Edit 9/10/19: Stunning new cover art by Kmichie! Check out her work on tumblr - kmichiedreams!

This is a fanfic of a fanfic, written in the incredible world of Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine.

A few notes you might want to read first:

1. I wrote the first 10,000 words or so about a year ago. Although I've now caught up with the most recent chapter (151), the story — sans the prologue, which I posted to the DOS forum ages ago — starts during the Police Arc and deviates from DOS there.

2. I tried to pin down Shikako's current age as of Chapter 143 but couldn't be much more confident than "probably 14 plus a month or two." Naruto leaves on his thirteenth birthday right before the Grass Chunin Exams, and I think the Hidden Mist Exams take place a year later. Hence it's probably October or November and Shikako's 14.

3. "Here be dragons" means uncharted territory, basically, and great potential for danger. I couldn't think of anything shadow-related or anything remotely clever for the title, so this is what you get.

4. Sticking strictly with canon, we know that Shikako is very disinterested in romance and that it's not "like [she] ever planned to have kids" (Chapter 99). That's the foundation I'm working with.

5. I'll post weekly updates for as long as possible, which I suspect is about five chapters' worth, considering work and some traveling I've got coming up. Beyond that, I'll keep you posted. Even if I never manage to finish this—because it gets longer every time I think about it—I can at least promise you some fluff and drama.

Warning: Potential spoilers up to chapter 151 (prologue+150) of Dreaming of Sunshine and spoilers from a picture on Silver Queen's DeviantArt account.

Rated T for occasional bad language. The slow, slow-burn romance is PG.

Disclaimer: Shikako Nara belongs to Silver Queen.

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Prologue: Mid-chapter 142 - Hidden Mist Arc

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Our group journeyed from Hidden Mist to Konoha with haste, but our speed with three newly-minted chunin was considerably slower than what Sasuke, Tsunade, and I had clocked. As I leaped from branch to branch behind Sasuke, I mentally tacked on an extra day of travel time. And mentally groaned. I was already bored.

The recent encounter with Isobu gave me too much to think about—too many questions with no easy answers, too many problems with no solutions, quandaries that were nothing more than an exercise in frustration. Out here in no-man's land, there wasn't much to distract myself with.

And yet. There was an opportunity now, with the appearance of a certain pair of Mangekyo Sharingan eyes. A possible link.

My thoughts were interrupted when Anko signaled to stop for the night. I heard Yakumo and Sakura sigh in relief and, along with Isaribi, set about making camp. I retrieved my sleeping bag from hammerspace, tossed it on the ground, and…that was it. Sloughing off all the work onto Anko's team so that I had nothing to do was great, except, y'know, I had nothing to do. Just like the past two nights, I decided to do a sweep of our perimeter. It was really just an excuse for a stroll in the forest, while I tried—again—to find a reasonable argument to tie Isobu's enslavement to the genjutsu into my work gathering intel on Akatsuki.

I could hardly come out and scream Madara! but it did give me a reason to ask funny questions and maybe make significant leaps in logic under the right circumstances. It was too much to hope the Uchiha would have kept a record of the particulars of Madara's Mangekyo, wasn't it? Still, Madara would be on any short list of those capable of activating the Mangekyo.

" —really amazing against the bijuu, Sasuke-kun."

I stopped abruptly. I had wandered to the edge of a clearing. Sakura and Sasuke stood across from each other, close to a stream. Sasuke had a pail in hand. Sakura's arms were filled with wood for the fire.

More importantly, there was a sweetness to Sakura's voice that was rather indicative of her intentions, and here I was barging in at exactly the wrong time. Sakura hadn't noticed me yet, but there was no way Sasuke hadn't.

"Thank you, Sakura-san," he said distantly, but he was already turning towards me even as I was backing away. "There you are, Shikako. Help me with this obscene amount of water. I'm pretty sure Anko's pranking me."

It was a blatant attempt to disrupt a confession. I tried not to wince upon seeing Sakura's crestfallen expression.

