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Catharsis	By : WaisetsuNingyou Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 968 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Chapter 7.About A Brunette
There was a reason why shinobi wars were usually referred to as secret wars: for the most part, only the shinobi villages that participated knew of the fighting and they avoided battlefields near settlements as often as possible. Ninja refrained from attacking those settlements anyway; there was little benefit to murdering random civilians who knew nothing of village rivalries and conflicts. Morever, if they killed civilians, it would strain international relationships. As punishment, the feudal lords that sponsored the hidden villages would cut their funding.
So when a woman with milky white skin and a heavily tattooed man both stopped at a checkpoint between Tea Country and Fire Country, it drew attention from the ignorant civilians who had also stopped their for a rest. Had those civilians known of the things going on in the countryside, had they been shinobi, or seen them on a regular basis, the unusual features of the two travelers and their juxtaposition would have been less surprising. Shinobi tended to be some unusual characters.
The woman was an albino, an unusual beauty with snowy skin and hair. Her eyes were a vivid blood red that contrasted sharply against her skin. Depending on the angle one looked at her, the scarlet of her eyes would become tinged with the sky blue of her expensive-looking kimono.
Next to her cool elegance was her wild punkish partner, shirtless and proudly showing off the web of inky black tribal tattooes that covered his upper body. He was handsome in an avant-garde way, his face full of piercings--two small hoops in his left eyebrow, one stud in his right nostril, a snakebite and an unusual coil piercing on the right side of his lower lip, five piercings on his left ear, and four more on his right. Every so often, he would flip his head slightly, shaking a multicolored mess of blonde, brown, and black bangs out of his eyes, dark and forever burning with devil-may-care arrogance.
The stares the two received failed to faze either--after all, they were more than used to it, as it happened almost every time they made their presence known to normal people. And, in their case, anything other than natural behavior would risk exposing them.
For some time, the unusual pair sat tranquilly on the benches near the checkpoint's small food stand, eating and drinking cold soba noodles in aluminum packs and green tea. The man was in the middle of slurping up some soba noodles when something far away caught his eye. He nudged his partner's left arm with his elbow.
"O-Hime. Guess who it is."
"Kyouhei, stop, I'm trying to eat. I said, 'Stop it!'" Benihime finally looked up from her tea, but instead of looking as displeased as she sounded, her face split into a calculating smile. "You should have said so."
A misshapen figure came over the summit of the hill north of them. As they drew nearer, it was revealed to be a man carrying a young girl with long curly black hair and golden eyes on his shoulders. The little girl looked up, and waved at the man. "Kyouhei-kun!"
Kyouhei raised a tattooed arm and waved back at the little girl, smiling gently. The albino woman frowned at the gesture, and sneered, "Why are you so fond of that little brat?"
"Chotto matte, O-Hime. Just because she doesn't like you and vice versa doesn't mean I share the same opinion of her as you." He stopped to finish the last bit of soba, then added, "And she's not half as spoiled as you are, O-Hime."
"How r--"
The "princess" was interrupted by the little girl, loudly asking for sweets. "Makoto-kun, I left my change purse at the Lord's house. Can I borrow some money to get some daifuku? I'll pay you back."
"Alright, just stop kicking, Ayanokoji."
The young man tipped his head to Kyouhei and the woman as he passed them on the way to the checkpoint's food stand. Of the four, he was the most "normal," with ordinary brown hair, ordinary blue eyes, and ordinary skin. If anything was unusual about him, it was the fact that he had the doll-like girl on his shoulders.
Several moments later, the young man sat down on the bench closest to Kyouhei, the top of his head covered in confectioners� sugar from the sweets he bought for the little girl. Ayanokoji hopped off of her partners' shoulders. "Ah... sorry sorry, Makoto-kun," she said sweetly, brushing off the top of his head. "I got too impatient."
Ayanokoji finished cleaning off the top of her partner's head, and greeted the other two. "Afternoon, Kyouhei-kun," she said. With a grimace, she turned to look at the albino woman, and hid behind Makoto. "Benihime-san."
She smirked. "What's with that tone, brat? You ought to respect your elders."
A vein twitched unpleasantly in the little girl's temple before she decided to blow a loud raspberry at Benihime, spraying sugar all over Makoto's cheek. Without even the smallest protest, he took one of the napkins that they'd picked up and wiped off of his right cheek.
