#Eijis sister next time :)

[ticklishraspberries]

omg could i ask for banana fish hcs??

you absolutely can!! these got so fuckin long soooo they are under the cut, lmfao - tws for vague mentions of ash's trauma

ash has trained his body to be still, silent, pliant, and assumes being ticklish is something he has outgrown, or programmed himself to not be

people have tried, under shitty circumstances, and he has steeled his gaze, smirked, and told them "nice try" on a good day - on a bad day, he just stares blankly

but when eiji comes around, he quickly realizes that not all touch needs to be blocked out; he doesn't need to protect himself from this

eiji is terribly ticklish, and terrible at hiding it, too

maybe shorter grabs him a certain way, or ash is helping him patch up a small wound, but eiji will giggle, pull away, and verbally admit "hey, that tickles!" with his big smile and flushed cheeks

and, ofc, it makes ash melt in a way he has avoided his whole life

eiji has never shied away from touching ash, even though he understands the possibility of a bad reaction - he is naturally affectionate, and drawn to ash in a desperate sort of way

he doesn't even think twice before he tickles ash - it's late afternoon and ash has been asleep for 12 hours straight, and eiji is so frustrated he just does what he would do to his sister and squeezes ash's sides

he's expecting ash to jump, yelp, smack at him, pull a weapon, but ash just giggles and burrows under the covers, mumbling for him to fuck off - best case scenario, really

and so eiji doesn't stop, he just yanks back the blankets and tickles him until ash accidentally kicks him in the stomach - he's apologetic after, but eiji is too smitten with his pink cheeks, bedhead, and adorable laugh to care about the dull ache in his abdomen for the next hour

shorter has jabbed at his ribs or squeezed his knee, but ash would usually just huff and shove at him, never burst into boyish laughter the way he does when eiji tries - shorter is his best friend, he loves him, but he just can't turn off the shield around himself easily

eiji somehow breaks that shield down with a smile, a kind word, and ash is terrified and in love and confused and happy

ash is ticklish in weird places: his neck, thighs, and stomach rarely get a reaction, but his sides, ribs, and armpits do. his feet aren't really sensitive at all, but his ankles and calves are. his most ticklish spot is maybe under his arms, but you're lucky if you can even access them, he's so squirmy. his laugh is loud, boyish, and bright. he never begs, only curses and threatens revenge.

eiji, on the other hand, is ticklish just about everywhere, especially on his sides, stomach, and neck. he giggles, which turns into full belly laughter over time. he begs, pleads, whines, and kicks, despite not really minding it too much.

in a happy au where they run away together and everything is fine, and ash gets to handle his trauma more, i can imagine they have tickle fights every once in a while - over silly things, like waking up in the mornings or what film to watch

#ask #tklpilled #bfhc #banana fish #asheiji #raspberry hcs

[retrosofa]

Let's jump into some trivia for Cutie Honey episode 12: A Red Pearl is Forever.

Screenwriter: Susumu Takaku

Art Director: Eiji Ito

Animation Director: Shingo Araki

Director: Hiroshi Shidara

The creative team behind Cutie Honey sure love James Bond. The title of this episode is a spoof of the 1971 film Diamonds are Forever.

This episode originally aired on January 30th, 1973 but was later shown in theaters as part of the Toei Manga Matsuri on March 16th, 1974. Also known as the Toei Animation Festival, this was a film festival created by Toei Animation to showcase some of their popular series during seasonal breaks in the school year. The festival not only included original films but “theatrical versions” of selected episodes from their popular series as well. 

The line-up for the Spring 1974 festival featured: 

Yaemon The Locomotive

Eye-Popping 3-D Movie: Inazuman 

Kamen Rider X (Theatrical version of episode 3) 

Mazinger Z vs. Dr. Hell (Theatrical version of episode 57) 

Limit Miracle Girl (Theatrical version of episode 5)

Cutie Honey (Theatrical version of episode 12)

Reportedly the theatrical version of episode 12 was going to be included as an extra for the original Cutie Honey Premium DVD-Box but the proper materials couldn’t be sourced. The "theatrical version" would've had the episode cropped for widescreen viewing and probably would've omitted the title card and next episode preview.

This episode marked the first collaboration between director Hiroshi Shidara and animator Shingo Araki. Reportedly, both men were set to handle the last episode of Cutie Honey but were too busy at the time working on Toei’s next magical girl series: Little Witch Megu. 

Shidara and Araki had such a fondness for Honey, they included her in Megu’s 27th episode, “The Curse of Scorpio.” The episode opens with Megu watching Misty Honey performing the Cutie Honey theme on TV. In that same episode, Non is seen wearing Hurricane Honey’s helmet.

Araki had previously included Seiji in the first episode of Megu, where he can be seen among a group of angry men. Araki would later include cameo appearances of both Seiji and Honey in UFO Robo Grendizer episode 50. That episode also featured characters from several previous Toei Animation series: Babel II, Devilman, and Getter Robo. 

The haunting siren’s song heard throughout the episode is taken from Kosuke Onozaki’s musical score for the 1969 Toei Animation film, Flying Phantom Ship.

For some reason Seiji’s car has two different license plates. One says “Shinagawa 5132” while the other reads “Shinagawa Maichi 300F.”

Despite her name appearing in the opening credits, Noriko Watanabe does not voice Sister Jill in this episode. Haruko Kitahama fills in for her.

Sea Panther was originally designed by Ken Ishikawa, who most likely drew inspiration of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Her finalized design was done by Shingo Araki.

Sea Panther was voiced by Haruko Kitahama, who previously voiced other Panther Claw minions. Amusingly, Kitahama would go on to voice the Sea Witch and one of the older mermaid sisters in Toei Animation’s 1975 film, Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. 

Sea Panther is referred to as an “android”, though this is technically incorrect. An android is a mobile robot that is made to look like a human. For example, Honey is an android. She’s completely mechanical but looks like a human girl.

Since Sea Panther was originally a flesh and blood mermaid, she’s actually more of a cyborg, which is “a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device.” However, since she was originally a mermaid and not human, I suppose the term “cyborg” is dubious. 

The other agents of Panther Claw (aside from Zora and Jill) are also referred to as “androids” in the anime, although it’s unclear if they’re fully mechanical or not. In the original Cutie Honey manga by Go Nagai, he makes it a point to mention the members of Panther Claw are in fact cyborgs not androids. It could be that the anime producers got their sci-fi terminology mixed up.

The music that plays during the closing scene is Auld Lang Syne, a song typically played or sung during New Years Eve. It was probably included due to the fact this episode originally aired on December 29th, 1973.

That's all for episode 12!

#cutie honey #cutey honey #go nagai #trivia

[vievecorcityrp]

LIAN KOEMAN (RETIRED)

GENDER: Non-binary (they/them)

SPECIES: Witch | No Coven | Dream magic, Spirit magic, Illusion magic, Barrier Magic, Psychic Magic, Necromancy, Corruption Magic, and Probability Magic 

AGE: 205 years old (appears 40 years old)

SEXUALITY: Pansexual

OCCUPATION: Manager of Vicium

DISTRICT: Hedon

HEADCANONS:

Lian was born to human parents. They were part of a traveling circus when they were young. Lian’s father was the elephant tamer and their mother was an acrobat. Lian has long since had a love of elephants and also does various gymnastics as exercise. 

As a child, Lian didn’t know they were a witch given their parentage and they were often touring around the country. As they grew older, their behaviour started to grow erratic and restless, only growing worse and worse as time ticked on. No one knew that Lian was a witch and or that their magic was starting to build. Lian met a boy named Emmett when they were twelve who recognised what she was. They were human born but came from a family of witches and recognised there was magic in Lian, bursting to get out. 

Lian didn’t join the coven as their parents wouldn’t allow it but Lian was given magical guidance by Emmett’s family and their own family settled down so Lian could learn more about what magic entailed.

As teenagers, Lian and Emmett fell in love and planned on marrying after they finished school. They did marry at the age of eighteen. They spent the next twenty or so years together completely in love with each other. At the age of 45, Emmett fell sick. His family refused to help him, claiming that any type of healing like that would be considered dark magic. Lian went to the coven leader and asked them for their hope, thinking that his sister would help was Lian’s mistake. They sent Lian on a mission to find some plants for brewing but when they returned home, Emmett had passed. 

Lian has blamed the Remington Coven for the loss of their husband given their leader, and Emmett’s sister, sent Lian on a mission that made them miss his passing. Liam accused their leader of hating humans born to witches and was promptly kicked out of the coven.

With Lian’s grief, they went to the demon’s of the city, wanting to find some way to get their husband back. They could not offer them that but they offered her dark magic and ways to find a way back to their husband.

Lian has spent many years away from the city, learning and practicing new forms of magic. They have spent their years assisting humans. While they have a soft spot for ones born to witches, Lian will also take payment for magical assistance. If a particular case tugged at their heart strings, they would help without needing payment. 

The dark witch returned to Vievecor around five years ago with a different surname. While they haven’t aged much, most of the people who would remember them are long dead. They settled into a townhouse in the Hedon district and after finding it hard to get a job that would keep their cover, they accepted the position as Manager at the demon run club, Vicium. 

In more recent years, Lian has reconnected with their nephew in law, Eiji Remington, helping assist the young human with his desire to destroy the coven and system that has looked down upon him, the same system that allowed their husband to die so easily.

Lian likes to keep up appearances, volunteering for shelters in the city and donating sums of money towards research for diseases that supernaturals cannot fix. 

PERSONALITY: Vindictive, jealous, melancholic, resourceful and quick thinking. 

CHARACTER TYPE: Wanted Connection - Eiji's Dark Witch Conspirator

BLOG: @liankoeman

#character #fan bingbing #lian koeman #retired character

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (January 29-February 4, 2023)

This week was dense with news, but the biggest was Kadokawa's teaser for GAMERA -Rebirth-, now revealed as a six-episode animated series pitting Gamera against five kaiju opponents, including (of course) Gyaos. Also released was a poster of Gyaos in silhouette; in keeping with recent tradition, it's pretty much skin and bones. The next news drop will come at AnimeJapan 2023 on March 25, where they'll announce the voice cast and release a proper trailer.

Theater listings indicate that Fathom Events will be showing Godzilla: Tokyo SOS in U.S. theaters on March 22 (a Wednesday), paired with Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex. Their Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla program included a behind-the-scenes featurette about the Godzilla vs. Hedorah short that hasn't been released anywhere else, so that's something to look out for. The timing on this seems pretty random; maybe they're trying to get GXMG's sequel (celebrating its 20th this year) out of the way so they can show Godzilla vs. Megalon on Godzilla Day? Pretty nostalgic for me—GMM was the first Godzilla movie I saw for the first time in a theater (at the Pickwick during my first G-Fest).

This week's episode of Godziban introduced Girly Garlin (official English name TBD), Gigan's little sister—and with that, the whole family's been on the show. She's a yandere, methinks.

GMK Godzilla is the latest kaiju to join Godzilla Battle Line. Usually there isn't much advance notice for newcomers, but his model showed up in a metaverse collaboration in December, so it was just a matter of time. He's the debuff king, temporarily weakening nearby enemy units with a swirl of shadow when he appears on the field and is defeated. As a leader, his special move does the same to all enemy units on the field. Pair that with an atomic breath that can hit multiple targets at once and you've got a unit I think we'll be seeing a lot of.

Sukagawa, Eiji Tsuburaya's hometown, has funded a kaiju film about a dinosaur-like beast called Yoroiger. NHK World ran an all-too-brief story on it that mentions that children made it over the course of six months with the help of some tokusatsu pros. Not sure what kind of release it'll get, but I'm certainly curious.

Hiya Toys has teased its MonsterVerse Ghidorah figure. They've made quite a few MonsterVerse figures already, but given their penchant for low prices compared to SHMA, this might be the one that really puts them on the map.

Bandai's unstoppable Movie Monster Series has unveiled four more figures—the Heisei Mechagodzilla and the Final Wars versions of Godzilla, Manda, and Hedorah—to be released later this month. Listings for them turned up a few months ago without any images attached, so it's highly likely that the ones for Showa Baragon, Showa Ebirah, Heisei King Ghidorah, and Symbiotic Legion are real too. I think I'll spring for the Manda. Its proportions are definitely squashed, but I've always liked that design and there are barely any figures of it.

#kaiju week in review #gamera rebirth #godzilla tokyo sos #godziban #godzilla battle line #movie monster series #girly garlin #godzilla #kaiju

[kamyru]

How they embarrass themselves in front of MC (Headcanons)

Characters: Jin Namba, Hideki Ishigami, Hyogo Kaga, Shusuke Soma, Takaomi Tsugaru, Seiji Goto, Ayumu Shinonome, Toru Kurosawa, Yukihisa Maki, Shunichiro Tachibana, Jun Araki, Toshiaki Kijima, Toma Kiriya, Natsume Asaoka, Ukyo Senkawa, Daimon Togo, Kunihiro Kasai, Kuranosuke Kiba, Eiji Takao, Shu Hasunuma, Toshiki Kasumi, Munechika Takado, Taro Akuchi, Suzumu Mado

Jin Namba 

Jin spent too much time on social media to be trendy. He saw that trend of getting photos of how the stars looked in a region during a specific day. So, Jin decided to get MC one of these with their anniversary. When the delivery arrived, MC was home, and Jin gave it immediately. It turned out the anniversary was wrong. And it was he who sent the wrong date.

Hideki Ishigami

During a warm weekend, Ishigami and MC decided to go to the beach. So, both of them got into the water. However, a big wave and one jellyfish made Ishigami lose his balance. The man tried his best to swim. After half a minute that felt like years, MC finally told her boyfriend that the water was shallow enough for him to stay on his four and not die.

Hyogo Kaga

Hyogo let his daughter paint his nails. Of course, Baby Kaga didn't care where his nails end. He forgot that the nail polish remover finished the last time she did this. So, Captain Kaga had to go to an important meeting early in the morning with colorful and messy painted fingers.

Shusuke Soma

Jokingly, Soma handcuffed himself and MC together against the bed. After he locked them, he remembered he had left the keys in his blazer in another room. MC offered to move the bed with them because it was made out of expensive wood. So they did it until they were met by the door. And Shusuke understood why the bed had to be put in his room disassembled when he saw there was no way to get out with it. Soma was nearly crying while trying to break the piece they were handcuffed to. The bed remained like that for years.

Takaomi Tsugaru 

Tsugaru loves MC, and he loves MC strong enough to give up on his habit of eating strange food combinations. For MC's birthday, he wanted to get her a cake from a fancy expensive confectioner. It turned out MC had an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients, and they had to go to the ER.

Seiji Goto

Goto once jokingly asked MC if Japan turned into The Netherlands. MC asked why because it wasn't like Goto to make such jokes. So, Goto sent her a photo of a field with tulips. It was Ishigami who told him that it was a field of poppies.

Ayumu Shinonome 

The Hair Guru a.k.a. Ayumu Shinonome convinced MC that he could cut her hair. She accepted to let him cut her bangs, and he asked her about the length. They agreed on it, and instead of cutting the hair under his fingers, he cut it from above, making it too short. MC cried for two days and didn't talk to him at all. He had to apologize more than ten times for her to stop being mad at him.

Toru Kurosawa

After Toru and MC started to live together, Shoma became a usual guest in their house. It was so natural for him to visit his sister that Toru even gave him a pair of keys. However, Shoma was polite enough to announce his presence beforehand. Once, Toru completely forgot about this and decided to shower before MC returned home. When he heard the keys, he let go of his towel and sat on the couch completely naked and with a potted plant instead of a rose near him. Half a minute later, MC came back and saw her brother silently staring at her shocked naked boyfriend.

Yukihisa Maki 

Yuki told MC to take care of herself and not slip on the icy road. He was like: "I hope your soles are adherent enough," "Look where you're walking," "Don't run," and "Take your hands out of your pocket." So, Yukihisa took MC's hand to help her steady her. The next second, he fell on his butt on took MC after him.

Shunichiro Tachibana

After Shunichiro publicly confirmed his relationship with MC, journalists took photos of the two. Once, he overworked himself so hard that after a few weeks, he saw a photo of him and a woman together and tried to remember and understand what had happened and who was the woman. After days of torture, he finally came clean to MC, acknowledging that he had no idea what had happened, but he was sure that nothing was between him and someone else. MC told him it was her in the photo, wearing a new coat.

Jun Araki 

Mr. Araki met one of his clients, who grew up with him in the orphanage, in the market while buying pads for MC. When his childhood friend asked him about his relationship status and was ready to congratulate him, Jun panicked and said they were for his sister. Both met and stood awkwardly silent, face to face for ten minutes.

Toshiaki Kijima 

MC asked her husband about a man with the same surname as him who sent her a friend request. Toshiaki was trying to fall asleep, so he said that he had no idea, probably just a coincidence. Later, MC found out it was one of his cousins they met the next time they went to Shimane.

Toma Kiriya

Toma was working while MC was in the bathroom. And it's a universal knowledge that people reach their peak of sexiness when they get out of the shower. So, how could he resist his eye-catching fiancee? Toma put away his laptop and went to her, starting a make-out session that continued with him taking MC to the sofa. The man planted his butt on the laptop, and it was only half of the problem. Sharp pieces of plastic and glass got stuck, and he had to go to the hospital to get stitches.

Natsume Asaoka 

Natsume got drunk at a party and told everyone he wanted to sing a song for his wife. He got every single note wrong. Videos of him still running errands in between Addison & Rhodes employees.

Ukyo Senkawa

MC overworked herself for weeks. Ukyo did it too, but he tried his best to take care of his wife. So, he wanted to make her happy and help her relax. And what could be better than a tasty dinner with tea? MC tasted it and said nothing, then Ukyo did the same and understood that he had put salt instead of sugar in the tea.

Daimon Togo 

When Daimon and MC had their first projects after getting together, Kunihiro filled a drawer in his desk with condoms. Unfortunately, it wasn't MC who needed anything from Togo first thing in the morning. When he saw the condoms, Daimon wanted to close the shelf at fast as possible but accidentally forced it, and all its contents fell on the floor when MC approached him.

Kunihiro Kasai 

Someone asked Mr. Kasai during a meeting about something that he failed to hear three times. He finally confirmed the question and moved on. It turned out they asked if MC took sick days due to being pregnant. He had a lot of explanations to do after HR called them to congratulate him and his colleagues prepared a baby shower.

Kuranosuke Kiba 

Kuranosuke told MC that he would protect her during storms, that there was no way something like this would scare him, and he was as cool as a cucumber. It thundered, and he jerked so hard that he dropped the tray with their entire dinner, destroying everything edible.

Eiji Takao

No wonder he is childhood friends with Kunihiro because both get in trouble due to mishearing things. In his case, he didn't say "yes", he said "no". What happened, and what were the questions? He and MC were at an event where he met one of his first clients. The enthusiastic client asked Takao if MC, who sat as close to him as possible, was the wife he had heard about. Due to the noise in the background, Eiji didn't hear the question and just said "no". Two pairs of bewildered eyes looked at him.

Shu Hasunuma 

Before taking some days off, Shu told everyone at work not to contact him because he would have things to do and wouldn't be available most of the time. The day he returned, he accidentally opened his steps counting app during work. Kuranosuke, who couldn't reach him during his mini-vacation, saw that during his entire mini-vacation, Shu made around 20 and 35 steps a day. Shu had to give his wife a few explanations after Kuranosuke started to call her every time he needed Mr. Hasunuma on his days off.

Toshiki Kasumi

We all know how smart is Dr. Kasumi and that he has visited many countries. No wonder this man is multilingual. So, Kasumi took MC on holiday to one of the countries he had visited more than ten years ago. He convinced MC that they wouldn't need translators. During their first dinner, Kasumi understood that he had forgotten a big part of the language spoken in the country but was too stubborn to change to English. When they finally got their command, both Kasumi and MC looked at the plates in front of them, understanding that none of them were what they wanted.

Munechika Takado 

While walking, Takado told MC to be more aware of her surroundings because she nearly tripped on the stairs in front of him earlier that day. They decided to go to buy some things. And when he finished his sentence about how important was for doctors to be able to take care of their health, he planted himself on the glass wall of the market and broke his nose.

Taro Akuchi 

Taro asked MC to wear something of a specific color for their date. He bought flowers to impress her. Being the socially awkward person he was, Taro gave them to MC the second he saw him. He understood that he mistook the girl when she thanked him and he didn't recognize the voice. The man wanted to take the flowers back, but MC, who was a few meters away, got in time to stop him.

Suzumu Mado

Suzumu invited MC on a date and went in there with the idea of paying for both of them. So, he let her get what she wanted even if it was expensive. When they finally had to pay, he understood that he had forgotten his wallet at home. He tried to convince MC that it wasn't his intention. MC didn't believe him.

#her love in the force #irresistible mistakes #oops i said yes #romance md: always on call #tokyo love hustle #voltage inc

[firstagent]

Digimon Top Tamer Tournament- Video Game/Manga Bracket

Yesterday we unveiled the brackets for the anime side of our Top Tamer Tournament. Today we’re giving you a preview of the Video Game and Manga tournament. Remarkable that there were almost as many entries, but between C’Mon Digimon and Seekers, there are 64 more humans vying for supremacy. They do have to be human: sorry Kyoko. Following the poll earlier this week, first round matchups are primarily within each story. Regions are themed… some more rigidly than others. Let’s take the tour!

The Hidden Server is our manga-exclusive region, as C’Mon Digimon, V-Tamer, Next, Xros Wars, and Dreamers square off. In the first round, we’ve got matches between Neo and the Alias III while Bun’s tamer Kentarou meets Nene’s manga-exclusive sister Kotone. Since we don’t know exactly what we’ll get with Seekers, its two reps are split between here and a game-based region. Eiji and Loogamon meet Kouta from Chronicle… that was the last time we were promised a big story tie-in to a toy product. Anyone remember Chronicle?

The GIGO Server is for the World games, so a lot of Re:Digitize and Next Order here, along with the protagonists from the Playstation games. Mameo’s appearance in Next Order adds some familiarity to his first round match with Kouta, while Akira and Atsushi (aka Junior) have their hands full with the Next Order heroes and Rina. Re:Arise and Survive matches are sprinkled across these three regions, and GIGO pits Survive’s Team Mom against its Team Dad and our first of several matches between siblings.

The City Server is one of the two regions based on Story games, so it’s a lot of Cyber Sleuth, although Mirei can’t help but cross over, this time meddling with Re:Arise’s Digital World orphan Mon. Highlights here include Erika and Yu from Hackers Memory vying for Keisuke’s attention, Yuuko and Fei in a lover’s spat, a proper Hudie battle, and Michi from Re:Arise living out every service worker’s dream in getting to fight her boss.

The EDEN Server is the other Story-based region, leading off with a tag team match between the generic protagonists of Cyber Sleuth and the generic protagonists of Lost Evolution. Winner plays the senpai-kohai Re:Arise match, the closest thing this March Madness ripoff will get to actual basketball content. There’s also a hacker fight between Cyber Sleuth and Seekers, a battle of Survive’s siblings, and Nokia vs. Date, who are apparently cousins according to Habu.

Hidden Server and EDEN Server polls start Thursday with GIGO Server and City Server starting Friday. Polls will run for a week on both Tumblr and Twitter, with votes combined. The next round starts a day later. Also make sure to check out the Anime Tournament running concurrently!

If anyone’s interested in the fine print on the selection process and how we got it down to 64, I’ll be happy to post it, but most questions for this bracket can probably be fielded with “actual humans only.”

#digimon #digimon top tamer #top tamer vgm first round

[fourcolour-ace]

Who wants to suffer on this fine Monday night?(short kr ooo fanfic under the cut)

“No, I have to go. I, I don’t… I shouldn’t stay here.” Eiji was saying. He wasn’t listening, avoiding the eyes of everyone as he scraped his few possessions into a heap, clearly about to flee. Shingo looked at his sister, who nodded despite her distressed face. Desperate measures for desperate times, as the saying went. Shingo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, remembering the sounds and sensations of those tumultuous months. 

“Hey, Eiji.” He wasn’t sure if he’d lowered his voice enough, but by the way the other man went still Shingo knew he had hit the mark. He stepped forward, leading with his right arm. “Where are you going?” 

“Huh…? I’m…” Eiji looked at Shingo, but saw someone else. He did that much of the time, to the point that Shingo sometimes wondered if Eiji saw him at all. While the former Rider hesitated Shingo stepped between him and the door, making brief eye contact with Hina. She subtly nodded again. Keep it up, alright. Shingo rolled his right sleeve up to his elbow. 

“You think you can just run away? I need you,” He said. Eiji’s face displayed something between terror and admiration. 

“You need me?” His voice was barely above a whisper. Hoping he wasn’t overstepping, Shingo reached out to press his right hand against the wall next to Eiji’s head. Ankh probably would have grabbed him, he thought, but it seemed to be close enough for Eiji. 

“You’re OOO, remember?” Shingo hoped this was enough.

“Right, I remember…” He slumped against the wall and slid down slowly to sit on the floor. Hina had walked around to stand next to her brother. 

“Sorry, Eiji.” 

#my fanfiction #kamen rider ooo #hino eiji #ankh #izumi shingo #izumi hina #i don’t know where this would fit #in my post-canon ooo fic #so here it is by itself

[diverse-hearts-ocs]

@burncdheart asked:

“This is the first time we spend something like this together, huh?”, it was nice to be out to get some fresh air. Sitting with Eiji on a bench nearby to the cathedral, a spot they had met each other rather often in the past. Just that Taru mostly had sat on the wall and attacked the other one out of the blue whenever she’d see him. Now that she thought back, she scratched her cheek embarrassed. Somehow it seemed to silent tonight, not even one of the bards that usually stood outside were there.

Well, she had no gift to give and since it apparently was a celebration to also spend with family, this was really all she could think about as 'present'. Though twins, the two of them had spent only little time together and she desired to change that. Even if it still felt awkward.