"I think it'll take a water scroll," Sasuke added.

I cleared my throat, terribly uncomfortable. "How much does Anko want?"

"Enough to fill three bathtubs," he replied dryly. "What she intends to do with it is beyond me. You should head back, Sakura-san. They'll be waiting for the firewood."

Sakura bit her lower lip. I could see her hesitance, her wish for an excuse to stay behind. When she couldn't come up with one, she nodded to us both and scurried off. Then I crossed the clearing and punched Sasuke's arm. None too gently. I didn't like being inserted between two of my best friends.

"That was mean," I said.

Sasuke rubbed his arm and looked unrepentant. "Sakura set up her bedroll right next to mine. She deliberately waited until I'd laid mine out."

I winced. "You could have at least answered her properly."

"And what good would that do?" he said.

"She's brave," I said.

He gave me a deadpan expression. I wished Sasuke wouldn't dismiss her so curtly, not when she was kind and smart and loyal and strong, already on her way to being a total kickass—

"You didn't offer to take the firewood for her," Sasuke said.

I blinked. Um, no? The thought hadn't crossed my mind. Seeing that, Sasuke smirked.

"If you wanted to help her," he added, "you'd have taken the firewood. You're on my side."

"I'm not on anyone's side," I objected. "Sakura is allowed to have feelings, and you are allowed to reject them. I'm not sticking my nose into that."

"You already have," he pointed out.

I scowled at him, which—annoyingly enough—made Sasuke smile. Giving it up for lost, I turned back to the problem I could fix: the acquisition of a ridiculous amount of water. But Sasuke surprised me.

"I won't pursue any kind of attachment," he said carefully. "Not until I've...settled things."

There was a pointedness to the remark. An expectation. And now he was waiting. For a response?

"Ah," I said. "I'll, um, pass the message along?" Though I could hardly see how it would be helpful. In a romantically-inclined mind, it could be misconstrued as a promise: Wait for me. Wait until I'm free. Or some such thing. I could see Sakura melting into a puddle of goo upon receiving a declaration like that.

"No," said Sasuke flatly, "there's nothing to pass along. I'm telling you—just because."

I drew my brows and stared at him. I could well and truly say he had surprised me. We were suddenly having a legitimate discussion about his future love life. Which he initiated. What was he thinking, opening up to me about this?

Though I was sympathetic, I really had no idea what he wanted from me. Hence, my clever, "All right, then."

He crossed his arms, unimpressed. We stared at each other for a moment. I wanted to be a good friend and hear him out, but by this point, I was sure I'd missed a signal or something—or maybe I was just instinctively supposed to know what to tell him. Why he would think that was beyond me. I wasn't Ino.

But I tried again. "Um, settling things, you said? So you don't want her to get caught up in your personal troubles. That's probably smart."

When he only stood there, dark eyes watchful, I began to feel distinctly flustered. "I guess you're worried about putting a target on some girl's back? That's thoughtful, but you know, as fast as you improve, you'll be strong enough to protect her."

Now he just looked amused.

"Or him," I added. Because really? There I was, trying to encourage him, and he was messing with me. Rude.

His lips quirked upwards. His confidence was really irking me.

"You're completely clueless," he said, and his tone all exasperation and fondness.

That was when he well and truly lost me.

"Three bathtubs' worth of water?" I said quickly, whipping out some paper and ink and running through some calculations.

Sasuke sidled closer. I cast a wary glance at him.

"No, actually," he said. "Anko sent me out for water. She didn't specify an amount."

I tapped my chin. "It could be rather funny, though. I could make it a proper geyser and pass the whole thing off as a learning experience. 'Don't open storage scrolls from strange shinobi' kind of thing."

Sasuke smiled. Then he stepped forward.

It took real effort on my part to maintain my place. Oh, I was quite accustomed to sharing personal space with Sasuke and Naruto and, hell, even Kakashi-sensei and Kiba. I regularly bumped shoulders with them and leaned on them, but that was brought on by playfulness or a need for comfort.

