The sun was still lollygagging in bed when Noburi woke Hazou for his turn on watch. The idea of keeping watch while sleeping in a suite with comfortable beds and indoor bathrooms was almost laughable, but it was the only way to keep Kagome from having an aneurysm.

Still, it wasn't a bad thing. The early morning hours were a good time to think and he certainly needed to. Most importantly, he needed to think about Akane.

Why did Akane care whether he was flirting with her? Did she want to know if Hazou had romantic feelings for her? Did he have romantic feelings for her? How would he know?

He shook his head and sighed, settling more comfortably on the floor and leaning against the wall to the right of the door, idly rolling a kunai through his fingers. (Important to be armed on watch so that he could stab any intruder.) So many questions, so few answers. He didn't even know what romantic feelings looked like—Keiko was his clearest example, with the way she idolized Inoue-sensei, and that seemed almost unhealthy. Keiko assumed Inoue-sensei was right by default, about everything; it was like her otherwise-magnificent brain turned to soup whenever her teacher spoke. She was hungry for Inoue-sensei's attention and approval and became depressed when she couldn't get it. She would do anything for Inoue-sensei, probably including sticking her arm in a fire if the redheaded jounin told her to. There was no way on Earth that Hazou would ever surrender his judgement to such a degree. If that was what romance was about, he wanted no part of it.

Still, Keiko wasn't exactly a normal person, and her idea of romance probably wasn't normal either. Maybe she was just taking normal romantic feelings and blowing them out of proportion? Maybe, in smaller doses, the various components of her crush actually were good examples of romance. If that was the case, then what did Hazou feel about Akane?

She was really awesome, and he wished he was more like her in many ways. That was kind of romantic, right?

He felt like Akane was right about everything...well, except maybe when she took the Spirit of Youth too far. And when she had faith in people who turned out not to deserve it. And right now when she couldn't see how awesome she was. Okay, there were plenty of times when she was wrong, but those were individual exceptions to a background state of getting things right. A little romantic? Check.

Was he hungry for Akane's attention and approval? He already had those on a constant basis, so it was hard to say. Still, when he thought about Akane forgetting him, or hating him, he felt awful. Romantic, check.

Would he do anything for her? Absolutely, without hesitation.

He frowned, forcing himself to re-examine that knee-jerk response. Do anything? Really? Probably not. If she asked him to betray a friend, give up his dreams of uplifting the world, or stick his arm in a fire for no good reason then that might be too much. Those weren't really important, though, since he was bone-deep certain that she would never ask such things. Okay, put another check in the 'romantic' column.

What about physical attraction? Keiko had never explicitly talked about physical attraction to Inoue-sensei, but the way her eyes followed the jounin hungrily strongly suggested that Hazou shouldn't ask because he might be utterly embarrassed by the answer. So, yes, chalk that up to 'physical attraction is part of romance'. Akane was beautiful. She had a great smile, and the way she moved—

Hazou shifted a little uncomfortably, drawing his knees up to his chest and looking around furtively to see if any of the others were awake. No. Good. Even Kagome-sensei was out cold, although he was cuddling a kunai as though it were a teddy bear and mumbling in his sleep. Hazou could just make out the words 'boom' and 'squish'.

He shook his head with a smile and went back to his thoughts. Where was he? Right, physical attraction for Akane. When he thought about it there was attraction there, but did it count if it had never occurred to him until now?

He sighed and banged his head gently on his knees in frustration. No matter how much he examined it he just didn't know the answers. Maybe he should talk to Inoue-sensei about this. She would have a field day, but she would also know what he should do, and she probably wouldn't prank him on something this important.

What if he did have romantic feelings for Akane? Look at where it got Keiko. Noburi. Yuno. Even Inoue-sensei's love life didn't sound like it had been happy, and she was an experienced adult who understood people on levels he didn't even know existed. Was he going to ruin everything if he had feelings for Akane?

Now that he thought about it, what about other girls? Ino was very pretty, and she had a cool, wicked edge to her that Akane didn't. She was...exciting. Keiko was, well, Keiko, but there were things they had in common—things they both understood about each other that nobody else ever had, like how they processed information, how they communicated with others, and what a pain in the ass most people were. Had he been taking that for granted? Did he want Keiko to have feelings for him? (For that matter, could Keiko have feelings for him? She was into girls, after all.)

Wait, what if Akane had feelings for him? What had he gotten himself into?

Ugh.

He couldn't figure this one out on his own. He definitely needed to talk to Inoue-sensei and, if she approved it, to Akane. Things would be simpler once he know how she felt about the possibility. Also, Akane was older and more experienced than he was, so hopefully she'd understand all this better.

Wait, she also had a crush on Lee, the terrifying and terrifyingly homoerotic wackadoo from Team Gai. If she still did, how did that affect things? Did that mean she couldn't have feelings for Hazou? Or did it mean that if she did, Hazou could end up in an indirect romantic relationship with Lee? For that matter, Yamanaka had hinted at the possibility of three-way relationships...could Hazou find himself directly paired with both Akane and Lee?