Kyouhei chuckled at the pair, then mussed Makoto's hair. "You look out of sorts," he said jovially. "Having some trouble?"
Makoto looked up with an irritated glint in his eye, the first sign of any emotion that he had shown since he met with Kyouhei and Benihime. "'Some trouble?'" he drawled, running his hand through his hair. "You've got to be kidding me."
Benihime joined in their conversation, but with much more malicious intentions. "Ah... you haven't found your person yet, have you? But we were assigned our targets months ago."
Ayanokoji already began fuming the moment the albino woman spoke, but Makoto shook his head at her. The last thing he needed was to attract anymore unnecessary attention, when some people were already staring at all of them, the strange group that they were.
Despite how uncalled for her sneers were, Benihime continued, even smiling at Ayanokoji's increasingly futile attempts to keep her temper in check. "Oh my, but I apologize. 'Targets' apply to the rest of us. Ayanokoji-chan and Makoto-kun have only a target--whom they have failed to find, despite all the time that has passed."
"If we were only given one target to find, then that means he expected it to take a while and didn't want us wasting any time going after other people!" Ayanokoji argued.
"Then why are you sitting here, eating daifuku, Ayanokoji-chan?" Benihime asked with unctuous pleasantness. "You should be using this time to be looking for her. If I were looking for that Hibashira woman, I'd have already found her."
"O-Hime, if you wouldn't mind stopping," Kyouhei requested lazily. He picked up one of the skewers of takoyaki that had been sitting at his side and pulled two balls off with his teeth. His mouth full of food, he continued, "Anbagizging Mamomo an Ayago--"
"Speak clearly," Benihime snapped, appalled by his manners.
Kyouhei chewed for a few more seconds, swallowed, then repeated, "Antagonizing Makoto and Ayanokoji doesn't help us at all. If you want to speed up the search, then you could give them some tips on how to find her, instead of bitching and bitching, like you always do."
The albino didn't respond: she had no clues to give to them.
With a smile, her partner said, "I thought so." He turned to Makoto and Ayanokoji. "I can sympathize with you kids. Remember, I used to be a bounty hunter, and guess how much you-know-who had on her neck?"
Ayanokoji's eyes grew large with curiosity. "How much?"
Makoto answered flatly, "Twenty-eight million."
Kyouhei pretended to be angry. "Makoto, I was supposed to answer that question, and I would have made it much more dramatic. In any case, she's gained some notoriety when it comes to capturing her. I wouldn't be surprised if she was right under your nose and you didn't notice her. She's supposed to be an expert in stealth and disguise."
Ayanokoji didn't look at all happy with the additional information. The little girl beat her partner's shoulder with her fists and whined, "That doesn't help at all, and it just makes me think that we could have spoken to her, and completely missed her."
"Unfortunately, that is a possibility," Kyouhei admitted, flipping back his multi-colored bangs. "I gave up searching for her because of that. However, I did hear some interesting things recently."
"Please tell us," Makoto asked politely. "Any information on her would be helpful."
Kyouhei leaned towards them, shooing Benihime out of their conversation when she, too, leaned forward to listen. "I heard stories from an old lady about a gorgeous brunette..."
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Shizuka bent backwards, and cracked her back. The multiple pops and snaps that came from it were somewhat sickening, but they relieved the brunette. Almost a week had passed since her return, and, in that week, she had spent most of her time cleaning up the manor she had left behind or playing with Aoi at the nursery, since she had been granted visiting rights.
Just then, she had finally put the final box of miscellaneous items in the attic. Her home was clean, finally free of all the dust and grime that had accumulated during her seven years of absence. The house, she quickly realized, was far too big for just one person to live in--and for that one person to clean, all by herself.
She cracked her neck as she came down the attic stairs, a little bit miffed. If Nanakusa could afford to save her the trouble of keeping the surrounding grounds polished and neat over the years, then the least her aunt could do was to do that for the house as well.
If she didn't know any better, it was the redhead's way of punishing her for leaving Konoha. Letting the plants in the garden grown amuck would have made the punishment cruel and unusual.
Shizuka stopped by the bathroom, and looked into it. The clean white tiles that she had spent hours scrubbing practically blinded her. "I think I'd like to take a bath now."