This was…

I didn't know what this was.

I had lost control of the situation, and he wasn't giving me a chance to rectify that. That's why he chose the very speed he did: slowly enough that I could quell any defensive reflexes that might get triggered, quickly enough that I had no time for anything else.

Then he was standing right in front of me, mere inches between us. I could feel my cheeks growing warm—my natural response to any and all forms of embarrassment.

His eyes had lightened. "This is not a confession."

I snorted. I already knew that. I just didn't know what it was.

Then he kissed my cheek.

It was gentle. Were I not so very flustered and so very, very taken aback, I might have even thought it was sweet.

Sasuke drew back and studied me. "So," he said, "the water scroll?"

He bent to retrieve the ink brush I'd dropped, and in that moment before his face turned away, all I could notice was how very pleased he was with himself.

And—just...what?

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Chapter One

(Four months later)

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Hawk-taicho's Chidori screamed as it ripped through the night, on a collision course with Orochimaru's chest. Nearby, I panted, having forced shadows into existence in this, the dark of night, to bind Orochimaru for the split second necessary. Then Hawk carved through flesh and bone. Blood erupted from Orochimaru's mouth and dripped down Hawk's mask. The Sannin's body slumped.

I didn't even feel relief. Not for a second.

"That's just one body. He's coming back," I said, sensing his vile chakra all over the forest. It intertwined with that of his snakes. Fear sat heavily in my gut. Where we were in Land of Rivers we had no nearby refuge and certainly had no backup. The ambush came with no warning, no time to plan—and after a brief skirmish during the mission itself, when we were already tired.

He was toying with us, with Sasuke, to draw out his potential. There was no mistaking his ultimate intent, though: to take Sasuke, to use him, to turn him into a thing I wouldn't recognize.

At a signal from Hawk, we flickered towards where Towa and Komachi were fighting Kabuto and Manda.

"How's your chakra?" Hawk asked lowly.

"Cut by half."

We leaped apart when a snake burst from the ground between us.

"Better, Sasuke-kun," said a familiar voice, and Orochimaru slithered out from the mouth of his snake summon. "Refreshing, truly. The Uchiha had grown so very stale. Itachi did you a favor in stripping you of their taint."

Then Orochimaru pulled a sword from his mouth and met Hawk's furious onslaught. I sent earth jutsus to trip up Orochimaru, but he glided around them with admirable and infuriating grace.

"Though you still rely on teammates to cover your weaknesses," Orochimaru chided. "In the end, they will always disappoint you."

"You would know," Hawk snarled, "having turned traitor to yours."

Orochimaru's neck had stretched out and now struck like a snake. Hawk's chakra surged, and his arms were suddenly wreathed in flames. Orochimaru retracted his neck and licked his lips.

"You chose your friends, not your vengeance," said Orochimaru. "There's the tragedy, when Konoha itself is the culprit of your family's demise."

"Would you—shut—up!" Hawk growled, and incredible heat radiated from his body.

But I went cold, like I'd been plunged into arctic waters.

If there was anyone who would suspect Itachi's association with Danzo, it was surely Orochimaru. He was changing his tactics. Going from "you're too weak to kill Itachi" to "what do you really know about your village?" Throw Sasuke off track, throw shade at Konoha.

"You could be immortal, Sasuke-kun," said Orochimaru, and then for once broke eye contact with Hawk to look past him. "But weakness is contagious."

I turned. Komachi was crawling away from Manda. The giant snake had coiled, was poised to strike. Its fangs gleamed in the light of Sasuke's fire.

My hands were already moving.

Replacement!

I appeared in the gaping maw of the king of snakes.

A long, sharp fang that I couldn't avoid scraped down the side of my leg, tearing through clothes then flesh. I almost blacked out with pain, but the chakra I quickly pulled through the Gelel stone negated the worst of the pain and poison, though an echo of their effects rang through my chakra.

