Luminous

Chapter 7

Shisui tugged at his shirt, lips twitching down into a small frown. Lack of the constant weight of his trusty tanto on his shoulder made him feel naked, vulnerable in ways that made him deeply uncomfortable.

Civilian clothing sucked.

Obito and Rin—those damn meddlers—at least let him keep a few hidden kunai. Shisui even sneaked in a good length of ninja wire. Date or not, there was no way he was going out of his apartment completely unarmed.

Such was the life of a ninja.

Shisui readjusted and tugged at his shirt again in uncomfortable motion. Blue and orange were his cousin's colors, not his. Damn that Obito. He could only hope now that Naruto would not think that he looked ridiculous.

Noticing a figure in the black-orange kimono dress among the crowd, Shisui forced himself to stop fidgeting.

A moment later, Naruto spotted the lone Uchiha standing under the tree and broke into a grin that could light up the night. Red strands cascaded down her shoulders like molten fire. It was cut a little shorter around her face, feathered to accentuate her delicate features. And her eyes shined in million shades of blue, those different hues the envy of any summer day.

If Shisui wouldn't have been already completely smitten, it would have changed right now.

As Naruto approached, her eyes moved up and down the Uchiha's body. "I like the orange," she commented, a smile growing only wider. "It suits you."

Alright, Shisui had to admit, Obito's choice of color wasn't that bad after all. Still, "Really?" he asked as he gave an impatient tug at the corner of his shirt.

"Yep," the redhead popped 'p'. "Sasuke looked so silly when I forced him to wear it that one time. You though? You look good."

Shisui blinked. "Sasuke?"

"Sasuke back from my world. We were teammates." Naruto's expression grew wistful. "I adopted him as my older brother and, despite his initial reluctance, he took that role pretty seriously." Seeing a confused expression on the Uchiha's face, she hurried to explain, "Our timelines are not in sync, mine was almost a decade ahead."

"So, it's not just crossing dimensions but also time travel?" Shisui asked. "Do you ever do something simple?"

"I try!" Naruto huffed, clearly miffed. "Not my fault that things often get out of hand, 'ttebane."

Shisui laughed at that. "Oh," he said. "I have something for you." He shoved a hand into his pants' pocket and pulled out a small hairpin with a ceramic sunflower attached to its end. "I know it's nothing special, but, um..." His smile suddenly turned nervous. Why did he decide that such a silly gift would be good for this occasion? "I saw it and thought you might like it."

Naruto picked the hairpin and stared at it. "I love it!" she exclaimed before quickly clipping it into her hair and beaming straight at the Uchiha. "How do I look?"

"Very pretty." The warm glow of happiness on Naruto's face brought by his honest compliment made Shisui's heart flutter. "Shall we go?"

"Where are we going?"

"Well, I was thinking somewhere to eat..." the teen trailed off when Naruto's head snapped to look at him. He could almost see that one particular word imprinted in her eyes. "...Like ramen?"

The redhead fist pumped the air with a cheerful, "Yeah!"

Shisui could only shake his head in exasperation. Just his luck to find another person obsessed with a specific food. Good thing that he wasn't all that fussy about his meals, be it dango or ramen.