Three Months (A Naruto Fanfic)

The NEW, new BINGO book

"You got it?" Hissed a voice as the owner of the voice peeked around the corner.

"Oh yeah." The other voice hissed back, one hand clenched around the items in question.

"It's time for payback."

o.o.o.o.o

Shikamaru yawned as he and Chouji left the Hokage tower. "We had to wait longer to get in to see Tsunade-sama than it took to actually give the mission report. Not that it amounted to much."

Chouji nodded, his stomach letting him know that it was nearing lunch time. But …there were other, more pressing concerns. "Kotetsu told me Hinata's not out on a mission, so I'm going to go find her."

The shadow-nin laughed and clapped his friend on the back. "You won't have to go far." He jerked his chin toward the edge of the open plaza area. Hinata stood there watching them, an arrested look on her face.

Chouji sighed and smiled.

Hinata sighed and smiled.

Shikamaru grumbled under his breath and rolled his eyes.

o.o.o.o.o

Kurenai was heading for the market, it seems her darling Shunin had developed an aversion to the very same foods he had adored yesterday and she needed something different. Asuma had never been a picky eater, and neither was she, so where was the toddler picking up this behavior? One day he ate all his broccoli, and hers as well. The next day he spit it out and refused to even look at the leafy green vegetable without shouting "yuck!"

"Ohayo!"

Looking up, the genjutsu specialist smiled at young Inuzuka Hana and her mother. "Tsume, Hana, hello!" She looked down at the grocery filled arms of the two with a surprised expression. "You're …cooking?"

Tsume scowled. "I can cook you know."

"Could of fooled me." Hana muttered and when her mother glared at her, she just grinned wider. "We're having the Haruno's over for dinner."

Kurenai tried to keep the pleased look off her face, but was failing. She loved the fact her team was dating now, and seriously so it seemed. Family dinners?

Tsume's scowl intensified as she shoved her share of the groceries at Hana. "Just for that, you're cooking for them!" She huffed off, leaving a laughing pair of kunoichi.

"I'd feel sorry for you, but I'm pretty sure she'd have used any excuse to get you to cook this dinner." Kurenai took some of the groceries from the younger kunoichi.

"Oh, I've only been waiting for it all day. I'm only surprised it took this long." Hana admitted. "I think she's actually liking the idea. Not sure she's completely sold on Sakura, but Kiba is and that's good enough for now."

"What's wrong with Sakura?" Kurenai asked, curious. The girl had changed and grown a lot since her genin days. Thank goodness.

"Mother's still worried the girl's hung up on the Uchiha." Hana shrugged. "Kiba says no, it's all good. I think this dinner will help though, get the two of them more familiar with each other."

"Your mother can be very intimidating." Kurenai said as the two started back toward the Inuzuka family compound by unspoken accord.

Hana whistled under her breath and jerked her head to one side. "My mother's not the only one who can be intimidating."

The genjutsu specialist peeked at where Hana was indicating, then her eyes widened. "He doesn't look …intimidated."

"No. No, he doesn't." Hana turned toward the odd duo and Kurenai fell into step behind her.