“I wonder, how things would have been if we never had gotten separated, you know.”, Taru suddenly muttered, “Would things really have been easier, do you think?”.

Late Xmas Reply From the LITTLE Sis.

Honestly, this was the best present that he could ever have asked for. He'd been searching for Taru for as long as he could remember, holding onto that belief that he'd somehow know if something had happened to her...and after the incident with the transfer of power between herself and the anemo archon, that theory seemed to have been proven partly correct, not that he'd had the chance to meet up with their father and explain everything lately. Still, a day like this, a day where he sat next to his sister, gazing over a city that had come to mean so much to him...he never thought this day would come to pass. "...if we'd never been separated...", he echoed her words, glancing at Taru, one hand resting against the vision that rest against his hip, "...things would have been different...but I think we'd still be somewhere like this...somewhere quiet, just watching over the city - just being together...". He let out a small chuckle, shifting slightly closer, in order to rest his head against her shoulder, suddenly feeling rather sentimental. Although he and Taru were now taking the steps to get to know one another, Eiji was always careful about not pushing too hard, about not expecting too much from Taru - but right then, he couldn't quite help himself. That small space was closed and he finally felt content with the world - at least in that moment.

"...I wonder what we'd be like too...but, if you look too far back, you tend to lose sight of the future...". Wasn't that what happened with their father? Hadn't he become too obsessed with what he'd already lost?

#burncdheart #Muse: Eiji #Verse: Genshin Impact #Asks - Answered #Xmas 2023 #//Eiji throwing some shade at Chuuya :3

[fumikomiyasaki]

Wild West Au

Similar to Fantasy au, here is a little list on how this Au would play out with my ocs. Mainly inspired by old wild west asks I answered... Its odd to see Yasuno without his piercings I know. Anyways here is the summary

Leaders

Sheriff Barry Dead after being shot by Flynn

Sheriff Deradelle Currently leading the town of Leafvalley

Sheriff Lakeside leading the town of DawnVille

The Ravenor Government, owning a big fancy town which mainly does mine work

The Feather Tribe: Fabio, Fennec, Tenera, Fuan,

Characters:

Leroy: Works for Sheriff Flynn and is one of the best shooters in town

Henry: Leads his town to fortune and sucess, may come of as cold at times

Mellow: Young Farmers Boy, tries to get by with also handing out small Newspapers

Carol: Her father works in a mine and her mother writes books... they don't have much money but some old friends let them live with them....Carol works secretly in the Tavern Vanessa owns to gain money for her family, often getting bothered by a Certain cowboy (Yasuno) and locals

Camilla:  Works alongside Rubina to keep the town safe

Bengal: Entertainer who often sings in Vanessas tavern, telling old tales

Eiji: The most dangerous Outlaw with the highest bounty so far... although he still has less than Beelby he is known as the best headhunter around

Meyra: Works at the same Cabaret club as Julian, Gregory and Zyan but has her own segement as solo dancer

Kumo: He may be an outlaw but one on the path of betterment... slowly trying to redo his past mistakes

Naomi and Bolt: Don't exist Or they died in a shooting

Lyla, Taron and Eikichi: They all steer a train throughout the west together, Lyla being the leader

Grey: The head writer of the Newspapers

Barry: Former Sheriff of LeafValley / Dead

Francine: Was Barrys old Financer, now works under Flynn but is also not amused

Gilly: May have been the one who betrayed Sheriff Barry and goes into hiding from his followers, often sells paintings,

Osyron, Lydia, Saneria Lennox, Alioth: Do not exist

Fabio, Fuan and Fennec: After their tribe got destroyed they try to get revenge, yet Fabio has doubts and wants to rebuild something new, Fuan is just tagging along for the ride

Ione: Bounty Hunter who has a bounty on herself

Zariyah:  Trainee to Sheriff Lakeside Police office, works hard to keep peace

Izar:  Local informant who helps spreading bounties and gives advice on where to hunt it

Yuzuha: works also in Vanessas Tavern as Waiter with Carol and Keres

Kaeru: Mine worker, tries his best

Louis:  Works for a rich family as their errand boy

Kuze: Helps Grey with newspapers

Yasuno: Local Cowboy who also is a bounty hunter yet is too busy admiring a waitress at the tavern

Joel: Known under the name of the Striking Butterfly he is known as a deadly assassin

Serena: Noble lady who tries to collect many vintage things

Elvira: Local Priestess trying to lead some to a new hope

Flynn: New Sheriff of LeafValley may come of as Sketchy and might scare some people but does an actual good job

Nanoya: Flynn second hand and bodyguard, he will always be there to take a bullet for him

Rubina: Tasked to get a bounty on Flynn but might fail and join him

Peko: Singer in DawnVille, she is very popular with the towns people often seen in the local Tavern

Emma: Traveling Cowgirl who made it her mission to protect tresspassers

Gregory, Julian, Zyan: They work as dancers at a cabret club

Tyler: Local shop owner of a Tailor shop

Rachel: Nobody really knows this woman but she scams people and often trys to get gold

Gabrielle and Tesadelle: The Ravenor Government leads a Town that is pretty advanced, could be the next Las Vegas of the western time

Andrew: Noble man who wants to win the Ravenor sisters

Aiden: Local cook in the Tavern Peko works for... fell in love with a cowgirl (Emma)

Media: helps Aiden in the Tavern

Tenera: Also part of Fennecs and Fabios tribe but the voice of reason for them, formerly the leader of the tribe

Dragiselle: Noble lady who often looks for Outstanding Fashion and counts as one of the richest to get suiters

Inessa: Dragiselles local bodyguard

Tiam: Local Medicine provider

Kayne: Works for the Dawnville sheriff as his bodyguard

Quora: Mineworker who is often impressing with her strength

Kome: Sick daughter of a noble man, often wants to have some adventures instead of staying him

Ame:  Rich lady who moves from town to town to spread crazy ghost and murder stories

Eleafy: Works with Tiam to help out as assitant

Ronnie: A little kid who pulls pranks on local towns people, often manipulates bounty hunters

Emil: the kid who played with Ronnie but now tries to get him out of trouble

Vanessa: As said owns a Tavern called the Red Temptation

Macie: Sings often in the Tavern Peko works at yet doesn't get as much attention and feels jealousy

Paula and Brenda: Local Cabret dancers who go from town to town and are popular, Brenda wants to marry a noble man

April: While her brother dances she makes money at local card game tables gambling to get more money

Taylin: Noble Lady who often needs to rely on towns people to get by, her family owns a furniture shop

Beelby: Mysterious Shooter who nobody really knows things about

#twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #twst ocs #disney twst #twst #twisted wonderland ocs #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland original character #twistedwonderland #wild west au

[kiljoius-writes]

