Roleplay

((Sounded like her to me! Love the teasing XD))

~~~

"Have you had experience with puppets, Sakura-san? Your face is very red. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." This was said with a smirk before Finlo started walking. He didn't really want to think about what the old woman had been suggesting. He'd been in those kinds of relationships before, in the early times of his curse. But love didn't work very well when you outlived everyone, so he hadn't been involved with anyone in that manner for a long time.

It made for a lonely existence.

Naki's Grill was a small hole in the wall run by a mother and her daughter. They waved when Finlo walked in, since he frequented this place quite often. Many of the local restaurants knew him and his generous tips.

The restaurant itself had cozy seating in alcoves designed for privacy. At one end was a long bar. The place wasn't packed despite it being the weekend. Finlo picked one of the alcove tables and sat down without touching the menu. "I already know what I want, I'll wave them over once you've picked." He leaned back in the bench and crossed his arms as he studied Sakura. She was a bright kunoichi and he didn't understand why she wanted to waste her time on a missing-nin. Then again, love did weird things to people.

(( <3))

Sakura’s mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ in surprise before shifting into a subtle grin as Finlo led the way. So, there was some personality hidden behind the walls that he built. It was good that he was starting to open up, Sakura thought to herself, they were about to go on a dangerous mission and while Finlo said he didn’t want to get to know each other, Sakura always felt safer during a mission when she knew who was by her side. All this she kept to herself, opting instead to reply to what he said. “I’ve had my fair share,” she bluffed, hoping that made her sound cool to him.

The restaurant's aroma assaulted Sakura’s senses merciless as she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Oh, was she hungry. She barely noticed the couple that waved at Finlo as they sat down and Sakura eagerly scanned the menu. Right away she found multiple things she wanted.

The girl who had waved at Finlo earlier, walked over with a pad and pencil in her hands. “The usual?” She asked Finlo casually before turning her attention to Sakura.

Sakura took a deep breath. “Hello, I would like two servings of the tamagoyaki, one atsuyaki and one dashimaki. I would like two servings of the following as well: rice, miso soup, and ohitashi.” Sakura looked up sheepishly as she handed the girl her menu. She glanced over at Finlo and quickly added, “I have my own money!”

Who knew how Finlo would take this. After all her training with Tsunade, Sakura might as well be part of the Akimichi Clan.

Finlo arched an eyebrow at Sakura's massive order. Even at his hungriest, such an amount would have been too much for him. And he knew it had nothing to do with chakra, since plenty of other ninja didn't eat in such amounts. He just hadn't expected her to have such an appetite.

"Don't worry about it, money's not an issue." When you lived so many lives, you learned to stock up on resources. Finlo had quite the amount in his bank, stored up over all his lives. Though he didn't keep everything in one place, in case something happened, or he was born in an entirely different country.

His usual order was a spicy tamagoyaki with a side of miso soup. The owner's daughter lingered longer than necessary to double check if they wanted anything else, though her attention was mostly on him and the look in her eyes was obvious as she tried to get his attention. Finlo pointedly ignored her, his gaze still on Sakura. She'd claimed she'd had her fair share, but he doubted she'd ever been in a relationship, much less thought of one, outside of the one-sided thing she had with the Uchiha. It was pretty amusing.

"So you want to do this tonight, rather than wait and see what the next few days bring?" He didn't look when the waitress left with an annoyed tilt to her mouth. She never seemed to get the message when he came in and he was certain her mother was pushing her. Civilians were weird. No one should want to marry a shinobi, it was a dangerous life.

((The daughter is killing me lol so funny!))

Sakura kept her peripheral vision on the waitress, watching as the girl lingered longer than necessary and not even sparing Sakura a second glance. That girl was all about Finlo. Part of Sakura wanted to roll her eyes at the young girl, annoyed by the girl’s unrequited infatuation with Finlo, but another part of Sakura scolded herself for the very thought. After all, wasn’t that Sakura’s behavior years ago? Wasn’t she still pinning for a guy who made it clear he wasn’t looking for love? Sakura tried to give the waitress the same grace Sakura would show herself…

Still…It was hard to do that with all those stupid puppy dog eyes thrown at Finlo. We get it—he’s cute! Ugh! Sakura was about to ask about how long it would take for the meal when Finlo sent the girl off with a comment that she would clearly read into the wrong way. Heh…

“I think we should go tonight,” Sakura replied, pointily keeping the phrase ‘do it’ out of her response in case the waitress’ jealousy grew. “Perhaps that will give those enemy shinobi from yesterday pause. They probably think we will rest and wait it out in the safety of the village or will be under lock and key from the Hokage. Like you said, it's probably all connected.”

Sakura started to pick at a loose thread on the fabric placemat. “Hey, what do you know about Orochimaru? I assume you were part of the Anbu that tried to stop him when he invaded years ago.”

((The curse of being a good looking guy lol))

~~~

Finlo frowned when Sakura brought up the invasion that'd happened during the last Chunin Exams. "Yeah, was pretty crazy that day." He hadn't had the vision of going after Orochimaru at that time and while he hadn't seen the snake Sannin himself, just knowing he'd been nearby sent chills up Finlo's spine. Dying at Orochimaru's hands hadn't been a pleasant death and was one that had left a lasting mark in his nightmares.

He wasn't ready even now. There was no way he could kill Orochimaru on his own as he was now and having Sakura there wouldn't make a difference. But he did need to gather as much information as he could and in order to do that, he needed to know where the snake Sannin was hiding. That information alone was important. Even if Finlo couldn't kill him, someone else possibly could if they had that knowledge.

