63 Return of the King 2 Electric boogaloo

Meanwhile, Hana is running back to Konoha, completely unaware what thoughts were brewing in little Machi's head as he is more focused on what he's going to have to eat when he gets back, so far pizza is winning out, because they have pizza here, which is great.

It doesn't take long to make it back, and when I do I head straight to Swan, having already changed into my ANBU outfit while en route. I burst through the door to her room to the scene of her flicking the ol' bean, which I was prepared for, proven by my throwing of a handful of itch powder right at her shocked face as I dodge the kunai she launched to my face in her surprise.

"Butterfly!! What the fuck!" Kumiko shouts at me as she gets to her feet and glares at me. She doesn't bother covering herself, not like she has a reason to. I close the door behind me before opening my arms wide and calling out with fondness, as if nothing just happened.

"Kumiko!! My favourite woman!! It's been so long! I missed you, so give me a hug you massive slut!" I dramatically glomp her, much to her reluctant amusement as she returns the hug.

After stepping back from the hug that might have contained a little bit of groping, Kumiko wipes herself down, because of the powder, and looks to me as she sits down, I remain standing.

"What is this exactly? If it's an aphrodisiac, you know you don't need to do that to convince me to give another lesson right?"

"Oh, it's just glitter." I wave off her concerns.

"It doesn't seem very glittery." She returns, dubious.

"That's just a trick of the light." You inform her, certain.

Shaking your head you get back on track.

"Anyway, mission over, the Takama? Tamaka? Whatever, they aren't disloyal, so nothing to worry about there, they also aren't very fond of Iwa, so it's not likely to be something to worry about in the future either."

Kumiko nods at my words and absently scratches her pelvis. I should wrap this up, so I speak again before she can.

"Well, I'll give you my full written report later, or tomorrow, do you know where my squad is?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, they should be in your usual training room, speaking of, your training idea has gotten more and more popular."

Yeah, that thing I did? The one with the stealth from Mantis and I and the fighting from the others? You know what I mean, well turns out, that while they did have something similar in place, my version is basically just better, so everyone has started using it too.

Kumiko scratches herself again.

I should vacate immediately.

"Well! 'Twas wonderful catching up! But I gotta go, bye."

I don't wait for a response as I leave hurriedly. The powder only lasts half an hour to an hour, so it's not like it's too mean. At least by ANBU standards it's actually rather tame for a prank, one time I saw a guy sit down in the mess hall and then his whole table blew up with like fifty explosive seals.

That one might have actually been a little over the top now that I think about it. The guy was hospitalised and the mess hall was ruined, not to mention that everyone else in there got hurt too, since the pranksters didn't bother to inform anyone of it, rightfully assuming that the victim would realise if they did so.

Ah well, that's the life of a murder wizard I suppose, now I better get my squad and skidattle quick, before Kumiko can find us.

Kicking the door to our usual training room open, I dodge eight kunais and walk up to my squad.

"Hey gang! Guess who's back?"

Man, I am in such a good mood today, and they can tell because after copious amounts of complaining I finally managed to convince Takeshi to give me a mask like the seduction specialists get, which is to say, the monotone is togglable now.

I think the reason that I'm so excited is because I'm going to be seeing Yoshino again, now, I'm not excited in the romantic sense, I just don't know how she will act, since by now she should most definitely have found out about the potential arranged marriage business.

Will she reluctantly accept it and push me away? Will she want to run away with me? Will she cry uncontrollably? Will she engage me in copious amounts of goodbye sex?

Personally I'm hoping for the last one, but I'm interested to see regardless.

"welcome back captain, i presume you had fun?"

Ah! Mantis brings my focus back to the present.

"That's right, now c'mon, we gotta go before Swan gets here and kicks my ass."

Without waiting for acknowledgement I turn on my heel and march away speedily, knowing that my squad will follow me I lead them out and towards a mess hall to eat and catch up, because I am starving.

I don't tell them much about my mission, secrecy and all that, but I do tell them how much fun I had, and the fact that our squad will probably be breaking up now, since if I'm to do proper infiltration missions then I will have to be away for long stretches of time, during which they will be without a leader.

Then again, I could be wrong, they might just be put in rotation while they wait for me, I don't make these decisions.

After that, it is time for what I was looking forward to. Which leads me here, once again knocking on Yoshino's apartment door.

Only this time, the door is slammed open almost immediately by an out of breath Yoshino, guess she sensed my chakra then.

"Hana!" Is all she says as she launches herself into my chest and hugs me close.

I, of course, return the hug and whisper sweet things in her ears until she calms down and looks up at me with glistening eyes.

"Hey, I'm back," I say softly with a small smile as I then give her a small kiss on the lips, "Wanna go out?"

After Yoshino puts on some shoes we head out, hand in hand in solemn silence I lead her to the cave from our first date.

It looks nothing like it did before, now covered with trinkets, flowers and photo's (the R&D guys made cameras from what I found in Sky, but the public only has access to Polaroid's) as we have decorated this place as our secret little getaway.

We sit down on a blanket laying next to the pool, the same place we shared our first kiss, and like then, I sit cross legged as Yoshino sits on my lap, with her back to my chest and her head on my shoulder I hug her close to me.

"I take it, you found out then?" I start softly, but Yoshino snaps her head to the side to look me in the eye.

"You knew!" She shouts accusingly, but I give her lips a soft peck and hug her tighter to soothe her.

