FALLING IN
Underlined - English
‘Italicised’ - Thoughts
In Text Bolded - Tailed Beast
TSUBASA NOA
I yawn lazily, pulling Shikamaru up with me as I stand from beneath the Nara Clan’s oldest oak tree. He grumbles in protest, but I studiously ignore it as I dismiss the blanket we had been laying on and the chess set we’d been using.
“C’mon Stag. If you had wanted to do this at your place then you should’ve never suggested we keep this all a secret,” I point out, grinning slightly at my boyfriends typical response.
“Not that it would’ve mattered much then anyway, Troublesome Woman,” He bemoans predictably. “It took me three years for you to even let me kiss you.”
Shooting a grin over my shoulder, I begin to walk towards the woods - already mapping my route home in my head. “Oh, but Stag, how else was I to keep my purity safe from your highly motivated hormones?” I tease lightly.
In just a few of his overly long (Goddam TALL people!) strides Shika comes up right beside me, his hand resting with an air of casualness on the small of my back. “Ah yes,” He gives an air of remembrance. “Your … purity.”
He nips playfully at my neck, and I laugh at the irony. Nara men may be … lazy, but they do know how to get something done when they need to.
Or when they want to.
I blush gently and pulled away reluctantly from his touch, “Teacher’s expecting me. I need to go.”
With a muttered ‘troublesome’ and a chaste kiss, he agrees. I whip out my wings and launch into the air.
UCHIHA SASUKE
The door to my room in the barrack creaks open as a silent figure ducks inside. I don’t even bother to look up - my senses long honed telling me I was in no danger, that I knew the intruder - when I sigh and finish zipping my duffle.
“Hound, I know that you enjoy terrorizing as many of your underlings as possible in any given day, but I share rank with you. Unlike Cat I refuse to call you ‘senpai’ and treat you as far above me,” I drawl, my ANBU Crow persona of dry wit still as firmly in place as my mask.
“Maa Maa Sasuke,” Kakashi complians weakly - and I glance up sharply at the sound of my name. Huh. Hadn’t heard that for six years. “My cute little jounin doesn’t love me anymore - I’m hurt.”
Jounin ?
Eyeing the closed door, I pull off my mask and peer at my old jounin-sensei and taicho. “Kakashi,” I start, trying out my words carefully as my heart pounds painfully in my chest. “I am not a jounin. I am a chunin and an ANBU squad captain.”
“Nope!” The dog summoner chirps out cheerfully, and I dare to hope. “You are Uchiha Sasuke, Konohagakure’s elite jounin and Squad 7’s genjutsu specialist, didn’t you know?”
Before I can even begin to formulate a response, Kakashi has slung my duffle (it’s standard to shuffle rooms at random times as to reduce the chance of possible infiltration, this was so Kakashi’s doing, the sadistic bastard ) and is already striding towards the door.
“Better get that mask on, Crow,” He calls over his shoulder as I hastily comply. “After all, this may be the last time you ever need to wear it.”
UZUMAKI NARUTO
“Oi, brat!” I hear Jiraiya call from behind me, and I suddenly realize I had left him behind. “Konoha isn’t going anywhere, enjoy the journey!”
I groan irritatedly, slowing my steps to fall in beside my godfather, “I know that Konoha isn’t going anywhere, but we aren’t either!” I grumble. “Anyway, you just want me to edit your newest trashy transcript!”
“My work is not trash!” Jiraiya cries out indignantly. “It’s art!”
“The only ‘art’ of yours I want to look over and fix of yours, Ero-Sennin, is your sealing!” I tease, only half joking. “That freeze tag attempt was pitiful! You completely ruined the stabilizing array just by trying to tack on an extra chakra recirculation circuit. If you wanted to deep freeze yourself, I could’ve just asked Haku!”
“Brat! That was one time!” Jiraiya growls, a finger jabbed in my face. “And don’t talk about that brat and their ice! I still have nightmares from visiting Kiri!”
I snort, eyes on the road ahead, “Well their ice is just fine for a perv like you! You should’ve known better than flirt with them - even if Zabuza wasn’t there Haku has nothing against protecting themself. And as for Kiri in general? Your own damn fault for flirting with the new Mizukage .”
“But-but-but-!” Jiraiya sputters, and I laugh once without sympathy before launching myself into the trees.
“C’mon Ero-Sennin! I’ve waited six years - I don’t want to wait any longer!”
SENJU TSUNADE
Just as I had timed it, Noa vaults through the window, Naruto bursts through the door, and Sasuke slinks in through the ANBU routes all at exactly the same time.
They all freeze, taking each other in, standing in a rough triangle in my office. They’re clearly shocked, and I take a moment to really see them as how they changed over the past six years.
After all, the jump from 13 to 19 is quite a large one.
Noa is familiar to me, and the changes that happened were gradual - I saw them all happen. She wears thick, sturdy black boots and chainmail leggings under her black knee length pants and steel grey slanted belt. Her armored vest is a halter now after a few times too many of punching holes in her tops. It’s the same olive green as all those years ago though it hugged her tighter than when she was younger. As she freezes at the sight of her teammates the light catches off her armored elbow and knee guards and the glint of the plates on the back of her gloves. Her hitai-ate, now worn bolted a band around her left bicep like the Nara brat, shines in the light starkly against the red of the fabric. Having long since given up on taming her chaotic hair, she simply wears it in a thick and serviceable braid down her back and a swatch of light green cloth keeping flyaways from her eyes.
Long gone was Sasuke’s wide necked Uchiha traditional wear, six years going dark in ANBU instilling comfort in the standard uniform of a tight black tank top with a high neck, black jounin pants, and taped ankles. A katana was strapped to his back with its handles crossed with ANBU’s standard tanto, and as he recognized his old team he aborted his movement to draw it. His red ANBU tattoo stands out on his pale and scarred arms. There’s a new scar running from his left ear down to his right collarbone, still pink from when an enemy tried to cut his throat, and his messy, shoulder length hair barely covers it. He looked like a veteran of the wars: six years in ANBU is never easy.
The other two had been in village, even if they hadn’t come face to face with each other, but that brat ...
What was most eye catching was the cloak - so painfully like Minato’s - that he now wore, the mark that he had achieved the title of Sage. It was red to Minato’s white, and the flames licking the bottom were black. It was just as eye catching as the massive scroll strapped to his back and the glint of calm determination in his eyes. He still wore orange, of course - not even six years of intensive training can beat that out of him - but it was confined only to his jacket in a dark, jewel toned color. Mesh armor came down to his wrists and his ankles were taped over his black jounin pants. He grew up.
They all did.
They were all taller - although Sasuke still held the lead and Noa was the furthest behind. They were all powerful - albeit in different fields. They were all well on the way to passing their predecessors - if they hadn’t already - and…
They were all back.