Her Mask (Shikamaru x Oc)

Chapter Thirty-One

Ino was not happy.

Not one bit.

“Why? A sword? That’s not romantic at all!”

She squished her cheeks together and shook her head as she scolded Shikamaru. 

“What were you thinking?! You could have gotten her anything! Flowers, Chocolates, hell, even a bottle of nail polish would’ve been so much better!”

Shikamaru had long since stopped listening to the Yamanaka he wanted so bad to bash his head against the table just to get her to stop talking but even that seemed like too much work.

It was Asuma’s idea to go to the restaurant in the first place but Choji just had to go and mention that he gave Shingami a little something.

Asuma was amused, to say the least, Ino was taking Shikamaru’s kind gesture towards Shingami very seriously. Claiming that the only way to win a girl’s heart over was by being romantic.

Choji felt a little bad that his little remark got Shikamaru a whole damn lecture. But hey, shit happens.

After what seemed like forever Ino finally settled down and grumbled from time to time while she ate her barbeque pork. Shikamaru hadn’t touched his food and was falling asleep at the table, Asuma nudged his shoulder slightly making the Nara look at him but other than that he didn’t move.

“Well, if it means anything to you, I think you did something good.” He took a bite of his food before continuing. “Shingami had that sword for years, my father gave it to her when she came to the village.”The man sighed. “She loved that old thing.”

Ino looked up from her plate. “Was she close to Lord third?”

Asuma shrugged. “Shingami respected him but I can’t speak for her.”

Choji scarfed down the rest of his plate then spoke up. “When Shingami went to Shikamaru’s house, she’d said that she was surprised that the council hadn’t blamed her for lord third’s death. Why would she think that?”

Ino looked a little surprised, she had overheard a conversation between her father and one of the councilors. The councilman had been trying to get dirt on Shingami but her father wouldn’t tell him anything.

Asuma exhaled through his nose. “The council has always had it out for her, that’s all I can say.”

It got quiet at the table until Shikamaru spoke directed at Ino. “I got her a sword because I knew she needed one and that it was something that she’d like.” And under his breath, he muttered. “Troublesome woman.”

________________

Shingami stood there with her arms crossed.

Her clothes were covered in ash and were charred. She’d assumed that she had gotten most, if not all of Anko’s paper bombs.

But she was wrong.

So very wrong…

How Anko hid over a hundred on her body no one would ever know.

But unfortunately, that was the case.

Genma was trying to brush off all the dirt on his clothes that had flown at him.

Word of warning.

Simple missions with Anko never are simple.

She just makes things difficult so that it’s ‘more fun’ according to her.

Shingami nudged a corpse away with her foot that was blown right into the tree that she was standing in with a sigh.

Genma was lucky enough to be in a different tree.

Both of them were just watching Anko from a distance not wanting to deal with her as she shouted profanities at a handful of rogues that her other two teammates let her deal with.

The mission started out pretty normal until Anko discovered that the bombs in her kunai pouch were gone.

She wasn’t mad or anything like that, all she did was pull out more making everyone’s life in their proximity a living hell.

“How long do you think this is gonna take, Shingami?” Genma groaned.

The girl’s magenta eyes scanned the scene. “A while, I’m guessing.”

“We don’t have all day.” He said as he sat down and after a while, he turned to look at Shingami, when he did he nearly choked on his own spit.

She was reading the same bright orange book that Kakashi always had his nose in.

“Shingami, what the fuck?!”

She looked over to him. “What?”

He stood up and pointed wildly at the book in the girl’s hands. “That! Why do you have that book!?”

The girl was a tad bit confused. “I wanted to read?”

Genma almost fell out of the tree he was standing when a paper bomb was set off at the trunk he jumped into the tree Shingami was in as it crashed down to the forest floor.

“It’s written porn!”

The girl blinked a few times then went back to reading. “Okay.”

Genma facepalmed. “‘Okay’? That’s all you have to say?”

She didn’t answer him so he just sat down next to her on the side where there wasn’t any blood.

He looked at the page she was on and shook his head. He also noticed that it was his copy of the book which made him check his pouch feeling it was gone.

“If you're wondering, I took it last night while you were sleeping.”

“Why?”

“Ibiki wouldn’t get me a copy.”

He groaned again but shut up real quick when Anko blew up the trunk of the tree they were both sitting on.