The prospect of a hot bath was an attractive one, since she could finally relax and ease her aching muscles. Cleaning was a bit of a workout, even for a kunoichi.
But, just as the tub filled up with steaming hot water... someone rang the doorbell.
The bath would have to wait.
"Coming, coming," Shizuka called as she came down the stairs, wiping her face off with a wet washcloth. She reached the door, and was surprised to find Yamato standing on her porch. "Ah? Tenzou... what are you doing here?"
Yamato bowed to Shizuka. He said quietly, "If you wouldn't mind, I'd rather you call me by my code name, Natsumi."
Shizuka laughed. "My, it's been some time since I used that name. I think I was eighteen or nineteen the last time someone called me that. But, very well, Yamato. What brings you here?"
"The Hokage has a mission for us. She says to come as you are."
Shizuka grumbled as she walked into the Hokage's office wearing her cleaning clothes while everyone else wore their standard uniforms. There were almost two dozen ninja there, and they were all milling around, waiting for the woman who sat usually sat behind the Hokage's desk. Shizuka tried not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't really work.
"Yo!" said a languid voice behind her, accompanied with a loud smack.
"Idiot!" Shizuka squeaked, whipping Genma in the face with her long ponytail as she whirled around. She grabbed his hand. "Pervert, that hurt! Is that how you greet people, by smacking their asses as hard as you can?"
Genma grinned, senbon moving up with the corners of his lips, and leaned over to say as quietly as he could over the hustle and bustle, "It can't hurt more than doing it backdoor, my dear."
Shizuka's mouth formed a scandalized "o," and she punched Genma's chest, popping open the clasps of the pockets on the top-right part of his vest and scattering scrolls and other miscellaneous items on the floor. She hissed, "Don't bring that up around here."
"But it's true, isn't it?" Genma teased. The two bent down to pick up the things that had fallen. "Nice outfit, by the way."
Shizuka wore an oversized blue men's shirt, baggy khaki cargos that were too long for even her legs, and a heinous orange kerchief to hold her hair back. A garbage bag would have looked better on her.
"Nice face," she returned.
"Back to you, hon," Genma said coyly. They had finished collecting his things, and Genma helped her up. "How about a date after this?"
Kakashi appeared out of nowhere behind Genma, and put his hand on his shoulder. His voice was strangely menacing as he warned, "Shizuka's going to be busy cleaning up her place until we leave, so I don't think she'll have the time."
Shizuka frowned at Kakashi, the corner of her lip twitching in anger.
If he wanted to pick a fight with her, then she'd give it to him. The brunette took a step forward towards Genma, and, standing on her tiptoes, wrapped an arm around his neck. In the same manner Kakashi had shut the Tokubetsu jounin down, Shizuka pushed Kakashi's head back with her index finger on the center of his forehead. "I would appreciate it if you stopped making decisions for me. I'm done cleaning my house anyway�so... Genma, I can go on that date with you."
Shizuka made a point of looking at Kakashi as she nipped at Genma's ear with her lips. If you want a war, then I'll give one to you.
The office door burst open, and in came Tsunade with her usual procession of Shizune and Tonton. The Hokage shouted over the din of shinobi, "Alright, alright, everyone settle down! Sorry for the wait, I had to check on some things with the hospital. Shizuka, if you wouldn't mind getting off of Genma; Genma, if you would remove your hand from under her shirt. I'd like to start the briefing right now."
The entire room turned to look at Genma and Shizuka, snickering as the two separated. Genma took longer than necessary to take his hand out from underneath her shirt, much to Tsunade's disgust. For good measure, Shizuka slapped the senbon-sucker across the back of his head; she hadn't even noticed that his hand had slid underneath her shirt until Tsunade pointed it out.
The Hokage cleared her throat and motioned for all of them to pay attention to her. "Now then, your next mission is to the border between Kaze no Kuni and Ame no Kuni. Sunagakure originally had sixty people in that area, but a recent battle with Tsuchi-nin cut their forces down by half. Because Suna's forces are spread very thin as it is, they asked that we send reinforcements. There are twenty�twenty-four of you here, so six platoons will be going as back-up."
Tsunade shuffled through her papers again. "Six platoons means six captains. Please step forward when I call your name. Hatake Kakashi. Yamato. Shirota Abe. Tanaka Hiroyuki. Asao Mayumi. Hibashira Shizuka. They will be the team captains. Under Kakashi's command will be..."
