type who tends to be more open about his emotions than not. And, considering that he lives with Itachi and the two seem pretty close, it makes sense that those two would've talked about family shit.

Deidara huffs again, but leans against Hidan, tucking in on himself ever so slightly. "I asked, but he said he didn't know, hm."

"Damn, alright."

It seems that all the wind is right out of Dei's sails, considering that he's slouching even more against Hidan now. "Can we just...sit with each other for a bit? If that's alright with you." His friend's so morose that his voice has lost that usual edge he puts to it. 

"Sure." 

Even though he did come here to wreck shit (and he still wants to), Hidan's fine with this for now. 

Chapter Text

Her head hurts. Karin's taken off her glasses and laid down for twenty minutes with her eyes closed, but her head still hurts. It's not even that late into the day, and her head feels like it got cracked open with a hammer. 

By this point, she's sorely tempted to ask Suigetsu if he can actually hit her with a hammer so she can get some fucking sleep.

Unfortunately for her (and, Karin supposes, somewhat fortunately), Suigetsu is fast asleep beside her, one arm flopped over her chest and one leg almost tangled up with hers. He'd joined her while she was resting her eyes earlier on his bed, and he's like a dead weight she can't quite shake off. 

You are so lucky that you look like a cat when you sleep, Karin thinks somewhat vengefully in his direction. Otherwise I would've strangled you awake by now. 

It's nice that Suigetsu's elder brother lets her hang out here most of the time instead of her shit-ass studio apartment that she shares with someone who she would very much rather not live with. Too many sordid reminders of what she had to go through to get to this point in her life, even though Tayuya isn't the worst roommate. Hell, the worst thing she's done is play her flute in the middle of the night, and even that isn't too bad. 

Somewhere on Suigetsu's nightstand, her phone chimes softly, and Karin has to fumble to reach out to grab it, managing to snag the device and pull it over so she could peer at the screen--not waking Suigetsu in the process. 

The sight of the text her nearly makes Karin shoot straight upright. 

things getting worse. will be coming to suigetsus. 

Sasuke's all the way in Konoha, so if he's coming all the way over here...something is seriously wrong. 

what happened???? r u ok?

As she waits, Karin bites at her nails, worrying a hangnail between her teeth. He knows she's at Suigetsu's a lot and the nutty bastard always forgets to check his texts, which is probably why he texted her in the first place--but Karin still worries. She knows that he's got some issues with his brother and family, but he's certainly got his loud blond boyfriend and friends....right?

Or she's wrong. Sasuke doesn't tend to talk about incredibly personal things with her or Suigetsu, anyways. 

The pinging of her phone nearly causes Karin to drop it on Suigetsu, but thankfully (for her phone, not the sleeping jackass) she doesn't. By this point, the screen had turned off, and the brightness makes her squint. 

family things getting worse. mental stuff too. got mr hatake to drive me bc he feels bad or smth. shld b there in 1-2 hrs

Good thing he's not texting while driving, at least.

gotcha 👍 i'll let sui and mags (his brother) know

thank you. Then: i'll sleep on the couch

It's pretty rare that Sasuke actually uses the phrase 'thank you' instead of a firm nod or a noncommittal grunt, so Karin will take what she can get.

again gotcha n safe travels

He doesn't reply after that text, but the read receipt does pop up, so at least he saw what she texted him. 

By the time Sasuke shows up, Karin and Suigetsu are downstairs, her taking her revenge on him and using his lap as a footrest while they watch TV. The sound of the car pulling up to the front of the house, however, sends the both of them to their feet, Suigetsu turning off the TV and heading to the door faster than a still headache-suffering Karin could react. 

Since it's metaphorically pissing down rain, Karin stays dry under the porch overhang while Suigetsu jogs over to the car, greeting Sasuke when he comes out of the passenger seat with a backpack in tow. A suitcase comes out next, and without too much hurry, the both of them make it back to the porch before the car peels out of the driveway and back down the street, no time for a goodbye or anything like that. 

"Hey, Sasuke," Karin greets when he arrives at the deck, giving him a smile and a wave. While in the past, she probably would have wrapped him in a hug and gushed over him, she's not like that anymore--and he doesn't like that, either. 

"Hey."

Surprisingly, Suigetsu doesn't say anything, and since Sasuke doesn't seem too chatty and Karin just flat out doesn't know what to say, the three of them enter the house in silence. In more silence, they begin to set up the couch while Saskue places his luggage down and heads to the bathroom, and in even more silence, punctuated by the pounding of the rain, Karin goes to the kitchen to boil some water in the old, too-squeaky teakettle.

Sasuke sits back on the couch, now made up with a pillow and a couple spare blankets, but he doesn't speak a word, staring down at his clenched fists. The water finishes boiling, and Karin pours a few mugs of hot water before carrying them over.

"Thanks." The silence is broken by Suigetsu, who accepts a mug with a picture of a seal on it, holding it in his hands like the ceramic doesn't burn at his fingers. "I forgot how cold this place gets whenever it rains."

"Your house is borderline ancient, right?" 

"Yup." He downs a sip, barely flinching at the heat of the water. On the other hand, Sasuke accepts a mug and doesn't make to speak or even take a sip, just staring down still. "Passed down a couple generations, too. Given for good military service to my great-great-gramps or someone like that, I haven't kept track."

Before Karin could reply (with a quip about how Kiri only seems to care about fighting and military bullshit), their silent companion finally speaks. 

"...Thank you."

Neither of them speak for several long moments, and Suigetsu even gapes, but Karin gives him a light kick to the shin and replies to Sasuke with a, "You're very welcome. Mangetsu won't be back for another hour or so, so take the time you need to unwind, alright?"

A ghost of a smile flashes across Sasuke's face, but he doesn't say anything, settling for taking a long sip of the hot water. He doesn't flinch at the heat.

Without asking either of them, Suigetsu picks up the TV remote and turns the TV back on, switching the channel to some old romantic drama that someone's grandpa would probably enjoy watching. It's not half-bad, and although Karin thinks none of them would normally enjoy something like this (she herself preferring medical dramas, Suigetsu with action movies, and honestly she doesn't know what Sasuke likes watching), it serves as an excellent distraction.