A strange new life

7.9 – The real one

“Is he your boyfriend?”

I scowled, looked at Karin like she’d grown a second head. How did all the awkwardness in the living room give her the impression I had anything going on with Sasuke? Was it the hug? It was the hug, wasn’t it?

We were in the kitchen preparing more refreshments and pastries. No, I was here fleeing from the embarrassing. Karin had followed me to ask horror inducing questions.

The redhead walked to my side, bumped shoulders with me. “That Hyuga girl?” She whispered.

I looked at her, confused. What was she talking about? Then, memory hit me. That day in the forest, soon after we escaped. Hadn’t she asked something similar? I nodded, then shrugged. Threads wrote my message. “It was a long time ago.”

“What happened?”

My hands stopped, shoulders slumped. I didn’t want to talk about it, at least not now. “Later?”

Karin looked at the words I wrote, nodded. She gave me a sort of one-arm hug that I leaned into. Couldn’t this day just end? I needed time to breathe, to recharge, to untangle my thoughts before I drowned in all these interactions. I wasn’t myself right now, and people kept pushing me into social situations I had no defense against.

I took a deep breath. I was a badass strong kunoichi. I could survive some emotional torture. I just needed to endure a while longer before I could flee, go meet Best Girl Ino. Maybe I’d have some peace and quiet there. Maybe snuggling a cute blondie.

Ugh, I hated feeling this vulnerable and needy. I felt like a stranger inside my own mind.

“Are you alright?” Karin whispered.

I nodded, wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. It was time to face the worst kind of battle.

The living room was a mix of moody silence and cringe tension.

On one side sat Dark and Brooding, casting signature brooding looks at Konoha’s Green Beautiful Beast. On another, the Handsome Devil alternated between looking at Sasuke, Sakura, and the kitchen where I had fled.

Maybe worse was Sakura, who sat between the two. She didn’t know what to do with herself and her hands, like she’d been caught snogging her best friend’s boyfriend behind the shed. It made no sense at all.

With one glance, I knew that if I didn’t do anything, everyone would suffer the cringe until a bomb exploded and put us all out of our misery. I placed the new round of pastries and juice on the table, then pulled chairs for me and Karin.

I popped my board, wrote words. “How have you been Sasuke-kun?” That was a safe enough question to start things.

Emosuke looked at my board and the room as if the other’s presence was an issue. Ugh, what was his deal now? Why was he always so hard to deal with? Maybe something showed on my face, or maybe he finally noticed the unusually long silence since I asked my question.

“Training with Itachi,” Sasuke said, then added. “Doing boring D-rank missions inside the village since Kakashi, you, and Naruto were busy.”

Huh, well, that was a normal answer?

“What happened?” Sasuke asked before I could do anything else. “The only thing I’ve been told is that you went missing in action.”

I was guessing this wouldn’t be the first or last time I would repeat this story, so I wrote words.

“Well, it all started when I was promoted to chunin.” I showed the board.

“You’re a chunin?” “You were promoted?” “You never told me that!”

Sakura, Lee, and Karin all spoke at the same time. Yeah, this was going to take a while.

After the recounting started, things went much smoother than expected. Even Karin, who had participated in most of the journey, seemed interested in reading my side of events. I did skip a few things.

I told them about the chimera we fought but skipped the clones. I also told them about the research data being stolen, but I didn’t elaborate on my plan to steal it myself before it was stolen.

“Flying Thunder God? The Yondaime jutsu?” Rock Lee gasped.

After much peer pressure and against my best judgment, I created the wood beacon. “Black Thunder!” I protested, but no one paid attention.

The kunai passed from hand to hand like it was a shiny new toy or something.

“Can you do it?” He asked, eyes shining in anticipation.

I hated that I couldn't do what he asked. I shook my head. A bit of red touching my ears.

“Why?” It was Sasuke this time.

“It’s not complete,” I wrote, then wrote more. “When I use it, it just takes me, not my earthly possessions.”

There was a moment of silence before Karin gasped.

“That’s why you were naked?”

I scowled. Really, Karin? She was doing this on purpose, wasn’t she?

“What?” “What are you talking about?”

The redhead did look a bit sheepish, bombarded by questions.

“Well, when Hinata-chan escaped from her cell, she wasn’t wearing anything at all. She killed a bunch of shinobi and then just walked back inside the cells like it was the most normal thing in the world. I just thought she liked to fight naked or something.”

I facepalmed. Sakura looked horrified. Rock Lee’s eyes shone. He looked inspired for some reason. Worst of all was Sasuke’s barely there blush. Oh, please, spare me.

Things went on like that for a while longer, with Karin always trying to inject some levity into the situation, even though most of the time, it was at the cost of saying something I had done that, in hindsight, was embarrassing as hell.

I did notice that yes, it was on purpose. Was she trying to distract me? I mean, it was working. Being embarrassed was way better than emotionally traumatized. I guess I could let her off the hook just this once.

My pastries were almost depleted, and the living room was a mess. Sakura and Rock Lee had already left, and Karin somehow had made herself scarce inside my three-room apartment. How she managed that was a mystery. That left me with Emosuke, who had wanted to say something for a while but couldn’t seem to find the words.

“What is it, Sasuke-kun?” I asked gently.

It was selfish of me, but I wanted him gone. I enjoyed seeing him, and the afternoon of talking was nice, good even, but I still had an Ino to appease and sweets to deliver. Between Sasuke and Ino, there was no need to even guess.

“Mom wanted me to invite you for dinner,” he said, finally.

I tilted my head. As far as I know, this was the first time Sasuke invited someone to visit his house.

Was this why he’d been acting so strange? I could even guess why the Uchiha were inviting me for dinner.

Shisui had said Itachi wanted to talk regarding all that political fallout. I wasn’t sure why a noble shinobi family like the Uchiha would wish to support an outcast like me. And I was curious about how things were going for the Uchiha with all the changes from how canon things were supposed to go.

I nodded, wrote words. “Should we invite Naruto and Kakashi-sensei as well? Make it a team seven thing?”

Sasuke looked at the words, then shrugged. “That’s fine. I think Mom wants to talk with you after dinner.”

Not Itachi? He was, what, fifteen? He might be acting as clan head, but maybe Mikoto was pulling the strings. That was a real possibility. I didn’t know Mikoto’s character. My sole interaction with her was that one meeting at the hospital.

“Three days from now?”

Sasuke nodded. There was this brief moment of silence when I thought he might say or do something else, but he got up.

“Meet here at sunset?” He asked.

I nodded, wrote more. “I’ll invite Naruto-kun and Kakashi-sensei.”

Sasuke nodded again. I walked him to the door, waved him goodbye. Somehow, Karin reappeared between me walking him to the door and waving him off. From where, I had no idea. I took one look at her, the gleam in her eyes, the barely contained smirk.

“Nope!” I said. Ran out of the apartment, closed the door behind me. I had sweets to deliver. Karin could hold in whatever that was for a little while longer.