[OP: "I Have Made Mistakes"-- The Oh Hellos]

After that meeting, everyone felt like a load was lifted in one way. 

"But we can't leave now," Temari stated outright. "We sealed our fate. Are we sure this was the right decision?"

"We can't give up now, not if we had a chance," Gaara said. "But...for once, I am at a loss."

Admitting this was taboo for a leader, and he knew it, but he saw the team more as equals now than he did as underlings.

"We'll figure something out," Camie said. "We always do."

"Why did you decide to stick with us though?" Shoto said to Mabui, who'd followed them out. "I know it helps, but maybe you could have at least gotten some space."

"I don't want space," Mabui said clearly. "The faster we resolve this, the better. I believe that working closely with you is the only way to stay ahead of it. I must know everything that changes as soon as it does, or I can't act accordingly...but I don't have to check in every day now, if you don't want."

"You can come as often as you like," Shine said. "But can you even leave our house yet? Where would you stay?"

"I'll have to discuss that with Lord Ay. I don't want to intrude on your hospitality any longer." Mabui was uneasy about it.

"It's fine, really," Momo said. "It's not even our house, and you need to be safe. We can't be sure you're out of the woods yet, not till we see proof the Village is adjusting their views."

"Even then," Bakugo said, "there may be holdouts. You should have guards."

"I couldn't ask for that." Mabui shook her head. "Perhaps I could stay in the Kage house somehow...but the paperwork for that... Well, anyway, it might take a few days. If I could stay with you until then..."

"Yeah, sure," Wally said.

Gaara nodded.

"Could be fun," Camie said. "Not as fun as being in immediate danger--but we could finally get to know each other better."

"If we could go two days together without trouble, we might start to feel more comfortable here," Tenten said dryly.

"I think we should aim for that," Wally said. "Two days from now we'll have been on our mission for 100 days. We talked about celebrating before, and that's the big 3 digits. I think we should do something."

"Three months and nearly two weeks," Momo said. "I'm amazed."

"Best training assignment ever, right?" Camie said. "Work study, eat your heart out. So down for more, sis."

"Really, after everything, you want more of this?" Karin said.

"Sure, it's hard, but it was the best experience of my life," Camie said. "Don't you agree?"

Karin tilted her head. "Actually, yeah, funnily enough. I hated parts of it, but it was unforgettable... At Ieast except for the amnesia drug."

They laughed, though some of them in a pained way.

"But we can't go on in limbo like this either," Hinata put in, gently but seriously. "We must do something about Cloud."

"I guess it won't hurt to think about it for a couple days," Shine said. "Wally is right, we should celebrate."

"What's so great about 100 days of anything?" Sasuke said moodily. 

"Well, we're not dead yet," Suigetsu said.

https://youtu.be/fOUXlz3kcHQ

["100 Bad Days"--AJR]

"Still, it sounds less impressive surviving than total success in the Village would," Gaara said. "It's just a number. But if you want to celebrate it, that's fine with me. We could use some cheer."

"Perhaps we could celebrate something else also then?" Momo said. "Some other victory we've had..."

"Maybe someone's birthday is coming up," Camie said. "We could celebrate that. Sakura, yours is in spring, isn't it?"

"It's too late--it's the 28th of March," Sakura said. [Funny, I remembered it was March. I had to fact check the date though.]

"We'd be late for her then," Momo said. "And late for Naruto... I don't know the birthdays of every one of you."

"There's so many of us, we'd be early or late for everyone," Ino said. 

"Wait--" Camie suddenly held up her hands and jumped up and down. "I've got it. Why not celebrate them all?"

"All?" Sai repeated.

"Yeah, we've literally never celebrated your birthdays, or ours, together as a team," Camie said. "Heck, Bakugo hasn't even celebrated mine with me yet, or vice versa. And it'll be a while till we get a chance at home, too, so this is like a mint idea. That's a good reason for a party, right?"

"Isn't that cheesy?" Kankuro said.

"And unnecessary," Shikamaru said. "Birthdays aren't that big a deal."

"I can't believe you just said that," Camie said.

"My parents always hired entertainers for my birthday," Momo said. "But we didn't celebrate it at UA. Seemed a little too attention-seeking to bring it up."

