Konoha's Lost Kunoichi

A Friend in Need

“Excuse me, what?” Hawaki asked, yet again. Him and Haru stared at me with bewildered expressions while Kaname just watched the scene unfold, taking a swig of his liquor.

I sighed, putting some more vegetables onto Kaname’s plate. “C’mon you guys, it’ll only be here and there. We’ll still be moving along with the plan, I’ll just have to leave every now and then for a little bit of time.”

Haru’s brow furrowed as he looked at me with a quizzical expression on his face. 

He shook his head a bit. “That’s not what he was asking. Why? I thought you only met with him when you were relaying information. Now you’re going to be dropping in periodically?” I rubbed my head, staring at my half empty bowl of empty rice.

After what happened, I had to leave before the others noticed. Because of everything that happened they didn’t even bother to question the look alike.

But it wouldn’t last long. So I came back here. “Does this have something to do with those injuries I treated yesterday?” Hawaki questioned.

As the only one of us who actually knows how to do Medical Ninjutsu I immediately went to him. Luckily he and Haru were still at Kaname’s.

I nodded. “Yeah. Deidara had to go and left me alone to train. But . . . something felt wrong so I dropped in on Shikamaru. He was facing some of the Akatsuki.”

Haru’s eyes widened and he went rigid. “Which ones?” I sighed, grabbing some rice with my chopsticks. “Hidan and Kakuzu.” Haru’s eyes remained wide as he looked at me as if I were insane.

“What the hell? What happened? Is the plan exposed?”

I shook my head, eating rice. “No. I transformed into Shikamaru and didn’t use any of my signature jutsu’s. Kakuzu knew I wasn’t a clone, but he didn't know it was me.” He breathed out a sigh of relief before shooting me a look.

“That was dangerous, and it had to be them. No wonder you were skewered. So, what does that have to do with seeing Shikamaru?”

Yeah. That. Shikamaru has never lost someone close to him before. This was his first and that’s not going to leave him in the best state.

I’m worried. He’s not the type to look for or accept help. While I’m not sure how to comfort him, the least I could do is be there for him. Check in on him. Talk to him. I don’t know, something.

When . . . when Sasori died I would have liked someone to be there. Not to talk about it, I’m not exactly the most open person but it didn’t mean that I didn’t want someone there for me. 

Sasuke couldn’t know. And even if he could, how can I let out my problems when he’s dealing with his own.

Sasuke has grown a lot more closed off so he refused to share his problems. And his stems from anger. Not sadness. I can’t comfort anger. Only try to soothe it. But every time I tried it seemed to have the opposite effect.

So I couldn’t really tell him. Or even explain it. Haru was busy with the task I gave him and I don’t think I could show actual weakness to him. He’s one of my best friends, but I really don’t think I could. 

And I had burned down all of my bridges back home. 

While I can’t exactly comfort Choji or Ino, I can comfort Shikamaru. He’s one of my closest friends and I can’t just let him be.

“Hidan killed his Sensei. I just want to check in on him from time to time.”

At this, all three of the guys blinked, genuinely surprised. Even Kaname? “What?” I asked. They all glanced at each other, making my temple throb in annoyance.