Chapter 3 : Time before the Summoning

Nomaru gave the boy a bit of a puzzled look. Definitely one of them pretty boys, tall, cool attitude and to top that a big black dog (or wolf, as some might call the creature) which gave him more of the 'chickmagnet' thing as it already was. Oh, and the dog could talk. Fabulous.
Not as impressed by the boy and his dog as she probably should be she just raised an eyebrow. Something she did quite often today. 'Oh really? I shouldn't smoke?' she said with a fake surprised tone. Nomaru gave him the same cocky grin he was giving her. 'Well, I am pretty much on the edge of dead already becoming a Genin, you are most definitely not my dad...' Nomaru smiled. She knew she didn't really look 14 as it wasn't for how short she was. Around the chest area she already had pretty much a thing going since she was 12 on and her hips were already well-formed too. If she wouldn't dress in tomboyish clothes she could get most men to do a lot of things, as she already did in the war. The soldiers where the reason she always could get enough cigarettes. 'And you are absolutely most definitely not my boyfriend so I don't think you're obligated to educate me on this matter, but who knows. Maybe if you buy me a drink some time...' as she said this Nomaru would give Inuzuka a sexy, almost irresistible smile and walked passed the boy. 'I doupt you have the guts to ask me though.' From her pocket she grabbed the package of cigarettes and was about to get herself a new smoke.

For fucks sake, what is it with people and annoying behavior today? Nomaru thought with some kind of irritated look on her face. She could just go home and steal another package from her father. It's what she'd been doing since the war had stopped. 'Or I could say fuck you and your annoying fuckface, pretty boy.... but I won't.' She fell silent for a bit, still trying to decide what to do. He was definitely stronger than she was, if not a hell of a lot stronger. She remembered the people talk about some legendary fight he preformed. 'Is this how you normally get girls in your bed? By challenging them to a fight?'
Nomaru was going over her options. Walking away and being called a crybaby wasn't much of an issue, but not being able to smoke meant going home to steal some more ciggies from her dad, which meant going back home. Which meant facing her parents again, something she usually tried to avoid as much as possible. That meant or stealing from the shop or actually sparring with him.

She rolled with her eyes and put her hands in the pockets of her shorts. With a big, slightly lazy attitude she signed: 'Fine, I'll spar you, pretty boy.'

Nomaru bursted out in a hysterical laughter. 'Sorry, you want me to ride your dog? Bwahahahaha!!!' She didn't really care about being on time for the sumoning, but never rode any animal. She sat on a horse once, which had ended up pretty bad for her by falling on her face as she tried to get back on the ground. As abrupt as she had started laughing she stopped and said: 'Why not.' Nomaru hopped on the creatures back. 'Now what?'

Tenshi looked behind her. Sakena had been her support for as long as she knew.
she wiped away her tears and rose.
But why? Why is everything so though? How long do we have to suffer to be happy? I don´t ask for much. Just to be happy. And feel loved.

She looked Sakena in her eyes. It was a gaze that was hard to resist.

'Wolf, dog. No difference to me. But nice to meet you Kage.' Only Nomaru would show more respect to the pet than to his owner. She felt the arm of Faolan around her waist and was quite excited for what was about to happen. She had NO idea what to expect, but it would be fun. That much was for sure. "Now...just hold on and remember to scream."

And scream Nomaru would. As the dog on steroids ran over the roof Nomaru would be screaming her lungs out, but it was absolutely no screaming out of fear. Tears ran over her cheeks as she laughed and felt pretty much close to a god. At some point she even dared to let go of Kages fur and just held her hands in the air. Faolan wouldn't drop her, she was pretty sure about that. When the ride was over and she had put two feet back on the ground she almost felt sorry for herself that it didn't last longer.
'That... was... O-MY-GOD... Wow... Can we do it again?!' She totally forgot her cool attitude, deep down inside there was still this little child screaming for attention.

Nomaru smiled and didn't even care that Faolan ruffled through her hair. 'Yes, that would totally be awesome Pretty Boy!' she said in excitement, which faded away quickly as Faolan told her she would be fighting the dog on steroids. She had seen how quick he was and she would stare at Faolan as he went to a tall tree just to chill the fuck out.
'Goddamnit, the dog?' Nomaru shouted at Faolan. She would kill that Pretty boy one day. Fighting a dog. He would let her fight his pet. Nomaru put herself in position to battle and simply waited. Nothing much she could do about it.