More importantly, my lightsaber had cut through Manda's mouth and punched through his skull. And still the snake flailed. I pumped out more chakra, almost the last of it, and the Raijin no Ken sent kilojoules of electric energy directly into his brain. A horrific screeching noise reverberated in my head. My body vibrated with it.

When Manda finally fell, he took me with him.

The overwhelming aroma of crispy fried snake did not sit well with me, trapped as I was, stuck half in and half out of Manda's jaws. I needed a soldier pill. I needed chakra to power the Gelel stone again. I needed the soldier pill to generate chakra. I needed the stone to get me free of the snake's mouth. My thoughts raced in circles. Dazed, I tried to squirm out from Manda's mouth. Towa popped out of the ground, bleeding freely from a wound in his side, but he still managed to pry me free and throw us both underground before Kabuto could land a hit.

Back to my senses, I split from Towa and reemerged near Sasuke and Komachi, whose femoral artery and no doubt a few muscle groups had fallen victim to chakra scalpels. She'd wrapped the wound and applied pressure, but her leg was coated with blood. Her face was pale with pain and blood loss.

Around us, the trees were on fire, burning from the tops down. A breeze kept the fire breathing. I wondered if I should worry about that. It was nice, though, to have some proper shadows to work with.

Towa flickered over to us as Kabuto gave up trying to revive Manda. Orochimaru was surveying the corpse of his snake summon. His clothes bore burn marks. His neck and hands were blackened with soot. I could see his chest moving with deep breaths, hardly gasping for air, but he was winded. There was something less arrogant about his posture.

His face was absolutely expressionless.

"Any brilliant plans?" Towa muttered to Hawk.

"Can you support Komachi?" At Towa's reluctant nod, Hawk said, "Get out of here. We'll buy you time."

Komachi argued, "Forgive me, taicho, but hell no—"

"We have an escape route," I interrupted, thinking of Shadow State. If I could take all four of us, but no—when it was just me and Sasuke—my chakra and other—the shadows were easy enough to separate and let resolve into our physical selves. With three or four, when I was already tired, with my concentration shaken by fear…it wasn't worth the risk, not until it became a last resort.

"There's no time," Hawk barked. "Go."

Towa pulled Komachi over his shoulder and flickered away. Orochimaru didn't bat an eye at their departure.

"The frailty of a mortal body," Orochimaru mused at the side of his dead summon. "How fortunate I've overcome that inconvenience."

"Oh, I dunno," I said glibly. "You're looking rather worse for the wear."

Orochimaru was still powerful, so very powerful, but smart money said he struck now to prevent Sasuke from becoming a true threat in the future, when Orochimaru was at his weakest and in need of a new body.

"Shikako Nara," he said, and I winced behind my mask because, yeah, my lightsaber was a bit of a giveaway. "You have become a particular nuisance."

Hawk shifted and sharpened somehow. "I get to kill him."

"Yeah, fine. Dibs on Kabuto," I said under my breath. There was so much pain we could avoid if we could just kill that silver-haired sneak, and frankly, I stood exactly zero chance of taking Orochimaru on my own. Kabuto, though…maybe.

I bit down on a soldier pill.

No one said "go," but we all rocketed into motion as one. I shot forward, an apparently straight out charge, before initiating Earth Walking jutsu and dissolving into shadows once I was out of sight.

I doubt Kabuto was surprised when Shadow Stitching tendrils looped around his ankles and wrists while others tried to punch through his chest, but he broke through the paralysis easily, cut through the binding tendrils with his scalpels—used that technique with his hands and feet, in fact—and dodged all but one of my attempts to turn him into a pincushion.

I retreated and eyed him warily. I'd definitely put a hole in his abdomen, and he was already healed. Stupid ninja tricks. Correction: Stupid medic ninja tricks. I'd felt his chakra coat the very point the tendril had targeted—before my attack had made contact. Rude.

I risked a glance towards Sasuke and Orochimaru, who seemed to be engaged in a genjutsu battle.

"Are you wondering how I resisted the Nara paralysis technique?" Kabuto asked in a polite tone, as though we were enjoying afternoon tea.

