Slowly, Kurenai takes in the sight of a tan boy with blond spiky hair and deep baby-blue eyes. 'You' her irately mind narrows in on. He missed sessions when he had no right to. He's at her front door when he has no right to.
He smiles at her when he has no right to. With angered fueled recognition, she allows herself a moment of selfishness; a moment of release of the poisonous anger her character and virtues always keeps in check.
Looking at Naruto, remembering Hinata-chan dismay for canceling the last two sessions, thinking of her father, it was easytoo easyto let go of the anxious rage bubbling within her.
"Yo!" Naruto calls with half a smile, and Kurenai felt body move, as if detached from her will, with a single-minded purpose to attack and destroy the source of her scorn. With the speed of a first-rate Jnin, Kurenai punched the unsuspecting boy, hard, in the nose.
She felt the satisfying crunch of a broken nose as she sent him back several feet. It was the only sound in the cold night of her neighborhood. Landing hard, his hands are already covering his bleeding nose as he rolls to a stop.
She walks calmly toward him, devoid of sympathy, regret, or hesitation, as he awkwardly yells, "whaa da phluck!" As he gets up, Kurenai kicks him with all her considerable strength in the stomach, knocking all the oxygen out of his lungs as he flies through her picket fence onto the hard deserted street.
He rolls to a stop and his desperate hands feebly fixates on painful wounds no amount of rubbing would ease.
Still walking towards him, patient as the setting sun, she watches him gasping for air through his bloodied mouth clutching at his stomach with both arms until he finally notices her approachher face, in particular. Naruto forces his feet under him and decides to run rather than fight.
Like a bolt from an arrow, he dashes away as fast as he can until he feels an immensely sharp pain rapidly spreading from the back his thigh throughout his body, making him trip than tumble through the dirt floor.
Adrenaline gathers his baring and when he awkwardly looks to the back of his left thigh, he sees a kunai sticking out. Turning to the fierce Jnin, still calmly walking toward him, still making that face, he grits his teeth, grabs the kunai's handle and yanks it out before fleeing.
Thankfully she doesn't pursue him, and Naruto doesn't stop running until he reaches his apartment. Unsure of what to make of what happened, he throws himself into bed and burrows himself in his sheets.
Kurenai returns to her home, to the sake bottle on the kitchen counter, and drinks the night and her worries away.
"Which teammate?" Ino cautiously asks, hoping to Kami Sasuke-kun didn't care.
"The blond one," Mebuki replies with a crinkle of her nose, as if smelling a foul odor, allowing Ino to release a relieved breath she didn't know she was holding in.
"Well, I know I haven't been by in a while but I think maybe a female friend will do the trick," Ino alleges with a bright smile. Mebuki returns the smile and allows Ino in before going upstairs.
As Ino had anticipated, Sakura was 'well enough' to see her, and a few minutes later, Mebuki leaves a tray of tea and biscuits on Sakura's desk. "I can handle that Mebuki-san," Ino tells the older blond, taking the kettle and pouring two cups.
"If you need anything else, I'll be in the kitchen," the mother tells them as she leaves.
The silence in the room is staggering, but it doesn't bother Ino in the slightest. She takes the cups and extends one to Sakura. This is a basic test Ino uses to gauge where to begin, and Sakura is smart enough to know taking the cup isn't just polite but to some extent, submissive.
While not a rule anyone should simply assume, it is a decent indication where they both stand.
One of them will be the submissive, the unresistant, the tame, and the other will be the dominant, the assertive, the lead, because if they're both assertive about their positions, the probability of things spiraling out of control is high.
With the pictures in Ino's possession, Sakura's predicament can easily turn into something worse; something the green-eyed beauty would never be able to live down...
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/Black_Zetsu
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