Chapter 47, part 2
Hinata blushed furiously, not quite believing her luck.
“I... w-what?” she stuttered, chancing a look up at Naruto through her bangs.
“D'you wanna look around with me?” he repeated. “Kakashi-sensei's doing his own thing, And Sakura-chan's chatting with Ino, so I'm by myself.”
Not trusting her own voice, she nodded. Kurenai had been unable to find a babysitter. Shino was with Nikko on what he was carefully not calling a date. And Kiba was, in his own words, 'cruising for chicks' with Akamaru. Hinata had come with her younger sister Hanabi, and it had been pleasant enough, but the girl had left her for some of her friends her own age.
“Great.” Naruto grinned at her. “We should find something to eat.”
She nodded again, falling into step with him as he headed toward a row of stalls.
“You look nice,” he said, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
She squeaked in surprised, but recovered enough to mumble something about him also looking nice. In truth, Hanabi had picked out their yukata for the night, with Hinata's being a dark violet, in a shadowy echo of her eyes. There was a pattern of irises on the bottom hem.
“They sure managed to put something neat together, considering how little time they had,” he said, looking around.
“Y-yes, it does look quite nice,” she managed.
“I guess the repairs must have gone pretty quickly.”
She nodded in reply, unaware of his eyes on her. They talked for a while, with him prompting her every so often, and she did her best to respond, grateful that he hadn't pointed out how much she was blushing, or how difficult she was finding it to speak.
“Yo! Shino!” he said, catching her by surprise, and she looked up to find her teammate, his usual hood and coverings swapped out for a gray yukata patterned with golden dragonflies. Beside him, Nikko echoed his appearance, in soft blue with a design of water boatmen insects and a matching comb pinning up her long hair.
“Naruto,” Shino said. “Hinata.”
Hinata offered a shy little wave to Nikko, who smiled.
“Who's this?” Naruto asked, grinning. “I didn't know you had a g-”
“Her name is Nikko,” Hinata supplied. “Her family runs the Kaeru weapon shop.”
She had to speak up a bit, as Shino's kikai insects were buzzing with agitation.
“Nice to meet ya. I'm Naruto Uzumaki!”
Nikko bowed politely. “I know who you are. You have saved the village on more than one occasion, I believe.”
Naruto beamed at her, blushing a little.
“Please feel free to visit our shop,” she added, smiling in return.
“Yeah. Well, I'll let you get back to your date,” he said, ignoring as Shino's buzzing grew louder.
Hinata and Nikko made their goodbyes, and the two pairs parted.
---
“Would you like some yakitori?” Choujuro offered, glancing up at Izumi.
Mutely, she shook her head, her mask impassive.
“Are you sure you wouldn't like any food?” he asked, partly out of politeness and partly of a desire to see her face.
She made a negative gesture. He sighed, his shoulder slumping.
“It's a nice place, and I'm glad to be at the festival with you,” he said, “but I can't stop worrying that the Mizukage-sama sent me here to get me out of the way. I just keep messing up.”
Izumi shook her head, but he didn't notice.
“I just don't know if I'm living up to everyone's expectations. I mean, they say I'm one of the great swordsmen, but I really don't feel all that great. I only have the title because I can use Hiramekarei. I don't want to let them down.”
Izumi shrugged, making a complicated gesture with one hand. He couldn't read it.
“All I want is to serve the Mizukage-sama. I want to protect her smile...” He trailed off, his eyes sparkling, fists clenched, for only a moment before his shoulders slumped again.
Izumi patted him on the shoulder.
---
Tenten threw her kunai, one after another. All three hit their targets dead center. The man behind the stall counter grumbled something about a rough night, but he handed over the prize of a leather pouch anyway. She grinned.
“Well done, Tenten!” Lee said.
She tucked the pouch away into her sleeve and stepped back from the stall.
“Thanks. Well, I've had my fun. Where do you want to go next?”
“Do you think they have a taijutsu competition?”
She shook her head. “I haven't heard anything. I suppose you could try to join the dance exhibition.”
He shook his head. “The deadline was two days ago.”
