#baasama

He did not go off to sulk.

How pathetic. Here he was, the head of Mukuro’s border patrol and still he found himself hanging around the human world about the same amount of time as he had while on probation.

Even Botan had long lost her fear of him. Why else would she have materialized on the branch just above him, beaming and waving? 

“There you are!” she chirped. “Shizuru’s having hot pot tonight. Everyone’s invited, if you don’t have anything better to do.” 

She was kicking her legs idly, far enough above his head to not worry about knocking against his head. He briefly entertained the notion of reaching up and grabbing her foot to scare her, then thought the better of it. That could almost count as friendly teasing.

“How did you find me? If the princeling is still tracking my movements--”

“Don’t be silly, Koenma has far more important matters to attend to. Kurama told me.”

Feh, typical.

“Once a traitor, always a traitor,” muttered Hiei, crossing his arms. 

“Oh, don’t be like that,” says Botan, smiling. She reached out and curled her fingers in the open air and her oar appeared. “Anyways, we’ll probably be eating in a couple of hours. You really should come, everyone would be happy to see you. And you owe Shizuru a card game.”

“We’ll see. I suppose I should thank you for the courtesy. Though why you assume I would still have any interest in human gatherings is beyond me.”

“If you really thought that, you wouldn’t still be here,” said Botan firmly. “I’ll see you at dinner. Unless, of course, you want a ride. In that case--”

“Goodbye, ferry girl.”

She laughed and kicked off, fading from the view of any human eyes.

(who, she later found out, was a secret bae of ino’s. like what the shit?)

his name was sasuke uchiha, he was twenty-one-years-old, he attended konoha university, and with a little unethical searching on the university’s database which she had access to because of work, she knew he was in the business program.

he didn’t smile for photos and for the most part, he just seemed to be permanently disgruntled. and when she actually spoke to him last night at ino’s party, she found it kind of adorable. 

tenten laughs at her, bringing her out of her thoughts, so sakura kicks her. tenten kicks her back but then she just laughs harder.

“you can’t tell anyone!” sakura reminds her. the only reason sakura had told tenten about her own research into sasuke was because she felt like she needed a confidant. and she also knew that telling ino essentially meant telling the world. tenten was the most reliable choice. 

“i won’t,” tenten reassures. she smiles. “i’m just happy to see you like this.”

“like what?”

“with a crush.”

“oh, shut up.”

“also, i love how you added ‘lol’ at the end of your reply to ino,” tenten says, holding up her phone and pointing at sakura’s earlier response. sakura blushes a bit and tenten looks smug. “‘is that his name?’” she reads. “it’s almost as if i, sakura, didn’t spend two days stalking him online and wow oh my gosh i definitely did not know his name was sasuke uchiha whaaaat.”

“was that supposed to be me?” sakura asks, thoroughly unimpressed.

“it most certainly was.”

“i hate you.”

“you love me.” tenten’s phone vibrates and a message from ino pops up. sakura and tenten were on their way to go have lunch together and had invited ino to come along. tenten scans the message and snorts. “she says she can’t come.”

“boo, that whore.”

“apparently she’s had first and second breakfasts and so she’s so full she’s going to die.”

“ugh, so dramatic.”

“now, now,” tenten chides. “she seems to know your tinder boy.”

“stop calling him that.”

“maybe if you’re nice to her, she’ll find a way to set you up with him.”

sakura laughs. “me? go out with someone ino sets me up with?”

“i realize her judgement is questionable at best, but give the girl some credit.”