Tag - Chapter Twenty Three

Ao3 | FFN

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First Chapter

Chapter Twenty-Three

Change

Hanabi – 26 Konohamaru – 27-28

~~~

Hanabi sat in front of her sister’s vanity as Hinata combed through her hair, carefully twisting it into a high braid to be wrapped in a bun.

“Hey, Moegi-sensei is here.” Hanabi looked at the corner of the mirror to see Boruto leaning over the doorframe lazily, nudging his head.

“Come in!” Hinata called softly, and Boruto whirled around, Moegi taking his place. Hanabi smiled at her.

“Hello, hello,” Moegi chirped happily as she parked herself next to Hinata. “That’s a nice braid, Ms. Hinata. Too bad my mom has no idea how to braid.”

“I could braid yours after if you like, Moegi,” Hinata offered kindly. Hanabi snickered and Moegi shook her head.

“I’m alright, we better get going as soon as you’re all done anyway. Don’t want Eiji going crazy on us for being late.”

“Valid point,” Hanabi agreed as she felt her braid being curled on the back of her head. With several somewhat painful shoves, Hinata had it pinned into place, ensuring it would go nowhere. “Thank you, elder sister.”

“Of course.” Hinata smiled up at her sister as she stood. “And please, Hanabi, do not get too wild tonight. I tire of hearing father complain about it.”

“Oh, he can shove it,” Hanabi half-joked. In all actuality, she was happy to hear her father was relaxing even more lately to complain openly to them. With every passing day, she was feeling more and more hopeful.

“Be well,” Hinata called after them as Hanabi led Moegi out of the house.

“Has she met Eiji?” Moegi asked pointedly. “If there’s one night we’re getting wild, it’s to-night.”

Hanabi laughed as they turned through the streets until they were entering the Inuzuka neighborhood.

Already, the sound of loud music was filling the air, and she knew they were still several blocks away.

Perhaps the Hokage really didn’t have as much power as she once thought, letting the Inuzuka get away with noise complaints flooding in. Did it seem a little corrupt to have so many of them in the police force? She knocked the thought away.

They were ushered in by several Inuzuka women who immediately filled their hands with drinks.

“I lucked out with good friends.” Moegi laughed, staring at the beer in her hand in awe. “I haven’t paid for a drink in years.”

Hanabi kept close to Moegi for most of the time they were there since Eiji was busy being spoiled by her family to pay much attention to her. When she finally got around to greet them, she was already wasted. “Oh, thank gods!” Eiji yelled as she threw her arms around Hanabi. “You actually dressed up for once!”

“Yeah, yeah, I heeded your warning.”

“If you come in that damn skirt and top with your hair a mess to my celebration, I’ll kick your ass.”

It wasn’t serious of course, but she wouldn’t be the one to put Eiji in a sour mood at her pre-wedding party.

Thankfully she wouldn’t have to put too much thought into her actual wedding outfit, picked out for her by Eiji’s family.

Just as quickly as Eiji approached, she was whisked away by several older women.

Hanabi continued drinking with Moegi.

“How are the genin?” Moegi asked as they found a quieter part of the building.

“Great.” Hanabi nodded, biting back a laugh at the generic sort of conversation all sensei seemed to engage in. “Yours?”

“Alright,” Moegi responded with a shrug, “they’re finding their rhythm, slowly but surely, though they do irritate me pretty often.”

“I hear that.” Hanabi lifted her glass to clink Moegi’s. “Chūnin exams in a few months.”

“Yep, yep.” Moegi nodded readily. “I’m recommending my kids. They need a little lesson on the tough world of a shinobi. Sometimes I wonder how war vets raised such soft children.”

“Ouch, Moegi,” Hanabi said as she perked an eyebrow, “little harsh, don’t you think?”

“I do not.” She shook her head with a smile.

Hanabi tilted her head. “Well, just think about it this way. They want a better life than they had, right? Our parents were always drilling us to be better, be the best—” she sucked in a breath as she ranted, “never relenting, always just train, train, train—”

“Hey!” Moegi laughed, setting a hand on her shoulder. “Breathe! Also, my dad was not like that. I think your Hyūga experiences make you a little biased.”

Hanabi stopped at the words.

It was hard to consider that her life had been so unusual compared to others. But she just nodded, dropping it.

“Parties moving outside!”

They looked up to see the crowd slowly dissipating as they filed out. They looked at one another before shrugging, following the crowd. Hanabi blinked around as she found the men out there as well. An older Inuzuka whom she recognized as Eiji’s older sister slapped her on the back. “We party separately for the first half of the night, then intermingle!”

“Oh,” Hanabi responded while nodding, “sure.”

“Come help us lift the bride!” she commanded, already ambling away. She looked at Moegi with surprised eyes, who shrugged, offering her hand to take her drink.

Hanabi followed behind Eiji’s sister until she found several men hoisting Eiji up. Unsure of herself, she followed the lead of the older Inuzuka as the only one who wasn’t one herself.

“C’mere!” Eiji beckoned as laughter fell out of her, grabbing Hanabi’s hand. She was now horizontal on top of many Inuzuka plus Hanabi and she darted her eyes around as they began counting.

“Three!”

Hanabi watched Eiji fly into the air.

Inuzuka were a rowdy bunch, so she wasn’t surprised.

She found the rhythm and joined in for several more throws until she was caught for the last time, several of the men shoving her upright while the rest cheered. Her family crowded around her and doted on her.

But they loved hard.

Eiji hooked her arm around Hanabi’s neck to ensure she wouldn’t get lost in the crowd, holding a beer bottle up with her other hand. Hanabi laughed, having to crouch down to meet her stance so she wouldn’t struggle to hold on.

“Look!”

Hanabi’s eyes shot upward just in time to watch Jun fly in the air.

“Oh no!” Hanabi bellowed out laughter at Jun’s panicked face. How her quiet, gentle teammate ended up in this scenario, she had no idea. But it was hilarious. Eiji pointed below Jun and her eyes followed, finding Konohamaru joining the others in throwing him. She beamed at him, knowing he was too focused to notice her, but still felt joyful to see him anyway.

After a few more throws, they put him on the ground the same way they did Eiji and forced them together, Eiji being the one to catch Jun before he stumbled. Hanabi backed away to let them be.

“Man!” She whirled around to find Konohamaru and Moegi both converging on her, Konohamaru looking breathless. “Inuzuka know how to party!”

“That’s for sure.” Udon stumbled over now with two glasses of beer in each arm, clearly having spilled over his shirt on his journey. He doled them out.

“I’d like the Inuzuka to plan my wedding.” Moegi laughed, thanking Udon for the beer.

“Me too!” Konohamaru agreed and Hanabi felt stupid for the way it immediately caught her off guard. Thankfully, the other two didn’t seem to notice, and she perked an eyebrow up at Konohamaru. He had that knowing glint in his eye as he moved the conversation along, “if this is just the pre-wedding party, what’s the after-party going to be like?”

“Watch it just be a quiet dinner,” Udon snorted, making Hanabi laugh.

“Oh no, this will pale in comparison,” Hanabi yelled over the noise.

“As long as the alcohol flows!” Udon lifted his glass, and the other three cheers’d him.

Hanabi definitely blacked out.

How did she know?

Konohamaru was in her bed.

In her panicked state, she fell out of the bed, slapping her head on the wooden ground.

How she wished they had carpet like Hinata’s nice family home.

“Ehh—?” he groaned, unaware of the situation, but soon realized as he shot up to be seated. “H—Hanabi?!”

“Gods!” she whined, clutching her head as she righted herself. She looked down and immediately wrapped her arms around what she realized was her nude form. “Damnit! What the hell are you doing here?!”

“How—how am I supposed to know?!” Konohamaru snapped quietly, looking just as agitated. She grabbed the sheet off her bed, yanking it off of his also nude body to wrap around herself. “I’m in your room!”

“Quiet!” she seethed, scrambling to get to her feet. Urgently, she pulled her nightstand drawer open to search for pills. “Water, water, water.”

Unfortunately, and fortunately, the vomit came before she could down any. She barely reached the sink before Konohamaru was behind her, gathering her hair despite his clearly annoyed state.

“Ugh…” she groaned, clumsily reaching out for the sink handle to wash away the sick. Shaky hands fumbled for a glass on the dishrack and filled it with tap water, gulping it down. He bumped her out of the way to grab another glass and repeat her actions.

She prayed that was the last of the vomiting, worried the pounding, sharp pain in her head might bring on another bout of sickness. After draining the glass, she slammed it down and braced herself on the sink, inhaling long breaths.

This was probably the worst hangover she’d ever had.

“I’m not drinking again for a while,” Konohamaru grumbled, turning to lean against her counter as he grabbed the pills she had fished out. She darted her eyes over at him, finding him still naked.

“You have to get out,” she whispered angrily, “out the balcony. Mask yourself or something, do not get caught.”

“Give me a minute, Hanabi,” he snapped unintentionally. She looked up at him, squinting.

“How could you come home with me?!”

“How could you bring me home with you?!”

“Oh gods,” she whined, resting her forehead on the cool surface of the edge of the sink. The lingering smell of vomit made her stomach turn, so she pushed off, stumbling to her bathroom. She shot him a look as he refilled his glass, draining it again, and sighed. She held out a hand. “Come get washed up and then you can go.”

He looked up at her suspiciously. She raised her eyebrows, tapping a foot impatiently.

“With you?”

“Yes!” she snapped, “it would be suspicious if the water turned on and off twice, or if my shower was double the time. Get in here.”

His looked softened despite his clearly pained state. “Whatever you say.”

It wasn’t sexy. It was just necessary. She forced him in first despite the shower not being completely heated and he yelped. She resisted the urge to scold him for being so loud.

In an effort to speed things up, she lathered shampoo and began washing his hair. He turned in surprise, looking down at her. “Just be quiet, okay?”

“Yeah, alright.”

She guided him through the washing until she felt like he was clean enough. “Now get out and let me finish up.”

“Don’t want help from me?” How he could joke at a time like this, she didn’t know, but she didn’t appreciate it right now, and he could tell. He lifted his hands warily, exiting the shower with haste.

With a sigh, she quickly washed herself up as well. She wasn’t sure when she had become so comfortable being naked in front of him. Maybe it was just the urgency of the situation.

When she emerged from the bathroom in a towel, she was irritated to see him still pulling his clothes on.

“Didn’t I say get out?”

“I’m going as fast as I can, Hanabi,” he sighed, looking exhausted by her pushing. She frowned.

“Hanabi-sensei! Hanabi-sensei!”

“Oh you have got to be—” Hanabi’s eyes blew wide as she dropped the towel shamelessly, rushing to her wardrobe. She quickly pulled on underwear and her usual outfit before darting to her balcony, peeking out of the curtain.

They had seen Eiji do it once, and now these brats thought they could hop on her balcony whenever they pleased.

There was no respect for the Hyūga name anymore, evidently.

“Girls!” she snapped irritably without opening the door, pulling the curtains closed.

“You’re nearly an hour late! We’re supposed to go out to the fields to collect herbs, remember?!”

Idiot. Idiot idiot idiot.

“With Boruto’s team!”

IDIOT.

She looked over to see Konohamaru mouth ‘fuck’.

“I was just on my way out! You go ahead and—and tell Boruto’s team to go with you! I’ll go check on their sensei!”

Konohamaru snapped his gaze at her, looking in disbelief.

Sumire asked innocently, “how’d you know Konohamaru-sensei’s late, too?”

Konohamaru shook his head at her, eyes lowering. Hanabi choked on her own words.

He mouthed ‘wedding’ at her, pointing to his watch. “I—I just figured he might be, what with the wedding party last night! All of the sensei were out a little late! I wasn’t sure!”

“Alright…” She heard Wasabi’s suspicious voice. “Can you just hurry up, please, sensei?”

“Five minutes, give me five minutes!”

She activated her byakugan to check for their fading chakra networks. She slapped her hand over her forehead.

“Good one.” Konohamaru folded his arms, looking at her with great disapproval. “Team 7 is probably trying to break into my apartment as we speak.”

“You stay here while I leave, then leave five minutes later through the balcony.”

“So I get to be the later one?” he asked with a glare. “Doesn’t seem fair.”

“I swear to the gods, Konohamaru,” she mumbled as she pointed at him threateningly, “I will end you right here, right now.”

“Hmm,” he hummed, clearly unamused and not heeding what she was saying at all. She huffed in annoyance as she brushed past him, storming out of her room and locking it with her chakra behind her.

Konohamaru watched her leave and for the first time in a while, felt well and truly annoyed with the woman he normally adored.

“Goddamnit,” he muttered, his pounding head making his skull feel like a bongo drum. His mind flashed to a vision of Boruto trying to break in his door, Sarada scouting around for sealing tags.

He looked at his watch. After three minutes, he opened her balcony door quietly, then shut it, sealing it with his chakra. He masked himself as best as he could, working to dim his chakra signature in the way Hanabi had been teaching him, then leaped as far as he could. He went to his mom’s first, dodging all of her attempts at questioning him as he grabbed a spare outfit and flak jacket from his room she kept untouched for him. “I’ll explain later, I have to go!”

He went to his apartment, and sure enough, his troublesome team was there. He stood above them on the opposite rooftop. “Where the hell have you three been?”

Boruto was the first to whirl around with angry eyes. “Us?! Where have you been, Konohamaru-sensei?!”

“Waiting for you!” Konohamaru snapped back, trying not to let guilt force him to backtrack. “But you’ve just been here, trying to break into my place! That is illegal, Boruto!”

“We weren’t going to break in!” Sarada launched next. “We were just trying to make sure you were okay!”

“That’s true,” Mitsuki chimed in.

“Let’s just get going, alright? Team 15 is already at the field.”

“How?” Boruto asked as the three leaped to keep up with him. “We broke off at the same time to look for you and big sis!”

“Huh?” Konohamaru feigned innocence. “She wasn’t there either?”

“No, neither of you,” Sarada confirmed.

Gods, he felt like a well and true asshole for keeping this going. He had no choice, though. If he let his team catch on, Hanabi would personally see him hung.

“That’s strange.” Konohamaru coughed into his fist, quickly dropping it back to his side as he thought back to how Hanabi pointed out that was his tell-tale sign of a lie. “Well, I’ll drop you guys off and check for her if she’s still not there.”

“Where is your scarf?” Konohamaru flexed his jaw at Mitsuki’s questioning. These kids were far too observant. He didn’t know whether to be proud or annoyed.

“It’s been hot out, thought I’d change it up.”

“You look weird.”

“Thanks, Boruto.”

“Are you alright, sensei?” Sarada asked, speeding up to come up next to him. She eyed him as he avoided hers.

“Yes, Sarada,” he sighed, hoping she would take the hint and back off.

Thankfully, she did.

Now he had to deal with the other team.

True to her word, Hanabi was already out in the field with the three annoyed girls, standing back as they roamed the foliage.

“Hey!” Boruto skidded to a halt in front of Sumire. “Konohamaru-sensei said he was waiting on us.”

“What?” Wasabi snapped, looking irritated. “I didn’t see him or sense him.”

“Hey!” Hanabi shouted, “quit chattering and do your mission.”

Konohamaru fought back the urge to vomit as he finally settled in one place, several meters away from Hanabi who refused his gaze. He was refusing her gaze at the moment, too.

“They’re gossiping,” she whispered harshly, causing him to look up as they broke off into groups, whispering to each other.

“Well, can you blame ‘em, Hanabi?” he whispered back, exacerbated. “Just try to relax. Being angry doesn’t exactly invite them to calm down.”

He heard her sigh in defeat and looked up. She was rubbing her temples. “My head feels as though it’s going to pop.”

“Right there with ya…”

“Remind me to hurt Eiji.”

“If I don’t first.”

Finally, she giggled and he smiled.

Like dumb kids.

Despite her bad attitude, something still tried to force him to her, told him to hold her. But he didn’t.

Wouldn’t be professional, anyway, even if they were public with their affairs. They were doing a job, after all. Even if they weren’t leading with the best example.

Suddenly, a firecracker began popping between them.

“Oh—GODS!” Hanabi screeched, grabbing her head as Mitsuki casually put out the flame with a small water jutsu.

Konohamaru darted his eyes around furiously, watching Boruto bolting off.

“BORUTO!”

Hanabi spent the latter half of the day at the lake, thankful as people began clearing out to return to the village. She was in no mood to interact with anyone or return home.

If she saw Boruto, she might close all of his chakra points out of instinct.

She did apologize to her team. It wasn’t their fault, and she was horribly late. Not a very good thing for a sensei to do. She wondered if they’d tell Shino and she’d get a scolding. She wondered if that happened if she would point out Konohamaru was late, too, just to drag him in trouble with her.

She wouldn’t.

She sighed.

She still didn’t know who insisted who go to her place, but she had an inkling that it was probably her.

Gods she felt dumb.

She really had to stop blaming him for all of her problems, it was a bad habit that she knew even he could only take so much of. She pondered how to make it up to him as she looked over the lake, mindlessly plucking grass from the ground beneath her. Her eyes followed a flower petal that whisked over it before drifting into the lake, balancing gently with surface tension. The sun was setting sooner and sooner as fall approached and she felt herself feeling a little sad about it. But eventually, winter would come, and so would at least one or two days of snow, Konohamaru’s favorite time to kidnap her.

It wasn’t all bad. She may have been a warm-weather girl, but she could learn to like the cold, too. A boy born to frigid temperatures was probably the best person to teach her.

A particularly nasty whip of wind hit her, causing a full-body shiver. She reached around herself and tightened her shirt around her, cursing the thin material of it.

It was becoming easier and easier for her to sense the pulse of his chakra. So many nights together, secret dates, just constantly sensing for one another. It was uniquely his, and she could detect it right away.

So, it came as no surprise when she felt the thick material of his scarf drape around her, then loop once before settling. She hung her head as she felt his back sit against hers, away from her, and leaning on her for support.

Carefully, she pulled her head back and let it rest against his, their backs pressing against one another with each breath.

He really knew how to calm her, even when she wasn’t asking for it.

“I’m sorry.” His voice came to her as a little sigh.

“No, I’m sorry,” she corrected with sadness in her voice. “I was the one who got us into this mess. After all that about being secretive, I go and do this…”

“It’s alright,” he responded gently, reaching back to lace a hand with hers. “It’s fine. Boruto let it go. Sarada’s probably suspicious, but she always is.”

“Namida’s clueless.” She chuckled softly. “Sumire doesn’t push. But Wasabi is on my case.”

“Sounds about right.”

“If they saw us right now, the whole village would know.”

“I don’t know if you really understand this,” he started, and she already knew what he was going to say, “but the whole village kind of already does know. And if I’m being honest, no one really cares.”

She bit her lips together, lifting her head from his to scoot away, and he mimicked the action, looking at her in the eyes now. She wished her eyes didn’t feel glossy. “I do understand that. Do you understand that it’s not that part that matters?”

He dropped his eyes to the ground, that pitiful look of sadness taking his features. “Yeah. I understand that.”

“I’m…trying. I’m trying.”

“I know,” he breathed, looking back up at her, repeating words he’d been saying for a while now, “and I’m a patient man.”

Her jaw flexed as she thought of Moriko and how she described Konohamaru’s father. Suddenly, she could see how he was so like him, even if she never knew the man herself. Moriko’s detailed stories were enough, and now she understood when she told her that he reminded her of him. Kind, loyal. Patient.

She let him lean in to take her for a kiss, struggling to justify pulling away.

If the whole village knew and didn’t care, why should she?

That line of thinking for a Hyūga was dangerous, though.

Especially for the heiress.

She was surprised when Naruto summoned her and had no mission for her or her team. Instead, he asked her to sit.

“Your old man says you’ve been making big moves.”

“Huh?” Hanabi pursed her lips, furrowing her eyebrows as she took a seat in front of him.

“You know better than I do.” He leaned back, tilting his head at her. “You’re working on getting them to drop the seal, right?”

“Uhm…”

“I’ve been talking to your dad, Hanabi. And I’m the Hokage, y’know.”

“Right.”

“I just want to make sure you know I support everything you’re doing.” Hanabi leaned back now as well. “Everything.”

“Lord Seventh?”

“And I’m not afraid to throw my weight around as Hokage to help you, too.” He flashed her a grin, rubbing his hand over his chest. She tilted her head.

“You aren’t?”

“Hell no!” He laughed loudly, waving a hand. “Of course not! I’m married to a Hyūga, my kids are half Hyūga! And you’re my sister.” He paused as his expression turned serious. “And you know as well as I do, the clan has to change.” Her eyes widened with surprise at his forwardness, though she supposed she shouldn’t be. “Hiashi knows it, too.”

“So…” she finally responded, moving to cross her leg over the other as she leaned over, “you’re telling me you’ll stand up to the council? With me?”

“Yep.”

Her mind flashed to that conversation with Kakashi ten years ago. How livid she was to find out the Hokages seemingly had no courage against her clan. Suddenly, Naruto looked different.

“It’s…it’s not just the seal, Naruto,” she whispered, leaning forward. He nodded at her to continue. “It’s the main and branch. I want them merged. No more servants. Independence for every Hyūga. And…and I…”

He kept quiet as he waited for her to continue. When she shut her mouth and her jaw flexed, signaling her unwillingness to finish the sentence, he leaned forward as well, resting his elbows on his desk. “You don’t want to be clan leader.”

“No,” she replied quickly, shaking her head. “I…I will be the clan head. That would be too much to ask at this point. It’s just…”

“You don’t want to be married off.”

Her silence confirmed his words.

“And that’s completely fair. Like I said, I support everything you’re doing.” She let out a puff of air. “I promised Neji. I promised Hinata. I promise you. Excluding times of crisis, I’m at your beck and call for this, okay?”

“Really?” she asked, hopefully. His serious expression softened to a smile.

“Absolutely.”

She left his office feeling like a weight on her heart had been detached.

Could she really do it?

“And what of the branch that currently have the seal?”

“I’ve thought of that,” Hanabi quickly retorted, slowly breaking down those barriers. “I’ve spoken with our Hokage, and he’s willing to put up the money needed to research it in the Konoha hospital. He’d even put Sakura Haruno in charge of it, and seek several seal specialists. He’s on board, 100%.”

For once, she was glad she had discovered something she never wanted to: the initial journal for working on the caged bird seal. She’d surrendered it to Naruto for inspection by Sakura and other seal specialists. She thanked the gods she hadn’t decided to turn it in. It could actually prove useful, now.

She bit back a grin at the exasperated look of her elders, who glanced at one another.

“I motion that we table it,” one of them called and she glared at him, “until we’re certain there is a way to remove it.”

“I object to that,” she snapped, stepping forward, “whether there is a way, I will not stand for children continuing to receive the seal.”

“But it’s been over 15 years, Lady Hanabi,” one of the women said, gently. Hanabi frowned. “No children have been marked since, courtesy of your father.”

“How does that strengthen your point?” Hanabi tilted her head. “It would be best to announce the official end of the seal to put the branch at ease.”

“I’m just not sure how the branch with seals would—”

“They’d be in favor.” She turned to Tadashi, who was standing dutifully next to her. He handed her a folder and she took it to them. “A list of every branch member who favors its dissolution. A mere 2% are not in favor.” She stepped back, looking back at Tadashi as she muttered, “and the ones who weren’t are senile…”

Tadashi pressed his finger to his lips and she nodded, turning back to the long table. One of them sighed. “You still depend on a branch member, yourself, Lady Hanabi.” He gestured at Tadashi, who raised his eyebrows. “And you know we respect you, Tadashi, but if we announce its end, who’s to say some in the branch will not rebel?”

Hanabi felt her hands shake as she held back her true thoughts. Tadashi stepped forward. “Lady Hanabi has me on payroll. And I believe in her movement. I work for her of my own free will.”

She looked up at him, feeling herself calm as he defended her.

“I also have a strategy for ensuring branch will be less likely to rebel, as well,” she continued as Tadashi stepped back again. “That would be the next item to discuss after we’ve resolved this.”

“Care to share?”

“Care to take this seriously?”

She cursed herself for retorting so quickly. They stopped to look at one another, mumbling under their breath to one another.

“I think our time is up,” one at the end announced, pushing his papers in front of him away. “We’ll reconvene this time next week.”

“I…” Hanabi gritted her teeth, feeling very irritated and lost now. “I have a mission with my team next week.”

“Then we will reconvene this time in two weeks.”

“Tomorrow.”

“Unfortunately, Lady Hanabi, you are not the only priority,” another chimed in with a pointed brow, “two weeks.”

Tadashi grabbed her arm before she could get too far, just outside of the compound as she took off.

She wanted to scream.

She’d been at this for years, and just when she felt she was making progress, it was cut short.

She was surprised to be pulled into Tadashi’s chest, his large arms encasing her. She breathed a sigh. “It’s working, Lady Hanabi. Remember that.”

She let her head fall forward on his chest before pulling away. “Thank you, Tadashi.”

Despite his words of comfort, she needed to let this pent-up rage out somehow.

When she was safely within her team’s training grounds, she let out the highest-pitched, throaty scream she had probably ever given. Then she slammed her fist into the ground, unable to care that she was tearing the earth up in her fit. And then, she fell flat on her back. No cushion, just soft earth to catch her fall. She found herself wanting that sting against her back.

“Need someone to take that anger out on?”

She hadn’t felt his chakra. Probably because she was having a tantrum. Konohamaru stepped over her, feet on either side of her legs as he held out his hand. She stared at it for a few moments before grabbing it, hoisting herself up.

Wordlessly, she activated her byakugan.

He was certainly no scrappy genin anymore.

The power behind that Rasengan was scary. She found herself with her back against the large oak, the poor tree having received too many blows at this point. It was permanently dented with the outline of bodies and fists. She let herself fall forward, coughing painfully, but there was no blood.

That had to have been the full power of that jutsu, right?

“Sorry, went a little more than quarter strength on that one.”

“Quarter?!”

There was no sympathy behind his voice as he yanked her by the shoulders back up onto her feet, circling around her to brush off her back of tree debris.

Now she could understand how such a technique was so important to the war effort at one point.

“Wanna see it with fire style?” His voice was prideful. She had to smile—she was proud of him, too.

“Yes, actually.” She stepped away from him, still inhaling deep breaths as she embraced the pain in her limbs. She grabbed the canteen from her hip to take a long drink of water while keeping her eyes on him as he resummoned that insane wheel of chakra. With a few wiggles of his fingers and the muttered, “fire-style Rasengan,” it was engulfed with flame. Her eyes widened.

“Wait.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “How fast does that thing travel?”

“Beyond reason.” He grinned up at her, still holding the little ball.

“How big?”

“Again, beyond.”

“Make it bigger.”

He tilted his head at her as she dipped her stance, one that he’d become familiar with. Swiftly, he was figuring it out. “With your rotation?”

Without responding, she activated the byakugan and whispered, “Rotation,” and she was twisting at a speed ‘beyond reason.’

When she saw the bright flash of chakra pushed into the dome, she watched excitedly. Instead of disintegrating, it enveloped the dome. When he used it during the chūnin exams, he had launched it at her with full force, so it breached and disintegrated. This time, he seemed to pick up what she was putting down and pushed it in at a controlled speed.

She wished she could see what it looked like from the outside. She kept going for a few seconds more until the chakra began dissipating and relented shortly after, her hair twisting around her head and shoulders. She deactivated the byakugan, eyes flashing over the burned circle around her before looking at Konohamaru.

“Did you just invent a cooperation ninjutsu?” he asked in disbelief, staring at the ashen circle. He looked up at her beaming face and she felt giddy at his awe. He immediately wrapped himself around her, scooping her up above him into his arms to twirl her. “You are so amazing!” His tone was high with pride as he began laying kisses all over her forehead, nose, and cheeks. She let laughter fall out of her as his lips tickled her, attempting to catch some of the kisses with her own.

“We—we have to show that off!” he began again, roughly lowering her to the ground. “To our kids! To Naruto—Hinata, my mom! Moegi, Udon, Eiji, Jun! Hell, even Tadashi—"

“Relax!” She laughed, pressing a palm to his chest, feeling his heartbeat thump against it. She lifted her widened eyes up to his as she felt it race, clearly even more excited than she realized. Her heart fluttered, too, briefly when he so candidly said ‘our kids’. Meaning their little teams, of course, but—

“How can I?” he asked, eyes flashing with eagerness. “You’re just so damn perfect!”

The words seemed so contrived, but coming from his lips, they sounded like the most natural thing in the world. “It was your jutsu, too,” she whispered, chest swelling with his praise. He grinned at her, not that cocky grin, not the lop-sided one that teased her, but the one that told her he was madly, deeply in love with her.

And because she was equally madly, deeply in love with him, she let him whisk her back to his apartment.

On his way to the Hyūga compound, Konohamaru made the split decision to stop in Yamanaka’s flowers before he got there.

Apparently feeling bold, Hanabi had told him to pick her up directly to take her to the wedding. It surprised him, but he couldn’t complain. It was one step closer to what he, and she, had always really wanted. To finally have full acceptance.

Might as well go all out, right?

He swung the door open, triggering the light chiming of the bell above him, finding the store itself empty except for some grunting from the backroom. He saw Ino’s head poke out from the doorframe, flashing him a smile.

“Hey kiddo!” Konohamaru frowned at the nickname that seemed to stick. “Sorry, super busy back here for the Inuzuka wedding. You need something?”

“Uh—yeah, was just gonna pick something up.” Konohamaru coughed into his fist, glancing around.

“Inojin!” she called, ducking behind the door again. The tired blond slugged his way out, glancing up at Konohamaru with a light wave. “Help him out, okay?”

“Hey, Konohamaru-sensei.”

“Hey, just looking for…” He wasn’t sure why he was feeling tongue-tied at that specific moment as he tried to make himself look busy investigating flowers.

“Flowers?” Inojin finished for him sarcastically, smirking up at him. He nodded briskly, pretending to seem like he knew what he was looking for. “Like…just one? In a vase? Or a bouquet?”

“Bouquet!” Konohamaru snapped his fingers as if he knew all along.

Inojin laughed. “Mhm, okay, gotcha. How about…” He strolled to the other side of the shop, picking out an array. Konohamaru followed him and glanced over curiously, finding a nice, colorful arrangement he was constructing. In the middle, he stuck a large, bright sunflower. He turned to Konohamaru and tilted his head. “Look about right?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s great, actually.” He craned over to inspect it. Inojin nodded and brushed past him to tie it up.

“Want a vase, too? It’s always better to give girls flowers without the extra work.”

“Yeah, actually, that sounds good—wait—” Konohamaru cleared his throat, furrowing his eyebrows at the boy. “I mean, what makes you think it’s for a…” He paused, feeling silly for saying, “…girl?”

He didn’t notice Ino poking her head back out to observe the interaction. Inojin smirked as he began clipping the stems and plopping them into a vase. He rolled his eyes at Konohamaru’s dumbfounded expression. “Whatever, here we go.” He presented the full vase and Konohamaru shook his head, pulling his coin pouch from his pocket.

“Right, thanks, Inojin.” He relaxed, beaming down at the boy as he collected the flowers.

He turned to leave, but before he could, Inojin piped up, “no problem! I’m sure Hanabi-sensei will love them.”

Konohamaru’s mouth dropped open as he darted his eyes back and forth. From the backroom, he heard Ino cackling. “Why does this seem so familiar?”

“Uh—” Konohamaru choked on his words, hurriedly exiting the shop.

Were kids always this clever?

Hanabi found him chatting happily with Tadashi outside of the gates and rolled her eyes when his jaw fell open upon seeing her. She turned her face to cover her now burning cheeks.

“You look quite lovely, Lady Hanabi.” Tadashi bowed to her.

“All thanks to Natsu…” Hanabi commented loftily, stepping in front of the men.

She tugged at her dress.

It wasn’t exactly what she would choose, but it was Eiji’s wedding. And Jun’s, but mostly Eiji’s.

It was a tight, strappy, crimson dress. She managed to reel it in when she told Eiji her chest was bigger than hers, not as an insult, just because she couldn’t have them parading about. She put similarly red lipstick on and gave Natsu her instructions for her hairstyle, pinned up behind her head to give a spiky look and thick strands of hair framing her face. The cherry on top? Eyeliner and mascara. She’d only worn it on a few occasions. It was considered too tasteless for Hyūga, so she’d only ever seen it on herself when Eiji insisted on dolling her up.

For as rough as Eiji was, she was fashionable.

Konohamaru’s eyes dipped to her neckline, his mouth closing into a warm smile as the aquamarine pendant shimmered in the middle. “Yeah, you look…”

She shot him a glare before punching his arm. His lip upturned into a smirk, and he shook his head.

“You look boring,” she pointed out, upturning her nose at his simple suit and tie. He chuckled before bending over to pick up a vase full of flowers, presenting it to her. Her eyes grew a centimeter at it as she carefully took the glass into her hands. “Flowers? Really?”

“Well—I mean, it’s a wedding.” He rubbed the back of his neck, peering off. It made her smile. Shyness from Konohamaru was so rare, it was a sight she delighted in. “Flowers are like half of it, right?”

She had to laugh, examining each flower. She was actually…impressed with the selection. She wondered if he really picked them out, but decided it was more polite to just simply thank him. “Well, they’re lovely.” She pulled it up to take in the scent of the sunflower, smiling faintly. “Sunflower…facing the sun.”

“Oh.” Konohamaru raised his eyebrows, realization seemingly dawning on him. “That must be why…smart kid.”

“Who?”

“Nah, nothin’. Glad you like ‘em.”

She eyed him suspiciously as Tadashi outstretched his hand in offering to take the flowers. Decidedly, she shrugged it off.

“You two look nice together.”

She stopped at her father’s voice, glancing up at him. His features were softer than she’d ever seen.

“Would you mind if I took a picture before you go?”

“Yeah, why not,” Konohamaru agreed on her behalf, and she shifted uncomfortably.

“Just of me, right?” Hanabi asked reluctantly as one of her clansmen kneeled in front to frame them for a picture. “Wait—”

“Both of us, dummy,” Konohamaru whispered over her, forcing his hand around her waist to yank her into him. She blinked rapidly as the bright flash hit her eyes.

She must’ve looked like that white-eyed little lamb in the photo because she was completely thrown.

“Beautiful.” Hiashi admired the picture as it printed. Hanabi peeked over.

Yep, she looked silly. Konohamaru was giving a close-eyed, toothy grin, looking charming and handsome as ever. And just for good measure, Tadashi was in the background, clearly unaware he was in the frame.

“Please give Eiji and Jun my congratulations. I will see you in the morning, Hanabi.”

Konohamaru didn’t give her a chance to question it. “See ya, Lord Hiashi!”

“Am I in some strange alternate universe?” Hanabi asked incredulously as she was dragged behind Konohamaru. He relented his grip on her, letting her catch up next to him. “Did that happen the way I saw it?”