A shiver ran up his spine and he shook his head to cast out the horrifying thoughts. He could feel a headache coming on; it was definitely time to stop thinking about this and go make lists for a while.

o-o-o-o

"So, I was thinking," Hazou said, looking down and stirring his oatmeal slowly as he braced himself. "What do you guys think about sharing the lifting tower with Jiraiya?"

Three...two....

"Are you crazy!" Kagome-sensei gasped. "Don't give these stinking Leaf stinkers anything!"

Huh, didn't even make it to one.

Kagome was about to continue, but Inoue-sensei laid a hand on his arm. "Let's at least consider it," she said. "Hazou, what's your thinking?"

"He's got the basic idea already," Hazou said. "He knows it's related to the Five Seal Barrier. The rest is practical details, and he can have someone work those out eventually. If we give it to him now we save him a lot of time and can probably get paid."

"Note that we are essentially broke," Keiko put in. "Should Jiraiya stop funding our living expenses we literally do not have enough money for a meal. Having a safety cushion of cash would render us less dependent."

"Point," Noburi said. "Also, we really need Jiraiya to like us. Anything we can do to make that happen, or just to make ourselves look useful, would be a good plan."

"Plus, it would demonstrate our expertise in sealing, and probably incline Jiraiya to give us a little more freedom to work," said Inoue-sensei. "Right now we're poodles on parade with no ability to do anything proactive, including choosing when we leave Konoha. If we can demonstrate competence and usefulness we'll have a lot more leverage."

"Yeah," Kagome-sensei said, a smile that wavered between hopeful and crafty stretching across his narrow features. "Tell him that we won't do any sealing work where we could be observed, so he needs to let us get out of town if he wants more product."

The team looked around the table, taking a poll by eye. Finally Inoue-sensei nodded. "Sounds like a plan. If we handle it right we can probably convince him that part of our payment needs to be letting us have our gear back, including what we stored in the Summon Realm." She held up a hand to cut off Kagome's impending explosion. "Not the specialty seals, just our basic weapons, storage tags, camping supplies, explosives, and so on." She smiled at the expression of wide-eyed delight on Kagome's face at the word 'explosives'.

"When Team Asuma picks us up we can ask for a meeting," she said. "Until then, eat up."

o-o-o-o

When the breakfast dishes had been neatly stacked for the housekeepers to clear away, Hazou pulled Inoue-sensei aside.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Sensei, that bouquet that you had me give Yamanaka—what exactly did it mean?" he asked quietly. "I wasn't expecting a reaction like that, and even the Anbu seemed shocked. How much trouble am I in?"

She laughed and—yes, damnit—ruffled his hair. "Relax," she said. "Nothing too bad. It was basically 'I am single and looking, innocent and inexperienced but proud rather than ashamed of who I am, capable of gentleness and respectful, but also feeling the awakening of adolescent lust, and it is lust for you.' No big deal."

Hazou gaped at her. "No big deal?! Seriously? You had me tell the beloved daughter of the head of one of the most powerful clans in Konoha that I was lusting after her, and you say it's no big deal?" His voice broke in the middle of the last sentence and he blushed furiously.

She laughed again. "Really, it's going to be okay. You're good-looking, ripped, a powerful ninja for your age, and you're a missing nin so you're rocking that whole 'bad boy / aura of mystery and danger' thing. Right now she's flustered, a little confused, and on the back foot. Once she takes a breath she'll realize that you're no threat and be a little appalled but also a little flattered. Maybe some excitement in a slightly-scary-but-good-scary way, too. She might decide to go hmph and tell you that she's much too good for you, but she won't do anything serious about it. Honestly, I'd be surprised if she even told her team; she knows that if she does it will get back to her father and her father would never approve."

She grinned and ruffled his hair again. "Let me tell you, there is no way to get a queen-bee teenage girl hotter for a boy than to have her father disapprove of him. I'll make you a bet: she'll be cold and offended when her team first shows up, but if she isn't flirting with you by lunchtime I'll eat my shoes." She slid forward until she was barely an inch inside his personal space, then shifted her weight so she stood hipshot, left arm folded under her bosom, right elbow on left hand, twirling a lock of her crimson hair with one finger. She blinked at him, her eyes very wide as she said, "So, Kurosawa, what's it like to be a missing nin? It sounds really scary."

Hazou blushed so hard he felt like his face would explode. "Um...I, uh...need to check my gear before we get picked up. Excuse me!" He hurried off quickly, Inoue-sensei's amused laughter trailing along behind him.

o-o-o-o

Somehow, despite the fact that they were stuck together in three spacious-but-not-that-spacious rooms, Hazou managed to avoid Inoue-sensei until the knock came on the door.

"I'll get it!" he yelled, sprinting over and yanking the door open so fast that Sarutobi's hand was still upraised from knocking.

"Hi!" Hazou said brightly. "Great to see you! All set? We're looking forward to getting out and seeing the city!"

Sarutobi blinked. Yamanaka sniffed disapprovingly and rolled her eyes. Nara sighed and slouched, hands in his pockets. Akimichi placidly ate a potato chip.

