Her Mask (Shikamaru x Oc)

Chapter Fourteen

Shingami was up at four in the morning exactly, the usual.

She had three hours to pack and be ready to leave with the Hokage as his guard. 

She got up instantly and grabbed her ninja clothes which consisted of her black T&I trench coat, a dark grey skin-tight long-sleeved shirt with a short black skirt to match, a pair of black ninja shoes, and a fully stocked kunai pouch.

The finally strapped her Tento onto her back for easy access. Once she had finished getting dressed she packed a storage scroll that was filled to the brim with extra clothes and other necessities that she’d need for long term missions into her kunai pouch.

She walked into Ibiki’s room and wrote down a little note and put it on Ibiki’s bed just had he had done the day before explaining that she had a mission to escort the Hokage to the Kage summit and that she’d be gone for a couple of weeks.

After she did that she walked down the stairs and opened the cabinet right next to the fridge grabbed a granola bar then moved a false panel behind a box of expired cereal bars that nobody liked to grab her bottle of food pills with a few soldier pills hidden inside ignoring Ibiki’s stash. 

She opened the granola bar and took a bite while digging through the bottle of pills digging out one of the red ones that were soldier pills and then taking a hand full of the grey food pills. She put them into a secret pocket in her kunai pouch just in case she needed them.

Once everything was all set and she ate it was five twenty. She put her mask on and left the house and walked to the Kage tower and opened the door to Hiruzen’s office only to see that he still wasn’t there. Maybe he was doing something at the last minute or he was still sleeping. After all, he was getting on in his years.

She sat in a chair off to the side of the room waiting for the Hokage to make his appearance. He didn’t show up till around seven but Shingami didn’t really care she was used to being alone, doing nothing for long periods of time.

“Sorry for making you wait Shingami, I was setting up something with the rest of the council.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Lord Third.”

The Hokage just sighed and motioned her to follow him. They walked over to the village gates in silence where team ten, seven, and an Anbu unit were in wait for their missions to begin. 

“Huh?! Shingami-Chan what are you doing with Gramps?!” Naruto’s voice ran out through the still mostly quiet village.

“I’m guarding Lord Hiruzen during the Kage Summit in the land of snow,” Shingami answered quietly in contrast to the blonde’s loudmouth.

“That’s so cool! Your gonna do great! Believe it!” He said giving her a thumbs up with an award-winning smile. 

Shingami smiled at the boy’s enthusiasm, not that anyone could see it cause of the mask. 

She looked to the rest of the group and saw Ino and Sakura talking-more like swooning over the Uchiha boy who was silently brooding.

Honestly, what did they see in that boy? He just seemed so sad and angry all the time. But Shingami could understand him. She’d been betrayed by someone close to her too. 

She then looked over and saw Shikamaru looking at her so she lifted a hand in greeting. “Good morning.”

Shikamaru yawn and muttered. “Mornings are such a drag…” 

This made Shingami smile again before she noticed an anbu in a familiar cat mask. 

“Tenzo.”

He grumbled from under his mask then corrected her. “It‘s Kinoe.”

“Whatever, Tenzo.” He just shook his head he just had this conversation with Kakashi but he was going to be stuck with the girl for the next two weeks. 

Kakashi and Asuma were talking about god knows what while the former was reading his orange book. 

They both nodded in greeting to the girl but didn’t say anything to her.

The Hokage then turned to Shingami and began explaining what was going on. “This black op unit will be joining us until we reach the border to the land snow then it will be just you and I, Teams Seven and Ten are going on two separate missions but I had assumed that you’d want to see them off.”

Shingami nodded. “I understand, Thank you, Lord Third.”

“You are most welcome, Shingami.”

Once all the teams were back in order team seven had left first heading east but not before naruto made it very clear that he still wanted to see ‘Shingami-Chan kick Kakashi-Sensei’s ass.’. Then it was Team Ten’s turn.

“We really need to have a full team training session when you get back.” Asuma said.

Shingami agreed before saying goodbye to Asuma. Ino gave her a surprise hug which made Shingami tense a little but she still accepted it. Choji gave her a bag of potato chips as a little goodbye gift so Shingami gave him one of her granola bars.

 And as for Shikamaru she playfully nudged his shoulder, like how she would with Genma, which caused him to blush and said that they should have another Shogi gaming session soon. 

Once they were gone Shingami returned her full attention to her Kage. When she did, she noticed a small smug smile was on the old man’s face. Like most times she chose not to ask about it but could also feel Tenzo’s eyes on her too.

“Shall we depart, Lord Third?” She said with a small bow of her head.

“Lead the way, Shingami.” He said gesturing for her to start walking.

It was going to be a long two weeks…