“Think it did.”

“I…”

“Special day, right?”

“Yes…yes, it is.”

The pair found Udon and Moegi, as well as Tora shortly after. Despite Jun having no family or real friends outside of this small group, Inuzuka overflowed into the groom’s side of the venue.

Hanabi stood with Jun and one of Eiji’s brothers, straightening his robes.

“Is it odd I feel as though I’m going to be sick?”

“Uh, no.”

“It’s similar to the day of the battle portion of the chūnin exams…” Jun sighed, hanging his head. “I’m going to be an awful husband.”

“Dude!” Her brother exclaimed before Hanabi could. “You’re not seriously saying this in front of me right before you’re about to marry my sister?”

“Yeah, Jun,” Hanabi cut in as a more passive voice, “relax. What do you always tell me? Breathe, count, go to a happy place. Preferably one with Eiji in it.”

Jun readily took her advice, eyes fluttering shut as he inhaled long breaths in through the mouth, out through the nose at a steady pace. Hanabi watched him carefully until his eyes popped open, one bright yellow eye and the other with a long scar through it, significantly dimmer yellow, the whites milky. She’d grown used to how he looked after the incident but still found her eyes trailing over that injured eye, guilt panging her. “Thank you, Hanabi.”

Hanabi nodded with a big, reassuring smile before stepping away to let another Inuzuka know they were ready on their side.

She quickly rejoined Konohamaru outside, and he hooked his arm into hers. She looked up at him and smiled.

They’d keep pretending a little longer, but for now, they could relax.

After a traditional ceremony conducted with the priest, they exchanged sake cups and Hanabi smiled as Jun shook with the liquid hitting his tongue.

Surprisingly, it was a very conventional affair. Nothing like what she imagined an Inuzuka wedding to be like.

But the wedding party afterward was just what she expected.

They indulged in drink, but both were adamant about not having a repeat of the pre-wedding party.

Eiji even did the bouquet toss.

Hanabi rolled her eyes as Udon steered her into the group of women.

Then she threw it, and the women parted right down the middle, leaving her by herself. She stumbled forward when she was pushed, and instinctively grabbed the bouquet before it hit the floor.

Cheering began around her and she twirled around, eyes wide. She locked eyes with Tora, who was smirking at her, lazy stance.

Then a little further to the right, Konohamaru looked similarly bewildered.

“Little shit…” Hanabi whispered, tightening her grip around the bouquet as she turned back to Eiji, who was being escorted off the little stage by Jun.

Maybe one more drink.

At some point, Konohamaru ended up with Eiji.

Eiji, yet again far drunker than she probably should have been, grabbed Konohamaru’s cheeks. “Make a wife out of her, dumbass.”

“I’m trying, Eiji!” He laughed, letting her drag him as he embraced her affectionately, even after everything. “You little runt, you really think I don’t want to?!”

She was clearly in a good mood, choosing not to come after him too hard with that jab at her height. “I’d hate to call you a coward.”

“I’d hate to be a coward. Gods, do you even know how much I love her—let’s not even kid around right now, yeah? I—” he declared, perhaps too loudly, alcohol boosting him up, “I love her with every fiber of my being!”

“Then make her know it!” she demanded, but that playful glint stayed as she tightened her grip threateningly. “Make her yours. She’s not a weak girl. She needs a push, from you, fucking doofus!”

His heart momentarily skipped. That silly tease. Hanabi did talk about them to her friends. Something about that made him swell. He grinned, patting her cheek.

“You think so?” Konohamaru leaned in close, almost eager for her approval. More than Hiashi, Hinata, or Naruto. Eiji had always been apprehensive when it came to him and Hanabi, but right now, she was giving it all up, and he couldn’t help but ask for more, “really?”

She nodded, smile ever present. “Yes, she does. And if you don’t give it to her, I’ll kick your ass to the fucking moon.”

He sucked in his teeth. Hanabi loved her, and it forced him to respect her. “Promise?”

“Yes, with everything I have, Konohamaru Sarutobi!” His heart felt like it was in a vice grip at her ready permission. He wanted to treat her to the very best ramen for this admission. “Goddamnit…being in love…gods it’s something else. It’s euphoric, it’s better than sex!” Konohamaru swayed away, grinning all the while as the smaller woman squeezed his cheeks in a tough, but loving way. “I love that foolish girl, and your stupid ass better sweep her off her feet.”

“I—I will. I will!”

“I’ll thank you.”

Konohamaru stopped, staring down at this girl he’d had so many squabbles with. He grinned, pressing an affectionate kiss to her forehead as he embraced her. He decided not even to comment on her height. “I love you, too, Eiji.” He smirked as she reeled away, despite her drunken state, cheeks reddening at his affection for her. So unashamed, nothing romantic about it, just that sibling type of love he also had for both Moegi and Udon. He continued, “both of you. Damnit, I’m so happy for you.”

She beamed up at him, shoving him away with a tenderness she didn’t offer readily often. He bit his lip, the feeling swelling in his chest as he saw Hanabi happily giggling in Jun’s arms. She laughed. “Go on, then. If this time next year, you’re not planning your wedding, I’ll hurt you.”

“Like you promised, right?”

“Yes!” She giggled with joy, patting his cheek with love and a beaming smile that wasn’t like her usual taunting ones. “Damnit, go. Leave me to my husband!”

Konohamaru chuckled and happily twirled her into Hanabi and Jun, both elated to embrace the tiny Inuzuka. Hanabi whispered something to Eiji before she forced her away, right into Konohamaru arms. He caught the tail end of her whisper, “make a man out of him, you dumbass.”

If he was asked, yes. Of course. He loved Eiji as much as he could love what he could only describe as an irritating sister. An irritating sister he adored, despite it all. He embraced Hanabi’s laughing form, hugging her close as he laid affectionate kisses across her face in the open. What should have been strange was the fact Eiji witnessed it all, but made no comment. Her knowing look was all she offered, and she let them be. Because they knew.

Everyone knew.

“Look at them,” Hanabi offered happily, watching Eiji and Konohamaru dance, Eiji clearly telling him off about something, despite her glee. “Eiji’s cussing him out, but she’s so obvious. She loves him, like a brother and I’m so, so glad.”

“He loves you.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t be silly,” he chided gently, gripping her waist to draw her attention. Her fingers curled against him, her gaze dropping. “I’m not usually one to be so blunt, but Hanabi…please. Don’t let love slip by you.”

“How—how can you say that?! At your wedding, no less!”

“What better place to acknowledge it?” he retorted unashamedly, forcing her reluctant gaze. “Love. It’s an amazing thing, Hanabi. Look.” Jun nodded, still swaying with his teammate. Hanabi followed his eyes. “Eiji’s telling him the same thing. We love you both, all we want is for you to be happy. Both of you.”

“Jun…” she whispered, closing in. He shook her gently, causing her to look up at him.

“Hanabi…be happy. Please.”

Her breath hitched as she looked up at her teammate wide-eyed. “J-Jun?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” he breathed, catching her off guard. She laughed in surprise.

“She really did sink her hooks in you!” Hanabi exclaimed happily, bringing him in close. “Jun, shut up. You don’t think I’m a fool in love?”

“I know you are. So perhaps you should start acting like it.”

She wobbled away from him, a beaming smile plastered on her lips. “You were always the one with words of wisdom.”

He smiled down at her, that genuine smile that brought her comfort beyond reason. Her teammate she loved like a brother, always there, always there to protect her, heal her, bring her comfort. Her teammate now wed to her equally important teammate. His kind eyes, despite one being nearly blind, never radiated anything but warmth. His love emanated and made her feel warm herself. Her heart swelled almost painfully from how happy she was to be dancing with Jun at his wedding to her best friend. Her best friends.

“Your happiness is the world, to you.” She paused, but he interrupted whatever she was about to say, “and that’s important. I’m happy. Eiji’s happy. You and Konohamaru should be, too. Let him make you happy, Hanabi. He looks at you…like I look at Eiji. I love that woman.” Hanabi’s breath caught at his open declaration as his eyes trailed over Eiji giggling in Konohamaru’s embrace, no hint of jealousy, only admiring love radiating from him. “I’ve never really known love before her…” he admitted quietly, his gaze never leaving Eiji, “she’s…amazing….” He set his eyes back on her. “And Konohamaru…it’s so clear to anyone that cares about either of you. You’ll both be happy if you just give in.”

She stopped, hands locked around his neck. Just then, Eiji was being spun into them, happy laughter bellowing out of her as she crashed, forcing Hanabi out of her stunned state as she embraced her little teammate. “Oh, Eiji…”

“Thank you.” Eiji’s watery eyes looked up at her as she hooked her arms around Jun. “Thank you for being my best friend.” Hanabi bit her lips together. “Embrace it,” Eiji whispered delicately, more than she had ever in their nearly two decades together, “and goddamnit, make a man out of him, you dumbass.”

Just as suddenly, Eiji was being whisked away by Jun, readily. She felt Konohamaru’s arms wrap around her, whisking her away similarly from her dear teammates. She giggled uncontrollably as his lips fluttered over her relentlessly, unashamed.

She let him.

She wanted to let him.

At some point, over half of the Inuzuka were passed out, partied out. Eiji and Moegi hung on by a thread at a table together while Hanabi was falling asleep on Konohamaru’s shoulder.

They had no idea where Jun and Udon were. They were quite possibly buried under some stray Inuzuka for all they knew.

But it was time to go, that much was clear.

“You got ‘er?” Eiji slurred as Konohamaru carefully pulled Hanabi into his chest.

“Sure do.” He chuckled, a little more measured in his response. He kept his promise not to drink too much (Hanabi did not) but it was still late. The sun would be out soon, and he wasn’t entirely sure whether Hiashi would hold her to seeing her in the morning.

He struggled to give a damn, really. He could fret over her whereabouts all he wanted, Konohamaru had grown sour of the elder and all the other Hyūga elders.

But.

Hanabi would care. She was doing important things. So he would make sure she’d be up in the morning, even if she hated him for it. He’d take the time he had with her while he could, unsure of their schedules coming up with the chūnin exams. This was one of the few times they were able to be alone together, specifically carving out time from their hectic schedules to ensure their attendance. Not only were they both ramping up training for their genin’s, but she was also cramming every little space of time with clan work.

As much as he wanted to be selfish with her, he couldn’t. He was selfish in that he hoped he could be, later.

“You better put her to bed!” Moegi called before accidentally falling out of the chair as she leaned forward. Eiji barked an obnoxious laugh as she helped right the girl. “Got it?—Kono—maru—”

“Yep, got it.” He grinned down at her as she slumped back in the chair, immediately falling asleep. “You’ll be okay, Eiji?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Eiji waved her hand. “I’ll just…find my new husband…” She let out a yawn, as she slumped over onto her forearms on the table, struggling to hold up her head. “And…and…”

“Nighty night,” he whispered good-naturedly before making his trek over the unconscious bodies.

He chose to leave her be when he tucked her into his bed. Initially, upon laying her down, she was practically falling out of the dress. It was a hard sight to hate. He drank it in before pulling at the material, ensuring it covered all the essentials, then tucked her in. As light peeked in through the window, he heaved a tired sigh and went into the living room, choosing to remain awake for now.

He had the day off, so he could sleep after she left.

She awoke feeling…not sober. Not good, either.

“I wasn’t…supposed to driiiink…” she groaned as she pulled the blanket over herself, “that much…”

“Morning sunshine.”

She looked up to see the reason for her current state of lucidity. Konohamaru had been nudging her, and she found him with a plate of pancakes and a cup of milk. She struggled to smile, instead letting it fall back into a frown.

“You’re sweet…” she mumbled, pulling the covers back over. She heard him chuckle as he set the plate and cup down on the nightstand.

“Sorry, I figured you’d want to get up in time to meet your dad.”

“Meet…my father? Oh…yeah,” she sighed, curling the blanket further around herself. “Eeehhh I dunno. I don’t really care.”

He said warningly, “Hanabi…”

“Tryna get rid of me?”

“You know that’s not it.”

“Mmmph,” she mumbled irritably, pulling her knees to her chest. “Fine.”

“Eating will help,” he offered as she pulled the blanket off. She looked to inspect the pancakes and giggled quietly when she noticed there were sliced banana’s and chocolate chips. “Water first, though.”

That’s when she realized her throat felt like sandpaper.

Too much yelling.

She readily accepted the water as she sat up. She settled against the headboard of his bed with the water in her lap, contemplating.

“I’m gonna go tell him.”

He paused, slowly sitting on the edge of the bed. “About?”

“Us. I’m going to tell him I’m not going to be clan leader.”

“Wh—” Konohamaru choked on his own pancake, coughing. He hit his chest with his fist before clearing his throat. “Hanabi, what?!”

“I don’ wanna be!” She threw her hands up, unintentionally knocking liquid out of the glass she had her hand wrapped around. “I just wanna be with you! And you’re supposed to be the Sarutobi clan leader, right? So this is the only way!”

“Uh—”

“I don’t care! I’ll be a Sarutobi,” she continued without letting him respond, “right? It’ll be great, I’ll be little miss Sarutobi, pop out Sarutobi’s while you do all the great stuff, like be Hokage and all that!”

This froze him and she barely noticed. Her mind was feeling fuzzy.

“Ugh…” she groaned, clumsily placing the water back on the table before resting her head on her knees and elbows. “I just…it’s never gonna happen…”

“Hanabi, that’s not…”

“What? You don’t want to?”

“I…I think you’re still drunk.” His voice sounded sad. “We should talk about this later…I’ll let you go back to sleep.”

“Yeah, fine,” she grumbled irritably, forcefully yanking the covers back over herself. She sighed as she felt his hand rest on her waist, rubbing in an attempt to soothe. “Can you get back in bed with me?”

“Of course,” he replied quickly, and she let out a hum of contentment as he crawled back in, wrapping her up in his arms from behind. She let her breathing slow as his thumb rubbed circles into her stomach. “Get some more rest, honey,” he whispered into her hair, “your old man can wait.”

“Okay.” She nodded, letting her eyes flutter shut as the slow thump of his heart against her back lulled her back to sleep. She’d awaken later without remembering the interaction, but Konohamaru did.

Fortunately, when the Rinne Festival and New Year’s rolled around, genin missions naturally took on a more relaxed nature. Decorating around the village, helping with festivities preparations, deliveries. Most of the time, Hanabi only needed to check in on the girls periodically, as did Konohamaru, leaving them both time to not just spend with each other, but work on their own projects. Especially Hanabi, who had just recently, finally helped pass new rules for the seal.

They had come to a tentative agreement that the seal would only be used on criminal Hyūga, main or branch. And as of right now, there were no criminal Hyūga, and it was easy to put that part in the fine print. She’d work on it more later, just content that it was now official: no Hyūga children would be marked from now on, no matter what.

And suddenly, she found herself feeling like a celebrity once more in her clan. If she had respect before for her simple status, she had their adoration now. It was never a part of the plan, she never sought it, but it was a natural byproduct of her efforts. And for now, it would work in her favor as she continued working towards all of the other things she wanted. Merging the houses, people like Tadashi and Natsu no longer having to be at the beck and call of main Hyūga, all Hyūga being free to love whomever they wanted, including herself.

She hoped it would be easier now than it would have been so many years ago. The change was already coming naturally, with main and branch children being encouraged to interact, branch Hyūga being allowed to pursue outside employment, her own sister having broken the marriage boundary over 10 years ago now. All of these things worked in her favor, and she encouraged all of her relatives to continue pushing those boundaries. She would.

Which is why she decided this year, she’d openly celebrate Konohamaru’s birthday with him. She’d surprise him with chocolate-dipped banana’s and hot chocolate at his doorstep just as she felt little crystals of snow dust her cheeks. She looked up to find a light sprinkling starting to come down and smiled.

She didn’t always like the cold.

But she couldn’t deny how perfect it was right now as she knocked on his door, clumsily trying to balance the items she carried.

She glared at the door when it didn’t open. Byakugan activated, she didn’t see him in his apartment and she let out a frustrated sigh. Of course, today of all days, he’d be gone.

So, she trekked back into the main part of town and found herself at Eiji’s.

“Aw, thanks, but I don’t like chocolate,” Eiji teased as she welcomed her in.

“They weren’t for you…” Hanabi muttered, depositing the items on the dining table. She glanced around as she pulled off her coat. “Jun isn’t here?”

“Nah. Him and a bunch of other jōnin got called in.”

“They did?” Hanabi questioned with a frown.

Could be related, maybe…

“Yeah, can you believe it? If he’s not back for the New Year’s Eve celebration, I’m gonna be pissed.”

“Right.” She nodded in understanding. “Well, here’s hoping, right?”

“All we can do.” She shrugged, falling to her bottom on the floor in front of the low table, where Hanabi joined her. “So, what brings you?”

Hanabi woke up the next morning to Yorimaru turning against her, nuzzling so close that it stirred her. She blinked her eyes open to see Eiji’s arm hanging off her couch with the remote on the floor. She carefully pulled herself off the old pup and patted him gently as he whined before getting up. She grimaced as she saw the now rotten hot chocolate and banana’s on the dining table and quickly deposited them in the trash. Seemed Jun hadn’t returned home, and that probably meant Konohamaru was still gone, too.

She went back to Eiji’s form on the couch and pulled a throw blanket over her before leaning down to whisper, “see you tonight.”

“Mmph…” Eiji grumbled, turning her face further into the couch. Hanabi grabbed her coat and boots, then pulled her curtains closed before exiting the house, locked behind her. She tightened the coat around her as cold wind licked her cheeks, snow still falling.

Of course, it would be some of the heaviest snowfall they’d had in recent years, and he wasn’t here.

It always seemed to be that way, why should it be any different? She was numb to disappointment now.

Despite it, she still made her way to Konohamaru’s to do a quick check with her byakugan.

“Isn’t that kind of frowned upon, sensei?” She jumped at Sumire’s voice behind her, Boruto standing just to the side with a smirk on his face, head resting in his hands.

“Safety, Sumire,” she mumbled, thankful for the cold wind that didn’t let her cheeks get too hot.

“What’re you doin’ here, big sis? Going to see Konohamaru?”

“Uh—no.” She shook her head, knowing she was obvious, but still couldn’t bear to share that information with her nephew.

“He’s gone.” Boruto shrugged, beginning to walk away. Sumire glanced at Hanabi before following after him and she sighed, knowing she was being sucked in.

“He is?” Hanabi asked as she followed, curiosity getting the better of her.

Boruto nodded. “Him and some other jōnin…and Moegi-sensei. Investigating something some kilometers out.”

“Boruto,” Sumire whispered urgently, “are you sure you should be telling us this?”

“Huh?” Boruto raised his eyebrows, oblivious. “Why not?”

“When did he leave?” Hanabi ignored Sumire, pressing for more.

“Ahh let’s see.” He counted the days of the week backwards. “Like three days ago?”

“Was there…a timeline?”

“Jeeze!” Boruto exclaimed, grinning up at her, “isn’t it usually me trying to get info out of you?!”

“Hush.” She tapped his forehead with a glare. He shrugged.

“Dunno. Hopefully today, right?”

“Yes, it would be a shame if they missed out on the celebration.” Sumire nodded agreement.

Hanabi paused, glancing between the two with suspicious eyes. “And what are you two doing? Together?”

“Oh, uhm—” Sumire stuttered, glancing at Boruto. “Boruto offered to help Team 15 with setting up some stands.”

“And where is Team 15?” Hanabi folded her arms, eyebrows raised.

“We just took a break!” Boruto defended. “It’s snowing! Just trying to enjoy it, y’know?”

“Yeah, alright,” Hanabi sighed, shoulders slumping, feeling a silly sense of jealousy, though she knew she shouldn’t. “Go and enjoy it, you two. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Thank you, sensei.” Sumire bowed with a smile as Boruto tugged her sleeve to follow him. She watched the natural interaction and felt her jealousy replaced with pleasant bubbling. Truly, she was happy her nephew was getting the chance at such a normal childhood.

And Sumire was a good girl.

She shrugged as she headed back to the compound.

As the sun set, Hanabi was settled next to Eiji on a bench, watching the town celebrate the oncoming of a New Year, one everyone hoped would be better than the last.

Things were getting a little tense, Hanabi knew. She wasn’t clear on the exact details, not high enough ranking to be privy to such information, but she trusted those in charge. It was her brother-in-law after all. Plus, Konohamaru seemed to be taking on a lot of the strange occurrences cropping up, Naruto putting so much faith in him. She trusted them. Still, she was a little resentful that she wasn’t spending this time with him.

Eiji wasn’t as lively as she usually was with Jun being gone, too. She felt bad for her as well.

“Think you can still get us free beers?” Eiji teased as she kicked up her feet. Hanabi smiled.

“No, but I’d be happy to buy,” she offered, getting up. Eiji flashed her a grin and she made way to a drink stand.

As she approached the stand, she found another Hyūga turned with drinks in his hands as well. She stopped and looked at him curiously, offering a smile. “Ando.”

“Lady Hanabi.” He bowed respectfully. “Getting a drink? Please, take mine—”

“Wh—” She laughed, shaking her hands. “No! I’ll get my own, thank you.”

“Please,” he said as he pushed it out towards her, “it’s the least I can do.”

“For…?”

“For?” he questioned blankly, raising an eyebrow. “For abolishing the seal, of course. My wife and I have been sleeping easier these last few weeks since it was announced.” She glanced up at his headband, frowning. “We no longer have to worry for our daughter.”

Her heart swelled at the words.

“So please. I’ll get another.” He grabbed her hand and put the bottle in it, an act in and of itself that would have been frowned upon years ago—freely touching one another. She paused as she grasped it, looking up at him. “Thank you, Lady Hanabi.”

“Well…” she sighed, glancing around before putting a smile back on. “How can I say no? Thank you, Ando.”

He smiled at her, a genuine smile before turning back to the stand. She stepped backwards as she looked at him before turning back to where Eiji sat. She rejoined her, passing her the beer. “You’re still getting free stuff!”

“Huh?”

“I saw that.” She laughed, taking the beer without protest. “That Hyūga handed over their beer like nothing! Gods, what it would be like to be a noble clan leader.”

“Hm…” Hanabi hummed, looking away. She wasn’t quite sure how to respond, knowing the kind offering wasn’t just because she was ‘clan leader’, which in and of itself was inaccurate, but didn’t want to come off as boastful. She simply nodded, eyes trailing over the crowd. She smiled as she spotted Himawari dragging a similarly aged Hyūga behind her through the crowd, her new best friend as of right now.

Konohamaru may not be here, but it was a nice night, regardless.

Konohamaru slammed his back up against the wall as his fellow jōnin shuffled out. Moegi hung back when she noticed he’d trailed behind.

“Konohamaru?”

He opened his eyes to her concerned ones. “Huh?”

“You alright?”

He wasn’t, really. The mission they’d been on took it out of him, discoveries he wasn’t pleased to have stumbled on.

“Yeah, yeah. Just, y’know. Long mission.”

“Not really.” She laughed, folding her arms. “We’ve definitely been on longer. What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head, lifting himself up.

“Missing someone?”

He didn’t respond as he brushed past her, running a hand through his hair. She giggled behind him as she caught up.

“Better go check on the genin, huh? We might have time to make it before it hits midnight.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They’d arrived about an hour before midnight, and once they did, they were all ready for rest, but it was New Year’s Eve, and the village wouldn’t let them rest even if they wanted to.

Besides, he was missing her. But first, team 7.

When he spotted his team sitting on the edge of a rooftop sharing food and chattering happily, he decided it was best to leave them to it. They were always squabbling over something or another, so seeing them at peace was good enough for him. He took the rest of the time he had to seek out Hanabi.

Normally, he didn’t mind having his attention pulled by others, but found it annoying right now. He really just wanted to find her but found everyone wanted a piece of him right now for some reason. Udon beckoned him, inquiring about their mission, for which he told him to bother Moegi. Mirai tried to pull his attention to a new kunai she bought, and he felt guilty for telling her he’d check it out later. It wasn’t until Hinata pulled his attention he felt relieved. “Any idea where Hanabi is?”

“Oh.” She laughed, covering her mouth, Himawari slumped on top of her shoulders fast asleep. “I saw her taking off towards the compound with Tadashi. Think she’s a bit tired.”

“Oh?” He slumped slightly, trying not to make his disappointment that evident. “Ah, well.”

“You should see if you can catch up,” she offered kindly, smiling. “There’s still a few minutes until midnight.”

“You think?” he questioned honestly. She nodded. “I guess…I will.”

Before he could take off, she called after him, “and happy belated birthday, Konohamaru!”

He smiled over his shoulder. “Yeah, you, too.” He gave her a little wave as he jogged up the trail to the Hyūga compound.

There were so many people, it was hard to sense her chakra. But he detected a faint pulse of it and focused his in his feet to speed him up. Just as he heard counting down behind him, he found her walking alongside Tadashi. He felt his heart skip slightly when she stopped, glancing around—for him, he knew. She must’ve been sensing him, too, and as always, that excited him.

In a split decision, the way he made so many decisions about what he’d do with her, he bolted forward and scooped her up by the waist, eliciting that little surprised gasp as she instinctively grabbed his shoulders.

Just as the counting got to one, he beamed up at her shocked expression, searching his face. He repeated after the crowd in a whisper, “Happy New Year,” and despite Tadashi’s proximity, he pulled her down into a shameless kiss.

Hanabi couldn’t resist him, as much as she told herself to. Seeing his bright blue eyes, despite looking so tired, but so high with a smile, made everything inside her bubble with excitement. And his lips on hers, just in time—she could barely even remember Tadashi was just there.

He held onto her in that possessive way, that way that told her even if she struggled, he wouldn’t be letting her go. Even if someone saw them, his grip wouldn’t loosen. She returned the kiss easily, wrapping her arms around his neck as he pulled her off her feet.

Those silly stories of princesses always seemed so far away from her own reality, until him.

After a moment, realization struck her and she opened one eye, finding Tadashi with his back turned to them, attempting to shield them from watchful Hyūga eyes back at the compound. The protective action made her heart swell and she sighed against Konohamaru’s lips, letting herself conform to him for just a little longer before the kiss would naturally end.

When he finally released her lips, they both opened their eyes to see one another, and she smiled. “Happy New Year.”

She rested her forehead against his, deciding they could stay like this for a tad longer. He rubbed his nose against hers, eliciting a little giggle as he whispered, “sorry I wasn’t here.”

“Don’t be.”

“But I am.”

“You’re here now.”

Gently, he lowered her to the ground, slowly pulling their arms from one another to clasp their hands together, the cheering in the background as the new year was rung in making it feel like it was for them.

“Wanna go back?”

“With you? Yes.”

She glanced over to Tadashi, who was clearing his throat. “I’ll be returning to the compound. Be safe, Lady Hanabi.” He glanced from her to Konohamaru, and she felt her cheeks tighten as he nodded at him. “Konohamaru.”

“Happy New Year, Tadashi!” Konohamaru slung an arm over Tadashi, a far cry from the usual tense interactions they had once had and Hanabi clapped her hands together, beaming at Tadashi.

“You as well.”

With that, they parted ways. And Hanabi walked hand in hand with Konohamaru back to the festivities.

I understand in canon (?), Hiashi gives Naruto all the credit for changing the clan, but I think that’s…well, it’s not really fair to think neither Hyūga daughter had any say in changing it. So I tried to compromise by having Naruto give Hanabi the push and support.

Also, couldn’t resist the Asuma/Kurenai, Konohamaru/Hanabi comparison. No plans to kill Konohamaru, though, don’t worry.

Extra note: I do not do shipping of the Boruto kids, so don’t worry about seeing me pairing them up. I just like Sumire and she’s on Hanabi’s team.

We're getting close my dears. My heart is heavy with the end on the horizon.

#srb

[four-loose-screws]

FE7 Novelization Translation: Book 1 - Front Cover & Introductory Pages

Hello everyone and welcome to the start of yet another new Fire Emblem novelization translation! Yes, it really is that time again!

And get hype! This time, the game of choice was FE7!

I'll be translating this book set slower than normal, over the span of the remainder of this year and all of 2023, but it's a big one with about 650 pages total between both books, so there's plenty of content to keep giving everyone lots to read over all that time.

This one starts out with a pretty big spin making it stand out from the game right away. Can't wait to see everyone's thoughts on it in the coming weeks, when we start getting into the actual story!

Covers

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword ~ The Binding Blade

Turmoil in Elibe

Book 1

By Makasa Kazuyoshi

Illustrated by Kaneda Eiji

Published by Square Enix

The continent of Elibe, where humans and dragons once lived together…

Located in its eastern region is Sacae.

Several nomadic tribes live there. The young Lyn was raised in the remote plains region as one of the Lorca Tribe.

And overlooking the seas to the west, sandwiched between the Kingdoms of Etruria and Bern, is the Lycia Alliance, a federation of territories each ruled by a Marquess.

There resides Eliwood, son of the esteemed and benevolent Elbert, Marquess of Pherae.

It is also home to Hector, the next-in-line of Lycia’s leading territory, Ostia, and pride of their armored knight regiment.

The start of their journey is also the beginning of the tale of turmoil that shocks all of Elibe.

Color Art

Title Page

Fire Emblem

From “The Blazing Sword” to “The Binding Blade”

Turmoil in Elibe

Book 1

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Blazing Sword                               

Chapter 1: Footsteps of Fate                                             

Chapter 2: The Small Band of Mercenaries

Chapter 3: Blood of Pride

Chapter 4: Vortex of Strategy

Chapter 5: The Distant Plains

Chapter 6: Birds of a Feather

Chapter 7: Those Who Slither (“False Friends” in localization)

Continent of Elibe

Character Introductions

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword Book 1

Characters

(First Half: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5)

Lyn

[Sacae Plains・Swordfighter of the Lorca Tribe]

The main character of the first part of this first story. She is on a journey to improve her swordsmanship skills to avenge her parents.

Kent

[Lycian League・Knight of House Caelin]

Travels to Bulgar, the capital city of Sacae, to meet Lyn.

Sain

[Lycian League・Knight of House Caelin]

Kent’s partner. He can’t help but chat up any woman he sees.

Florina

[Knights of Ilia・Pegasus Knight-in-Training]

Lyn’s friend. She chases after Lyn on her journey. She is a crybaby, and has a fear of men.

Wil

[Lycian Alliance・Traveling Archer]

A young man Lyn meets in a village of Bern. He aids Lyn to chase a group of bandits out of the village.

Dorcas

[The Kingdom of Bern・Powerful Axe Fighter]

A man who joined a group of bandits in order to save up money to buy his ill wife her medicine.

Serra

[Lycian Alliance・Cleric of House Ostia]

A young woman who gets herself involved in Lyn’s battles while traveling home from Bern to Lycia.

Erk

[The Kingdom of Etruria・Mage-in-Training]

A young man employed as Serra’s guard. She bosses him around.

Rath

[Sacae Plains・Bow Knight of the Kutolah Tribe]

Leader of Marquess Araphen’s guard. He aids Lyn, as they are both from nomadic tribes.

Matthew

[?・Mysterious Thief]

A thief who offers to lend his skills to Lyn in Araphen. There seems to be more to him than meets the eye…

Nils

[?・Traveling Troubadour (Bard)]

A small boy who seeks help from Lyn and her allies to save his kidnapped sister. He possesses mysterious powers.

Lucius

[?・Wandering Monk]

He joins Lyn’s Legion to try to help Nils after he is chased out of an inn.

Ninian

[?・Traveling Dancer]

Nils’ older sister. She is being pursued by the Black Fang because she possesses the same strange powers as her younger brother.

Eliwood

[Lycian Alliance・Prince of House Pherae]

A young man Lyn meets in Kathelet. He knows of her lineage, and becomes a powerful ally to her.

Wallace

[Lycian Alliance・General of House Caelin]

A veteran armored knight who returns to the knights to strike down the imposter princess. 

Eagler

[Lycian Alliance・Knight Commander of House Caelin]

A paladin who hatches a plan to brand Lyn an imposter.

Hausen

[Lycian Alliance・Duke Caelin]

Lyn’s grandfather. His life is currently being targeted by his heir, Lundgren, who is pursuing his title.

Lundgren

[Lycian Alliance・Heir to Duke Caelin]

Lyn’s uncle. He sends assassins after Lyn so that he will be the one to inherit the throne.

(Second Half: Chapter 6 Onwards)

Eliwood

[Lycian Alliance・Prince of Pherae]

The main character of the latter part of this first story. He sets out on a journey to find his missing father.

Marcus

[Lycian Alliance・Knight in Service to House Pherae]

A senior knight of the Knights of Pherae. He risks his life to guard Eliwood.

Lowen

[Lycian Alliance・Freshly Recruited Knight of House Pherae]

A fresh recruit of the Knights of Pherae. He is being trained personally by Marcus.

Rebecca

[Lycian Alliance・Archer Living in Pherae]

The daughter of the village magistrate of a village in the mountains. She came with Lowen to spread the news of the village being in danger.

Bartre

[The Western Isles・Axe Fighter Who Boasts of His Strength]

Hired as a mercenary by Eliwood while staying at a village in Pherae.

Dorcas

[The Kingdom of Bern・Powerful Axe Fighter]

Bartre’s partner. Currently working away from home as a mercenary to save money for his wife.

Hector

[Lycian Alliance・Next-in-Line of Ostia]

The second main character of the latter half of this first story. As one of Eliwood’s friends, he rushes to his aid as much as he can.

Matthew

[Lycian Alliance・Spy of House Ostia]

He conducts work from the shadows at his lord’s orders. He is working with Hector, having taken a liking to him.

Uther

[Lycian Alliance・Marquess Ostia]

The new marquess of House Ostia, Lycia’s leading power. Hector’s older brother.

Oswin

[Lycian Alliance・Armor Knight of House Ostia]

A loyal retainer of Uther. He travels with Eliwood on his journey to watch over Hector.

Serra

[Lycian Alliance・Cleric of House Ostia]

Travels with Oswin as a medic. A loud and self-absorbed young woman.

Guy

[Sacae Plains・Swordfighter of the Lorca Tribe]

A young man on a journey aiming to become a swordfighter of Sacae. He is indebted to Matthew.

Merlinus

[The Kingdom of Etruria・Traveling Merchant]

A wealthy merchant who travels across each region of the continent. He is attacked by ruffians in Santaruz territory.

Priscilla

[The Kingdom of Etruria・Daughter of Count Caerleon]

A beautiful young woman who travels to Laus in search of the whereabouts of her real family.

Erk

[The Kingdom of Etruria・Mage-in-Training]

He is entrusted as Priscilla’s guard by his magic teacher, but is stopped in Laus.

Elbert

[Lycian Alliance・Marquess Pherae]

Eliwood’s father, who suddenly goes missing in the latter part of this story.

Darin

[Lycian Alliance・Marquess Laus]

A greedy marquess. He is plotting a rebellion against Ostia.

Eric

[Lycian Alliance・Prince of Laus]

Darin’s only son. He was a classmate of Eliwood and Hector’s during their school days.

Helman

[Lycian Alliance・Marquess Santaruz]

He once doted on Eliwood like a son, but gets caught up in the rebellion plot.

Ephidel

[?・Mysterious Man Dressed in Black]