"Hazou, relax, you sound like an idiot," Noburi murmured from behind him.

Hazou belatedly stepped back, waving Team Asuma into the room. "Come in!" he said. "We're all ready, though. What did you want to do today?"

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "There's an art exhibit at the museum that I wanted to see," he said. "Neo-Impressionism, very cutting-edge. If you're interested I thought we could go see that, then grab some lunch and train in the afternoon."

"Sounds like a plan," Inoue-sensei said, rolling to her feet from the couch she'd been lounging on. Somehow, she managed to make even the simple act of standing up seem alluring—at least, if Sarutobi's suddenly-sharpening gaze and tiny smile were anything to go by. Hazou was pretty sure that the jounin knew exactly what Inoue-sensei was doing, but he still watched with interest as she got her broad-brimmed sunhat settled and joined them at the door.

"I'm not familiar with the Neo-Impressionists," Inoue-sensei said, casually slipping an arm through Sarutobi's so he was escorting her like a couple on promenade as she started for the door. For a fraction of a second he stiffened at the unexpected contact, but then he relaxed, chuckled softly, and fell into step with her.

"They're pretty new," he said. "Itagaki was probably the first; his Sunset and Oak Tree was masterful, and the use of color-contrasted stippling was a real break from the old school. I think—"

The rest of the teams fell in line and followed their teachers out the door in silence. Hazou shot nervous glances at Yamanaka the whole time, but she refused to even look at him. He swallowed nervously.

o-o-o-o

Hazou didn't know from art, but the display really was impressive. The diversity of presentation was surprising—you would think that representatives of a single school would be similar, but apparently no one had told the Neo-Impressionists that. There were paintings, statues, wood carvings, and even water displays.

The one that captivated him was Chaos and Order, an array of three small wooden trays, set at slight angles and arrayed in descending steps. Each tray was connected by split-bamboo troughs suspended on wires. Two buckets stood beside the display, one full and one empty. The lowest trough was positioned over the empty bucket.

The rest of the group were scattered around the room looking at various other displayed. Hazou had stood in front of Chaos and Order for half a minute, frowning in puzzlement, until Yamanaka appeared on his left.

"Pour the bucket in the top," she told him chidingly. She stood hipshot, leaning away from him with arms folded under her bosom and eyes locked on the display, very explicitly not looking at him.

Nervously, Hazou poured the bucket of water into the top tray and stepped back to where he'd been.

The top tray was filled with rocks and sand packed in a half-circle dam. The water pooled behind the dam before slowly leaking out through small gaps. It rolled down the slope of the tray and out through an array of small holes that dripped into the first trough. The impact of the water was enough to make the trough bounce and swing slightly, so the water formed an arc in the air as it fell into the second tray.

The second tray was filled with more sand—very fine-grained and white—into which various wildflowers and grasses had been set. The droplets of water splashed across the leaves, making the plants sway and scatter the water. The soft sand slowly turned slate-gray in a stippled pattern that looked like sunlight through leaves until it steadily filled in like night falling.

Hazou and Yamanaka watched in silence as the water wended its way very slowly through the sand and down to the drain. From there it dripped down onto an off-center cone of bamboo with small notches and cuts in it. The impact caused the cone to spin and swing, scattering the water widely into the final tray. A small board, held in place by a spring, stretched across the tray and formed a dam behind which the water accumulated until there was enough pressure to overwhelm the strength of the spring. The board was forced back and the water flowed out around its edges, running through the final trough and into the waiting bucket.

The entire process took at least six minutes; the two teenagers stood silently through the entire process. Hazou didn't dare turn his head to look at the girl beside him, but he found himself hyperaware of her presence, and couldn't stop himself from sneaking peeks out of the corner of his eye. As the water started dripping into the third tray she shifted her weight so that she now leaned towards him instead of away. There was a solid foot of space between them, but he still imagined he could feel the heat of her body on his arm, and he suddenly had no idea what to do with his hands.

Finally, the last drop of water had trickled into the bucket. Yamanka sighed and ran the fingers of her right hand—the hand closest to Hazou—through her long blonde hair before turning to face him.

"The flowers were nice," she said quietly, absentmindedly finger-combing knots out of the shimmering curtain of sunlight that fell forward over her right shoulder, hanging down just below her modest breasts. Yesterday she had worn the hair up in a tight combat-ready knot. Hazou found himself surprisingly glad that she wore it down today; the movements of her fingers were mesmerizing, and he had to force himself to look at her face. "Much too forward, though. We've only just met."

"Sorry?" he said weakly. "Um...Inoue-sensei told me to give them to you. I'm sorry if they were offensive or anything."

"It's fine," she said, granting him a tiny smile that disappeared almost instantly. "I was surprised, that's all." She took a deep breath and started twisting her hair up into its combat knot again, arms upraised and fingers working with the long-ingrained skill of a lifetime.

"So," she said, eyes wide with curiosity. "What's it like being a missing nin?"

Hazou gulped.