Uzushiogakure (3)

Uzu was quite the right description for a paradise. Kai and Mikoto, being the only non-redheads, had the attention of the masses but none interrupted their exploration as they kept the Uzumaki symbol on the back of their palm visible for others to see. But it was wondrous for Kai and Mikoto to see so many redheads at once, too.

"Woah..." Mikoto quietly whispered as the trail of completely sealed lanterns hanging by the branches made the Island even more beautiful during night, the sight of which took Mikoto's breath away and she soon noticed that many Uzumakis wore light and colorful Yukatas as their daily wear. Kushina's wardrobe had many but Konoha really didn't have that kind of culture itself. Even Kai and Mikoto wore their usual green flak jackets with their usual comfortable but secure attire underneath.

"Man... I wanna try one..." Kai mumbled, realizing he would look smashingly good in one of these... as an adult. But he should have his divine charm even in this kiddy body, right? He was already putting on muscles in the right places!

"Why don't we?" Mikoto's gaze glimmered, "Even the clan compound doesn't have tailors that can stitch such colorful Yukata." Her smile widened as she caught Kai receptive to the idea and they soon inquired one of the helpful Uzumakis. Oh, who were they kidding? The moment Kai and Mikoto asked one of the older women, many other civilians with chakra similar to a genin surrounded them and began to give their own suggestions of the best tailor on the island. In essence... the Uzumaki clan was filled with chakra freaks that could boast the kindest of hearts and the fiercest of tempers at once!

Damn, Kai didn't know whether to feel insulted by their kekkei genkai that made many have a base chakra higher than his own base or just applaud their chivalrous nature... maybe he could clap slowly as to point his distaste?

Still, Mikoto and Kai stood in front of a cubic structure boasting a rather beautiful shop front decorated by wooden dummies in colorful Yukata with the store itself named— Whirlpool Pride.

Sliding the wooden door open, Kai and Mikoto ventured into the shop, a few customers— mothers with their children— present, looking through the rolled-up Yukata designs.

"Ohya? Outsiders? Isn't that rare?" A dwarf of a redheaded Uzumaki with large, round-rimmed glassed jumped down from her seat. Her height was even shorter than Kai's as she had a subtle case of buck teeth and her red hair was cut shortly close to the level of her ears in a bob cut.

"Well—" Kai smirked but fearing the worst, Mikoto interjected with a polite smile, "Hello, were brought in by Chunin Heijo for a mission and found ourselves... wanting a change in our clothes to enjoy the sights Uzushiogakure has to offer. Do you have any suggestions?"

The woman looked at the duo with a deep frown on her face that tugged on the slight wrinkles of her forehead and she turned on her heels, "Come on, follow me. Be quick about it!"

The woman led them to one of the nearest carts that displayed the rolled clothes but while Kai and Mikoto barely managed to see through them due to the height of the cart, the store owner herself spoke as if having memorized everything about the store, "You, pale one, take the roll of dark blue yukata with yellow blooms. And boy, get the plain dark blue one with yellow stripes next to the yellow blooms."

Kai stretched his arms forward while Mikoto hesitated and inquired, "Can I get something more colorful—"

"Are you a piece of firework?" The woman's temper flared the next second as Mikoto blushed while others snickered. Scoffing, Kai growled, "Look at her, of course, she is!"

The store owner blinked while Mikoto shot him a glare yet her blush deepened somewhat while Kai picked the plain blue one, "If anything... I wanted something in a black shade..."

"Black is all gunks like you can think," the owner snorted and looked at Mikoto, "Get it, girl. Or do you want someone else to have a Yukata paired with the boy calling you a firecracker?"

"Tch, just... shut it," Mikoto mumbled under her breath while quietly picking up the roll and walking with the owner again.

"I'm Kai. What's your name?" Kai stepped up and walked alongside the dwarf, the soles of whose sandal filled the store with hurried clattering noise as she gave him an uninterested look, "Not interested kid, and stop gawking at me!"

Kai blanched as he heard Mikoto's snicker, "What a shame. I thought she was good for you, Kai-chan," her chortle making him somewhat annoyed as he rolled his eyes and fell back with Mikoto.

But what surprised Kai and Mikoto was something that came after the owner returned to her seat and looked at the duo for a second before slapping her palms together. With a poof, two yarns of blue threads appeared on the table and Kai could feel the woman's chakra flowing out and only then realized how the genin reserves she showed were false and it was easily close to 60000 points!

'Chakra suppression? I've tried it a few times but the specific action still isn't being confirmed... must have other conditions to get this skill,' Kai narrowed his eyes, and the next second, he sensed the woman's chakra form into threads that filtered the yarn and stuck to their roll of clothes before everything started to float in front of them. With threads of chakra holding the two needles, Kai realized that the woman was sewing their Yukata at an astonishing speed.

Even Mikoto had her Sharingan activated but the sight of Mikoto's eyes only made the woman scoff while she continued to do her work.

'Chakra threads... they're kind of like [Chakra Scalpel], useful and discreet... I'll have to try it later... maybe other shapes, too? Can I form a loophole by just making more shapes?' Kai wondered. Shape Transformation of chakra was right up there with Nature Transformation in its importance so Kai had that in mind, too.

"There, that'll be 15000 Ryo each." The woman presented their clothes to them soon enough as Kai inquired, "Where can we change?"

"This is a Tailor Store, boy. Go change in the bushes or something!" The woman barked as Kai shot her a glare while resisting the urge to flip her off.

"Dwarf..."

"What did you call me?"