The mastermind controlling both Santaruz and Laus from the shadows. Has golden-colored eyes.

Part 1 - The Blazing Sword

#fire emblem #fe7 #fire emblem 7 #the blazing sword #fire emblem the blazing sword #fe the blazing sword #fe7 the blazing sword #lyn #lyn's story #nintendo #gba #game boy advance #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #fe7 novelization translation

[urfavstonr1]

Burning Bright

Chapter 10

Series- My Hero Academia

Pairings- Katsuki Bakugo/Original Female Charater. Eijiro Kirishima/Original Female Charater.

Current word count- 6561

Content Warnings- Graphic Depictions of Violence

Masterlist

Hokuto walking into the abandoned warehouse in the dead of night, for a meeting of sorts. A man with short black hair sits in a metal chair nearby, taking deep drags off the cigarette in his mouth as he waits in silence. As his eyes meet Hokuto he smirks, “So you’re finally back from doing whatever the fuck you were doing.”

He gives a content sigh, “Yup, and it was quite successful I think.. meeting my little sister after all this time, excites me to no end. I can’t wait to bring despair on her face..” 

Dabi walking from the shadows wrapping an arm around him, “A guy with an amazing goal~ they say great minds think alike.” as he lets out a soft menacing chuckle.

The man’s smirk widens, “It’s always nice to be able to achieve your goals, hopefully I’ll get to mine soon.” He lets out a puff of smoke as he tilts his head back to look at the ceiling.

Toga skipping up to the guys, a wide grin on her face as she leans on the chair the man was sitting in, “I want us all to reach our goals! I can’t wait to live limitlessly with Deku.” The smile on her face is loving as she thinks of the green haired hero. 

Mr. Compress arrives and joins everyone, putting a hand on Toga’s shoulder. “That would be nice wouldn’t it.. with our conviction I can’t see why we won’t reach our goals.”

From the shadows a raspy voice reaches all their ears, “Now if we are done with the friendly chatter.. It’s almost time to set our plans in motion.”

***

The sun barely peeking in through the curtains, feeling a familiar warmth near her. “Mmmm warm..” snuggling into the massive block of heat, noticing the comforting smell she has grown so accustomed to. Her eyes shoot open seeing the sleeping Katsuki in her bed, ‘When did he get in here? Was I that out of it.. I don’t remember anything. I passed out hard last night’ Trying to piece together something she feels she forgot, Katsuki wrapping his arm around her pulling her in closer as he mumbles in his sleep. ‘ah, who cares..’ snuggling into him, not worrying about it anymore since it’s just too comfy to pass up and honestly gives this morning a pleasant surprise. 

Kaida rolls over on the floor, momentarily opening her eyes and seeing blond hair peeking over the bed. She closes her eyes again, prepared to go back asleep until her eyes snap open and she sits up to look at Bakugo sleeping in Yuka’s bed. “When the fuck did you get here?” She mumbles before standing with her blanket wrapped around herself, “I don’t care I’m going to Eiji’s room” she mumbles again with a yawn before waddling out of Yuka’s room. 

Yuka lets out a quiet chuckle as she snuggles back into Katsuki, ‘I have a feeling today is gonna be a good day.’

As Kaida opens Kirishima’s door she lets out another yawn, flopping herself into bed next to her boyfriend, snuggling up to him with a content sigh. Even in his sleep he instinctively wraps his arms around her. Just as she drifts back to sleep Kirishima’s alarm blares through the room to wake them up. With a frustrated groan she covers her head with the blanket that’s wrapped around her and closes her eyes tightly. 

“Turn it ooooooff.” She groans as Kirishima leans over her to turn the alarm off. A chuckle rumbles through his chest as he pulls the blanket back to look at Kaida’s pouting face, “I don’t want to get up yet.”

“But don’t you want to get up and get ready for our double date?” His smile is so warm as he looks down at her. She lets out another groan and frowns. 

“But I’m so tired~” Kaida whines and hides her face in her blanket. 

“Well, don't you want to see the surprise I have for you?” Kirishima chuckles

Kaida peeks from her blanket, “You got me a surprise?”

“Yea it was Yuka’s idea!” Kirishima giving a massive grin and a thumbs up. 

Kaida giggles and shakes her head as she sits up, “Fiiiine, I guess I’ll get up. But I left my clothes in Yuka’s room and Katsuki is sleeping in there.” She mumbles as she purses her lips thinking, “But they need to get up anyway.”

Katsuki yawns and stretches and scoots down to the edge of the bed, randomly feeling anchored to the bed and glancing down to see Yuka using her arms around his waist while still laying on her stomach. “Nuuuu.. you were so warm and comfy! Do we have to get up?” giving him a playful pout.

He puts a hand through her hair, his expression softening. “Sadly we do if you girls really wanted your double date idea.” 

A knock on the door alerts Katsuki and Yuka before a voice comes through the door, “Are you guys up yet? I need my clothes that I left in there.” Kaida’s voice comes through the door as she waits patiently on the other side. 

Yuka pouts as Katsuki gets up forcing her to let go and answers the door, “Yea we’re up, despite her struggles..” Rolling his eyes at Yuka.

“Shut up.. you were comfy dammit..” She mumbles to herself.

Kaida slowly opens the door and walks inside, “goodmorning, I’m gonna go get dressed, and see you guys soon?” 

“yeaaaaa.. “ Yuka lazily sits up, rubbing her eyes awake.

Kaida nods and walks out of the room closing the door behind her and heads towards the bathroom to get ready.

Katsuki boops her nose slightly aggressively, “You better get ready!” as he begins to walk away and points back at her, “And don’t go back to bed! I’m gonna get ready myself so don’t keep me waiting~!” He says with a slight chuckle.

“Yea yea..” Yuka says as she stretches and gets herself ready for their fun day together. 

About an hour has passed and the boys were already done getting ready and waiting and relaxing in the living room on the couches, 

Kaida finally walks into the common area with a confident smile on her face, “Hey guys! Everyone ready?” As Kirishima turns to look at her his jaw drops, a small blush comes to her cheeks at his reaction. She begins to fiddle with her fingers, her nails are painted a deep shade of maroon. Black lipstick covers her lips, enhancing her smile, as she walks closer to them he notices the ripped fishnets that cover her legs, a short black jean skirt reaches down her mid thigh and is secured around her waist with a black belt, She wears a plain black cropped hoodie, and she's holding a pair of black platform boots.

“Wow.” Kirishima stands from the couch he's sitting on and approaches her, “You look great, Pebble.”

Yuka steps out of the elevator, dressed in black ripped skinny jeans with chains hanging off the right side of her pants and black combat boots. A cropped purple hoodie hangs loosely on her body as she pulls on the sleeves, a black tank top peaks from underneath the hoodie. Walks up to Katsuki from behind and bends down and hugs his neck while he is still on the couch, “Today is gonna be a blast!” As she nuzzles into his hair. 

Katsuki lets out a quiet low chuckle at her, “then shall we get going then? If everyone is ready, that is?”  

Yuka resting her head on top of his, “I’m good to go!” With a big grin on her face. 

Kaida nods, “I’m ready if you guys are.” She looks up to Kirishima who hasn’t taken his eyes off her, “Eiji?”

“Huh? Oh yeah! I’m ready.” He smiles down at her then looks to Katsuki and Yuka, he gently messes with the rolled up sleeves of his red flannel before holding his hand out for Kaida to grab. She happily grabs his hand and walks toward the door.

Katsuki and Yuka followed behind and linked to his arm, both their shoes already on as they waited for their friends at the door. Kaida places her shoes on the floor to put them on, bending down to tie them only for Kirishima to beat her to it; carefully tying the laces for her. She giggles and rolls her eyes as he ties the laces on both of her boots securely. He presses a kiss to her thigh before standing up and smiling at her. “Kirishima, why?” Katsuki visibly cringes. 

“Why would my goddess have to tie her own shoes?” He looks at Katsuki as if the answer was obvious, “What kind of man would I be if I didn’t take care of my Pebble?”

“You’re spoiling her!” Denki yells from one of the couches.

Katsuki pokes her forehead, “This short stack, a goddess?” He says sarcastically while just poking fun. 

Kaida shrugs her shoulders with a smirk, “He seems to worship the ground I walk on, and I mean who am I to stop him?” She walks towards the door and opens it, “Let’s get going, I’m so excited.”

“Agreed! Def excited!” Pulling Katsuki by his arm out the door and they make their way to the movie theater. 

As they arrive at the theater Kaida’s eyes widen as she smiles, “I didn't even realize that movie came out! We have to see it!” She points at a poster for Blair Witch as she excitedly bounces.

“I’ve heard great things about it, we should definitely see this!” Yuka put her vote in, agreeing with Kaida. 

“I mean I’m down for whatever.. doesn’t really matter to me what we watch.” Katsuki shrugged nonchalantly.

“Yes!” Kaida looks up to Kirishima who has an uneasy look on his face, “You’ll be fine! It’s just a movie and you’re watching it with all of us!”

“You said it was just a movie when we watched the ring! And she came out of the TV screen!” Kirishima retorts.

Kaida sighs, “Ok but are you dead? Did you die in seven days? No. It’s just a movie.” 

“If we get cursed by a movie I’m blaming you.” He pouts as they walk towards the ticket stand.

“Blame me all you want, Eiji.”

Katsuki smacks Kisihima’s back, “come on~ the big manly man will be fine!” He laughs as he pays for his and Yuka’s tickets. 

“I’m still working on getting him to not be scared of horror movies, it will come with time.” Kaida giggles as Kirishima buys their tickets.

“I don’t understand how you enjoy them.” He mumbles as the group walks towards the snack stand.

“I just do, I can’t explain it.” Kaida shrugs.

“For me it just depends on the movie, so I understand but I’m sure this one will be fine. It's just VHS horror.” Yuka trying to help Kisihima relax a little. 

“You can squeeze my hand as hard as you want, and later you’ll get all the cuddles for sitting through this with us, ok?” Kaida squeezes his hand with a reassuring smile.

After getting the tickets Kirishima quickly buys himself and Kaida a medium popcorn to share; finding the theater and their seats going for the back middle seats. The boys in between the girls as they wait patiently for the movie to start, Kirishima looking more nervous. “you good bro?” 

Kirishima hesitantly nods his head, his eyes glued to the screen as he squeezes Kaida’s hand.

“Eijiro the movie hasn’t even started yet.”

The lights dim as the movie begins, Yuka laying her head against Katsuki and Kirishima squeezing Kaida’s hand as he jumps. Kaida squeezes back and wraps her arms around his, laying her head on his shoulder. As the movie continues Kaida lets out a deep breath and closes her eyes,her mind flooding with pleasant memories between herself and Kirishima. Kaida opens her eyes and pushes herself up in her seat to press a kiss to Kirishima’s cheek before relaxing against him again, feeling him slightly relax under her as she settles against him comfortably, a content sigh leaving her lips. While the movie continues playing she feels her eyes slowly droop, her mind is still running with thoughts of Kirishima, and as she drifts to sleep the memories begin to spread, slowly making their way into Kirishima’s head; making him relax even further.

Katsuki was already restless even though the movie just started, distracted looking down at Yuka snuggling into his arm. She glances up, feeling herself being stared at. Their eyes locked onto each other accidently forgetting about the movie as Katsuki’s and Yuka’s faces slowly got closer till their lips locked into a deep kiss. 

 As the movie continues on Kirishima grows more and more scared, his muscles tensed and he can't seem to keep his eyes off the screen. If Kaida hadn’t been in such a deep sleep in her seat she probably would have woken up from his shaking and subtle jumps throughout the movie. Even Katsuki and Yuka were too absorbed into each other to notice Kirishima’s jumps and shakes, the movie was even tuned out, their soft moans were overpowered by the movie so no one could hear them. When the credits begin to roll Kaida wakes with a yawn and looks up to the terrified Kirishima.

“Oh shit Eiji are you ok?” her eyes scan over his face as he slowly looks down at her.

Katsuki and Yuka begrudgingly pull away as they notice the movie ended, Katsuki patting the top of Kirishima’s shoulder, “See it wasn’t that scary!” Then realizing Kirishima looks as pale as a ghost, “hey you alright?” Both of them worried since he hasn’t answered anyone yet.

“I think he’s traumatized…” Kaida whispers and pokes his cheek, “Eiji, you ok buddy?”

Yuka gets up off her seat and crouches down in front of him, waving her hand in front of his face. “Kiiirisima, anybody home~?” 

Kaida nearly jumps as Kirishima abruptly stands from his seat, “I just want to leave please.” He says just above a whisper. 

Kaida stands quickly and nods, “we can leave, it’s ok.”

Yuka and Katsuki follow behind them quickly, making it out of the theater in a hurry. “I kinda feel bad..” Yuka looks at Kirishima worried, “Oh! I know! Why not we let him pick where we eat to make it up to him!?” Katsuki nods quietly in agreement. 

“Is there anything you’d like to eat?” Kaida looks up to Kirishima, gently holding his hand as they walk.

Kirishima looks down at Kaida with a small pout, “Can we get Korean BBQ?” Giving almost a puppy dog look at her. 

“Of course we can, we can do anything you want.” She smiles up at him.

While they make their way to the restaurant Kirishima looks down towards Kaida, “Also.. during the movie how did you do that by the way?” Very curious about the possible new development of Kaida’s quirk.

“Do what?” She looks up at him curiously, her head tilted to the side.

“It was like you were giving me some of our good memories? Like you were putting them in my head.” Kirishima thinks intently to try to explain.

“Oh, that’s new.” Kaida kinda shrugs as she thinks about it, “I was just thinking about us and I kinda like, tried to put that out? I guess? I don’t know if that makes sense.”

“Maybe it’s something we can try to train!” Kirishima smiles down at her.

Yuka looks over excited, “Your quirk is getting stronger! If there is anything I can do to help just let me know!” 

“Well, if this is a new extension of my quirk I don’t know anything about it, I’d like to train it but I’m not sure how we would go about it.” Kaida thinks out loud, bringing her hand to her chin as she thinks.

“I’m sure we will figure it out!” Yuka pumps her fist in confidence, finally making it to the restaurant and getting a table as they wait for the waiter and Katsuki and Kirishima go over the menu together. After all their food and drinks were ordered and the waiter brought everything to the table, Yuka and Katsuki started throwing meat on the grill for everyone. 

Kaida looks up to Kirishima with a soft smile, “How are you feeling? Any better?”

“I guess.. I wish you didn’t fall asleep in the movie” Kirishima says with a small pout as he grabs some of the meat off the grill. 

“I couldn’t help it! You were just so comfy~” She leans over and lays her head on his shoulder, “So comfy!”

Katsuki rolls his eyes at Kaida with a scoff, “I don’t get how people can sleep through movies like that especially with people screaming in the theater and loud music.”

Kaida gives him finger guns with a smile, “Sleep deprivation.” She chuckles before shrugging, “I don’t know, It happens a lot, I may have insomnia but I can also fall asleep anywhere when my body finally lets me.”

“That’s fair, I’ve been that way myself but it really depends on the situation though.. My brain loves to not be consistent” Yuka chuckles while eating as much as she can, “Kaida, you better hurry and grab some meat before it’s all gone~!” 

Kaida quickly moves to grab herself some of the food, shoving it onto her mouth, and eating it, “Tell me about it, inconsistency is all my brain does.”

Katsuki leaning back with his arms resting on the top of the booth, letting out a content sigh from feeling full. “I would say today was a good day.. minus Kirishima being scared shitless!” He lets out a cackle.

Kaida sends Katsuki a playful glare, “Maybe let's not bring up Kirishima’s trauma.” She chuckles as she leans back in her seat.

“I don’t want to think about that movie ever again.” Kirishima’s face looks traumatized, like he was experiencing flashbacks.

“Pfft it wasn’t that bad..” His chuckling quieting down.

Yuka laying her head against Katsuki’s shoulder, “poor Kirishima and scary movies just don’t mix~” Softly laughing.

“In the end all that matters is that the girls had fun.. this was more for them than it was for us” Katsuki tries to help reassure Kirishima in his own way. 

“That’s true..” Kirishima looks down towards Kaida, “you had fun.. right?” 

“I always have fun when I’m with you!” Kaida smiles up at him, beaming happily.

Kirishima smiles down at her in return, his toothy grin only causing a hearty giggle in Kaida. Yuka lightly poking Katsuki’s side, “Look at you helping Kirishima snap out of it~” as he avoids eye contact with everyone, feeling slightly embarrassed with it being pointed out. 

“Are you guys ready to go? I’m stuffed.” Kaida lets out a content sigh as she leans against Kirishima.

“I’d say I’m good..” As Katsuki pulls out his wallet and pays the bill this time and Yuka nods in agreement.

“I couldn’t eat another bite if I tried” Yuka giggles as her and Katuski get up from their seats and hanging off his arm as they get ready to head out.

As the group walks back to UA Kaida feels her phone go off, looking at the text and chuckling to herself, “I just got a text from Mina saying her and Denki are gonna have a study session and asked if I want to join them.”

“I mean I’m glad I don’t need to study anymore but I’m of course down to hang out and chill and help if needed” Yuka looks up to Katsuki excitedly.

“Fiiine.. I also don’t really need to study, but I’ll go since Yuka is..” pouting as he was plotting to try to get her alone later, he hopes he can think of a back up plan.

“If you guys want to do something else you can! You don’t have to come with, especially since neither of you really have to study.” Kaida rubs the back of her neck with a sigh, “I don’t need to either but I know Eiji needs to.”

“Nah, we want to hang out! Maybe we can-” 

Katsuki interrupts Yuka abruptly, “Hey, they say it's fine then it’s fine.. If they really end up needing our help they will know where to find us.” He says with a smug grin on his face.

“We’ll call if we need you! And If you feel like joining us later anyway we’ll be in Mina’s room” Kaida gives a thumbs up.

As they reached UA they split, Yuka and Katsuki heading into Katsuki’s dorm, and Kirishima and Kaida went to Mina’s room; Kaida knocking on the door, “We’re here!”

An excited Mina answers the door, “Hey guys!”

Denki popping up behind Mina with an arm wrapped around her, “What took you guys so long~!?”

“We were getting back from our double date with Yuka and Katsuki.” Before she can think, Mina's arms pull her in to look her over.

“Damn Babes I can tell, you look hot.” Mina’s words bring a blush to Kaida’s cheeks.

“I try, I learned from the best.” Kaida winks at Mina as she and Kirishima are pulled into Mina’s room. As the four sit themselves on the floor in a circle, Kaida looks around, “Where are your textbooks I thought we were studying?”

“Well, this is a session, but I wouldn’t say a study one.” Denki laughs as he shuffles through his backpack and pulls out a small bong with lighting stickers on it. Mina quietly whoops and reaches under her bed to grab a container full of weed.

“Where the fuck did you get that!?” Kaida whisper yells at Mina, almost sternly, “I don’t know about Kirishima but I’ve never done this.” Kirishima shakes his head and watches Denki pack some weed into the bowl of his bong.

“Mina I thought you said she would be cool about this.” Denki looks to Mina.

“I didn’t know! Kaida is always so chill I thought she would!” Mina retorts and looks at Kaida, “I’m sorry I assumed, you guys can leave if you're uncomfortable.”

“No no! It’s ok! I’ve just never thought about it, but I’m ok with it!” Kaida raises her hands in defense, “I’m down for whatever!”

“Kaida, are you sure about this?” Kirishima looks down to Kaida concerned.

“I don’t see why not? It’s just a little weed, nothing serious. Maybe it’ll help my quirk!” Kaida looks up to Kirishima confidently before Denki hands her the bong and a lighter.

“Then I guess the newbie gets the first hit!” Kaida takes the items and looks down at them confused.

“Here I can help.” Mina crawls closer to Kaida, “Hold it to your mouth and when I light it inhale until you can’t anymore ok?” Kaida nods and does as she's instructed while Mina takes the lighter from her, flicking the flame and holding it to the bowl as Kaida starts to inhale. After a moment of holding the flame to the bowl Mina removes it from the bong and lets Kaida inhale all the smoke, causing her to pull away, “Hold it! Just for a second!” Mina points at her as tears rise to her eyes, holding for a few moments before letting it out with coughs.

“Blow it all out, you’re ok.” Mina places the bong on the floor and reaches to grab a bottle of water, opening it and holding out to Kaida, who swiftly takes it and begins drinking it.

“That was kinda ass.” Kaida coughs out, her eyes already becoming bloodshot.

“You did fine! You’ll get used to it.” Mina pats her shoulder before taking her own hit off the bong, taking a deep hit, holding it, and blowing out a large cloud into the air. She hands the bong off to Denki who does the same and offers the bong to Kirishima.

“I don’t know..” Kirishima looks at the bong before Kaida snatches it into her hands.

Already feeling the buzz in her body, Kaida looks up to Kirishima, “I think I know how to help.” Kaida holds the bong to her mouth and takes a deep hit, holding it in as she leans up on her knees, grabbing Kirishima’s face in her hands and kissing him, blowing the smoke into his mouth as she does. His eyes widen as he’s forced to inhale the smoke. As Kaida pulls away he blows out the smoke, not breaking eye contact with Kaida, “See? Not that bad.” Kaida chuckles and sits back on the floor. He stares at Kaida stunned as Mina whistles at them.

After another round of the bong going around the circle, Kirishima looks at Kaida almost with puppy dog eyes, “Will you do that again?” He mumbles.

“Huh?” Kaida looks up to him, the bong in her hands.

“Will you do the weed thing again?” His voice is sheepish.

“He wants you to shotgun him again.” Mina giggles.

“I didn’t know It had a name.” Kaida nods and looks from the bong up to Kirishima before taking a hit from the bong, holding it and blowing it out, then taking another hit and pulling Kirishima into another kiss, blowing the smoking into his mouth again. Kirishima pulls back with a smile as he blows out the smoke.

“I fucking love you.” He says, as if he hadn’t even thought about it, the goofy smile on his face only makes Kaida giggle.

“I love fucking you. I mean I fucking love you. Yeah.” Kaida giggles at herself and leans back on her hands.

“Oh trust me we hear just how much you love fucking.” Denki groans and lays back on the floor.

“Bro, His dick is huuuuge.” Kaida motions with her hands how big Kirishima’s dick is, causing his face to burn up.

“Kaida!” His voice cracks as she gasps her name.

“It’s true! Be proud of it!” Kaida nods to herself then to Kirishima.

“Be proud of it if you have it! We all know Denki doesn’t.” Mina laughs as she gets a glare from Denki.

“How would you know!? You’ve never seen it!” He sits up, his face red as he glares at Mina.

“I mean, I can only imagine. You just don’t have BDE and I’m sorry.” Mina continues to laugh, Kaida nodding in agreement at Mina’s statement.

“Nah he’s got like, mid energy.” Kaida nods with Mina as she aggressively nods in agreement.

“Do y’all talk about this often?” Denki groans.

“I mean…. We had every guy in class A’s dick energy..” Mina confesses before letting out another laugh with Kaida.

“Yeahhh every guy has a rating. And it’s not just us, the other girls too.” Kaida says with a sigh, the smile never leaving her face.

“Can I know the ratings?” Denki leans forward towards Kaida who only blows a raspberry towards him.

“Of course not.”

“Whyyy nooot” He whines.

“Because you’re a boy, and you don't get the deets.” She sticks out her tongue at him. He only continues to whine.

“Do I get to know?” Kirishima whispers to Kaida. She brings her hand to her chin, rubbing it as she thinks.

“Maybe. It depends.” She kisses him again before perking up, “Oh. my. Gods. I wish Yuka was here!” Kaida stumbles off the floor and stands determined, “I shall return! With snacks! And more friends!!!” She waddles her way to the door and whips it open before toddling down the hallway, not bothering to close the door behind her.

Earlier when they split up, Katsuki and Yuka head to his room. Katsuki aggressively pins her to his door after shutting it behind them, pressing his lips to hers. She could feel him push his tongue together with hers and their moans muffled by their intense kiss. “Fuck.. I want you.. I don’t know how much longer.. I can hold back..” he says in between breaths for their lips to be quickly locked back together. 

They make their way to the bed, Yuka laying down while Katsuki hovers over top of her. Her fingers digging through his hair, their hips grinding against each other. He buries his face into the nape of her neck while slowly reaching up under her shirt and gently groping one of her breasts. Yuka gasps and moans to his touch, “Katsuki..” she tugs at his hair as she feels his teeth against her skin, leaving a mark as he bites and sucks on her neck. Both their breathing getting heavy and time melding together, absorbed into each other’s touch and the feeling of their lips clashing against each other desperately. 

“Can I-“ About to ask Yuka to take things a step further when interrupted by a knock at the door. 

Katsuki grits his teeth in frustration, “shouldn’t we answer it?” Yuka asks as she attempts to get up.

“But-“ as she knocks again and they could hear Kaida through the door calling for them while he lets out a heavy sigh, answering the door and seeing Kaida waiting on the other side. “What!? And what’s that smell?” The strong scent hit him after opening the door. 

Yuka pops up behind him, “Kaida!? What’s up?” She looks surprised especially with the strong smell coming off her and knowing what that means.

Kaida stands with bloodshot, hazy eyes as she smiles at them, “Hi! I just missed Yuka, uhm, we’re having fun and I think you might enjoy it? You don’t have to but I miss you.” Kaida looks up at Yuka, giving her puppy eyes, “Yuuukaaaaa, I missed you.” 

Yuka giggles at her pleading eyes, “Okies I’d be happy to join you~” as she pats Kaida’s head. 

Kaida giggles excitedly and stomps her feet at her energy, causing her to slightly hop, “Yess~! Let's go! But you have to deal with Denki.” Kaida grabs onto Yuka’s hand, “He’s mad cause I told him his dick is mid.”

Katsuki lets out a loud laugh, “that’s because he is”

“Then he got more mad cause I won’t tell him everyones dick energy.” Kaida dramatically rolls her eyes, still pulling Yuka along back to Mina’s room.

Yuka follows willingly with Katsuki just behind her, “I mean I don’t blame him for being curious, curiosity can get the best of us” she chuckles. 

“But he’s a boy! He’s not allowed to know! It’s against girl code.” Kaida gives Yuka a very serious look, “It’s very serious.”

“Pfft girl code..” Katsuki scoffs.

“I get it, guys will never understand~” Yuka says with a big smile while jokingly side-eyeing Katsuki as they arrive at Mina’s room. 

Kaida excitedly squeals as she jumps away from Yuka and into Kirishima’s awaiting arms, giggling excitedly as she wraps her arms around him, “I missed you so much.”

“This doesn’t exactly look like studying..” Katsuki says sternly as he leans in the doorway. 

“Shit I didn’t realize you were bringing Katsuki!” Denki moves quickly to try to hide the bong, Mina and Kaida laugh as they watch his high struggles.

Yuka lightly pats his arm, “I’d say this is better than studying!” Yuka perks up and sits at the table, “if I’m not imposing.. may I?” 

Katsuki sitting behind her with his legs around her, “Is that really a good idea?” He looks at her seriously.

“I mean I’ll be fine, I’ve done this before, but you don’t have to of course. I’d never force anything on you.” She smiles up at him.

“We’re having a great time Katsuki!!” Kaida smiles up at him as she wiggles her toes.

“This is great bro, I’ve never felt so, so, smooth? Chill?” Kirishima looks up at the ceiling as he continues to think of a word.

Yuka eyes Denki, “Can I.. or no? Unless you're still scared of me~” she laughs.

Denki hesitates as he swallows heavily and looks to Mina, “I-I don’t know..” 

“Dude, It’s fine, give her the fucking bong, as long as Kacchan isn’t a snitch.” Mina snickers and looks at Katsuki, “Don’t be a snitch man.” 

“I ain’t no fucking snitch! When have I ever snitched!?” Katsuki glares at them.

Yuka stares Denki down, “gib.. gib now..” with a smirk on her face.

“Gib her da bong ‘josh’” Kaida giggles to herself at what she thought was a hilarious reference.

Denki groans as he hands her the bong and lighter still having doubts, “fiiiine..”

“Yay” Yuka takes them enthusiastically.

Kaida looks up to Katsuki, a look of serious questioning on her face. When she opens her mouth to speak she closes it again and squints as she continues to think. She gently smacks the floor and makes eye contact with Katsuki, “I have a question, but I think you might get mad.”

“You won’t know until you ask..” he locks eyes on Kaida, “it’s your choice if you want to risk that.” He scoffs.

Kaida purses her lips as she thinks, “Can I. Touch your hair?” She blinks and begins to quickly speak, “not like in a weird way but I feel like your hair is just really soft and I want to touch it cause soft but If that's not ok that's fine!”

Katsuki groans and sighs while pinching the bridge of his nose, “Fine.. but this the only freebie you get..” mentally already regretting his decision. 

Kaida’s eyes light up as she gasps and gets a wide smile, “Really? Oh my gods yes, thank you.” She quickly scrambles out of Kirishima’s lap and crawls to Yuka and Katsuki, Her eyes staring in awe at Katsuki’s, assumably soft, hair.

Yuka chuckles as she feels Katsuki tense up, “His hair is quite soft, so I’d take this chance before he changes his mind.” 

Kaida carefully brings a hand to the top of Katsuki’s head gently running her fingers through his hair, her eyes widen, “So soft, oh my god.”

Katsuki fights back a growl the best he can while Yuka laughs at both their reactions. She finally takes her hit and French inhales the smoke while holding it a good while before breathing it out officially. “Mmmm man it’s been awhile.. the good stuff” leaning back onto Katsuki’s chest while placing the bong on the table.

Kaida makes her way back over to Kirishima and takes the bong and lighter into her possession, as she brings it to her mouth she pauses. She sets the lighter on the floor and very carefully brings a small flame to her finger tip and lights the weed inside the bowl, taking in a deep inhale before setting the bong on the floor. She brings her hands to Kirishima’s cheeks and pulls him into a kiss, shotgunning him for what felt like the 50th time that night.

Yuka smirks at them and then looks up at Katsuki, “You think maybe you would try it if I did that for you?” She watches his face get bright red.

“N-no I’m good for now.” He stammers on his words. 

Denki randomly chirps up and looks at Kaida seriously and points at Katsuki, “what's your opinion on him can I at least ask that!?” His curiosity from earlier driving him insane. 

Kaida coughs out the smoke as she gives Denki a dirty look, “What makes you think you have the right to know!?”

“I mean we are all friends here right!? I don’t see why not if it’s just us..” hoping his excuse is good enough. 

“Here's a test for you, what do you think his DE is?” Kaida smirks, waiting for his answer.

Katsuki glares between the two of them, “What are you two talking about!?” 

Denki feeling afraid to answer with Katsuki’s eyes piercing through him, Yuka cocking her head to the side confused. “I-I don’t know.. s-small?” Thinking he’s funny while still salty since he was considered mid. 

Kaida gives him a disgusted face, “You’re so wrong, so you don't get access to the knowledge.”

“What!?” Denki begins to whine, “I don’t see how I’m wrong..” he pouts, “Always feels like his loudness is overcompensating something..” 

Kaida rolls her eyes, “there are so many reasons that you're wrong.” She adjusts herself to sit up in Kirishima’s lap, “Yes he’s loud but that's like, on the surface, you gotta look under that. He’s confident, he's fit, and yeah he’s brash but the way he is with Yuka? Oh it screams BDE.” Kaida looks up to Yuka, feeling proud of herself and looking for praise, “Am I right?”

Yuka blushes as she clears her throat at the thought, “You have no idea..” 

Katsuki getting irritated and confused, “BDE? What does that even mean? You guys know I’m right here right!?” 

“Big Dick Energy Kacchan.” Mina speaks up matter of factly.

Yuka fidgeting her fingers, “And Kaida is more right than she realizes..” she nervously chuckles.

“Kaida is the DE master, she calls them and then we find out she was right and it’s immaculate.” Mina gives a chef's kiss and giggles.

Katsuki’s whole face goes bright red for only a moment as he then remembers what Denki said in the beginning, “You fucking think my shit is small” growling at him, “if you want I can show you what a real man’s dick looks like!” 

Denki’s eyes filled with fear, “I-I’m good man you don’t have to go that far!”

“And this is why you’re mid.” Kaida snickers.

Yuka lets out a massive laugh, “kinda feel bad for Jiro though~” Katsuki says mocking Denki some more since he started it. 

“Everyone always jokes about who everyone hears having sex in the dorm but you know who i never hear? Jirou, poor girl. He’s a mid and he doesn't know how to use it.” Kaida playfully tsks and leans back against Kirishima.

“Hopefully he can learn with practice” Yuka jests but also serious, picking up the bong and lighter, taking a big hit again and feels her body becoming more relaxed into Katsuki. 

Kaida gasps and claps her hands, “You’ll never guess what I caught Mineta doing.”

Katsuki squints his eyes at her, “do we wanna know..?” 

“No, dude, I saw him fucking vaping behind the dorm, like no one would notice.”

“I mean even if he got caught it’s Mineta.. no one treats him seriously!” Katsuki jokes and Yuka nods in agreement. 

Denki gets up, “I’ll be right back.. restroom..”

“Don’t fall in!” Kaida yells behind him as he leaves the room, he subtly flips Kaida off as he walks away. Kaida rolls her eyes and takes the bong again, taking in a deep hit and holding it in before blowing it out with a sigh.

“So much for studying~” Katsuki scoffs as he looks towards Kaida and Kirishima.

“I didn’t know this was gonna happen! It just did and who am I to break the vibe?” 

“This is a valid point!” Yuka pipes up agreeing, when they all feel their phones go off except Yuka’s and everyone’s eyes look on in shock at their phones.

“What the fuck..” Katsuki looks disgusted at his phone.

“Is everyth-.. oh my god my eyes!” Yuka covers her eyes and slumps back into his lap.

Kaida stares in horror at her phone, quickly shutting it off and throwing it to the floor.

#MHA #BNHA #bnha fanfiction #my hero academia #mha smut #mha bakugou #mha oc #boku no hero academia #boku no hero acedamia #my hero acedamia #eijiro kirishima #eijiro kirishima smut #katsuki bakugo #mha #bakugou katsuki #kirishima fluff #kirishima smut #kirishima eijirou

[retrosofa]

Let's take a look at Cutie Honey episode 15: “Looking Back with Tears of Rage.”

Screenwriter: Susumu Takaku

Art Director: Eiji Ito

Animation Director: Joji Kikuchi

Director: Osamu Kasai

There is a fair amount of political satire in this episode, specifically when Miharu makes a speech to the masses regarding inflation and when Danbei and the others come to help Honey. The latter of which appears to make light of the Anpo Protests, which were against the renewal of the revised U.S.- Japan Security Treaty.

Thanks to Skaro Hunting Society for this tidbit!

Despite being a relatively important episode, there are a few mistakes present in the script.

Alphonne is shown to have PTSD over the burning of St. Chapel Academy. This doesn’t make sense because she wasn’t present for the school's fall. At the end of the previous episode we see Alphonne returning to the school grounds, completely oblivious to the destruction that occurred the night before. 

Miharu also has a traumatic flashback over the school’s burning and starts yelling “the students are in danger!” However, the only students at the school during the fire were Honey and Natsuko. Miharu of all people should know this, considering she was the reason they were the only two students on campus at the time. 

While not as glaring as the aforementioned mistakes, Honey somehow knows Snake Panther’s name. Jill also refers to Zora as "Sister Zora" in this episode only.

The poor newspaper employee who falls victim to Snake Panther is named Kawamura, a reference to one of the animators who worked on this episode: Nobumichi Kawamura.

While Toshio Katsuta agreed to Go Nagai’s idea of featuring Honey nude during her transformation, he did urge the staff not to draw her with nipples and to avoid showing her “important parts” or any excessive up skirt shots. While the staff usually compiled, there are a few instances of rebellion. This episode is the first of three to depict Honey with nipples.

Despite his real name appearing in the credits for key animation, Joji Kikuchi (菊池城二) is given the alias Jonichi Kikui (菊井城一) for his role as animation director.

Tune in next week for "From the Casino with Love."

#cutie honey #cutey honey #go nagai #trivia

[kiljoius]

Tag - Chapter Five

Ao3 | FFN

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First Chapter

Chapter Five

Babysitting

Hanabi – 13 Konohamaru – 14