"But we all should be celebrated," Shine said, "for existing. I think Camie's idea is great, actually."

"Or we could make it an un-birthday party," Wally said. "And then it fits everyone."

"I love you." Shine kissed his cheek.

"What's an un-birthday party?" Choji asked.

"It's from, like...a movie, I think?" Camie said.

"We'll get cake or something," Shine said. "And...maybe we could do gifts too? Nothing too big, just something to show appreciation. And we could make cards, have everyone sign them."

"It does sound fun!" Momo warmed up to the idea. "It would be nice to look at the bright side for a while."

The ninjas were skeptical, but then Ino said, "It could be fun."

"I think we should try it," Naruto said. "I've never had a birthday party before."

Hearing that convinced a lot more people to do it, if only out of guilt.

"Fine," Sakura said. "I guess... I mean, it's a little last minute for a party, but if it's just us..."

"Could we invite Bee's team also?" Choji said. "Thank them for helping us."

"Yeah, why not?" Wally said. "But I don't know if they'd come."

"And of course you can too," Shine told Mabui. "You'll probably have to be here anyway."

"I don't need to be there," Mabui said. "If you want to celebrate privately."

"Don't be silly, sis, you should totes join us," Camie said. "You need to have more fun. I bet you've never even been to a party."

This was true, in fact.

Mabui realized she didn't even know what people did at parties... Was she really that boring?

She didn't remember actually saying yes, but Camie just seemed to assume it so naturally that she felt as if she was being roped into joining them before she knew it.

The others warmed up to the idea a bit once they started making suggestions.

"Maybe I could get everyone's birthday flowers," Ino mused.

"We could do a team portrait," Sai said.

"Ooh, and get it printed," Camie said. "We could finally have some photo evidence of us being a team."

That sounded like a good idea for other reasons to Temari. She somehow thought that if anyone ever denied this mission had happened, they should have more proof than just their word.

Choji said he hoped they got dessert. It would take at least three cakes for so many people (and him), but there was a bakery in town.

Cake was not a traditional dessert for ninjas, but, as with so many other modern things, they did have it.

Shoto wanted ice cream too, so they decided to ask Aisuku if he did large orders.

* * *

Day 99:

In all this, they didn't utterly forget their rescued people.

Tsunade wanted time to work with them just as a medic though, and taking a few days without the team was fine with her. In fact, Sakura suspected, from how she talked, that she wanted to find a way to heal the people without their help.

Like Sakura, she must have felt threatened by their ease at doing everything.

The odd thing was that, once Sakura saw that Tsunade felt this way, she realized it was silly.

When it was her, she didn't see it, but maybe since she herself wasn't that good at healing people mentally, she had little pride to wound, and so she saw it more clearly.

But then she saw that she'd felt the same way and wondered why she was so insecure that she needed to compete with people even to heal other people. Wasn't that the last thing to make into a contest?

It showed, though, that it meant she cared a lot about finding something that was just hers.

Sakura was as moody over this as Sasuke ever could have been about his powers. She spent a lot of time stewing about how she never stood out as a ninja anyway, but she had never connected that to her drive to be the best medic, the only thing she'd ever shower unusual aptitude for.

She remembered how insufferable she'd been to Ino about it sometimes, though she'd encouraged her at others--but only just when Ino never got close to surpassing her.

And Ino had quit medical stuff, so it had stopped bothering her. But Sakura had only learned later that Ino's father had wanted her to quit, not Ino herself.

So Ino might even have turned out to be better at this than Sakura if she'd been able to stick with it.

Why was she like this?

Having two whole days together without having work to do gave Sakura way too much time to focus on herself. It made her feel depressed.

And the others were having fun planning their important party, which drove home how depressed she was.

Momo hung up some decor around the house, and Bakugo even made a special kind of dish that was for parties, with some help from the other people who liked cooking.

Wally helped decorate and move the furniture into other rooms with Naruto and his clones, so they'd have more room for party games in the main areas.

Even Zoe pitched in. She helped Ino gather flowers to put around the house from outside the Village.

