Chapter 7

"I hate Morino-sensei," Naomi whined from Muta's back. "I hope the dark waters claim his soul when he leaves this life, and he forced to his rice one grain at a time for the rest of eternity."

"He didn't even do anything today Nao-chan," I reminded her. "You're the one who twisted your ankle chasing after the kid."

"Komugi-kun was a rather vicious brat, it's no surprise he outmaneuvered you," Muta allowed, a small smirk resting on his lips. Naomi scowled and cuffed him across the back of the head. "Hey! I could allow you to walk home, Naomi-san."

"He would be well within his rights to do so," I told her mildly. "Then what would you do?"

Naomi pouted. "It's still Sensei's fault for picking out that mission."

"I'll give you that," I told her. "This makes how many D ranks since we passed our test?"

"We have accomplished twenty D-rank missions in the last month. Since passing Morino-sensei's graduation test, we have accomplished forty missions of the same rank, with twenty each month."

"It's weird that you can do that and I can't," Naomi said. "I have the Sharingan, I should be able to to remember that."

"You have the potential for the Sharingan. I have an eidetic memory," he told her primly. "You have not reached my level as of yet."

I giggled as the two continued to banter. The last two months had flown by more quickly than I thought, and the three of us had settled into an easy rhythm. Sensei had us doing slightly more D-ranks than our comrades due to his position in T&I. When he did have the time to be there with us directly, he trained us into the ground as a team. My technically correct taijutsu really hadn't cut it with him, nor had Muta's passable stamina, or Naomi's okay strength. On days when we had missions, he tended towards briefing us, the mission taking three to eight hours, and when he retrieved us debriefed us, and gave us homework for the next day.

It was a rather fun, when all was said and done.

"Inoue-chan!" I head from an unfamiliar voice behind us. Muta and I turned around, and I stepped slightly in front of them. I got to see Itachi swat the girl over the head. She pouted, and scowled at him. "What was that for, Itachi-hime?"

"Don't be so familiar with people you don't know," he said tightly. I could see Ko in the background smiling. I assumed that this was normal for those two.

"How are you guys?" Naomi asked.

"Good," Ko replied. "We just finished team training. Where are you all headed?"

"Gonna go get something to eat," I said. "Would you like to join us?"

They nodded their acquiescence. We headed to Itachi and I's favorite barbeque place, owned by uncle Chouza, chatting softly about our time since graduation. I'd barely seen Itachi, and didn't really know Okyo or Ko. It was fun and probably the most social interaction that any of us had experienced in a while. After an hour or so, we all split up, and Itachi ended up walking with me home, since Muta still wanted Naomi to get her ankle checked out at a clinic.

"What's up?" I asked him, bumping shoulders with him. He was quieter than usual.

"It's my father," he said, after a while. "He's been acting strange."

"How so?"

He huffed in frustration. "I'm not sure. I can't put my finger on it, but he's different. I can't tell if it's a good thing or not either. He's been meeting with the Elder's more often."

I winced. "I'm glad we don't have clan elders."

"Tell me about it." He sighed. "Plus, Haha-ue has been making noises about betrothals as well."

"Already?" I asked. "My parents said that they'd not talk about it with me until I reached chuunin."

"She's been trying to bring it up with Otou-san. She hasn't said anything to me yet," he admitted. "However, it still worries me. I don't want to marry some girl from the clan."

I wrinkled my nose. "That would be weird. If you had to pick, who would you chose?"

"You or Hana," he said after a moment. "I know you two pretty well, and we all get along. Okyo as well, she's pretty good at numbers, and she's taken care of her house for two years, and she can be funny when she not annoying. What about you?"

"I dunno. Maybe Hana, or Naomi. You'd be cool too."

"Those are girls Inoue," he said, looking at me in confusion.

"Yeah. I know," I said. "I like girls the way I like boys, and you have to like someone to marry them, right? Does have to be a girl if you're a boy, or a boy if you're a girl?"

He paused. "I don't know. If we're including guys, then my cousin Shisui is really nice. Also, Iwashi-senpai is really nice. But you or Hana would still be my first pick."

I shoved him lightly. "That's only cause you know that both of us can cook, and you're horrible at it."

He laughed gently, and looked up. We had stopped in front of my house. The whine of crickets stretched around us and I could only watch at Itachi leaned forward to brush soft lips against my cheek. He leaned back and smiled shyly at me.

"Itachi..." I whispered, eyes wide.

"I don't know," he said. "I just felt like it. I gave Hana one when I ran into her last week."

"Oh," I said. I didn't know what to think. "See you later?"

"Yeah," he said. "See you later."

Author's Note: Y'all, this chapter did not want get written. I'm super unsatisfied with it. I know that I've moved the plot forward, I've done things that I wanted to get done, but it just didn't come out how I wanted it to, plus I didn't manage to finish it until today. Additionally, it's holiday season here in retail, so that took up a ton of time. Fuck it, I got you all a full fledged chapter on time, I count that as a win.

So I was going have this move at a set pace as Arc One did, but fuck that. Events in the chapters will take place as necessary to move the plot. If that means Moving forward two months, then two weeks, then two days, then three months, then so be it. When this arc is over, I'll take a brief break to go through and edit and try to fix the pacing. Hopefully.

Anyway, next up date is scheduled for 12/12/2014. See ya then folks!