~~~

It had been nearly a year since that day in the Hokage’s office, where 12 genin stood, ready to be given their results on whether they’d become chuunin or not. Hanabi remembered how deafening the silence was, despite all of the bodies in the room, even Eiji was able to keep quiet. She also remembered keeping her head down and feeling those doughy, blue eyes boring a hole into her. Since her match with Konohamaru, she had been avoiding him, the weight of her guilt too heavy to face him. When she caught a glimpse of his bandaged body, limbs in casts and slings, it only pushed her further away.

She had one reprieve from guilt: when Konohamaru was told he had passed. And so did Jun. Despite their losses, Kakashi explained that they more than demonstrated their ability to hold their own in battle.  

A few months went by, and Hanabi had been diligently avoiding Konohamaru. Missions with her team and missions as a Hyūga representative occupied her time. Now that they were all chuunin, they were, naturally, taking on longer and harder missions. Her father had resisted some of the longer missions, but Hanabi was becoming more defiant as she grew older, and finding that with the tiniest push back, she was able to wiggle out a win more often.

While out on their training grounds one day, Hanabi and Eiji sparring, Konohamaru and Udon approached from a distance. Eiji had paused their sparring to point them out, and Hanabi couldn’t help but observe. She really hadn’t seen him much since their match, much less spoken to him. She had gasped in surprise when a cloud of smoke surrounded Konohamaru and suddenly…a tall, slender…naked?! A naked lady was next to Udon! The only sense of decency was a cluster of fog around the intimate areas.

“What the hell?” Eiji had said what was on Hanabi’s mind as Udon turned his back to the nude woman, shielding his eyes. Then, just as suddenly, another cloud of smoke appeared and Konohamaru reappeared, seemingly collapsing to the ground with laughter. Hanabi’s stomach dropped when she saw Eiji begin stomping towards the pair, shouting obscenities at Konohamaru. Weakly, Konohamaru began defending himself, waving his hands frantically back and forth, and Hanabi saw Eiji point right in her direction, and suddenly she wanted to disappear.

She could have sworn she had heard something to the effect of ‘that’s not something I wanted Hanabi to see’ but she couldn’t make it quite out and didn’t have the wits about her to read his lips. All she could think about was the fact she didn’t want to be here, she didn’t want Konohamaru to see her, and she certainly didn’t want to see whatever that was, ever again. With that, she had leapt away, choosing to cut her training session with Eiji short to avoid the embarrassment.

A few more months went by much the same. Missions with teams, missions with Hyūga, avoiding Konohamaru. She supposed perhaps she was thankful she had seen that weird transformation jutsu, it gave her another excuse to avoid him. Her sister later explained it was the ‘Sexy Transformation Jutsu.’ The words felt wrong from her sister’s lips, it had made her burst into laughter. But she wasn’t surprised to learn it was a jutsu he had learned from none other than Naruto Uzumaki himself and could briefly recall her cousin complaining about it a time in the past.

Her birthday came and went quietly. For the first time in her life, she was allowed to invite exactly two people (and a pup) outside of the clan for dinner at the compound, which was the first time Eiji and Jun met her father. Surprisingly, it went far better than she had expected. Eiji busied herself with conversation with Hinata, reveling in the stories (both good and bad) about her older cousin. Jun was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a good conversationalist that was able to hold his own with her father.

Afterwards, her father blew her away with a few simple words.

“I enjoy your team. Perhaps they should visit more often.”

Finally, she felt like she was getting somewhere.

Then it all came crashing down when she was kidnapped. When she thought back on it, it felt like a fever dream—not really real. She had not been taken to the moon, she had not had her eyes plucked from her sockets, she had not been in a coma, begging her sister to save her, subconciously. She had not been a part of some crazy scheme to destroy her world. The event shook her to her core and truly cemented how dangerous life could be. It only made her resolve to become stronger iron tight, so she would never suffer that sort of fate ever again.

Her father had different ideas, though; it seemed to strike a chord in him. Suddenly, she was being denied request after request to leave the compound of her own volition. For two months, she had been taken off the roster for missions, leaving Eiji and Jun having to periodically seek out a third member for their missions. Occasionally, she saw Tora come to the compound, attempting to speak with her father, but she was always denied. Twice, Eiji had managed to hop onto her balcony to check on her, giving Hanabi the opportunity to rant about the injustice of it all, but the guards caught on, and a guard was posted at her balcony from then on.

She was being punished for something she hadn’t even had a hand in. Something she couldn’t control. Hinata often tried to comfort her, assuring her that father was only doing this out of an abundance of concern. That it was his way of showing love. But Hanabi only felt lonely. The past three years, despite the hardships of the war and losing loved ones, were still her happiest. Where she actually felt like a normal person.

As Hanabi sat in one of the courtyards within the compound, she traced patterns into the dirt next to her feet. The only time she could freely move about was within the compound when they weren’t training. She spent most of her waking hour’s training because there was little else to do. Her sister, one of the few people she felt she could be herself around, had been gone more often, now that she was dating the Hero of the Leaf. So, when she spotted her walking towards the gates of the compound, Hanabi immediately shot to her feet and bolted after her.

“Hey! Elder sister!” she called, causing Hinata to turn with a head tilt. “Where are you…going?” She selfishly hoped it wasn’t to go see Naruto.

“Oh.” Hinata smiled down at her. “I’m babysitting Mirai for Kurenai today. Why do you ask?”

Hanabi bit her lips together before asking, “can I come with?”

“You want to babysit?” Hinata’s voice was light with amusement. Hanabi shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Let me go check with father.”

Hanabi clasped her hands together excitedly. She knew father had a harder time telling her older sister no on these things since she had proven herself during the war. It would be especially harder to say no if she would be with her the entire time. Did she really want to babysit? Not particularly, but it meant getting out of the compound, and that was more than enough motivation for her. She watched as her sister disappeared into the study, and after a few short moments, she reemerged with a smile on her face, giving Hanabi hope.

“Let’s go.” Hinata held out her arm for Hanabi, and she eagerly hooked her arm through, practically skipping towards the gates. Hinata giggled as she looked behind her, causing Hanabi to glance as well, and her beaming smile dropped to a frown at the sight of none other than Tadashi. Tadashi looked straight forward, expressionless and Hanabi simply sighed. It was still better than a no.

Once they arrived at Kurenai’s unit, she happily greeted Hanabi, expressing her delight to see her in high spirits, then bid them thanks before taking off. Tadashi stationed himself just outside of the front door while Hinata made herself comfortable.

“How often do you babysit?” Hanabi asked, mindlessly wandering through the living room as she took in the décor. It was so much different than what the Hyūga compound units looked like. It was warm, with shades of yellow and orange—light brown wooden furniture and a black couch adorning the middle. Decorative chimes hung from several corners of the room that made a light tinkling noise when the front door opened and closed. Tasteful dishware locked behind a glass cabinet, what looked to be a fancy sake set like what she had seen in the Hokage’s office when Tsunade still occupied it. Expensive bottles at the very top, which again, whether it was appropriate or not for her to know, Hanabi noted were some of Tsunade’s favorites as well.

“Oh, just from time to time. Shikamaru and I tend to switch off,” Hinata mused as she began prepping tea in the kitchen. Hanabi finally glanced down to find a little jet-black haired toddler giggling happily in the middle of a mat, turning pages of a thick board book. Hanabi kneeled next to the girl and gave a little wave.

“Hi Mirai.”

“Ah! Hiii~” The little girl’s voice was cuter than she could have imagined, so squeaky and innocent.

“I’m Hanabi.” Hanabi held out her hand, which Mirai looked at inquisitively. The girl grabbed at it with both of her hands and stared before shoving it into her forehead forcefully. Hanabi quickly retracted her hand with a frown, wiping it on her robe. “Uh, never mind.”

Hinata giggled from the kitchen, watching the interaction. “She’s just barely turned two, Hanabi. She doesn’t exactly have social know how.”

“I know that!” Hanabi snapped as she got back up, leaving the girl to continue her ‘reading’. She made her way near the kitchen and sat at the dining table. Soon, Hinata joined her, sliding a teacup in front of her. Hanabi eagerly eyed the canister of sugar in the middle of the table before grabbing it, immediately dumping as much as she could in the cup before Hinata could snatch it back. “Aww, come on elder sister! Let me live a little!”

Live a little.

“I think that was enough,” Hinata chided, setting the sugar canister next to her.

“Pfft.” Hanabi blew a strand of hair from her face, sinking back into her chair. She tapped her fingers on the tabletop as she sipped her tea, darting her eyes around before sitting back up. “Hey! Why don’t we take her on a walk or something? Around the village?”

“Hanabi…” Hinata sighed, looking down into her mug, and Hanabi already knew she was being denied, causing her to slump back again. “Just give it a little more time. Father won’t keep you cooped up forever. He’s just…still on edge…”

“I’m a chūnin!” Hanabi exclaimed, causing Hinata to cringe away.

“I know that.” Hinata linked her fingers together. “And that’s why I’m sure father will come around soon.” Hanabi mumbled something incoherently under her breath and Hinata shook her head. “I don’t think you understand the guilt father is carrying over the incident.” Hanabi shot her a look. “He feels like it was his fault.”

“How could it be?” Hanabi asked disbelievingly. “That psycho was coming either way. It was my fault I wasn’t prepared! I’ll never let something like that happen again, not to me, or—or to you, or anyone I care about!”

“Hmm,” Hinata hummed, tracing the rim of her cup with a finger. “Perhaps after today, father might reconsider.”

“You think so?” Hanabi asked quizzically, but hopefully.

“Maybe.” Hanabi nodded, drumming her fingers together in her lap. Hinata looked over Hanabi at Mirai with a smile. “What are you building, Mirai?”

“Hoog tor,” she said happily, as if what she had said was clear as day, continuing to stack varying sizes of blocks on top of one another.

“What?” Hanabi frowned, glancing behind her then back to Hinata.

“Hokage tower.” Hinata giggled and Hanabi nodded as if she understood, but really didn’t.

Hanabi had seen babies around the Hyūga compound of course, but rarely interacted with them. She didn’t really see the point, they couldn’t spar, they couldn’t talk, they couldn’t do anything for themselves. They were just sort of there, babbling and crying for one reason or another.

“You were a cute little baby, too.” Hinata sighed, resting her chin on her palm. She looked up as if daydreaming and Hanabi grimaced. “But you cried quite a bit. The maids could never figure out what was wrong. The only thing that could calm you sometimes was being held—you were practically attached to whoever would indulge you.” Hanabi scrunched up her nose, turning away. “If you were put down, you’d start crying right away. Natsu liked to say you were a needy little girl.”

“Okay, I get it.” Hanabi raised her hand in effort to stop her embarrassing comments. Hinata simply smiled, sipping her tea.

Hanabi nearly flew out of her seat at the sight of an animal-masked person appearing suddenly in the window behind Hinata. Hinata immediately shot to her feet, activating her byakugan. “What is it—oh.” Hinata relaxed her eyes as she faced the Anbu gesturing for her to open the window.

“Do they have to do it like that?” Hanabi grumbled with a frown, relaxing her eyes as well.

Hinata unlatched the window and raised it. The Anbu whispered something to her that Hanabi couldn’t hear and didn’t feel it appropriate to activate her byakugan to try to read their lips. After a moment, Hinata turned back towards Hanabi and she could hear her quietly say, “I’m babysitting…can it wait?”

“I can babysit!” Hanabi immediately perked up, realizing Hinata was being called off somewhere and decided this was her opportunity to prove her ability to be on her own. Hinata looked at her with weary eyes and Hanabi nodded fervently. “I can! Until you or someone else gets back! I have Tadashi outside if anything goes wrong, which it won’t! Please, elder sister?”

“Hmmm…” Hinata contemplated, bouncing her eyes from Hanabi to Mirai and back. Finally, she nodded, looking towards the Anbu operative. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Yes!!!” Hanabi jumped in the air, pumping her fists excitedly.

“Alright, well—” Hinata sighed, quickly touring Hanabi of the toddler essentials, “—this is where the diapers are, Kurenai pre-prepares her food for her in these containers, this is her favorite blanket in case she gets fussy…I suppose that’s all for now…you do know how to change a diaper, don’t you Hanabi?”

“I can figure it out!” Hanabi said, confidently, although on the inside she doubted herself just a tad.

Hinata nodded. “Don’t hesitate to ask Tadashi for help.” And with that, Hinata exited.

And hell broke loose.

As the door shut, Hanabi heard the crashing of little wooden blocks behind her. She turned to see the ‘Hokage tower’ Mirai had constructed had crumbled around her, and the little girl looked shocked. Hanabi giggled and walked up to the girl, crouching down to become eye level. “Oh no, did it fall?”

The little girl looked up at her with wide, glassy eyes and Hanabi’s stomach dropped at the big, fat tears welling up at the bottom of them. Before she could act, the girl was absolutely screaming as she cried, kicking her little legs on the floor and spitting out her pacifier. Hanabi’s mouth fell open at the blatant act of…absurdity. Quickly, she scanned her brain for possible courses of action.

Fix the problem?

She started stacking the blocks again, trying to reconstruct the girls original building. “Here, here, we can fix it!” She gasped when the little girl screamed a resounding “NO!” and smacked the blocks back down, then resumed her fit. Hanabi gave a deep frown, squinting her eyes at the girl as she felt a silly sense of animosity towards her for the action. She was just trying to help! Quickly, she reviewed more actions.

Comfort?

“Hug?” Hanabi opened her arms, scooting towards the girl. Mirai immediately began trying to scoot away, then fell backwards in the tiniest fall she had ever seen, which only fueled her tantrum. Hanabi gave a panicked glance towards the front door of the home, hoping Tadashi wouldn’t be triggered into checking in on them and trying to summon her sister back. She thought of what her sister said about being held, and quickly crawled over and whisked the girl into her arms, bouncing her. She almost felt defeated when it didn’t quell her sobs.

Food? Water? Milk? Entertainment?!

She tried several things she knew about babies and toddlers. She first tried to feed her something from the containers. When she coughed up the food and screamed louder, she tried something to drink, only to have it spit back at her, likely staining her robe. She tried turning on the television, she tried peak a boo, she tried changing her shirt, pulling her favorite blanket over her—everything she could think of until she was met with harsh reality that she may need to change her diaper. And so she embarked on what could be one of the hardest missions of her life.

But she found that the girl hadn’t soiled herself at all. She was completely dry, which brought Hanabi both relief and dread. Dread because she was still relentlessly crying. She paced back and forth around the little living room with the girl over her shoulder, bouncing, shushing, even singing for crying out loud, and nothing, nothing could seem to placate her.

Leave it to a toddler to defeat Hanabi Hyūga.

“Hanabi?”

Looking through the window next to the front door was Konohamaru, big blue eyes shining in front of the glass, hand cupping his forehead to get a better look inside. Hanabi’s nostrils flared with annoyance—this, this was not what she needed right now, to see him for the first time in—she didn’t even know how long. Now of all times?!

“What are you doing peeking, perv?!” Hanabi snapped at the window before throwing the front door open. Konohamaru looked at her with wide eyes.

Oh, right.

He didn’t know she had been calling him that in her head since she saw that stupid sexy jutsu. Shaking it off, he chuckled as he looked down at her, and she realized how high up she was having to look to see his face properly. It had been some time since she last saw him…

“I knocked like, three times.” He poked his tongue out and folded his arms before resting his gaze on the little girl in her arms. He nodded towards her. “Having a tough time?”

To this, she sighed. She had to admit she was beat. Her shoulders sagged as she nodded, too tired to tell him to leave. “Kind of. I don’t know what she wants—I’ve done everything!”

“The great Lady Hanabi defeated me in the chuunin exams, but can’t handle a baby?”

“Jerk!”

Before she knew what she was doing, Konohamaru was groaning as her palm landed against his abdomen, doubling over. “Jeeze! Is that necessary?” A pang of guilt hit her, but she pushed it down.

She rolled her eyes as she spun around on her heel from him, brought back to reality by the girl’s continuous crying, remembering she still needed to deal with this little menace.

“I was going to offer to help—” he grunted out as he straightened himself up, rubbing at the aching spot on his stomach as he turned to leave, “—but I see you got it.”

“Wait!”

He let out an amused chuckle at her beckoning. He stopped and peered over his shoulder, a playful smile on his lips.

