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uh oh. Hinata takes to Tenten's wisdom.

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Hinata was walking a little faster than Sai for a change and didn’t really stop to look back at him. Sai stared at her frantic walking. Was it so bad that Genma would find out about this? He only came along because he felt guilty for snapping at her the other day. And it’s not like he was getting anything done in his studio anyway. 

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

“I’m on a crunch for time! I don’t know how long it took for Rin to get Kakashi out and I don’t know if anything is really going to come out of this, and I just need to catch them before they get back.”

“A woman on a mission,” he mumbled to himself. 

They made it to a tall square brown building that looked to be about 20 stories. He thought about how it would look like in his style. Sai always felt great comfort in drawing big modern buildings. Hinata stopped at the entrance. 

“Okay,” she breathed out. “So we wait here.”

“What?” Sai squinted his eyes at her in confusion. Her hair was long and silky and brushed out, cascading down her back in loose waves. Her bangs were combed straight, and though they had fallen out of place on the brisk walk here, she still looked stunning. He could tell she put effort in the clothes she wore as well. “I’m confused.”

“I didn’t come here to talk to Genma, I came here to talk to Rin.”

“Do you even know what she looks like?” 

“Well…” She shuffled her feet on the ground. “I thought I’d know when I saw her.”

“So what are we going to do? Just stand outside his apartment building like some kind of stalker?”

“We’re not stalking! We’re not even here for him. We’ll go home after we talk to Rin.”

“Why don’t we just go up to him?”

“We can’t!” she said a little too quickly and loudly. “Not yet.” 

Sai sighed again. He was really getting roped up in their drama, something he made her promise she wouldn’t do if she added him to the groupchat. “So now what?”

“We wait.”

“And see if we are able to magically recognize her despite not knowing what she looks like.”

“Correct.”

Sai sat on the ground and pulled out his sketchbook. He might as well draw the building in front of them. When he got maybe halfway through she exhaled quite loudly. He looked up.

“I think we missed her.”

“It would appear so.”

The door opened and someone walked out that neither of them recognized. Kakashi’s signature silver hair wasn’t present, and no one who screamed Obito’s fiancée accompanied them. It was a random stranger. They took one look at the two of them and quirked their eyebrow, but said nothing and continued on their way. Sai caught the door before it closed.

“Come on,” he said to her. 

“What?” she cocked her head to the side, her eyebrows knitting up in confusion.

“Do you remember the apartment number?”

“1102.”

“To the 11th floor then.” He walked inside, not caring if she was following him. After she came to her senses, she caught the door before it closed, and followed him in.

“What are we going to say to him?” 

“You’ll figure it out.”

“Me?!” she squeaked. 

“You,” he reiterated. The elevator dinged to the 11th floor, and the doors opened to reveal 1102 in an almost holy light. He could see a whole comic panel in his head about this happening. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her with little resistance to the door. “Come on,” he urged. “Knock.”

“I can’t,” she shook her head vehemently. 

“You dragged me out here, you don’t want him to know what happened, and so you will be the one to do the heavy lifting. Knock.”

She hesitantly raised her hand to knock. She took one last look at Sai before knocking three times. The door opened.

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Meanwhile...

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