Not really, I didn't say. With his profound knowledge of the human body, I imagined he'd scrambled his own neurons' electric signals, thereby breaking the sympathetic connection. He couldn't turn the technique back on me, at least.

Kabuto's chakra spiked. Then he disappeared. Actually disappeared. To both my eyes and my chakra sensing. My stealth abilities let me match him. It became a high stakes game of hide and seek, but it was one I thought he could win, given his larger chakra reserves.

Fine, area of effect it was. With another thought, no fewer than twelve Touch Blasts went off, and at least one of the explosions struck him hard enough to break his concentration.

"Yin Release: Vestibular Disruption," I murmured, forming the hand seals.

He recovered from the genjutsu quickly. It still bought me enough time to palm a kunai and cross the space between us.

His Suiton: Water Scorpion made me abandon taijutsu and shift to shadow. He took full advantage of my switch from offense to defense. Kabuto was fast. He'd have to be to have escaped Gai in the invasion. I tossed a soldier pill in my mouth and bit down, my second. It officially marked the countdown; I couldn't keep up this pace much longer.

Fortunately I had a few low-chakra cost tools up my sleeve.

"Barrier Seal!"

Kabuto's chakra scalpels slice through the barrier, but he rebounded awkwardly. And that—

That was an opening.

The depth of my killing intent surprised even me.

"Ten Thousand Fists!"

If he couldn't determine the point of the incoming strike, he couldn't utilize his rapid healing technique. Or so went my logic. A few hundred kunai shot towards various vital points while the real kunai arced towards his carotid artery.

And suddenly, the whole battle changed. Because I was close, so close to landing a fatal hit. Because Kabuto was valuable. Because Orochimaru was pissed.

I felt it coming. Orochimaru's chakra was spiked with a nigh lethal dose of killing intent. The combination was like a tsunami, first sucking the vitality from my body like waters from a beach, then thundering into me with the full force of the wave.

A giant snake erupted from the ground at my feet. I didn't spare it much thought. I'd committed myself to ending Kabuto. There was so much pain, so much needless suffering I could end right now. I needed another inch, another centimeter, millimeter—

The tip of my kunai sliced into the soft flesh of his neck. If it reached his chakra coil—

The snake barreled into me, ripping me away from Kabuto, but I flung my kunai, controlled it with a chakra string. The snake wrapped around me. Its mouth opened wide and a grotesque face attached to a human spine rose from its open mouth.

No, not a human spine; it was a snake, too. No, it was some mutant cross. Some hideous distortion that shouldn't exist.

My kunai buried itself in Kabuto's neck.

The fanged face shot towards my neck.

My kunai cut upwards, until the handle struck jawbone.

Sharp fangs cut into my shoulder.

Kabuto's hand glowed green. He fell to his knees.

I sucked in a breath and morphed into shadow.

The night sky came alive. Bright streaks of lightning illuminated the clouds.

That was when I felt the intrusion of foreign chakra into my body. Vile, corrupted chakra tried to flood my chakra coils. Agony made me fall from my shadow form onto my knees.

Hawk's voice was dark with fury. "Lightning Release: Kirin."

The chakra and seal—oh, I knew what this was; I knew what Orochimaru tried to do to me—they were a solid thing. I ripped the corrupted chakra from my body and whipped out a scroll.

"Seal!" I cried and planted a touch blast on the other side of the paper. I flung it away from me.

The detonation was lovely.

Alight with crackling blue lightning, Hawk raced forward. The air positively thrummed with electricity and chakra and heat. A shape had formed in the sky, flying high like a vengeful dragon, its neck stretching to deliver death. It wasn't a dragon, though. It had no wings. It was—

A giraffe.

Seriously?

Kirin wobbled as Sasuke lost control, but the jutsu still surged from his hands. I couldn't tell it hadn't hit Orochimaru head on, but like an explosion, the strike radiated outwards. It dealt damage. I flickered towards Hawk. A little brown snake sank its fangs into Hawk's calf before I could reach him. Another attached itself to his forearm.

