i'm here now

• iv •

Sweeping her blonde ponytail over her shoulder, Ino winked at them before scurrying away.

"we're screwed.", Umi whispered.

"no actually, you're screwed.", Saeko added, whispering even lower.

-

It didn't take long for the forest fire to spread.

Ino had got out the word first in her own teammates, Shikamaru and Chouji.

She'd severely warned them not to tell anybody and hushed at them before taking off. They didn't seem to care all that much anyway.

But Ino being Ino, found herself at Sakura's 30 minutes later, recounting the conversation she'd heard.

In the next two days, the entire friend circle was aware of the fact that "Did you hear? Umi has a crush on Kakashi sensei omg."

As for Umi, she flat out refused to get out of the house. Eventually her father had to drag her out and buy her favourite snacks to convince her to tend to the shop for a day.

Usually, she would've wasted no time calling Tsubaki and Saeko over to hangout but today she just wasn't feeling it.

She shut her eyes, unable to stare at the interior of the empty shop any longer.

Whoever knew about her crush, she didn't really care but her crush himself shouldn't know, she wished.

Her father was busy now-a-days, preparing his "special weapons".
Umi suddenly remembered him mentioning he'd tell her over dinner but that was days ago.

She had so much going on that she probably forgot to ask about it.

She groaned out of boredom, pulling out a Rubik's cube from her father's drawer. She kept twisting and turning it around, examining it from all sides, not because she was figuring out where to start, rather she had no idea how to solve the cube so blankly staring at it seemed like the best option.

An hour or two passed and Umi was almost falling asleep when the door chimed.

"Kiba?! And Akamaru!", She exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Hiya Umi! I had some free time during training so thought why not check out cool weapons and hang out with you? Two birds with one stone, Am I right? Hehe.", He chuckled.

"Woof!", Akamaru yelled.

Umi returned a smile.
They spent the evening talking shit and Umi showed Kiba some weapons she thought fit the image of "cool". Then Kiba began showing off some tricks he'd taught to Akamaru, making Umi laugh.

"Oh! Kiba, it's getting really late!", Umi said checking the time.

It was 8:54 pm already?! Shittt.

"I better close up now. You have to get home too."

Kiba nodded, helping her close the shop, while Akamaru tailed behind them.

Umi turned to face him, ready to say goodbye when she was suddenly engulfed in a hug.

Umi froze for a second. She wasn't uncomfortable, Kiba was her friend! A very good friend at that!

Then why is it bothering me, Umi pondered frowning internally.

There was no more time for her internal debate as the hug was over already.

"Bye Umi! See you tomorrow! Do you want me to walk you home?", Kiba asked cheerfully.

"No, no it's alright Kiba, you go on.", Umi retorted.