Watch Them Dance (Naruto fan fiction)

My Love of Windows

Chapter 3: My Love of Windows

Word count: 2002

Manga chapters: none

"'Them'? Naruto, what on earth are you talking about?" A woman with blonde hair on the opposite side of the room asked, sitting behind her desk which was decorated with mountains of paper work. Her office was decently spacious, but smaller than I'd expected. Aside from the desk there weren't any pieces of furniture, instead the remaining space was decorated with books and folders stacked into enormous piles. They looked surprisingly sturdy.

"Shikamaru and this girl called Ayako, he managed to find her somewhere. Ask either of them about it." Naruto was being surprisingly familiar with the village hokage and I had to wonder how it was so. How had he grown close to her? It appeared as though I'd be waiting a long while for the answer to that question.

All eyes had turned to me and I hastily bowed, stumbling as I straightened and stifled a cough. Shimo's weight on my shoulder wasn't really helping my recovery. Shikamaru noticed my struggle and was quick to come to my aid, attempting to support me with his hand around my elbow. I smiled in thanks and turned my attention back to the hokage, Lady Tsunade.

"Hello, ma'am, I'm Ayako." I paused for a moment and took in more of the situation. Tsunade was jumping between looking at myself, the other members in the room and the papers in her hands. "I didn't plan on intruding so I can wait outside, if you'd be happy to spare me a moment later."

The hokage spent a long second looking me over. Then, she spoke, "that'd be appreciated. This might take a while, but if you're still around when it's done I'll see you."

I uttered a quick agreement and dashed out of the room, Shimo now within my grasp. With the door closed I released an enormous breath of air and lent against its wood, still sore from my earlier fall. Shimo rubbed her nose against my chin.

With my breath caught I moved to the wall opposite and sat on the ground, placing Shimo next to me and preparing to play with her.

That's how I passed the time in the end. There was little noise which emanated from the room and absolutely not foot traffic in the corridor.

Occasionally I'd hear the voice of the Naruto figure shouting about the unknown. Our waiting time grew so long that I'd retrieved one of the two toys always in my possession by the end, a small stick with a feather attached to the end. I was entertaining both Shimo and myself with it, the former chasing the contraption as I dangled the toy before her or attempted to swat it away when I tickled her stomach.

I was chuckling when the door to Tsunade's office opened and Shikamaru stepped out. He offered me a smile which I returned.

"She's ready for you. Naruto's already left, through the window," he clarified when I threw him a questioning look. "It'll just be you three -" Shikamaru looked to Shimo, "in there."

"Alright, thanks." My walk faltered as I rose and moved away, neither the exhaustion nor the prospect of an authority figure very motivating. Still, I walked in.

"Lady Tsunade," I offered in greeting.

"Ah, Ayako," Tsunade was still seated, her head just visible behind all the papers. "You want to talk to me about leaving, correct?"

"Yes,"

"Can you tell me your story first?"

"I'm a traveller and, well, I passed out at your gate after taking a few wrong turns." I moved to one of the book stacks in the room, slumping forwards on it and gently placing Shimo on my legs, somehow I was balancing on the rickety books. I think I even impressed Tsunade with the ability. "I don't really stay still, this is more of a pit stop to me than anything else."

Tsunade regarded my answer for several seconds, "I don't see too much of an issue with your exit, however, there is a black card; your hospital bill. It's not high, but it is there. Once you've paid it you can leave." She handed me one of the papers before her and I looked to the figure at the bottom. My eyes widened a little.

It's not awful, but man, I wasn't expecting this.

When I didn't immediately react she spoke again. "If you have issues with money there are a few options, you're a ninja of chuunin rank, I won't forget that. I can get someone to contact you once there's a possible position within the village for you."

"Thank you, just, how long will it take, do you think?" It took Lady Tsunade a minute to respond, one where she spent the time looking over three sheets of paper.

"It certainly won't be more than a week for you to get a job. In the mean time we have several cheap places for accommodation."

After a moment, my fingers running through the upper fur of Shimo's coat, I stood and bowed, offering her my thanks. "I'll have Shizune contact you when the time comes."

I guess I'll meet this Shizune then too . . . 

~

I found Shikamaru roughly four minutes after walking out of the hokage's office, the ninja wondering the entrance to the building. He produced a smile when he noticed me. "You're out. How'd it go?"

"Well enough. But I'm eager to get back outside."

"Don't spend too much time inside, huh?"

"No, not really. I've spent the last eight years mainly outdoors. Speaking of, do you have anywhere interesting I could go?" Shikamaru held to front door open for me as we exited. I nodded in thanks.

"A few, but I'm afraid I don't have much time to spend with you today, I actually need to meet up with my team." My attention peaked a little then.

"Your team? You're part of a ninja squad?" Shikamaru repeated my earlier head movement. I jarred my body then, coming to a stop as I remembered my earlier conversation. "Oh, I was meant to ask if you know of easy accomidation? The hokage mentioned it eariler, but didn't give me many details."

Shikamaru thought for a moment, "actually, yes, I think I do. I should have enough time to show it to you. How long are you staying at the village, by the way?"

"I have to pay my hospital bills, so, until then. I'm looking at - at least a week, probably two."

"This place will most likely work for you, then." Shimo was lazily walking between Shikamaru and I, my eyes trailing her movements. "Follow me."

"Lead the way."

~~~

Okay, so this is the third chapter I wrote from scratch tonight, hope it pleases anyone reading. By the way that's approximately four thousand words! As always enjoy and please vote.

I'm going to make sure all the chapters in this story have a minimum of one thousand words so they should be generally longer than the ones in my other story, hopefully making them a little more interesting!

Anyway, hope your life is awesome!

Gabrielle xx

~Last edit: 07/12/16~