Yamanaka Flower Shop:

Ino would shake her head.
"What? You? Help out?!" The Yamanaka leader blinked and chuckled shaking her head.
"You're such a sweetheart Yorukasa-chan." The blond woman chuckled amused.
"I am glad with your offer, but I couldn't let you work today. Not with this kind of pressure going on. Can't afford for you to miss your summoning. I was just informed who your Jounin Sensei will be as well as your team but I prommised Shikamaru I wouldn't tell you guys yet." She grinned a bit teasingly.

"So you guys run along now, besides. Only 20 minutes left or so." She said shaking her head with a smile.
Soon after the woman would return to her duties at the store.

Hearing Nomaru he turned around the corner and yelled after her. "I heard that Kui san!! He headed back in and sighed "Sheesh just cause she's smart and unmotivated doesn't mean other people can have some ambition..."
Receiving the scrolls Shikataro started reading the instructions and eyeballing it all corners. "So how do you change its timer? Is it done before the summoning and it's already armed or does it need to be armed and set when it's summoned?" He asked Kankurou. This was a really usefull invention, there were surely ways to incorporate into his strategies.
Hearing Ino's remark his lips curled a bit unpleased. "Just like my old man to keep good info behind. You ready to go Yoru chan?"

Mana looked at her new headband, the sign that she had passed the test and moved on in her career in her father's footsteps. Despite not being the early prodigy that he was, she wanted to let him know that she had passed. She made her way inside their family home, being mostly empty. "Dad? You home?" she called out, deciding that she wasn't going to go on a wild goose chase to find him, since he had a way of showing up where you would least expect him.

As Faolan was leaning against the tree bugs would appear in front of his face going back and forth in different shapes.

Tenshi indeed had a lot to think about. But first she would go back to the village. There was little time left before the Summoning. Maybe she would find Nomaru on the way so she could apologize for her behavior. She started running again, only this time she had a goal.

Nomaru didn't really understand what happened, but when she saw Faolan disappearing into thin air but it probably was important. Nomaru wasn't really impressed and as she grabbed her cigarettes from the ground and yelled: 'YOU'RE A WANKER, PRETTY BOY!' Nomaru lit a cigarette and enjoyed the nicotine. She probably had some minutes left to enjoy her free time. It would take her some time to get to the school, but she just walked back into town.

As Mana entered her house and called out for her father it would be quite at first. Then she would hear voices upstairs talking. She would soon be able to hear them more clearly. A woman's voice that seemed familiar as well as that of her father.
"Thank you for the heads up, this is pretty bad indeed. But you shouldn't have to take such a risk appearing here like this. There must have been another way to contact me." Her father spoke,

"Perhaps, but I am currently unsure who I can fully trust with this information. And you are one of the more loyal and understanding shinobi of this Village. In fact I trust you to keep orders more so than even Itachi himself." The female voice replied before adding in a deeper more serious tone.
"And I really need your help."

"I understand, but I cannot leave my Clan right now as it is. Mana is strong, but she is still too young and not ready yet to carry this burden." Kakashi sighed a bit.
The woman sighed as well in return, a deep sigh of worry and discontent she gave into.
"I know. I know. We'll just have to hang in there for now."
She would say before Kakashi would sniff the air a bit. Soon Mana would feel a light breeze pass her and she would be unable to smell the woman's presence any longer. She was gone.
Her father would come walking down the stairs with a bit of a fake smile to hide his nervousness, he hoped she didn't hear any of that.
"Mana-chan! Welcome home! How did your graduation go?" He said keeping his eye closed.

She looked around, no answer, she delved deeper inside the house. Surely he would have heard her, but his lack of a response probably meant that he wasn't home. The young girl was about to turn and leave before she heard the conversation. Though she couldn't tell who the woman was, it seemed like a familiar voice somehow. Her name being mentioned about a burden that she couldn't carry... It was all very odd to her, a little worrying even. Still naively thinking her father told her everything maybe.

Mana ignored strange breeze she looked to her father curiously, holding the headband she had earned in her hands. "It went well, I passed" she smiled, despite the lack of eye-contact she hoped he'd be a little proud.. "I uh... heard you talking just then, who was that? What burden? and who was that Woman" she questioned, lying wouldn't do him any good now after all.

Hatake Compound

Kakashi was pleased hearing Mana had passed.
"Well that's nice to hear. But I wasn't doubting the fact you'd graduate. I was asking how it went as more of a way to ask if you had fun." he said opening his eye to look at her.

But then her dreadful question came as her father's eyes would turn serious. He would give his daughter a strict look narrowing his eyes a bit. A mix of firmness and worry in his tone as he replied slowly and softly. "You were not supposed to hear that." he said and then paused for a moment before he would continue to answer It was someone from ANBU with a mission for me. A rather dangerous mission, so I declined." he sighed deeply closing his eye again and hanging his shoulders.