花鳥風月

# 𝕊𝔼𝕀ℤ𝔸𝕊𝔸 : ────── ─── . independent naruto oc &&. canon 𝐌𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 ( PRIVATE &&. SELECTIVE ) est. sep // 2018 ─── revamped july // 2022 , as written by LUCIFER . ( PSD )

# 𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐈 : ────── ─── . independent BNHA canon 𝐌𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 ( PRIVATE &&. SELECTIVE ) est. september // 2020 ─── revamped september // 2022 , as written by LUCIFER .

Even after that awful , gruelling war came to its conclusion &&. the villages who had come together to support each other were able to return to their homes with VICTORY on their shoulders , there was still a looming air of sadness .   Precious lives had been lost across all nations , many left severely injured , &&. Konoha was no exception .

One of those precious people had been Hinata’s very own cousin .   The funeral was . . . difficult , to put it mildly .   The time they took to HONOUR THEIR FALLEN provided some closure , but Hinata still struggled to recover from the loss .   To keep herself distracted from dwelling on her grief too deeply , she took up volunteering at the hospital to help care for the wounded .   She was never any good at medical ninjutsu like Ino and Sakura , but she could still be useful in other ways by visiting the patients &&. bringing them food &&. the medicine they were prescribed .

One patient in particular was kept under STRICT SURVEILLANCE at all times &&. visitation was expressly prohibited without proper authorization .   Sakura was normally the primary medic who tended to him , but that duty had temporarily fallen on Hinata’s shoulders for the time being while Sakura’s skills were required elsewhere .   Hinata’s Byakugan was deemed a suitable precaution in the event of any incident .   Still , she couldn’t help but find herself slightly NERVOUS when she approached the heavily guarded chamber for the first time .

After all , Uchiha Sasuke was still considered a MAJOR THREAT , but beyond that , he had only ever existed in Hinata’s peripheral .   Despite the fact that they were raised in the same village , graduated in the same class , both belonged to noble clans , fought together in the same war   ── ─   Sasuke had always seemed more of a mythical figure than someone she really knew .   To come face to face with him now felt almost surreal , in a way .

Hinata had a job to do , though , &&. if there were ever a time to meet the man who had driven someone like Naruto to the ends of the Earth to save him , now was as good as any .

The guards led her to the door &&. opened it for her , allowing her to slip inside with the tray of food , bandages to replace his old ones , &&. a shot of some kind of medicine   (   a painkiller maybe ?   She wasn’t completely sure ; Sakura had only instructed her to take the labeled vials &&. didn’t explain what it actually was   )   .   She softly cleared her throat as she approached the curtained bed where she knew Sasuke to lie , cautiously peeking around the veil .

(   @kcgarashi​   )   WROTE   :

❝ we are definitely not supposed to be here. ❞   [For Eisen because fellow academy instructor!]

❝      Uh . . . you may be right about that .      ❞

Eisen may have been able to punch through solid rock with his bare fists , but when it came to anything even remotely ghostly or haunted or mildly unsettling , he lost his nerve in the BLINK OF AN EYE .   Just the thought of restless spirits &&. creatures of the dark made his skin crawl in all the wrong ways even to this day   ── ─   even after years spent fighting alongside someone like Miki who could literally summon the dead .   Eisen would never recover from the first time he witnessed that jutsu .

Right now was no different as he &&. his fellow instructor at the academy , Matarera , stood uncomfortably close to the base of an old , abandoned tower at the center of a SINISTER FOREST known as Training Ground 44 , or more commonly , the Forest of Death .

Eisen still had nightmares about this place from his chuunin exams , but back then , the central tower didn’t look quite so . . . decrepit .   It looked as though it had gone several years without a hint of maintenance .   Looking at it like this , surrounded by the haunting darkness of the woods &&. the quickly dwindling sunlight due to how long it had taken them to get this far in order to survey the area in preparation for the recommencement of the Chuunin Exams   ── ─   ❛   EERIE   ❜   didn’t even begin to cover it .

Eisen swallowed , the noise far too loud in the unnatural silence of this place .

❝      . . . I mean , we don’t have to check out the inside , right ?   They just wanted us to make sure the forest is   ── ─   well , not safe , necessarily , but . . . ya know .      ❞

(   @enjeruuingu​   )   WROTE   :

"you're lonely too." [ jiraiya! any verse works 'v'/ ]

Lonely .   Now that was quite the accusation , especially coming from someone like Konan .   Jiraiya couldn’t help but chuckle , the sound far too tender for the hardened &&. scarred face from which it came .

The years had not been kind to him since he ABANDONED HIS DESTINY , but so had he not been kind to the world .

❝      Ya think so ?      ❞      He tipped back the rim of his straw hat to regard Konan properly , a curious curl to his lips that , however slight , still managed to seem mocking .      ❝      Well , I have to disagree .   For me to be lonely , I’d have to CARE , wouldn’t I ?   Besides , I’m never lonely with you around , my dear .   That lifeless look in your eyes is all the company I need .      ❞

   Shikamaru kneeled down and gently smiled at the young girl, despite his otherwise concerned expression. There was no doubt in his mind that she was strong and tough enough to actually continue her and her friends’ game, had she not hurt her foot as much as she seemed to have.

   “Heh, yeah… You’re right. It doesn’t look that bad. It will probably heal up pretty fast…” He tilted his head slightly to the left as he trailed off in his slow, relaxed way of talking. 

   “But that wince of yours just now that you tried to hide from me… I think we should make sure it’s nothing more you’ve hurt. Better safe than sorry, don’t you agree? Your landing was quite rough. Can I take a look?”

Himawari pursed her lips witth a small , disgruntled noise at the man’s words as she looked down at her leg again .   Her favourite leggings were ripped around the scrape &&. stained a dark shade from the blood that had begun to seep out of her skin .   It was starting to look worse the longer she stayed standing &&. she was beginning to get a little queasy while looking at it , so instead of trying to keep up her FALSE BRAVADO , she nodded at the man’s offer .

❝      Okay . . .   It’s really not that bad , though , right ?      ❞

She carefully half - hopped over to the nearest bench on the side of the street so she could sit down &&. prop up her leg for him to examine .   She was sure he was right that she would recover quickly   ── ─   it only hurt so much right now because it was still fresh .