Eighteen names later, Tsunade finished up the briefing: "The overall leader of the Konoha forces will be Hatake Kakashi. The Suna forces are led by Kuroda Ai. One of the Suna platoons will rendezvous with you at the Kinyama Pass, then escort you to their encampment. All team leaders will meet with Kuroda when they arrive, and she will discuss the current situation with you. Kuroda doesn't know how long she'll need you there, but she says to expect to be there for at least a week, unless something happens--so pack your supplies accordingly, and be ready to leave at 0600 hours sharp tomorrow morning. Dismissed."
As promised, Shizuka was on her date with Genma some time after the briefing had finished, and, at that very moment, Genma was on his second beer at the sushi place they were having their date at. Shizuka joked, "You alcoholic, don't drink so much the night before a mission. You're on my team. I'll have to punish you if you're late and hungover tomorrow morning."
"I won't mind if you do that," Genma purred. He put down his beer and leaned closer to Shizuka. "What do you have in mind?"
"Not on the first date," Shizuka teased. Just then Kakashi and Yamato walked by the window of the sushi bar.
Kakashi caught a glimpse of a couple making out passionately through the window of a sushi bar. He walked off, shaking his head. "Jesus, Genma," he harangued to no one in particular. "He barely waits a minute before he's making out with�Yamato."
Yamato coughed in alarm. "Excuse me?"
Kakashi backtracked the last three steps. "What the hell are Shizuka and Genma doing in public?"
Yamato took one look. He deadpanned, "Kissing."
"I know that." Kakashi took another look. "Have they gone out before? Do people normally do that kind of thing right away, on the first date?"
"If you don't mind my saying," said a playful voice behind them. The owner clapped her hand on their shoulders, and popped her head in between them. It was Minami. "You're not one to talk, Kakashi. If my memory serves me correctly, you used to sleep with girls barely hours after you met them. Hey, Tenzou-kun!"
Yamato nodded and did his usual greeting of "Please call me by my codename."
"That's not the point, but it's Genma, for Christ's sake," protested Kakashi. "And don't tell me that's not the worst PDA you've--"
"I think you're just jealous that it's not you she's making out with," Minami singsonged. "And, again, don't talk because you used to do the same thing back then." She slapped their backs. "Don't get your panties in a bunch, boys. You have a big mission tomorrow. I'll buy you two dinner to see you off."
As the trio disappeared out of view, Shizuka and Genma separated, panting for breath. Genma called for the bill, and leaned forward to kiss her again.
Shizuka shook her head and pushed Genma away. His face fell, and he asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Genma, I'll pay my part of the bill. I'm really sorry about this."
As she searched through her wallet for the bills, Shizuka cursed at herself. She hated conscience for its terrible timing. It had a bad habit of making her feel guilty after the deed was done, rather than preventing her from doing it in the first place. No matter how Shizuka looked at it, there was no way she could worm her way out of it: she initiated the kiss, she made sure that Kakashi had seen them doing it, she got Genma involved in her troubles...
That's the kind of person you are, Shizuka?
What made it even worse was that she'd be stuck with both of them--Kakashi and Genma�for at least the next week.
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Author's Notes: Shizuka... is a bit of a bitch, I'm not going to lie.
The more I think about it, the more of an understatement it probably is. xD
It's no excuse, but... I suppose we all have our faults.
I can't make any promises, but I'm hoping to update this weekend. I have half of the next four chapters written; there's going to be a lot of action and other things going on.
// soba: buckwheat noodles
// chotto matte: Hey, wait a minute.
// O-Hime: It's kind of difficult for me to explain this, but "Hime" just a nickname Kyouhei uses for Benihime. "O-" is an outdated honorific used to address women of high position, dating back to the Tokugawa era. When Kyouhei adds the "O-," he only means it in a very sarcastic way to fit with his partner's high-and-mighty attitude.
// daifuku: A Japanese sweet made out of rice cake and usually filled with some sweet filling, usually sweet red bean paste, but they can also be filled with pieces of fruit and a few other things. They're usually covered in some edible powdery substance, like corn starch or confectioners' sugar, to keep them from sticking to each other.
// takoyaki: A Japanese dumpling made with octopus; in food stands, they'll put it on skewers.
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Catharsis