Inwardly, Tenten was relieved, and also a little surprised. It sounded like he had already tried.
“We could go see it, though, if you wanted,” she offered.
“Yoshi!”
They made their way to the exhibition pavilion, with Lee unable to rush as much as he wanted through the crowd. As they arrived, a dance was already underway. A woman in black spandex gyrated and undulated onstage to a drumbeat that made the whole area vibrate. Tenten glanced over at Lee and saw that he was actually blushing. She suppressed a grin.
As the dance ended and the audience murmured to one another, Tenten looked back to Lee. His eyes had left the stage, scanning past the crowd to a distant couple.
“It's Gai-sensei and his youthful friend!” he said, starting toward them.
Tenten grabbed his arm before he could get far.
“Let's give them their privacy,” she said, raising her eyebrows.
“What do you mean?”
She almost fell over in surprise. Surely he had noticed over the years. Or at least heard about the betting pool on Gai and Taki's relationship, to which she had more than once considered adding her own wager. But no. He was truly that oblivious.
“Nothing. But why don't we get something to eat?” she suggested.
They left the area, with her watching to make sure he didn't go back in search of Gai. Before they could reach the row of food stalls, however, Tenten spotted a familiar pink shape.
“Sakura-san!” Lee said, not needing her to point it out.
He rushed forward, into the crowd, to say hello. Tenten sighed, forgotten.
---
Subayai saw a familiar figure glide through the crowd. Suisho, changed from her exhibition gear into a yukata, walking with that weird jounin who kept reading porn in public. Subayai frowned. Both her teammates were off trying to woo people, leaving her on her own.
Scanning the crowd, she caught sight of another lone figure, a girl even shorter than Subayai herself. She seemed unconcerned by all of this, happily eating takoyaki as she sat on a park bench. She sauntered over, stopping to lean against the back of the bench.
“You're a kunoichi here, right?” she asked, and the girl nodded. “Where's your team?”
The girl swallowed her mouthful of food. “They both have dates. I'm just here for the food.”
“Friggin' romance,” Subayai said with a nod.
“Word,” the girl said, and offered her some takoyaki.
“Thanks.”
They ate for a while, the only talk an occasional comment about passerby. Another lone girl wandered by, taller than either of them. The shortest girl, Buyo waved to her, and she joined them.
“Your team off trying to smooch people, too?” Subayai asked.
“All of them,” Tenten said with a nod, accepting a piece of takoyaki from Buyo.
“Even your sensei?” Buyo shook her head. “Man, at least Mori-sensei just had work to do.”
They all sighed.
---
“Hello, beautiful,” Uwaki said, spotting Usagi leaning against a tree as she ate.
Noticing him, she looked up from her plate of yakisoba and smiled.
“It's nice to see neither of your teammates managed to get you all banned from the festival,” she said, her voice pleasant.
“It was a near thing,” he said with a laugh. “Though I'm pretty sure Rei was one of the people who kept pushing for the festival in the first place.”
“Yes, I noticed she'd found that nice young man with the facial scar. He's bearing up rather well, I think.”
“Good luck and godspeed to him,” said Uwaki. “Who knows, they might be the first international marriage we have to negotiate after this whole thing.”
“They're already placing bets in Hokage tower. I overheard them the other day.”
“Any wagers on your own team?” he asked.
She shrugged. “None that will pay out, anyway. Those three are a little... insular.”
“I saw you going around with all that paperwork the other day. Did you manage to track everyone down?”
“Eventually.” She smiled wickedly. “Though I had to corner a few people.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like a reward rather than a threat.”
She laughed. “In the best of us, it can be both.”
He feigned a swoon, earning another peal of laughter.
“Have you been enjoying yourself?” she asked.
“Very much so. Watching pretty people in yukata and eating fried food are among my favorite pastimes. It certainly makes a nice break from sitting around the office and writing letters to my superiors.”
“At least you're not in charge of anyone's training.”
“True, but I imagine trying to wrangle my team has a lot in common with having a genin team.”
“Hush, now, before you end up revealing all their secrets,” she said with a grin.
