Growing Pains

IV

Momogi rubbed at the bandage around her forearm and glared at the cat that was still panicking, but now in the arms of his owner. Ino stood behind her team and endured the thanks with them even though she wished she could just smack the woman and set her straight. As a jounin she could probably get away with it but ‘There was a fly’ probably wouldn’t work in this situation. A bee, maybe. A wasp. Yeah, a wasp. She’d run the risk of Shino giving her the silent treatment if only to get the woman to stop strangling that damn cat.

After Ino and her genin were well away from the missions office did she pull out a cancer stick and light it. Ino had a very unique way of smoking, Momogi had discovered – she didn’t. Her sensei would light it, put it between her lips and let it hang there. Once in a while she might puff, but Momogi knew that her aunt Hinata hated Ino smoking heavily. And with Neji out with Gaara most of the time, Hinata pretty much was law in the Hyuuga household.

Momogi didn’t know why they’d been given such a crappy mission – they’d been genin for nearly more than a year. They had plenty of D and C rank missions under their belts and one or two B rank missions. They weren’t babies anymore. But she kept her mouth shut and settled for glaring until Ino hurried her team out of the building and to their own homes. Ino didn’t bother to walk the boys home; only Momogi, so the little kunoichi knew something was wrong. Maybe Ino-sensei knew of her traipse into the forest alone to find that stupid cat, and now she was going to tell her parents. Momogi thought she was going to faint in relief when she saw her assorted aunts and uncles in the living room of the Nara clan house, pouring over old pictures.
The little girl could easily pick out her mother and father – Shikamaru and Kankurou – in the photographs, as well as Naruto. She had a little trouble finding Ino and Hinata, and there was Neji and Choji and Sakura. Kiba and Akamaru and Shino were in one photograph and there was Tsunade-baa-san and Shizune.

Momogi wiggled between her mother’s legs and leaned against him, picking out more people she knew around the village. Kakashi-nii and Iruka-sensei, Kurenai-sensei with Asumako as a baby, and even one of Asumako and Asagi on their first birthday. There were people she didn’t recognize, but the way adults spoke about them meant they must have been important.

“Who’s that?” Momogi asked, pointing to an old photograph of Naruto, Sakura, and a brunette boy she’d never seen before.

“That’s Sasuke.” Naruto replied. “He died a long time ago.”

Momogi frowned. “No, he didn’t.”

The silence that followed scared her more than gutting deer ever would. She looked helplessly at her mother and all Shikamaru could do was wrap his arms around her.

“What makes you say that?”

“I saw him.” Momogi answered honestly. “But he didn’t look like that. His hair was longer and his eyes were red with little black swirlies.”

The adults stared at her, blankly, and Momogi wondered if she was in trouble now. Finally, Naruto crouched before her and smiled. It still didn’t make her feel any better.

“Where did you see this man, Momogi?”

“Um, the woods.”

Ino shot her a sharp look and instantly became sensei, growling down at the twelve-year-old. “And who said you could go there?”

“Mission,” Momogi helplessly mumbled. Ino wasn’t going to let it go, though.

“If this is the man we think he is, he could have easily killed you! He’s very dangerous, Momogi!”

“But he didn’t hurt me! And he didn’t look so dangerous!”

“Just because it doesn’t look dangerous doesn’t mean it isn’t.” Kankurou growled at his daughter. She didn’t even attempt a pout, just glared. Shikamaru shook her a bit.

“Do you realize how lucky you are?” Shikamaru asked. “He wouldn’t give you a second thought if he decided to kill you.”

“He wasn’t going to hurt me.” She tried again helplessly, but now no one was listening to her. The adults were moving now, leaving to don their ninja gear to go out and find this strange man called Sasuke. Momogi watched her parents from the stairs, watched them talk, before she turned away and slipped into her own room. She moved to her window and looked up into the darkening sky. She wouldn’t tell her parents, but she really hoped Sasuke got away, if only because Umi was with him.


Sasuke sneezed harshly, blinking for a moment to reorient himself. He heard a chorus of voices blessing him from the living room of his home and shook his head before he picked up the bowl of freshly popped popcorn and moved into the room where the kids were, handing Takeo the bowl before he settled on the couch and was promptly assaulted by Satoru and Akio, both of the small boys working to get a good spot against the man before the movie started.

Sometimes, Sasuke hated being a baby sitter, but it gave him something to do rather than running around in the forest being a paranoid lunatic. Someone who wouldn’t think twice about murder already filled that job description.

He sneezed again.

“Bless you, Sasuke-nii!” The little boys chorused again.

Sasuke sagged a bit and smiled. “Thanks.”