It irritated her, but she needed that offer to stand.

“Yes?”

“Uh—you could. If you want. I don’t care.”

“If you don’t care, then why should I help?”

“Because? She’s your cousin?”

“I’m not the one watching her.”

“Damnit!” Hanabi breathed out in frustration while Konohamaru turned to face her. His amusement only grew with her exasperation. Knowing she’d never admit the need for help, he ceased his taunting to relieve her, stepping forward to hold out his arms. Hurriedly, she deposited the girl into them, and her mouth went agape when her cries immediately ceased.

“Guess she doesn’t like you,” he teased, bouncing her gently.

“That—that’s bullshit!”

“Look.” He spun around to show off Mirai over his shoulder, sound asleep, drool running down the back of his jacket. “She needed a nap.”

“A nap?” Hanabi asked, confusion on her face before realization. “Oh, right. Babies needs those.”

Konohamaru snorted, “no kidding,” before trekking off to the next room to lay the girl to sleep. Hanabi let out a deep sigh of relief as she sat down on the couch, happy for her arms to be relieved of the bundle of cries. He quietly shut the door behind him before joining next to her. “No wonder your sister asked me to check on you.” Her lips dropped into a frown.

“She did?” she asked through gritted teeth. He chuckled quietly.

“Mhm, ran into her while she was on her way to the Hokage tower.” He was clearly getting great amusement out of her realization her sister did not in fact trust her to take care of the girl alone. With a groan, she fell backwards, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

“Whatever, thank gods she’s asleep.” She sighed, dropping her hands into her lap.

“Not gonna thank me?” He smirked down at her, twisting his body so it would face her. She rolled her eyes without looking up at him. “Aww, c’mon Hanabi. A little thanks would be nice.”

Another exaggerated sigh. “Thanks, I guess.”

“Anything you wanna thank me with?”

She shot her eyes up at him as he leaned in slightly closer, that playful grin still on his face. She pressed her palm against his chest. “Back up, perv.”

“How about—” He looked up as if contemplative, sliding his hand over hers on his chest. “—I get to give you a kiss?”

“No way!” Hanabi gasped, pressing her palm further against him, though he barely budged. Her hand tingled at the way he encased it. Where was this attitude coming from?

He snickered, “on the forehead?”

“No!”

“Hmmm…the nose?”

“What? No!”

“The ear?”

“Pervert!”

“The lips?”

“Konohamaru!” She sighed with exasperation, shaking her head, but couldn’t hide the color gracing her cheeks.

“You’re blushing,” he conceitedly pointed out, grin ever present.

“’Cause you’re an idiot…” she whispered, realizing his hand was now firmly holding hers.

“You didn’t say no to the last one,” he chided, dipping his head a little closer. And then a little more. And a little more, until she was very familiar with the contours of his face. She found herself frozen momentarily as the warmth of his breath brushed against her nose.

“Konoha-mmph!”

It was quick, and fairly innocent. He pressed his lips against hers before she could finish saying his name, but it lasted for maybe a second. She hadn’t stopped him. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. When he pulled away, he had that mischievous smirk on his face. She didn’t know how she looked to him right now, but knew she must look like a stunned deer. His headband shimmered slightly as the sun began shining directly inside from a nearby window, and she couldn’t help but rest her eyes on those big, blue orbs. His lips parted into a toothy grin, and she realized he didn’t have that chip in his tooth anymore.

He leaned in slightly again before whispering, “you’re welcome.”

The trance was broken when his hand pulled from hers, and she shot to her feet.

“Where—where do you—get off!” she sputtered, jabbing a finger into his sternum. He raised his hands defensively, still smirking, still cocky. “You pervert, you jerk, you—”

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

She froze, breath catching in her throat.

“Since the chūnin exams. I’ve barely seen you, much less spoken to you.” Suddenly, his voice sounded uncertain and that mischievous look on his face had fallen into a look of melancholy. Her hand dropped. “You beat me fair and square. But you added insult to injury when you…disappeared.”

“Uh…” The grunt left Hanabi dumbly. There was no denying it. She watched as he got back to his feet as well, leering down at her.

“I…we miss you,” he said, quietly, eyes lowering as he seemed to be scanning her face. “Why have you been avoiding us?”

“I’ve been…busy…” Hanabi turned away, folding her arms. She couldn’t look him in the eye.

“Every waking hour?”

“Sure.”

“Huh.” She could hear the hurt in his voice, and it made something inside of her rip, the need to ease the tension creeping up on her.

“Well…I’ve also kind of been on lock down…since…”

“Right.” He sighed. “I heard...I wish…I wish I could have been there. To help you. It was difficult, I couldn’t believe I had to sit back and twiddle my thumbs, knowing you were in danger.” Suddenly, his voice sounded rushed, as if he was trying to get all his thoughts out at once. “When I found out, I tried to force my way onto that mission. But they wouldn’t let me…’cause I’m just some dumb kid, third Hokage’s grandson or not…”

“Konohamaru…” she whispered, dipping her eyes to the ground. “You couldn’t have done anything…besides, I’m fine now.”

“I can see that.” His voice lifted. “And you’ve got kind of an attitude.”

“What?!” She turned again to look at him with anger laden eyes, only to find him giving her a gloomy smile, and it gave her pause. “Well, so have you.  What’s that about wanting thanks or whatever?”

“Heh, I guess I was out of line.” He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry. You just look so cute when you’re embarrassed.”

“A-ah—” She took a step backward, feeling that burning sensation in her cheeks once again. Damn him! “How—how did you even get passed Tadashi, anyway?”

To this, Konohamaru laughed, glancing towards the doorway before turning back to wink at her and she couldn’t miss it. “I think he likes me, honestly.”

“Tadashi? Likes you? Fat chance,” Hanabi huffed, folding her arms disapprovingly. He gave her a simple shrug, turning away from her as he rubbed his palms together.

“Well, I guess my work here is done.”

Wait—no.

“By the way, are you gonna keep calling me a pervert?” he asked over his shoulder, a small grimace on his face, "because you saw me do that jutsu?”

“Hmm," she buzzed, tapping her foot, “I dunno. Depends.”

“Hanabi?” He was at the door now, hand on the knob. She hummed at him to continue. “Do you still have it?”

Instinctively, she reached for the kunai attached to her left hip, trailing her fingers over the handle. After a pause, she nodded. “Yeah.”

Clearing his throat, he nodded quickly. “Good.”

Hanabi frowned at the door as he slipped through it and pulled it closed behind him. With a frustrated groan, she fell backwards onto the couch and dragged her hands over her face.

A year of successfully avoiding him, and this is how they reconnect? Over a crying baby, and her trapped, unable to escape his questioning? What horrid luck.

Her eyes shot back up at the front door as it quietly opened, revealing Tadashi entering.

“What?!” she asked a little more sharply than she intended. In a rare act, he gave her a little smile as he walked over to the kitchen and began preparing himself a tea.

“Seemed like you could use company," he said, plainly.

Scrunching her eyebrows together, she turned on the sofa to get on her knees, eyeing him suspiciously. “From you? Why?”

“Keep you from your thoughts.”

She scowled at this. “Stop trying to act like you know me, or what I’m thinking about, Tadashi.” The words sounded brattier than she realized as they left her lips.

“Alright.” He shrugged, bringing his cup over to the dining table to sit. “It’s quite warm out there. Thought it would be good to cool down in here.”

“Fine," she grumbled, falling back on her behind and crossing her arms aggressively. As silence filled the room, she fidgeted uncomfortably. Finally, she slammed her hands on either side of her and got up, circling the sofa to sit where her tea was at the table, angrily taking a sip of the now tepid beverage. “Why did you let him in?”

“I thought you might like to see him,” Tadashi answered innocently. She eyed him.

“Since when do you care about that?”

“I care about you, Lady Hanabi.”

She stopped at this, holding the cup to her lips. “What do you mean?”

Tadashi sighed, pushing away his cup. “You might think I’m only here to protect your physical wellbeing, and that may be true. But I care about your emotional wellbeing, too. That boy…is rough around the edges, but he is a good kid.” She listened intently as he spoke. “Perhaps it is time your father allows you outside of the compound once more.”

“What happened wasn’t my fault, Tadashi…” Hanabi whispered, suddenly feeling vulnerable as her eyes dropped.

“I know that. We all do," He replied earnestly. “You’re precious to us, Hanabi.” She raised her eyebrows at the lack of title. “But I know you’re strong. I’ve seen it. I’m not worried about you.”

“Oh.” She felt at a loss for words as he spoke the most candidly with her, he ever had before. She had always looked at him as someone like her father: cold, emotionless, unable to understand. But for whatever reason, he was bearing a side of himself she had never seen before. All she could think to say was “thank you.”

-

After some odd hours, Kurenai returned, happy to find Mirai down for a nap, though confused as to where Hinata had gone. Upon explanation, she had apologized to Hanabi for the trouble, but she was adamant that it was no trouble at all (after Konohamaru came to help, of course.) Then Hanabi was escorted back to the compound by Tadashi, who had been fairly quiet for the rest of their time together while Hanabi busied herself cleaning around Kurenai’s home. And her day proceeded as normal: spar for a while, dinner, wash up, bed.

While she laid to rest, she couldn’t help but consider her sister and Tadashi’s words. Would this ridiculous lockdown come to an end at any time soon? She felt like she was losing her mind. She wondered if her father regretted letting her attend the academy, because now that she had a taste of freedom, it was so much more difficult to let it go. When she awoke that morning, after dreaming of her teammates and going to get dango or ramen with them, going on missions, being free, she was adamant.

Immediately, she tore the blankets off of herself and quickly changed into her robes for the day, then marched with intent to her father’s study. The guards in front greeted her, but she went right past them and tore the door open to their surprised gasps.

“Father, I demand to—wha-“ Hanabi stopped dead in her tracks when the two familiar faces of her teammates turned around to greet her. Eiji stood with her hands in her jacket pockets, toothy grin and all and Yorimaru sitting dutifully next to her, looking quite a bit bigger than when she last saw him. Jun stood to the other side, hands clasped behind his back, flashing yellow eyes behind him at her with a little smile, donning the chuunin flak jacket. And her heart lifted. “What—what are—” Before she finished her sentence, she had already leapt towards them, bringing both arms around their necks to force them into a neck crushing hug.

“Hey!” Eiji yelped, although with playfulness behind her voice as the two wrapped their arms around her.

Hanabi chose to keep the moment going a little longer in case she was still dreaming, until Jun cleared his throat, “uhm, Hanabi…?”

“Oh—yeah!” She finally released them, stepping back to observe them. She nearly frowned when she realized both had shot up a good few centimeters in the two months since she had properly seen them, reminding her she had always been the runt. Shaking her head at the thought, she straightened out. “What’s going on?”

“Hanabi.” Hiashi’s voice commanded their attention, and all three, as well as Yorimaru, stiffened as they turned to face him. “I’ve decided to allow you to resume training with your team. But I feel I may need to reconsider based on this outburst…”

“No!” Hanabi yelped.

Yelling more won’t get you anywhere! Act like a Hyūga!

Hanabi cleared her throat and pulled back her shoulders, willing herself to control her breathing. “I mean—I apologize for…my error. I think resuming my training with my team is a very, very good idea.”

“Hmm,” Hiashi hummed, eyeing the three. Eiji gave the tiniest snicker at Hanabi’s attitude change as she looked at the girl from the corner of her eyes. Hiashi sighed, bringing his thumb and index finger to the bridge of his nose to rub before nodding. “Very well. We’ll see how that goes for a few weeks, then I will meet with your sensei.”

“Thank you, father.” It was almost embarrassing how deep she was bowing.

“Go now.” Her father waved them away.

“I…I can leave the compound?” she asked, hesitantly as she straightened back up. As soon as her father nodded his head, Hanabi was out the door with her teammates on her heels, both bidding thanks as they did. Moving in a power-walk, Hanabi rushed to the front gates before staring up at them, feeling tears start to emerge in the corners of her eyes. She flexed her fingers before placing her palms on them, shoving both open at the same time. It took everything she had not to rush out and scream something about freedom in the corniest fashion imaginable.

Instead, she simply stood and took the village in. Yes, she had just been here yesterday, but today was different. Today, she didn’t have her sister, she didn’t have Tadashi. Today, she was with her teammates, and had no Hyūga supervision. Today, she got to be on her own.

“Hey, don’t cry.” Jun gentle voice came up from her left. She shook her head, giving him a beaming smile.

“I’m just happy,” she said as Eiji looped her arm around her neck.

“We missed you!” Eiji tugged her along. “Let’s go!”

“Tora-sensei is waiting for us.” Jun joined on her other side, arm wrapping around Hanabi’s back and Eiji’s neck. Hanabi looked up with happy surprise.

“Yeah, we’re going to the little breakfast place near the Nara estates.” Eiji pointed ahead.

“But—aren’t we supposed to go train?” Hanabi’s voice sounded strained, because she desperately wanted to go to breakfast with her team, but also knew she needed to take her father’s words seriously or risk losing this little bit of freedom.

Eiji chuckled, shaking her head. “How are we supposed to train on empty stomachs, huh?”

“I…suppose.” Hanabi sighed.

“It’ll be alright, Tora-sensei knows what she’s doing," Jun offered with a smile and Yorimaru, leading them in front, barked in approval.

As they entered the small kissaten, Tora was in the corner with three empty seats around her, flipping through a little book that she promptly set down upon hearing Eiji’s voice. Hanabi bit her lips together as she looked at her sensei with joy bubbling up inside of her, pushing back the urge to tackle her in a similar fashion that Eiji might. When Tora did get to her feet and opened her arms with a lazy smile on her face, Hanabi let her instinct take over, bolting forward and launching herself into the older Nara, squeezing tightly.

She chuckled, rubbing between her shoulder blades. “Missed ya, little lamb.”

“I missed you, too, sensei,” Hanabi whispered against the rough material of her flak jacket.

“You must’ve to admit it so readily,” she teased as they parted, Hanabi excitedly taking the seat in front of her, Eiji and Jun taking opposing seats.

“So the moon?” Eiji leaned in, earning urgent ‘shushes’ from the other three.

“I must admit, I am curious as well,” Jun whispered, causing Hanabi to look up thoughtfully.

Tora sighed. “You two really aren’t supposed to know about that…” she muttered, pulling her book back up in front of her face as she fiddled with her ear, “but I woke up feeling like my ears are a little full of wax today, so I’m having a hard time hearing.” The three chūnin looked up, catching her wink before looking back in her book.

Hanabi grinned mischievously as the other two leaned in with interest, and she began her tale.

-

Stepping foot on the training ground felt so much different than it had before. She almost wanted to kick off her sandals and feel the grass beneath her feet, lay down in it and soak up the sun, because the sun felt different outside of the compound.

“Let’s see if you’re rusty,” Eiji teased, skipping towards the center as the other two passed her.

“Nope!” Hanabi said, confidently, chasing after her.

It felt so good to spar with her teammates, she had missed it so much more than she realized. And while she had continued to train with the Hyūga, they continued to train together, and it showed. Eiji had begun incorporating her fire style into some of her joint attacks with Yorimaru, surprising Hanabi when she saw what appeared to be a giant, flaming drill come crashing towards her and Jun. Jun had discovered his secondary release, which ended up being fire. Another surprise when she charged towards him to attempt to land a blow and a mote of lava appeared around him, causing her to skid to a halt.

After a few decent hours of training, they broke for lunch, and Hanabi realized in her haste, she hadn’t packed herself anything. Always generous, Jun offered to share his with her, and they sat in a circle as they ate, chatting happily.

“Huh," Jun randomly blurted out, looking behind him. The others looked at him curiously. “I sense Konohamaru and his team coming.”

“Oh?” Hanabi asked, innocently, feeling dread creep over her. Damnit, she wasn’t ready to face them yet! Yes, she had just seen Konohamaru yesterday, but they hadn’t left on the…happiest of terms. She hadn’t seen Moegi and Udon in even longer.

“Probably to train.” Eiji shrugged, picking at her bento.

“Should I…” Hanabi started, staring down at the ground as she contemplated, “go see them?”

The two were silent at her questioning, which filled her with worry. Why were they being quiet? What was wrong?

Finally, Jun started, “I’m not sure that’s a great idea. With Moegi there.” Eiji grumbled something irritably, and Hanabi’s eyes widened. Why would Moegi be the problem? Jun sighed as he shook his head, setting the rest of his bento in her lap. “She’s been kind of resentful…of you.”

“Me?” Hanabi asked, frowning. “Because I’ve been gone?”

“Because of the match,” Eiji interjected abruptly. “I think it’s bullshit, but that’s why.”

“Wha—” Hanabi started, but quickly shut her mouth.

So that’s why she hadn’t seen Moegi since the exams. Before her lockdown, she had seen Konohamaru and Udon a fair few times, even though she was avoiding Konohamaru, but never Moegi. She hadn’t really seen her since that day in the Hokage’s office, where she had already been avoiding them anyway. She must not have noticed Moegi doing the same to her. In fact, she could count the number of times she had seen her in passing on one hand.

Moegi was mad at her for nearly killing Konohamaru.

And how could she blame her? Hanabi would probably feel the same way if someone had nearly killed Jun or Eiji, chūnin exams or not.

She knew it was foolish to hope this would pass, like everyone told her it would. Tora tried to comfort her, letting her know everyone knows what they’re getting into when they go into the match. Her sister tried to tell her ‘at least you didn’t close all of his chakra points.’ Great bit of comfort that was. His broken body flashed in her mind from time to time, and it was always enough to make her feel like she was going to lose her breakfast.

“Maybe I should leave…” Hanabi whispered, hanging her head.

Eiji groaned, “noooo! We just got you back, don’t let them scare you off!”

“You have just as much right to be here as they do, Hanabi,” Jun added, offering a smile.

Hanabi gritted her teeth as she heard Konohamaru’s loud voice approach his team’s training ground, then suddenly stop. Slowly, she lifted her eyes just a bit to get a glimpse of them, finding all three standing still at the entrance of their training ground, looking directly at her. She winced when Moegi quickly turned her back to her, unable to hear what she had muttered under her breath.

“I deserve to be hated,” she blurted out, turning her head from the trio.

“Oh gods!” Eiji grunted, falling to her back in a dramatic fashion. “Ignore them! Who cares!”

“They’re my friends!” Hanabi snapped angrily. Friends. She softened. “Were my friends…I guess…”

“Oh Hanabi…” Jun sighed, placing a hand over hers. “It’ll pass. Everything comes to pass, sometime.”

Hanabi rolled those words around in her head. Could almost killing her friend, Moegi’s friend, really come to pass? She shot her eyes up when she caught a glance at Moegi walking away from the two boys, both seemingly pleading her to come back. When she disappeared, the two looked deflated, and Konohamaru turned back towards them. Before she could look away, he offered her a weak wave, but she didn’t return it.

“I really just…want to go now,” Hanabi said softly as she got to her feet, “I’m tired anyway, it’s been a while…we can train again sometime this week, right?”

“Uh, right.” Jun stood as well while Eiji threw her forearm over her eyes, muttering incoherently under her breath. “You want us to walk you home?”

Hanabi shook her head, tightening her obi around her waist. “I kinda just want to be alone right now.”

“I understand.” Jun nodded before quickly gathering his arms around her. He whispered gently against the top of her head, “don’t beat yourself up too much, okay? It will come to pass.”

-

Since that day, Hanabi hadn’t seen Moegi. It hurt, but she tried to move passed it. She was slowly regaining her freedom and she was determined to enjoy it as best as she could, and prove to her father she was ready to get back out there. Three or four times a week, she was allowed to leave to train with her team, and she was finally feeling close to normal. No missions, but she figured her father requested they not be assigned any until he deemed it appropriate. Whenever that would be.

Hanabi trailed behind Jun, Eiji and Yorimaru as she practiced weaving a few water signs, letting gentle streams of water pour from her hands. She was trying to turn the stream into something like a whip or a lasso but was struggling with it. Tora promised she would work on it with her soon, but she was trying to master it herself, so she’d have something to show off. As they got closer to the training grounds, she froze at the sound of Konohamaru’s voice once more.

“Uhm—” Hanabi strangled voice was ignored by the other two, who simply grabbed her by either arm and forced her forward. What the hell? Her eyes blew wide when she saw Konohamaru and Udon mimicking the action with Moegi. She struggled against their grips as they became closer, and closer, until they were right in front of each other.

“Talk,” Eiji demanded, pushing Hanabi towards Moegi.

“No!” Moegi shoved Konohamaru and Udon away, attempting to turn away. Hanabi watched her, feet planted to the ground and unable to move.

“Yes!” Konohamaru steered her back, to which Moegi folded her arms and looked up and away.

“Moegi, you’re mad at Hanabi,” Jun started as the four plus Yorimaru moved to cage the two girls in.

“Hanabi, you’re ashamed,” Udon continued.

“Just kiss and make up!” Eiji demanded, eliciting a nervous chuckle from Konohamaru.

“I—I’m sorry, Moegi,” Hanabi finally managed to whisper, head now hanging.

“You’re apologizing?” Moegi spat, turning her head to face her. “To me?!”

“Well—uh—” Hanabi glanced around in a panic, wondering why an apology would anger her.

“You haven’t even apologized to Konohamaru!” Moegi snapped, and Hanabi could see the fire behind her eyes.

Hanabi swallowed thickly. She hadn’t apologized to Konohamaru. Why hadn’t she apologized?

It would make it too real.

“Moegi, come on…” Udon mumbled behind her, causing her to snap her head towards him.

“You didn’t see it, Udon.” She turned to Hanabi’s teammates. “None of you did! It’s like she didn’t care that he was basically dead after the first one hundred hits! She hit him a hundred more times, until he was dust!”

Hanabi’s eyes widened at the accusation. Admittedly, because she had the byakugan activated, she really couldn’t see the physical damage she was doing to his body…but she knew she had done it.

“I…” Hanabi breathing was shuddered as she tried to take a step back, stopped by Jun and Eiji’s bodies.

“Moegi, I’m fine now!” Konohamaru interjected, tilting his head down to look at her with a pleading eye.

“Now,” Moegi mumbled, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Just stop this, is it really worth it?” Konohamaru begged, grabbing her elbow to turn her to him. “She’s apologized, she clearly feels bad!”

“Does she?” Moegi asked, eyebrows cinching together as she looked up at him.

It hurt to watch them argue over her. She didn’t deserve their friendship. She cursed the tears that started burning her eyes, threatening to fall. “I—I’m sorry, Konohamaru—”

“Now she apologizes,” Moegi said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“I am!” Hanabi snapped unintentionally, sucking in a deep breath. “I’ve been sorry since it happened! I can’t make excuses…” Her voice threatened to break with a sob. “I didn’t mean to, but I did it, and I feel like the worst person on earth.” She sighed, turning her head away from Konohamaru’s concerned reflection. “And I understand if none of you want to see me again. I wouldn’t want to see me, either.”

“That’s not—” Konohamaru tried to reach out, but Hanabi was already pushing passed Eiji and Jun. “Wait, Hanabi! Damnit!”

Hanabi folded her arms, starting to walk away before she heard Eiji begin yelling. “It’s been months, Moegi! Isn’t that enough time to get over this?”

“Stay out of it, Eiji! It wasn’t your teammate!”

“Hanabi’s my teammate!”

Hanabi took a deep breath, stopping to turn back around. “Please, Eiji…”

“No!” Eiji snapped, “this has been eating you alive for a nearly a goddamn year, and it didn’t even happen to her!” She turned back to Moegi. “Did you know that? Do you even care? Hanabi’s been beating herself up this entire time. You don’t know what she’s been through!”

Hanabi reached for Eiji’s elbow, pleading, “please, Eiji! Can we go, please?”

“Fine,” Eiji huffed, glaring at Moegi’s back before turning around.

Jun looked at his teammates, then back towards the other three. “Just…consider forgiveness, Moegi. It hurts to hold grudges.” With a frustrated sigh, Moegi was walking away now, too. Jun hummed in discontent as he joined Hanabi, Eiji and Yorimaru.

“Screw her!” Eiji huffed once they were out of earshot back at their training ground, Yorimaru snarling next to her. “You don’t deserve that crap.”

“Eiji,” Hanabi said as she pinched the bridge of her nose, “if you saw Konohamaru about to kill me in the arena, how would you feel?”

“Well—” Eiji paused, gritting her teeth as she shifted her eyes unsurely. “I guess I’d be pretty pissed. But if Konohamaru apologized—”

“But I didn’t.” Hanabi slumped her arms down and hung her head. “I’ve been avoiding him…because of the shame.”

“Maybe you need to speak with Konohamaru one on one,” Jun offered sincerely. “Get it all out.”

“I know,” Hanabi sighed, looking to the side. “You’re probably right.”

“He usually is,” Eiji added, patting Hanabi on the back before the four began stepping away from each other to ready themselves to spar. “Now let’s get some of that pent up aggression out!”

-

She knew she needed to talk to Konohamaru, but how?

His day-to-day activities were a mystery to her. If he wasn’t at the training grounds, she really wasn’t sure where he was at all. But Jun did know where he lived in the Sarutobi neighborhood, so she supposed she should start there.

When Eiji and Jun picked her up for training, they agreed to take her to his home as a detour beforehand. She shouldn’t have been surprised that his home was only a block away from Kurenai’s.

But when she stood in front of that large front door ornamenting the Sarutobi clan symbol, having been pushed up the steps of the porch by Eiji, she felt locked into place. Was she really about to knock on Konohamaru’s door like a creep? He would probably wonder how she knew where he lived and whether she was being a creepy stalker. Probably shut the door in her face. Probably…

Hanabi gasped when Eiji stabbed the doorbell next to her before she had a chance to go over all the possibilities in her head. She snapped her head around to glare at her teammate, but the chastising was short lived when the door pulled open to reveal a shorter statured woman with long, cascading brown hair and sharp, deep brown eyes that exuded warmth the moment Hanabi’s fell on them. And Hanabi froze. Was this…?

