Trying to Kill Each Other Doesn't Count as Flirting (or Does it?)

Chapter 11

Two weeks later, (F/N) received an invitation from Princess Soyo. She said she'd received permission from her brother and the Mimawarigumi to hold a slumber party at the palace, and (F/N) was invited.

Her parents were all too happy to allow her to go after hearing the mystery 'friend' she'd been talking about was the princess, and (F/N) knew they were probably thinking that the palace was the single safest place to be at the moment, though (F/N) wasn't so sure.

While (F/N) and Soyo had told Sougo he was welcome to come to the party, he politely declined, and said he would come to pick (F/N) up at ten o'clock the next morning. In spite of herself, (F/N) found she was quite disappointed. She would have loved to experiment with shoving various spicy substances up his nose again.

Come to think of it, that was probably the reason he chose not to stay.

Once Sougo had left, Soyo introduced (F/N) to the other guests. Kagura, she already knew, but there were two new faces: Mimawarigumi Vice-Chief Imai Nobume, and Sarutobi Ayame, a ninja who was an acquaintance of Soyo's through being a member of the Oniwabanshuu.

"So," Soyo said, plopping down in the middle of her futon, "I just thought of something. What do people do at slumber parties, anyway?"

Everyone fell silent.

"I...haven't really had friends before now..." (F/N) muttered.

"Neither have I," Nobume replied.

"Me neither," Kagura added.

"Most of my friends growing up were boys..." Sarutobi admitted.

"Huh..." Princess Soyo thought for a moment. "Well, we can start with the obvious, then! Let's talk about boys we like!"

Let's not!

But it was too late. Sarutobi had already started.

"I'll go first! I like Gin-san!"

"Gin-san?" (F/N) echoed. "Wait a minute...Kagura-chan, isn't that the name of your earth-dad?"

"Yeah," Kagura muttered. "This ninja lady's been stalking him for a while now."

"Excuse me! Stalking is a strong word, I'm just—"

"Now then," Soyo interrupted. "(F/N)-chan, why don't you go next?"

(F/N) sighed. Seriously, why did they have to be so childish?

"I don't like anyone," she muttered, spinning a kunai around on her finger. "Now how about—"

"Oh?" Soyo said. "But don't you like Okita-san?"

The kunai flew off her finger and landed not far from Sarutobi's head.

"What—what are you talking about?" (F/N) stuttered. "There's no way I would like that idiot!"

"Yeah!" Kagura snapped. "(F/N)-chan has way better taste than that!"

"Really?" Soyo asked. "But the other day, you kept whispering things in his ear to make him blush."

"That is completely unrelated to this conversation!" (F/N) shouted. "It's—it's just a prank I play on him, that's all—"

"You're blushing a lot," Nobume commented, licking doughnut crumbs off her fingers.

"That is also completely unrelated!" (F/N) snapped. She stood up, and stalked across the room, pulling her kunai out of the wall with a tug. "This is completely ridiculous! There is no way I would ever like that—"