Kai bolted while shouting, "A redheaded kiddy dwarf! What you gonna do? Bite me?!"

Mikoto gasped but had enough reaction speed to be just behind Kai as she hissed, "Did you have to say that?"

"Oh, please, that old kid was worse than Kushina!"

"Still... we have to go back to the Clan Head's mansion to change..." Mikoto groaned as Kai stopped and looked around.

"You're not thinking—" Before she could complete, Kai was lost in the bushes before the sound of his clothes shuffling could be heard, making Mikoto all the more embarrassed.

---

"Was that so hard?" Kai smirked as he looked at Mikoto with an appraising glance. She really had nothing to ogle at but she was cute, Kai would give her that. Letting her dark bluish hair down with the fine print of yellow blooming flowers on her dark yukata alongside the thick yellow belt made her quite refreshing to look at.

"You always have something to say..." Mikoto floundered, blushing but looking at Kai somewhat expectantly. It was an instinctive reaction since she didn't expect Kai of all people to have anything to say—

"You look cute, Mikoto-chan," Kai grinned, his Yukata really making them look like a young couple.

— And she certainly didn't expect herself to feel a moment of smug satisfaction to his words.

"You look... good, too..." Mikoto smiled, "Kai-chan."

So, the curse of 'chan' still continued.

The two stared at one another for some time before Mikoto inquired, "You really didn't peep, right?"

"I keep telling you. You have nothing for me to peep at..." Kai dodged the odd punches here and there before Mikoto huffed and adjusted herself.

"Well, you have a small thingy, too..."

"Yeah, that would work on Jiraiya or some other grown-up... I'm just a boy. It would be weird if I didn't," Kai, the boy living a lie, shrugged innocently making Mikoto, even more peeved, as this particular insult does rile quite a lot of youngsters her age in the Uchiha Compound.

"Should we go check that ramen place Kushina was on about... or the dango shop we passed?" Kai inquired as Mikoto instantly forgot everything and held his hand before dragging him away with a grin, "Do you need to ask? The princess wants her Dangos!"

Kai snickered and caught up to her to at least not get dragged while not really weird about her hands holding his. She'd done this plenty of times.

---

"Hehe, who would have thought this is better than the benches," Mikoto giggled happily while swaying her dangling feet over the branch slightly given that the Yukata hindered her movements somewhat. A large leaf was set on her lap with sticks of dango placed on the leaf as Kai and Mikoto would pick one and eat with a lighthearted expression.

Only now did Mikoto realize how high she was strung from the mission before while Kai just enjoyed the view and the company, yet lost in his own thoughts, too.

"What's going on, Kai-chan?" Mikoto inquired while swallowing her snack as he shrugged, "Oh, yeah, I was thinking about the technique that tailor showed us..."

"Training? Even now?" Mikoto scoffed with a pout and gave him a sidelong glance.

"Nope, just planning to. Right now, these dangos are just fine," Kai smirked and after a moment of silence, Mikoto whispered, "The surviving members in the village won't even tell other shinobis what the war is like... my father included. Is there some kind of confidentiality restricted to you and Sensei?"

"Not really but who even likes talking about war?" Kai shrugged, "I would rather drone about Genjutsu Applications with Orochimaru-san or... cultured applications with Jiraiya-san. Don't tell Sensei though, she'd go all crazy blaming me that I am thinking less of her as a teacher... which she'd be right about, of course!"

"Then why don't you apply to leave the team," Mikoto muttered sourly as Kai grinned and nudged her shoulders, "And leave you guys? No way. I'll be the luckiest duck in the village... give it a few years!"

Mikoto snorted but a humored smile soon gave way as she began to giggle a little while later, "I guess, you COULD be the luckiest but Sensei still won't see you more than a child."

"Oh, I'm not just talking about Sensei," Kai spoke with a humbled expression and looked far into the distance as if already seeing his bright... fluffy future. Maybe a bit muscular, too? Hmm, a little chubby won't hurt anyone either.

Shaking her head, Mikoto smiled and leaned her head against the boy, "Nobody would be interested in a hopeless fellow like you!" she smirked while resting her head on his shoulder now that the difference in their heights was minimal.

"Oh, you're wrong, plenty of people are interested in me... but I still hate the fact that bastard of a chunin thought he'd get it with me!"

Mikoto blinked and questioned again, "Say what?"

"Oh? I didn't tell you about this? Hah, you'll have a good laugh with this one. So our team in Ame had a chunin named Hisoko, a real perverted-looking guy. So, while others are relieving and having fun with the Inuzuka chunin and the other one I told you about, this guy just comes up to me, saying I looked damn fine and he'd never meet a better man than me—"

"Come on, you're just bragging! Get to the hood stuff!" Mikoto groaned as Kai smirked, "Fine, fine. Of course, I refused. But he said he would not take a no for an answer. Before I could cut his nuts off as the second answer... Orochimaru stopped and pinned me down..."

"That sounds worse..." Mikoto giggled, letting her mind wander to the darkest of places as Kai pouted, "Tch, dirty mind."

"Kai... kun," Mikoto muttered, making his eyelids jump wildly.

What was this sweet sensation, he wondered.

"Do you want to sit here? We can explore the village later." She added.

The sweet sensation grew even thicker as Kai looked a little dazed before realizing the meaning of it.

"Sure... let's stay here... Mikoto-chan." He grinned. Enjoying the sweet sensation of victory as her annoyed scoff rang the two sat and ate in pleasant silence.

But the curse of 'chan' had broken. For him, at least.

Recognized— Kun!

***

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