“Oh—Hanabi?” She was surprised to find the woman call her name. How did she…?

“Yes?” Hanabi questioned before being gathered into a crushing hug.

“Oh, how nice it is to see you, dear!” The woman’s voice was soft and kind, it washed over Hanabi, relaxing her into the hug of this stranger. “I was wondering when Konohamaru would finally bring you by,” she said as she released her, grabbing her cheeks to get a better look at her, “you look so much like Hiashi—but with a much kinder face.”

“You—you know my father?” she asked, audibly gulping because she was at a loss of how to proceed, this woman’s long nails digging slightly into her puffy cheeks.

“Well who doesn’t?” the woman teased before releasing her. She quickly pushed her own hair back before gasping. “Where are my manners? You must be so confused.” Suddenly, a cheerful laugh left her, and it reminded her of Konohamaru’s laugh. “I’m Moriko, Konohamaru’s mother.”

“Oh.” Hanabi had figured this out by now, noting the similarity of their features: the hair color and texture, shape of the eyes, nose and cheekbones, the playful and extroverted nature that sought to put others as ease. Come to think of it, it reminded her of what she remembered of Lord Third… Shaking her head to force her thought process back on track, she bowed deeply to the older woman named Moriko. “Ms. Sarutobi, it’s an honor to meet you.”

“Oh quit that.” The woman pulled Hanabi by the shoulders upright, essentially yanking her into the home. Hanabi had to admit her actions threw her. “I assume you’re here to see Konohamaru, then? Let me take you to him.”

Everything was happening so fast, Hanabi barely had time to collect her thoughts as the woman’s persistent nature pushed her around. Soon, she was being led out to the backyard, finding a clothesline with large sheets hung on it, and a shadowy figure behind one of the sheets. Still with her fingers laced around Hanabi’s elbow, Moriko called in a sing-song type of voice, “oh Kono~!”

“Ma, I can’t find my scarf…” She heard his voice sounding a little worried from behind that sheet.

“Oh, I washed and dried it yesterday.” She giggled, glancing up at Hanabi. “It’s in your top drawer already.”

“Oh, sweet.” His voice picked up as she watched the figure bend over and seemingly pull a damp sheet from a basket. “Thanks mama.”

Mama? Oh my…

His figure made way to the open space next to the sheet that had been shielding him, and she watched as he reached up to clip one corner, dressed in a simple white t-shirt and sweatpants. She had never seen him dressed so casually. Why would she, she supposed. Suddenly, she felt like an intrusion. His eyes casted downwards towards his mother, then froze when they spotted Hanabi. With a weak smile, Hanabi tried to wave, but it looked more like she just flopped her hand up and down for a moment.

“You have a visitor.” Moriko looked smug as she gestured towards Hanabi.

“I can see that,” Konohamaru muttered, staring at Hanabi. “Hey, Hanabi.”

“Hi.” Was that lame? Hi? Just hi?

“I’ll leave you two alone.” Moriko patted Hanabi on the shoulder and turned, but added before leaving, “come inside in a bit for tea and cookies.”

“Thanks, ma,” he called after her before resting his eyes back on Hanabi. He shifted on his feet slightly before realizing he had left a corner of the sheet dangling in his surprise of seeing her. “Oh, hold on.” He gathered the sheet and quickly pulled the other corner up, clipping it to the line.

Unsure of what to do, Hanabi said the only thing that came to mind. “Need any help?” At this, he looked up with a little smirk.

“Sure, why not.” He shrugged, and she let out a little breath she had been holding in as she stepped forward. Carefully, she began pulling sheets from the basket and hanging them up on the other side. How foreign it was to her. While her sister was always one to help the maids in the compound with daily tasks because she genuinely enjoyed helping, Hanabi wasn’t really allowed the same luxury. Perhaps luxury wasn’t quite the right word. Wasn’t allowed the same freedoms, she supposed.

They were quiet as they hung up sheets, and she didn’t really know what to feel. Awkward? Calm? Contemplative? She was in Konohamaru’s home, unexpectedly, helping him with chores. How much stranger could this get? It was her fault, she wasn’t even sure how to begin.

Once the last sheet was hung up, Konohamaru clapped his hands together and grabbed the basket, jogging to set it down inside before rejoining her. She pretended to be very interested in the patterns on one of the sheets, staring intently at it. His clearing his throat brought her attention back to him, though reluctantly. “Not that I don’t appreciate the help with my chores and all, but is there any other reason you stopped by?”

To talk.

To talk.

To talk.

“No.” Hanabi shook her head.

Stupid.

“Really?” ge pressed, taking a step closer to her. “Kinda hard to believe.”

“I mean…” A sigh left her as she wrung her hands. She looked up at the sign of his hand waving her to him, watching curiously as he led her towards a small brick wall. He took a seat, and she had no choice but to follow suit.

With a little cough into his fist, he started, “I’m—uh—sorry about Moegi.”

“Don’t.” She immediately shook her head. “She has every right. It’s me who should be sorry.”

“I disagree,” he interjected before she could start rambling. She lifted her eyes to meet his, finding them a bit darker today. “You didn’t hold back, and neither did I. Like we’re supposed to.” The corners of her lips downturned, reminding her of Tora’s attempt at comforting her. “If I was going to lose, I’m glad it was to you.”

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“How did…she know I hadn’t apologized?” She cringed at the way she was so unsure of her words.

He shrugged. “She asked, and I answered honestly. But I never expected an apology.” When she turned away, he leaned to the side to keep her gaze. “Really. I don’t need or want one.”

“But I am sorry," she whispered, clenching her fists. “I was reckless.”

“You sound like me.” The tease was unexpected, causing her to shift her eyes back to his. He had a sad little smile on his features. “During that c-rank.” Memories of his self-pitying flashed through her mind from that day. Her hand instinctively reached for her hip. “What did you tell me again?” He looked up as if contemplative, and she cringed because she already knew the phrase that was going to leave his lips. He pointed a finger upwards as if having a light-bulb moment, looking back down at her with a wide grin. “Quit feeling sorry for yourself.”

“Hmm.” The hum came out poutier than she intended as she turned her head from him, folding her arms. His chuckle tickled her ears.

“Moegi will get over it," he assured, leaning a little closer to her. “I’ll make sure she does.”

“Me disappearing probably didn’t help…” she whispered, chewing her bottom lip now.

“Probably not.” She couldn’t tell if his blunt honesty was refreshing or irritating. “But we’re good now, right?”

“We are?” The weakness in her voice was unwelcome. “I mean…well, are we?”

“In my book, yeah.” He nodded, dropping his head a bit more to force her to look at him. “As long as I get a rematch someday.”

Slowly, she nodded back. “Okay then.”

“Awesome.” He grinned at her as she raised her head, squaring her shoulders. That twinkle in his eye seemed to return. “C’mon. I know my mom’s itching to talk to you. She doesn’t normally just have cookies laying around.” That’s when she realized the sweet smell of baked goods was wafting from the inside of his home.

-

To say he was caught off guard by her appearance was a bit of an understatement. If not for his mother introducing their guest, he probably would have been dumbfounded into silence. But he managed to recompose himself, that confidence he had spent so many years cultivating coming in handy as he greeted her as if it was the most normal thing in the world. But it wasn’t, and his stomach felt full of butterflies seeing her there, next to his mother, in his backyard, suddenly painfully aware of his attire.

To think she was the one who came to made amends. It didn’t seem in character for her, but he couldn’t complain. He had missed her.

It hurt when he stopped seeing her around. It hurt worse when he caught her eyes in passing and saw her immediately turn tail. It really hurt when Moegi spat those spiteful words at her and that look of ‘on the verge of tears’ was painfully evident on her face.

Sure, recovery hurt. The raw power of a Hyūga was no joke, and he knew better than to underestimate her ever again. To reduce him to a crumbling mess in the span of one minute, it was pretty scary. But strangely, it made him admire her all the more. Once he regained consciousness, of course. It struck something in him. And it made him work harder, more determined than ever to prove himself. To whom? Maybe her.

But he went over half a year without really seeing her or interacting with her. Then, by chance, he had stumbled on Ebisu and Tora quietly talking outside of the Hokage’s office. He had come to demand a b-rank mission but was stopped short when he heard them. He had hidden behind one of the statues in the hallway and listened.

“Why would they take her?”

“She is a Hyūga…the heiress, could be any of a million reasons, I would think.”

“Have they sent a team yet?”

“Her sister and a few others.”

His heart had sunk at the words. A Hyūga. The heiress. He couldn’t contain himself as he stepped aside from the statue and assaulted them with questions. In vain, they tried to placate him, claiming he misheard, but he wouldn’t have it. He shoved the doors of the Hokage’s office open and stomped up to Kakashi’s desk, demanding to know more. He was swiftly plucked by either arm by Ebisu and Tora and carried away.

“Where is Hanabi?! I can help!”

He was deposited on the ground in front of the tower.

“Let me help, please!” He had pleaded, only to have them shake their heads at him, expressing the importance of being quiet about the situation, despite his lack of knowledge. Tora had looked at him with sympathetic eyes, urging him to go home.

The days following were agonizing. Every day, he checked with Ebisu to find out if anything had changed, until one day he was given the good news that she was safe and sound in the compound, recovering.

If he hadn’t seen much of her before, the months following paled in comparison. He saw her exactly zero times.

So when her sister flagged him down to ask him to check in on her at Kurenai’s, the excitement that bubbled in him was almost too much. He raced to his aunt’s home, finding the good old face of Tadashi dutifully guarding the front door. He offered a grin and a wave, explaining that Hinata had asked him to check on her, to which the older man simply offered a nod. Peeking in to see her desperately bouncing Mirai on her hip was somewhat amusing, but just seeing her, safe and healthy was something else for him.

Kissing her.

What was he thinking?

When he left her with a pacified sleeping toddler, he had a million thoughts running through his head. He justified that he was just so excited to see her, knowing she was doing well. But something in the back of his mind nagged at him.

Her lips were soft.

Now she was in his home, meeting his mom.

A lot of kids would probably find his mother embarrassing, but he didn’t. When he was younger, he admitted to wanting to distance himself from her overbearing nature. But since his dad passed so many years ago, he grew an appreciation for her affectionate personality. It’s probably where he got it from, his warm nature. Apart from his team, she was his best friend. He wasn’t ashamed to admit he confided a lot in her, so it came as no surprise that she would instantly begin gushing over Hanabi. He talked her up quite a bit.

“All done?” she asked, innocently as she pulled a tray of cookies from the oven when they entered the kitchen together.

“Fresh-baked cookies, mom?” he teased, walking over to the hot tray to attempt to procure one. She smacked his hand and he recoiled.

“They’re hot. Patience.” She winked at him, and he flashed her a grin before taking a seat next to Hanabi at the table. His mother situated herself across from the two and as if on cue, began launching into questioning. He was surprised to find that Hanabi in fact did not know that their parents knew one another. It wasn’t much of a stretch that they did, he figured. The Hokage dealt with the Hyūga often enough, it was easy to believe the families would become intermingled to some extent. The first time he brought Hanabi up over dinner, his mother instantly began diving into tales about the Hyūga , including Hiashi. It shed some light on her home life that Hanabi didn’t readily share herself.

Still, he enjoyed watching his mother and Hanabi talk. His mother always had a way of making people feel at ease, much like his grandfather. He noted Hanabi’s mannerisms slowly morph from those of the cold, polite Hyūga, to something more like the Hanabi he had grown to know. Shoulders relaxed, a smile forming as his mother indulged in stories about himself, eyes high with a genuine smile, sipping her tea periodically. His mother continued to talk as she got up to check on the cookies, poking one gingerly to test the temperature.

He watched as she plucked a few from the tray and walked back to them, her mouth moving a mile a minute. If there was anything else about his mother, it was that she could talk. Just as he opened his mouth to tell her to stop and breathe, she was shoving a cookie in his mouth. He could only chuckle as he bit down, catching the remnants with his hand. He eyed Hanabi as she looked at him and suppressed what seemed to be a little laugh with her hand over her lips.

Seeing her relaxed made him happy. He contemplated whether Hiashi would allow her to come over more often.

“Ma,” he interrupted as she tapped her fingers on the table, a rare moment of silence as she attempted to recall a memory she wanted to tell Hanabi. She looked at him with raised eyebrows. “You’ve been talking nonstop for ten minutes.”

“Oh hush!” She swatted at his arm, turning to look at Hanabi. “Do I talk too much, Hanabi?”

“Oh—” Hanabi stiffened, eyes darting from his mother to him. He smirked at her struggle to answer. “No, not at all.”

“See?” She grinned that grin that he knew he inherited from her. “Oh, you’re such a sweet thing. How Hiashi could produce such gentle daughters is beyond me.”

“Gentle?” Konohamaru snickered, rubbing at his abdomen instinctively. “I got a few scars that would beg to differ.”

“Gentle fist, I mean.” His mother was witty, too, and it drew a surprised laugh from Hanabi, which caused him to laugh as well.

“I—uhm, should be going, actually…” Hanabi’s voice sounded reluctant. Maybe she didn’t want to leave? “My teammates are waiting for me.”

“Of course!” his mother exclaimed, getting up from her seat, “Kono, walk her out.”

“Of course,” he repeated with a lazy smirk, pushing his tea away as he got up. He watched as his mother embraced her, whispering something in her ear before letting go. Leave it to his mom to create little secrets between herself and his friends. He rolled his eyes as if annoyed, but he didn’t really mind. When she let her go, he nodded towards the hallway.

“Good to see you, dear.” His mother waved as Hanabi bowed.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Ms. Sarutobi.” He nearly snorted, knowing what was coming next.

“Moriko, please! Let an old woman feel less ancient.” She waved her away, to which Hanabi nodded, turning towards him. A few steps later and they were at the front door, awkward silence draping over them, him wondering if she’d say anything.

“Your mom is…really nice…” She seemed unsure of her words, making him tilt his head. Then she looked up at him and had the first big, genuine smile he had seen from her in…he didn’t know how long. It made his heart flutter and breath catch. “I’ll see you later, Kono.”

She was sneaky, slipping out before she could see his reaction. If she had stayed, she would have seen not just the blush that immediately invaded his cheeks, but the goofy smile that accompanied it.

-

“Good news, kiddos. We have a mission, and Hanabi’s allowed to participate.”

“What?” Hanabi gasped, the other two looking similarly surprised.

“But it’s a d-rank.”

“What?!” Eiji asked now, incredulously.

“Weeding Ms. Ogawa’s garden.” Tara eyed the three apprehensively, already guessing Eiji’s dramatically angry reaction, but was curious to how Hanabi would react. She was pleased when a smile spread over her face.

“I don’t care. I wanna do it!” Hanabi got to her feet, clasping her hands together as she looked up at the Nara hopefully.

“This is stupid,” Eiji groaned, burying her head in her arms and knees.

“I like Ms. Ogawa,” Jun chimed in with a bright smile.

“Glad to hear most of you are happy.” Tora looked down at Yorimaru wagging his tail happily. Ms. Ogawa always had treats for the (not so) little pup in the past. “Whenever you want to get over there, you can. Just get it done before the sun goes down.”

“We should go now,” Hanabi commanded, already marching forward.

D-rank or not, she didn’t care. It was her first mission (if you could call it that) since before the incident, and she was determined to complete it. She would make that garden beautiful as if her life depended on it, because as far as she was concerned, it did depend on it. Something about being assigned such a low-ranking mission made her feel like she was being tested. Her will to keep going, no matter what. Even if it seemed like an insult, like Eiji seemed to feel it was.

Jun quickly got up after her, and Eiji begrudgingly followed shortly. Tora waved at them, calling playfully, “good luck!”

Seeing the old woman was a bit nostalgic, admittedly. It had been over a year since Hanabi had been in the garden, and she could see the genin assigned to keep it up weren’t doing a very good job, spotting little weeds growing from torn spots.

You’re supposed to dig up the weeds. Fools!

Hanabi shook her head at the shoddy work, pulling the gloves provided on and immediately getting to work, digging her fingers into the soil to get to the roots of the weeds. Funny to think her older sister had prepared her for ‘shinobi work’ when she helped her in the Hyūga gardens. Back then, she found it incredibly boring, wondering how her sister could enjoy such mundane activities. But right now, she could see the peace it offered.

As she and Jun worked while Eiji fooled around with Yorimaru, they got through about half the garden in an hour. Working with her hands was probably good for the mind, she figured, because all of her worries left her as she went back and forth, pulling weeds, dumping them, fertilizing the flowers, watering dry spots. All that mattered now were these little lifeforms, dependent on those who took care of them to flourish.

Until she felt the presence of another, and Eiji and Yorimaru were suddenly quiet. She froze as her byakugan activated, finding three familiar chakra networks behind her.

“Need help?” A soft, feminine voice asked behind her. Relaxing her eyes, she sucked in a shuddered breath as she looked to her side to find Moegi kneeling next to her.

“It’s—we’re doing…a d-rank…” Hanabi muttered, feeling flustered by her sudden presence.

“Like I said, need help?” she pressed, and Hanabi got the hint. Her eyes trailed to her ponytails to find those orange-red ribbons tied at the ends and she felt hot tears pricking the back of her eyes.

“I would like that.” Finally, she nodded, smiling up at her as she pulled on a pair of gloves as well. Moegi gave her a small smile, a genuine one, before digging into the ground next to her.

“These weeds are no match for me!” Konohamaru declared behind her as he joined Jun on the other side of the garden, bare hands pulling at the weeds.

“Ugh—Konohamaru! You have to dig in and get the root or else it’ll grow back!” Moegi groaned, as she looked behind her, rolling her eyes.

“She’s right,” Udon agreed, kneeling next to Konohamaru and Jun.

“Why do you guys always gang up on me?” Konohamaru snapped with a not entirely serious frown.

“It’s pretty easy, really,” Eiji teased as she finally got down on her knees next to Moegi to actually do some work.

Taking a moment, Hanabi sat up on her knees and glanced around, watching Konohamaru and Moegi bicker back and forth while Jun and Udon fell into natural conversation, Eiji feeding some of the non-poisonous weeds to Yorimaru. Quickly, she reached up to wipe a tiny tear that managed to escape, hoping no one noticed. But she couldn’t deny how full her heart felt in that moment.

Turning back to the soil, she got back to work.

#naruto #konohana #konohamaru x hanabi #konohamaru sarutobi #hanabi hyuuga #hyuuga hanabi #sarutobi konohamaru #hanakono #naruto fanfic #naruto fanfiction #konohana fanfic #my fic #tag

[dollyreblogs]

No but this scene from the Owl House FUCKED ME UP but what if all the kids of the Yamisoka's died in their Labrynths? Like, Denji got the locations of their children and they were all really excited until the cold truth came.

Eiji found Seiji first and he went to look for his beautiful daughter, Beri, but he walked around and wandered for a bit until he stepped on something and he looked down and it was her mask.

Or like, Hana having four kids and when she found the mask of her first child, she desperately started traveling to her children's other labyrinths and felt herself die with each of them. She didn't want to check the fourth labyrinth because she was scared she'd just find another mask but no child but then Bella pops her head out and Hana just runs and keeps telling her, "I'll protect you forever. Mama's not gonna let anything bad happen to you anymore. I promise, baby, I promise."

Kagami still killed her own daughters so Misha is confused when she doesn't check THEIR labryinths. He's excited to see his sisters because he hasn't seen them since he'd been exiled but then Kagami just turns away from him: "You won't find them, Misha."/ "B-But their labyrinth locations are right there! We can-"/ "Misha...you won't find them...not alive." and Misha's heart breaks a little but he's all: "...I understand, mother."

Hibiki was so glad he didn't lose any children and was happy to be reunited with his son's, he traveled to the meet up point where he'd meet up with Ahmya but she wasn't there so he left the boys to stay with their grandpa to go to Ahmya's child's labyrinth and when he gets there, she looks like she's been sitting there the entire time and she's hugging her child's mask to her chest and Hibiki slowly frowns before he sits next to her and she just glares at him, but she softens when she sees his face and she starts crying and he hugs her as she cries.

#Bc Ahmya only had one child- #SORRY QUICK YAMISOKA LABRYNTH ANGST. #The Yamisoka Clan #THE SIMPLE ANGST A MASK CAN CAUSE.

[volfoss]

MT-009: The Devil of the Earth

TW: Suicide, discussions of the atomic bomb (the structure being built in the main story is a bomb shelter for example and the atomic bombs also come up in the second story here)

Summary of Plot: After a boy named Kenichi’s accident (caused by construction trucks) in a small village, the village’s residents learn of the defensive construction planned to happen in the village. Two years pass, with the construction ongoing and the village still is opposed to it. With government support, there is not much that can be done about the construction. Even with all the opposition, the man leading construction (Dr. Takano) has his sister Sumiko visit and they are attacked by villagers that are infuriated about the construction. A kid named Eiji comes to their rescue, despite his twin brother Eizo being one of the men instigating the fight. When Dr. Takano and his sister take Eiji to the hospital, he pleads with them to stop the construction, as it is doing horrible things to the village. Dr. Takano reveals he has even bigger plans than what has been done already and that he refuses to stop. He is building the world’s first underground city to make sure that normal day to day life wouldn’t fall apart in the event of an atomic bomb. Both Sumiko and Eiji end up leaving the hospital because Dr. Takano makes it very clear he doesn’t care about the village (as he literally just suggests to put it underground with the rest of it and doesn’t understand why that upsets Eiji). A detective (named Ban, who arrives there to due to trying to investigate spies) tries to warn Dr. Takano that every single person who has had their hand in inventions regarding the atomic bomb (hydrogen bomb and cobalt bombs are also included here) has mentioned “Demonbasu” in their suicide notes. Ban reveals that Demonbasu is a mysterious thing that keeps reappearing in these notes or wills but he doesn’t know what it is and warns Takano that something similar could also happen to him (as the invention of an underground city is even greater than the atomic bomb). The next day, Takano gives Ban a tour of the city (which goes very poorly) and after chaos erupts, Ban runs into Demonbasu. After many spy shenanigans, Demonbasu is confronted and the final battle starts.

Characters: I really like how it’s a larger cast here and each character is written with plenty of intrigue behind their motivations. But by far, Dr. Takano is the star of the show. He is a really interesting character, with how he clearly doesn’t care about the village enough to stop his building project (but also believes that he is doing enough to protect people around the area with his underground city). His very clear ambition (with how he wants the city to be perfect and have everything people need) contrasted with how either Demonbasu or his own ambition (depending on how you read it) was his downfall worked very well for me. The spies are fun when they are there but with how the story is so divided, it was hard for me to get a really good impression of any of the characters that weren’t there as much.

Art: The art is EXCELLENT for his early works, I really enjoy how Demonbasu and the various “futuristic” (at the time at least haha) elements are handled artistically. The artificial animals were also really fun and I did enjoy it a lot. The visual gags were also really fun when they showed up, but that’s no surprise with how Tezuka is very good at those normally.

Ending: It had a more ambiguous ending (in terms of being able to read it in multiple ways) and I did really enjoy that. I did however, really enjoy how it ended, in terms of showing how the simpler way of life can sometimes be better than destroying the old stuff and building new and fancy stuff. It just all worked very well.

Misc: I really enjoyed the short forays into the themes of if artificial recreations of something could ever replace the original. Mainly, when showing off the underground city to Ban, Takano shows off his robotic animal creations and how he was able to keep the skyline somewhat intact even if it’s underground. He explains that he wants to keep people’s sanity in the event where they do have to go underground, but the very fact of the matter is that he DID have to pretty much destroy the village to build this city. Ban even points out that it still can’t replace the real animals and outside, and I think it really does tie into how Tezuka is often pretty outspoken about the environmental messaging in his manga.

This wasn’t there a lot, as the story is pretty well divided between the topics of the underground city, mystery of the spy plot, and mystery of who Demonbasu is and if Takano will also be affected by it. I desperately wish that the story was less focused on the spy plot, in terms of the narrative balancing but I do really also understand how it ties into the setting.

With both the atomic bomb fear and the spy subplot (as well as it being written in 1954), it is pretty clear this is Tezuka’s way of talking about the Cold War and how that impacted citizens. The fear of spies lurking in every corner and the need to prepare for what could come, as well as how Demonbasu works as a plot point all work towards the very clear image that he is trying to paint in this story. Demonbasu point blank targets people who have invented the atomic bomb (and other bombs), and I think that is arguably some of the best part of the story.

There’s a short story (not really “short”, its 60 some pages) named “The Age of the Great Floods”. True to the title, it is a retelling of the Biblical flood story in a more modern Japanese setting, and also covers the topic of atomic bombing. The bombs are the reason why people are fleeing (and Tezuka’s official site has a better summary (in English) for this one if you’re curious further). I actually really enjoyed this one a LOT, I think it is genuinely one of his stronger “short stories” (with how long it is, I hesitate to call it that) that I’ve read so far. The topics of the bombs are really intriguing when it is put in the lens of a modern Noah’s Ark retelling and it’s very impressive how he was able to put so much content in the few amount of pages that this has. I think I did enjoy this more than the main story here, the imagery was beautiful and Tezuka really did an amazing job with depicting the fear of a flood with panels that just stick in your mind long after seeing them. The ending was very good and overall, just very enjoyable (even if my translation software was struggling quite a bit lol) 7/10

Overall Thoughts: I think that The Devil of the Earth is definitely one of the stronger untranslated ones I’ve read so far (out of two. But still) and I really do wish it got a proper translation. I wish it was slightly more focused on one plotline versus two but I think it makes sense, given the messaging he put in. Quite honestly, I don’t have a ton to say about this one but I think it was pretty good. 6/10

#twist rambles #tzkposting #the devil of the earth #<- which. i doubt anyone is following lol. #just finished the next volume for this so. 2 posts in one day :3