That was curtain for us. Hawk sliced the snakes in half, but not before they pumped poison into his veins. I wasn't too worried about the poison itself actually. Orochimaru wouldn't want to harm his precious body.

"Let's blow this joint, Hawk-taicho."

I held out my hand to Hawk, who grasped it without hesitation.

Orochimaru's fire jutsu was well-judged, a potentially devastating counter to my shadows. It surrounded us. I could feel chakra moving through the earth, no doubt more of his perfidious little snakes. They would kill and probably eat me while Sasuke succumbed to their poison.

Nope.

My hand clutched Hawk's. My other hand formed the rat seal. As my body was turning to shadow, I stared into Orochimaru's slitted, golden eyes.

The incoming flames chased away the night's darkness, and I let it sweep us like an ebbing tide into the waiting sea of shadows.

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I meandered to the hospital with a shogi board stored in hammerspace and bought a sweet bun and savoury on the way. I was pretty surprised Tsunade didn't have Sasuke locked up in the secure ward as he slept off the effects of poison and its antidote, but then I sensed two very, very faint chakra signals from what could only be hidden Anbu. Fair enough.

Sasuke's room was basically a re-creation of the Yamanaka flower shop. Amid the greenery, I caught sight of bright red scraps of something on the floor. I suspected they had once been balloons. Heart-shaped balloons? It honestly wouldn't surprise me.

Kiba and Hinata were playing Shinobi's Rest with Sasuke. Their eyes all snapped to me when I entered.

"Where have you been?" said Sasuke.

"Sleeping," I said and tossed him the savoury.

He caught it. "For twenty-five hours?"

"Mostly, yes." I strolled into the room. "Pretty sure I woke up once last night to eat, but Mum didn't wake me this morning, so…"

Kiba snorted.

Sasuke studied me. "You're okay, though?"

I leaned against the wall. "Didn't quite hit the point of chakra exhaustion," I said smugly. Not to the point of falling unconscious at least. The Gelel stone had healed up the few scrapes I'd garnered, and while I was still recovering from the two soldier pills I'd taken, I could manage to amble through Konoha and even hold a conversation without nodding off.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"We're glad to see you both well," said Hinata quietly.

"Must have been a hell of a patrol," said Kiba because, of course, that was really the only explanation for how Sasuke, who was technically confined to Konoha, could have ended up in the hospital. I didn't know what story Sasuke had come up with to explain his injuries or if he'd issued a blanket 'classified.' I glanced at him to see whether he'd chime in with a few choice remarks to let me in on the cover story.

When he didn't, I coughed as though covering a laugh. "Nah, Sasuke just pulled a Naruto—"

"I did not pull a Naruto."

"—but without the massive chakra reserves to back it up. He made some pretty lights in the sky, though," I added glibly. "And a giraffe of all things. I could hardly believe my eyes."

"Lightning Release: Kirin," Sasuke growled, "utilizes lightning and ambient electricity, which combines with my chakra to release a devastating attack of unmatched speed. Its strike radius varies according to my direction, granting the technique both power and adaptability. The giraffe—"

I snorted. Kiba chortled, and Hinata's mouth looked a little wobbly.

"—is, in fact, a kirin, hence the name. Did you not see the horns? The kirin is a deity, and therefore—"

"A 'super cool jutsu,'" I quipped. "Naruto would be proud or he would if you'd, y'know, hit your target."

Sasuke looked ready to throttle me, which was entirely justified. After all, I was the one whose butt he was saving by tossing around potentially S-rank jutsu. Or attempting to. He'd flubbed it, and the jutsu had fizzled.

"When, um," Hinata began, coloring. "That is, I wondered if Naruto-kun would return early with…things being as they are."

"I haven't heard anything like that," I replied. It was a fair question. We were at war, and Jiraiya, our strongest fighter, was wandering the Elemental Nations training Naruto and spying for Konoha and probably writing and spying on women. Arguably not the greatest use of his abilities. At the same time…we had more enemies than just Cloud.

