Kasumi cringed internally, as a familiar song of self-loathing and intertwined anxiety and shameless eagerness. It was a familiar cocktail of emotions that the pinkette normally only saw some variation of amongst her fellow kunoichi-to-be for simple biological reasons. As young women, sexual maturity came earlier for them than boys, and it turned many of her classmates into gibbering pits of hormonal madness, trying to deal with the sudden attraction to boys... or really just people in general in "that way". Not that many actually knew what to do about it until kunoichi classes had ruthlessly gone into extreme detail about the sexual troubles a kunoichi might find herself in as much as the ways she could use such assets to her... advantage.
Kasumi shuddered, lips pursing tightly, as Ren fumbled through an invitation that simply felt poisoned by what lay under the surface. The temptation to call him out in that respect, over the barely restrained pining over anyone that would give him the time of day, wasn't small, but then she'd need to explain why she could do that. And Kasumi had no plans to give up the advantage being a secret sensor offered in social intrigue any time soon. Anyhow, it wasn't as if she could really cast too many stones; however poorly executed, Ren's invitation still worked... sort of. The pinkette was prepared to be annoyed at having her impromptu platonic "dinner date" stolen out from under her, but Mu had the cour-
As soon as the glint of the Lin's knife hit open air, Kasumi was already tense enough that her hands snapped out of her pockets coiling into a half-aborted clapping motion.
He's fucking insane, she decided, hearing his chakra ripple with laughter. She braced herself, as the knife inched closer to Ren's neck, mind flying through targets in the environment. Her chakra
coiled in preparation-
Lin,
the fucker, pulled the kunai back again, laughing like he'd actually made a hilarious joke. Personally, Kasumi didn't see anything funny at all about threatening the life of your future ally -and potential teammate- so blatantly, if only because it was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Surely, the apathy of the higher-ups only went so far, right? Actually attacking a fellow citizen of Konoha was grounds for a lot of nasty legal repercussions... but maybe Lin already knew that, hence his retreat. Conversely, just fucking standing there and watching a fellow student slit the throat of another without even trying to help could likely be construed in some less than convenient ways, which was ultimately the real reason Kasumi was prepared to intervene physically. She hesitated a bit, of course, not wanted to escalate whatever
this was to involving jutsu, but now that Lin had seemingly thought better of his actions...
Kasumi's hands returned to her pockets, but her eyes remained narrowed in Lin's direction, her chakra coiled like a viper from her last molding, prepared to snap off if the sound-manipulator decided to do anything... incredibly stupid. She didn't
think he was about to do anything more, judging by the anxiety intermixing with his surface level excitement and adrenaline, but it never hurt to be prepared.
Kasumis narrowed eyes watched Lin move off the har]rass Shinya instead, the pinkette silently praying for the Aburame's sanity and safety in turns. He was one of the more tolerable classmates she'd had, even if she didn't get the sense that they'd really get along if they actually bothered to engage more often. She'd seen him almost intervene on Mu's behalf before aborting, which was... just such a mood, honestly. She couldn't count the number of times some latest bit of student drama had ended up being clearly more trouble than it was worth from afar. Her choice to remain as neutral as possible won her no friends... but it won her no enemies either.
The incoming questions of the now approaching Mu dragged the pinkette from her vigil, as Kasumi allowed her expression to slip from tense to the usual placid neutrality she preferred to wear, turning her attention to the Hayashi and Uzumaki.
"Ice cream?" She cocked a single brow.
"I've had it plenty of times, yes." Well, "plenty" in the sense of it being a special treat that she sometimes indulged in outside her training diet… which -to be honest- mostly consisted of scarfing as many calories as needed to recover her chakra better.
Speaking of which, she was a little disappointed. Her dedication to training had honestly quite altered what she considered even a casual chance to eat out. She’d been imagining something with more…
substance, filling calories that would actually be both tasty and practical for ninja-in-training.
Snorting, she said as much, rolling her shoulders.
“Honestly, when I heard ‘bite to eat’, I pictured something with a bit more substance for shinobi like us. You know, calories, which translate to more chakra to burn. Not like it can’t be a full meal and a treat simultaneously… but sure, I know a couple places.” She jerked her head towards the markets, beginning to walk and lead the boys there.
The familiar bustle of the largely civilian district was a comfort, but it unfortunately didn’t manage to distract Kasumi’s mind from the tense aura that she could still feel lurking in the undercurrent of the village’s chakra. Even so, the pinkette plastered on a demeanor of blithe affability, not allowing the tension gripping her to show outwardly.
Nodding her head towards one larger diner, Kasumi played impromptu tour guide.
“That one’s Ryuga’s, does really good spicy food, dabbles in seafood, never had a real problem with customer service. Though, they’re admittedly slightly on the pricier side.” she was especially a fan of their spicy shrimp. It was a bit expensive, but the pinkette definitely thought it worth it, enough that she was almost willing to cover part of the bill for her fellow students just to have it.
She gestured across the road a little further ahead towards a smaller and somewhat cramped looking open-air establishment; it did have a covered seating area, of course, pretty much a single line of stools set up against the front counter, which also doubled as a table, and there were a line of heavy flaps hanging over the back of the seating area and front of the building, which mostly obscured customers from the sight of passerby and also acted right now as a shield against the rain. Kasumi smiled.
“That one is Ramen Ichigo, a family owned business… Obviously, they serve ramen… pretty much exclusively that, but still, it’s not bad, a casual, filling meal. It’s got that sort of personal, casual air to it, a lot of ‘rustic charm’… if you’re into that sort of thing.And then she pointed at a last place a bit further distant. She couldn’t quite see the name from here, but she’d been there once… or twice? Not often enough to really say much except.
“Frozen Flippancies. They do ice-cream, along with a few other frozen treats, I think? I don’t go there often, but I don’t recall disliking the experience the when I have. It’s as good a choice as anything else.” She shrugged noncommittally, vaguely fluttering one hand around at the general area of the market.
“And if none of those appeal to you, I mean… Shit, we have so many options around here. I won’t be too picky.” Probably.
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