Raika stared at me with her deep green eyes. I wanted to jump out of the window. I was not exactly comfortable with that situation after what happened last time at the Academy, but right now it felt tempting. Unfortunately, we were too high up. I was stuck there, while Sena, Kaen, and Shisui stood behind me looking far too amused, like they were watching a stage play.
"Aren't you going to ask me in?" Raika asked in a gentle voice.
My thoughts instantly started spiraling. Why was she asking to be let in? Was she a vampire? Did vampires even exist here? Maybe chakra vampires. That somehow felt possible enough to be a real problem.
Shisui noticed my attention spinning out of control from stress and said, "Noa, it is rude to keep someone waiting like that."
I snapped out of it, sighed, and stepped aside, ushering her in with one hand.
A smile formed on her face as she walked in, and she tossed her long hair back with casual confidence while maintaining eye contact with Sena, whose hair was relatively short compared to hers. However, some of it ended up in my mouth, and I coughed as a few strands even got into my eyes as I thought, "Perfect. Absolutely perfect."
Sena looked between me and Raika for a moment before narrowing her eyes, clearly deciding who she was more angry with, then said, "Kaen, let us go. We need to start packing, and we have a lot to do."
Kaen looked like he wanted to complain. More specifically, he looked like he wanted to stay and watch this disaster unfold in person, but Sena dragged him away without mercy.
Shisui, on the other hand, had gone completely red in the face. "I... I will go too," he said. He looked around in panic, clearly searching for an excuse, then spotted the cactus and grabbed it like a lifeline. "I need to ask around about how to care for a cactus. Don't... don't destroy anything."
I narrowed my eyes and said, "What do you mea..."
Before I could even finish, he flickered out of the flat at a speed he usually reserved for lethal ambushes.
I facepalmed. My thoughts felt completely jammed together inside my skull. Then I looked back at Raika. Her eyes were moving around the flat with clear interest as I said, "I will prepare a quick dinner and be back."
She tried to say something, but I had already flickered into the kitchen, pushing my control to the limit so I would not slam into the wall by flickering over such a short distance and offering a silent prayer of thanks for Shisui's precious training.
After taking a deep breath and calming down a bit, I decided on making a simple noodle stir-fry, quick enough to give me some time to organize my thoughts without making my retreat look like a complete panic move. I tossed thin noodles into the pan with sliced chicken, onions, carrots, and green peppers, then coated everything in a light savory sauce that clung to the food without turning it into an oily mess. I added just enough garlic and spice to make the smell rich and warm, and before long it had filled the flat and made the whole place feel a little too cozy for my liking. It was not fancy, but it looked good in the bowl, with the vegetables still bright, the chicken browned properly, and steam rising from the top in slow curls.
Raika looked surprised when I walked in with the food. The smell was honestly divine, which only made me curse my own culinary skills. I placed the bowls on the table and sat down across from her. She immediately looked at the meal, then at me. "You made this yourself?" she asked. I gave her a puzzled look. "Yeah. I cook most of my team's food." Her green eyes brightened at once, and she shifted a little closer to me. I moved a little away on instinct. She grumbled under her breath, then started eating. Her eyes widened after the first bite, and then she really dug in, completely wiping the plate clean before letting out a loud burp and quickly covering her mouth in a surprisingly ladylike way. "Excuse me," she said in a shy tone. I could not help it. I laughed.
She looked a little embarrassed, but after a second she laughed too. Then her eyes wandered around the flat before she said, "After last time, I asked around, and it turns out you, your sensei, and that Uchiha all live in the same flat. Why does it not feel like an all-boys flat?" I grimaced. "They do their best to destroy it on a daily basis. Shirts thrown on the floor, socks everywhere, plates left behind as if they are making offerings to some god of filth. Talking to them is useless. I tried more than once. After a while, I gave up and just cleaned and arranged the place myself." She looked seriously impressed, and I immediately realized my mistake and silently cursed myself as I thought, "You idiot. You should be trying to make yourself sound more like Kaen and Shisui, not less."
Then she seemed even more intrigued as she asked, "Why don't we go out for a bit? The weather outside is very pleasant." I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and thought, "All right. Round two." Before answering, "Look," I said, "I am flattered. I truly am. But I am not interested in that kind of friendship." She looked stunned, but I did not stop. "I am only focused on my close friends, my training, and my village."
For a moment, she said nothing. Her fingers rested lightly against the edge of the empty bowl as she looked down at it, a deep sadness settling over her face and killing the shyness and admiration that had been there before. She almost whispered, because opening up felt hard for her, but I was someone who would disappear the next day, so she decided to go for it and trust me with her thoughts, which told me her instincts were probably right. "Every time I try to talk to people or build any kind of connection, this happens. I am either met with refusal, or I give up before I even try. It is not easy for me to talk to people. They get intimidated very quickly around me and start acting weird, like I am not just a girl standing there."
Her gaze drifted for a moment, and I felt bad for her. Her sadness felt deep, rooted in isolation. She was stuck between holding on to who she really was without opening up to the people she wanted to form a connection with and ending up even more alone, or remaking herself into something easier for other people to accept, which was the worst option.
I decided not to let that happen. "I know what you mean," I said. "It is never easy talking to people or forming real connections for some of us, but there might be a solution." She turned to me right away, her face already asking for the answer, so I did not keep her waiting. "You stop thinking so much about what might or might not happen. Just approach people and talk. Yeah, they might still get intimidated and make the wrong assumptions the first time, maybe the second, maybe even the third. Some of them might even distance themselves from you. But in time, those who stay will start to change, and before you know it, they will be talking normally to you and around you. They will accept you for who you are. Talk to more people. Yes, you will lose some of them, but you might also gain friends who actually want to be around your true self."
She had a thoughtful look on her face, so I continued. "Having a huge change in your life, being separated from your village, being forced to act like a samurai, and being shaped by their strict rules, all of that can push you into becoming a very specific kind of person. But I think you should break people's expectations and act like the awesome person you really are."
A small smile formed on her lips, and I could practically see the realization settling into place in her head. Then she looked at me and asked, "Are you sure you are eleven?" I chuckled. "I have been told I am wiser than my age." She nodded, then asked, "But can we be friends?" I sighed and answered honestly. "We are from different villages. If we meet again, it will most likely be on a battlefield or during a mission, and that usually means trying to kill each other. That is not exactly a strong foundation for friendship."
She looked thoughtful. "Maybe things would not go so badly." I shrugged. "Maybe you are right. But the ninja world is full of conflict and strife." She nodded, a quiet sorrow returning to her expression.
Then I said, "If you ever come to Konoha on a friendly mission, I can offer you a spar every time you visit." Her eyes lit up like starlight. "Really?" she asked. I grinned. "Yeah. It is not easy finding a strong opponent our age who can actually push us to our limits." A confident grin spread across her face too, and she nodded eagerly. "Deal." I offered her my hand, and she shook it without hesitation. "I will win next time," she said. I laughed and answered in a clear challenging voice, "I would like to see you try."
We spent the rest of the evening talking. Once she relaxed and opened up, she was actually easy to be around. It turned out she was a very spirited person who put a lot of feeling into her words, and her energy was infectious.
I was surprised enough by how well we got along that I even decided to show her some of my drawings, and she was genuinely impressed by them. By the end of it, we were just sitting there, enjoying our final night in Suna, laughing about our fight and looking forward to what came next.
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A/N: Countdown to the end of the arc. 2 chapters to go 🔥