"When he does, think he'll get sent out?" asked Kiba with a furrowed brow.

Ah, hell. I'd brought Naruto into the conversation as a deflection, but now they were rushing full steam ahead into a worse discussion. Hidden Cloud had made no secret of their jinchurikis' potential in the war, so it was a reasonable thought that Konoha would do the same. Wasn't gonna happen, though, not with Akatsuki on the prowl. The outright hostilities among the Five Nations would surely play to their advantage, and my friends, my family would pay the price.

Apart from Team Gai, Sakura had been the first of us to get called to the war zone. On paper, it made sense. A hugely talented medic in need of practical experience. Not a clan heir, not affiliated with a clan at all in fact, therefore not a mouth-watering target, especially not when she remained cloistered behind Konoha's lines.

One more decent medic is a hundred ninja who don't die, Tsunade had said. So Sakura, who was far more than merely 'decent,' would be invaluable at the front, and soon enough, far sooner than I was ready for, the rest of us would follow her.

"I doubt it," Sasuke replied. "Unless he has real control over his chakra, all of his chakra, and that's never been his forte. Unlike me. And that very distinction is more evidence to the fact that I didn't pull a Naruto."

"Shame," I said. "I meant it as a compliment. Mostly."

He huffed.

I smiled.

Kiba stood and stretched. "We'll head out then."

We moved past each other. As I turned back to wave goodbye, Kiba's hands awkwardly stopped whatever they were doing and went to the back of his head in a Naruto-esque gesture. A quick glance at Sasuke let me catch the tail end of a murderous glare.

My eyes ping-ponged back and forth once more, but they seem to have gotten over their weird moment and had no intention of sharing. Kiba whistled his way out the door. That was fine—perfectly fine, because they'd given me an idea I now shuffled around my brain. It had a single, inevitable conclusion: I should invent ping-pong.

I'd never heard of it in this world. It would be simple to create, though the ball couldn't be the hollow, plastic thing from Before; it'd get wrecked with a single hit from a ninja. Rubber would be too bouncy while metal would hit the wooden table with a crack like a gunshot. Not a great idea around jumpy ninja. Same for denser, stronger plastic. Back to rubber then. A thin layer of rubber with a metal core for integrity and weight. I'd have to test various layers of thickness, but it seemed doable.

The room was silent for a good long minute after those two left. Then Sasuke cleared his throat. "Tsunade said the others are recovering."

Pulling myself out of planning mode, I nodded. "He'll be combat-ready within a week or two. Her physical therapy will take a while longer. I haven't visited them…"

Because I don't actually know who they are, went unsaid.

Sasuke turned his face away. It was a familiar look.

"It's not your fault," I said softly.

Sasuke's knuckles whitened as he fisted the bed sheet. "He knew who I was." Yeah, that revelation had made Tsunade grim indeed. "He knew about the mission. Now he knows about you, too. 'A particular nuisance,' he said."

I shrugged. "We were always going to come up against him again, and sure, it was nice to be underestimated, but not a whole lot has changed."

"Except now, he'll target you," Sasuke said harshly. The harshness was all for himself.

"We're safe in Konoha."

"We're stuck in Konoha. You're grounded, too."

"That's not your fault either. Besides, as Tsunade kindly reminded me, we've got a report due in two months. Plenty to keep us busy."

Sasuke sighed and fell back on his pillows. "Why won't you just get mad at me?"

"Would that make you feel better?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

I pulled out the shogi board. "If you're looking for a beat down, I'll oblige."

He groaned but obediently sat upright and helped place the pieces. We played about a quarter of the game, and it was clear Sasuke's head wasn't in it.

Sasuke fingered a pawn and didn't place it on a tile. "What do you think he meant?" he finally said. "About Konoha and…?"

Raising my gaze, I thought back to Orochimaru's words, how they had chilled me to my core. Still did, in fact.

I told Sasuke the truth.

A truth.

"I think he would have said anything to mess with your head."

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