"Yes, I knew, and before you ask, I didn't say anything because I wanted to enjoy what time I had left with you, without worrying about it."

Yoshino spins around on my lap so that she can face me and glare at me more directly, but she clearly isn't too mad at me, otherwise she wouldn't still be sitting in my lap.

"You say that like you've already given up. Fuck the Elders and fuck Shikaku, I will marry who I want and I want, I want to m-marry you."

I give a happy smile, even as I make my own eyes glisten to match hers and I bring her closer to hug the life out of her.

"Yoshino. I love you, I do, but this isn't something we can fight against. Shikaku, as clan heir, must marry and have a child, and you are the only eligible person in the village, since the only other women his age are either civilian, Uchiha, Yamanaka or Akimichi, the Elders won't change their mind. I'm sorry Yoshino."

Yoshino pulls away from me and stands up to start pacing back and forth.

"So, what? You're just going to give up? To give me away like some trophy!? Like my feelings don't even matter here!?"

"Yoshi-"

"NO!! How dare you! I 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 you! And you would just throw me away! Was your love a lie!? There has got be another way-"

"THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!!" I raise my voice against Yoshino for the first time ever which shocks her to silence, letting me stand up and move to stand in front of her with tears in my eyes. I grab her by her shoulders as I speak, softly this time, ignoring the tears streaming down my face.

"There is no other way," My voice, barely a whisper, repeats to her, "Do you think I did nothing? That I have not tried? I searched the entire village for someone your Elders would accept in your place, I spoke with your Elders, pleaded to them, even tried to bribe them, but what could I offer they do not already have? I spoke to Shikaku, to get him to protest, but they don't care, he has as little choice in this as you do. There 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘺."

We spend a moment simply lost in each others eyes, before Yoshino collapses against me and we both start quietly crying, holding each other close.

"I-It's *Hiccup* s-so unfair."

"I know it is, I know."

"W-we, we could, run away?"

hah, called it.

"We both know that wouldn't work."

"So, what? We just give up then? That's it?"

I tighten my arms around her instead of verbally responding, she understands.

"How long do we have?" I ask Yoshino, having just gotten back from the village, I am unsure.

"I was given until my birthday, they said we will be married the day after."

That's about three months away from now.

"Then, I see two options, we could mope and be sad, or, we could spend this time making some more memories, so that even if we're apart, we won't forget each other."

That gets, Yoshino to smile up at me, the smile which rapidly turns salacious despite the tear tracks as she reaches down to my no no square.

"Then, I say we get started on those memories right away, hmm?"

I know she just wants to get her mind off of it, and sex is the easiest way to do so, but I'm not going to complain.

We spend the next couple of weeks hanging out, going on dates and having copious amounts of sex, only occasionally interrupted by our jobs as ninja, but we mostly just accepted the daytime patrols so we could spend the evenings and nights together.

My squad were really grumbly about having to do daytime patrols because they are so boring, but I bribed them all by promising to pay for their dinners for the next three months.

Now, it's a couple of weeks before Yoshino's birthday and I took her out to an early birthday dinner. I explained that it would be best if we properly ended things a bit before her birthday, so that she can at least pretend that she doesn't resent it as much as she does, and since I'm going on a proper mission tomorrow, now is the perfect time.

So I suggested that we have a little fun with this so it's not so sad. Which is to say, we are going to stage an angry breakup inside of the restaurant, just for some final fun.

"So, you want to start?" I lean across the table to ask Yoshino without anyone overhearing.

"What do I even say though?"

"I don't know, just accuse me of cheating or something, that's usually how this goes, I think."

"Have you been cheating?"

"Of course I have."

"Wait, have we started or was that a joke?"

"That's up to you really." I give a wink as Yoshino takes a deep breath and forces away her smile, taking on a severe visage.

"I can't believe you cheated on me." She says, slightly louder than normal conversation, and why did I suggest this as our act? How am I supposed to keep a straight face now? Oh well, time to be outraged.

"How dare you accuse me of such a thing." I say, outraged.

"You thought I wouldn't find out! I knew those panties didn't belong to me!"

We are raising our voices with each sentence and people are finally starting to notice the row.

"I have no idea what you are talking about!" I return, still outraged.

"Who was it!? I bet it was Himiko wasn't it!! That skank, I knew I shouldn't have trusted her!!"

It's all I can do to not break character as I flush in fury and remain outrageously outraged.

"Listen to yourself you crazy bitch, stop making a scene!!!" I yell, making a scene, an outrageous scene.

"Bitch!?! You're making a scene cheater!!"

We're both standing now, staring death at one another.

"I did not cheat but I wish I did you fucking psycho!!!" I shout, outrage- okay I'll stop.

"How dare you!!!" Yoshino finishes our act by grabbing her glass and throwing it's contents in my face in a perfect cliche breakup before storming out, conveniently leaving me to pay the bill, maybe that's why the woman always storms off during arguments in restaurants?

I sit back down and take a deep breath, for the peanut gallery not because that actually tired me, and I call for the bill, pay and leave.

I won't be seeing Yoshino again, at least not in a planned manner, we both agreed it's better this way, since now we can avoid just ending up crying all over each other, instead we will both just move on with our lives. Probably.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Feel free to join the discord below, I will probably look at it daily, but I also still don't really understand all the mechanics of discord, I had to google how to find the invite link ;)

https://discord.gg/Pj3Dttwses

https://ko-fi.com/bored_works