"I'd just gotten back from a mission, so I missed most of the Exams." He hadn't taken them himself. When you were picked for Anbu, you had already proven to be more than Chunin and Anbu had their own proving grounds.

Their food came, steaming on the plates as the owner's daughter placed them on the table. The look she gave Sakura was less than friendly. Finlo made a mental note not to leave a large tip this time. Such petty behavior was ridiculous.

"We'll go tonight then. Spend the day making it look like we're doing nothing, then go."

Memories of Orochimaru’s attack flooded Sakura as she gave a little shiver, remembering how intense it had been. She had been able to break free of the genjutsu and help Naruto dispel it as well. The only other gennin who had been able to recognize the genjutsu had been Shikamaru. Despite that, Sakura was still rather inexperienced at the time and had to rely on Kakashi Sensei and others to protect her from the attackers. It made her feel useless.

“Yeah, it was something,” Sakura added, too embarrassed to tell Finlo that she had failed her first attempt at the Chunin exams. She had since passed it, but that rank seemed silly compared to his Anbu title. Thankfully, the food came before Sakura could struggle to come with something else to talk about. “This smells delicious,” she said politely to the waitress. Sakura inhaled deeply as the plates of food were placed in front of her. Sakura's manners were rewarded with a scowl form the waitress.

Sakura tried not to respond with a frown of her own. “We can do that,” Sakura replied, picking up her chopsticks and beginning to eat. A few moments passed where she didn’t speak to Finlo at all. Her concentration and enjoyment was on her meal as it filled the terrible ache in her stomach. “A day spent shopping will look as mundane as anything, right?”

When Finlo finished his breakfast, he left behind a standard tip rather than his usual. Regardless of what he thought of Naki's daughter, he wasn't going to leave her with nothing. The food was always good here, but hopefully the lack of a larger tip would get the message through to Naki's daughter.

"Let's hit up your place first." Finlo left the restaurant, expecting Sakura to follow. He didn't need directions to her place as he wound through Konoha's busy streets. He had no way of knowing if they were being watched. He doubted that they were, otherwise the other Anbu would have made their presence known to him.

Unless Tsunade wanted to keep tabs on them without him knowing. They'd have to cross that bridge if they came to it.

When they were several streets over, Finlo stopped beneath the awning of a bookstore. "Stay here, I'll be back."

When he got to Sakura's house, he went around to the back and scaled the side of the building until he reached Sakura's bedroom window. He played around with it using the tools he'd brought in his pouch until it opened. Letting himself in, he grabbed what Sakura had listed and made his way back to where he'd left Sakura.

Sakura’s impressive meal went down easily as she excused herself to the building’s restroom. By the time she came back, Finlo had already paid even though Sakura assured him she could have covered her own bill. She offered him a thank you as they walked out of the building. Sakura did not look back to see if the girl was scowling after them, but she was almost positive that would be the case. Sakura hoped she hadn’t upset Finlo’s reputation at this restaurant since it was clearly a favorite of his.

“Sure,” she answered, moments from giving him her address. It seemed like Finlo didn’t need it. Sakura frowned. How did he know where she lived? Deciding to embrace the comfortable silence between them, Sakura settled into a nice pace one step behind Finlo. The morning sun warmed the streets of Konoha, though the evidence of last night’s storm still lingered as puddles on the ground.

They stopped at a bookstore a few streets away from her house. “Okay. I need a change of clothes, my travel bag that’s hanging behind the bedroom door, and I need to replenish my kunai. You can find those in the closet.” Thankfully her room was tidy, save for the book she had been studying on her desk and the notepad she left open from yesterday morning.

It wasn’t long until Finlo returned with her items. “Thanks, that was quick. I’m guessing my parents were already out for the day. How did you even know what house was mine?”

Finlo shrugged before sticking his hands in the pockets of his pants. "Anbu is under the Hokage's command. You're the Hokage's apprentice." It was basic Anbu protocol to know where important individuals lived and those individuals were typically determined by the Hokage. "We don't spy on you if that's what you're thinking. It's just a safety measure for emergencies."

He glanced into the window of the bookstore. There were various types of books on display in the window. "We should go in there, shop at 'fun' places in between gathering supplies. Make it look like we're just looking around." Books were one of the few things Finlo liked, but only fantasy stories. When you lived so many lives, nonfiction became tedious.

Just when Sakura thought she was getting past Finlo’s metaphorical walls, they have a conversation like this. It was an abrupt reminder that Finlo was an Anbu shinobi given a mission—protect Sakura. They were not friends and, as he said yesterday, Finlo didn’t want to be friends. Sakura pushed this unnerving feeling deep down inside her. She didn’t like the thought, but worse still she didn’t like that it bothered her so much. Did she really want to be his friend that much after twenty-four hours? Albeit a very intense twenty-four hours…

“That makes sense,” she replied, grabbing her items, shoving her change of clothes into her travelling bag. “And, yeah, that sounds good. I haven’t been in this bookstore in a few weeks. I bet they have new inventory by now.”

Sakura led the way into the bookstore. It was a familiar haunt for her, being so close to her home and books being an indelible part of her personality. She breathed in the smell. It was almost as delicious as the restaurant, but in an entirely different kind of way. The smell of old parchment and ink, mixed with what was probably a bit of a musty smell from the age of the shop, lingered around in Sakura’s senses before she adjusted to it.

“I’m going to see if they have any new medical books from the other Great Villages.”