Chapter 62

I was walking through the streets of Konoha with Haku after completing the daily D-rank missions with Sakura and Sasuke. They were tiresome but easy enough.

After exchanging eyes with Sakura, I still wore my eye patch, concealed under a genjutsu that made it seem like I had two ordinary eyes to anyone looking. No one had questioned Sakura's new hair style. It merely seemed like she was copying Ino. Personally, I thought it looked good on her.

I stopped Haku. Ahead of us, two Suna ninja were walking toward us. A blonde kunoichi whose hair was tied back in four places and a male dressed in black with a painted face. The woman was carrying a giant folding fan and the man was carrying a large wrapped bundle that had a strange tuft of hair on top. "Sorry, Shikamaru. Temari is too hot not to go for it, especially since she'll go back to Suna after the Chunin Exam."

I walked up to Temari. "Hello, how are you enjoying Konoha?" I happily asked the blonde Suna kunoichi.

"Eh? I didn't know they let little girls become ninja here," Kankuro said snidely.

"I can't kill him. That would make his sister angry." I just smiled and ignored the puppeteer. I kept speaking to Temari. "You're here for the Chunin Exam, right? How would you like me to show you around the village? My name is Haru and this is Haku."

Temari replied coldly and deliberately, "I apologize on behalf of my brother. Yes, we are here for the Chunin Exam, but we don't need a guide. Kankuro, let's go." Her brother snorted and they walked past us.

Haku whispered to me, "Why do you wish to ingratiate yourself with foreign ninja, Haru-sama?"

"Because she's basically my ideal girl! Hngggh..." I clutched my rapidly beating heart and chased after the two Sand Siblings while trying to ascertain the location of the third. "There he is, on the roof. Damn, I wouldn't have found him if I didn't already know he was there."

I jumped up to the roof of a nearby shop, leaving Haku behind. "Hi, my name is Haru. Do you want to get some kakigori with me? I tried to invite your friends but they didn't seem interested."

Gaara glared at me. "What is kakigori?"

"It's delicious and perfect for a hot day like this." I held out my hand to the fellow red-haired boy. "There's a great place just a block away."

He ignored me and jumped off the roof. I looked down and he seemed to be waiting for me in the street. "At least he didn't kill me."

Gaara poked at his shaved ice with his spoon. His was flavored with an appropriately sanguine cherry syrup and mine was strawberry flavored.

"So, how are you liking Konoha? It must be really different from Suna," I asked, pausing to savor a spoonful of sugary snow. "I wanted to ask you, since I assumed she's on your team, the blonde girl...is she single?"

"Is that really why you brought me here?" he asked with a mix of suspicion and disdain.

I grinned. "Of course. I'm sure we'll get plenty of chances to kill each other during the exams. Why not enjoy the time until then as friends?" There was an intense pressure coming from the boy sitting across the table from me in the café. It was exhilarating in a way that vaguely reminded me of when Haku tried to kill me.

"What do you mean by friends?" he asked, still leering at me.

It was then that Haku, Temari, and Kankuro entered the café. I waved to them, shouting, "Hey! Come join us."

Haku sat next to me in the booth and Temari fearfully took the seat next to her brother. Kankuro pulled up a spare chair to sit at the end of the table.

"Here, Haku, try this. It's really good!" I lifted a spoonful of strawberry ice and fed it to the taller boy.

He licked his lips and smiled. "It is delicious, Haru-sama."

Temari spoke gingerly, as if afraid of being burned by proximity to her younger brother, "It looks like you and your sister are pretty close."

I corrected her, "Oh, we're not related at all."

Then Haku corrected her, "And we are both men."

Kankuro handed his sister a napkin. "Your nose is bleeding, Temari."

Meanwhile, Gaara grasped his spoon determinedly and took a bite of his cherry-flavored shaved ice. He seemed to like it because he proceeded to consume the rest of it, although it was strange to watch someone frown constantly while eating dessert.