“I'd have thought it was obvious to anyone looking,” he said, though with some affection in his voice. “Still, your assistants are lucky to have such a lovely instructor, however temporary.”
“You're sweet to say so, but I'm hoping I'll have the chance to go home for a bit and see my big, strong, strapping husband soon.”
“Big and strapping, you say? My, I wonder where Ikari's gotten off to? I should go look for him,” said Uwaki.
“Good luck with that.”
Uwaki waved back at her as he left. Before he could start wondering too hard about his erstwhile team, there was an explosion overhead. Fireworks, in the distance. He headed for their source.
After a few minutes of weaving in and out of the traffic, most of the people stopped to watch the display, he reached a stretch of open ground. At its center, he could see a small team of people setting up and lighting the rockets. He scanned the ground, where several people had laid down on the grass to watch, and found Ikari, his face unusually soft, a smile on his lips as he looked upward.
Uwaki echoed the smile and sat down beside him, saying nothing to disturb his teammate's peace.
---
Temari and Kankuro leaned against the tree, watching as people walked around, enjoying the festival, children running around after one another. Kankuro made a face as one nearly bumped into him.
“I wish Gaara were here,” he said. “He'd scare the crap out of most of these people.”
“Hush,” Temari said without any real force behind it. “We're being diplomatic now.”
“Fine, he'd diplomat the crap out of them instead.”
“That doesn't even make sense.” She paused. “I wonder how he's doing.”
“We haven't gotten any reports of anyone dying. He's fine.”
“Yeah. I just wish he'd say more in his letters.”
Kankuro shrugged. “He's never exactly been verbose. And he doesn't wanna risk exposing too much.”
“Yeah. Hopefully the fangirls aren't bugging him too much.”
“Or his advisers. They can be pretty annoying.”
“At least they've started coming around to the whole cooperation thing. I was worried we'd have to do something about the old hawks.”
“Nah, they're all pretty old. They'll die soon,” said Kankuro.”
“Or at least retire,” said Temari.
“Yeah. Hey, I'm pretty sure I saw somebody selling candied chestnuts back there. You want some?”
“Of course,” she said, grinning and stepping away from the tree. “Your treat.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine”
Later, the treat bought, they returned to the tree. Temari let out a happy little hum as she dug into the bag.
“Thanks,” she said, punching him on the arm.
He rubbed where she'd hit him, and smiled in spite of himself.
“Things have changed so much,” Temari said, her eyes softening.
They both lapsed into memory for a moment. Kankuro seemed to come out of it first.
“Don't go getting soft now. That lazy-ass local guy is coming over.”
Temari stowed the rest of the candied chestnuts in a pocket and stood up straighter as Shikamaru noticed her.
“By yourself?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Your team abandon you?”
He shrugged. “Like everyone else, they're using the opportunity to flirt with people. It's troublesome, but what can you do?”
“And no one wanted to flirt with you, I take it.”
“Whatever.”
Kankuro patted his sister on the shoulder.
“I'm out. Don't do anything too scandalous.”
She stuck her tongue out at him as he walked away, not caring if Shikamaru saw.
“Very mature,” he said with a laugh.
Kankuro ambled away from the pair, his hands in his pockets. If everyone was flirting, maybe he could find someone to flirt with, too. He passed several girls in yukata, mostly in groups. A few he winked at, though most of them seemed put off by his face paints. He briefly considered tracking down those girls from Kumo, knowing they wouldn't care, but decided it was too much effort, and walked on.
After a while, he spotted a woman standing alone. She was older than him, and curvy, eating dango as she boredly watched the passerby. She looked familiar, and he remembered her from his first time in the village, during the chuunin exam. He walked up and leaned against a nearby tree.
“'Sup,” he said, grinning.
She looked him up and down, then let out a bark of laughter.
“You're a little green to be hitting on me, kid.”
“What, just because I'm young I can't appreciate beautiful women eating snacks?”
She laughed again. “Just for that, I'll let you have one of the dango.”
“None can resist my charm,” he said, taking a stick of dumplings from her.
They passed a pleasant enough half hour, flirting with no real intent behind it.