Ino's fear of heights was a problem there, but it wasn't so bad if she just didn't look down, and Zoe stayed close to the tops of the rocks, so it seemed less far to the ground.

Doing something fun cheered Hanabi up after how she'd been down about all the things she'd said to Ay.

She knew it was childish for her to lash out and Eichi was right, but she didn't want to change anything either.

"Sakura, do you have any idea what Naruto would Iike?" Hinata interrupted Sakura's brooding. "I thought if we all exchanged gifts, maybe we could have a few specially for the people we know better. "

"I don't know," Sakura said flatly.

"You must know him better than we do," Sai spoke. "Last time I gave him something, he said it ruined his house. I must have used the wrong ink..."

https://youtu.be/4iL2zty27Xc

[Clip of Sai's gift to Naruto. Episode 147.]

"I said I don't know!" Sakura said, more annoyed. "I'm sure Naruto will be fine with whatever you give him, okay? He's not picky!"

Hinata backed up right away and left the room.

Sai gave Sakura a surprised look before following her out.

"What was that?" Sasuke was in the kitchen, as usual, but now he looked out.

"What's it to you?" Sakura turned away. "Just leave me alone."

Sasuke didn't think she'd tell him--and couldn't figure out why he even wanted to know--so he backed off also.

"Dang, Sakura." Hanabi walked out of the living room carrying some extra supplies she was moving to a different room. "What's eating you now? We're finally getting a little respite."

"It's not like that solves anything," Sakura said. "I mean, I still have all these things to do."

"So taking a little break is good, right?" Hanabi gave her a weird look.

"I never said I needed one."

"Yeah, well, we do." Hanabi suddenly lost her patience. "You know, Sakura, not everyone has to be unhappy all the time just because you are."

"What?" Sakura sat up angrily.

But Hanabi didn't care. "Yeah, I said it... Someone had to. Gosh, you really can't let anyone relax as long as you're upset over something or other, and you're always upset... No wonder your team prefers hanging out with other people."

She walked away.

Sakura immediately half wanted to smack her across the room--but she just as quickly realized that she'd be attacking a 14-year old for simply going at her, and that was hardly excusable behavior.

She stopped short and lowered her fist.

Hanabi no doubt saw it with her Byakugan vision, but she walked way as if she hadn't.

Sakura put her face in her hands.

That little brat! She was way too cheeky these days.

But then, it was completely true.

Sakura always did that, Hanabi was right. Didn't matter if someone else was in a good mood--if she wasn't, she always blew up at them.

Sakura was never satisfied, not for a long time anyway, and when she wasn't, she never could stand anyone else being content around her...

It wasn't fair.

But it was what came naturally to her.

[One of the things I don't like about Sakura's character in canon, too. It's part of why she's so pressed about Sasuke all the time. To be fair, she wasn't that way always, but it seems like it's how she deals with feeling insecure. People don't Iike it about her, but it's really way more Iike what most of us do than we want to admit. Almost everyone will be a buzzkill when they're not happy and not even think of it as selfish.]

"She's got a point," Sasuke interrupted these thoughts unwelcomely.

"Oh really?" Sakura was in no mood to hear this from him.

"You never seem happy," Sasuke observed. "What would actually change that at this point?"

"I don't know," Sakura admitted, as if she was tired of even denying it.

"It's not just what I did, either." Sasuke had finally put this together--maybe Hanabi's jab had actually clarified it for him. "It's something else."

"Well, if you're so insightful now, why don't you figure it out?" Sakura said sourly. "But then you don't care about anyone's happiness except yours."

"Do you?"

"Of course I do...sometimes," Sakura hedged. "I mean, I hope everyone ends up happy."

"As an idea, or would you actually try to help them?" Sasuke wondered.

"I think I do help--healing and stuff would help," Sakura said. "I do my job... Maybe I'm not like all these 'insightful' people who see what everyone really wants deep down, but so what? It's still something."

"It might be." Sasuke didn't know any more than she did.

"Why are you even asking me?" Sakura turned to him more. "You don't do anything either."

"I've just been thinking about the past," Sasuke said. "Not the tragic part only, but the...less tragic part." By which he meant the good part. "Once, I remember doing things for people just to help them. Maybe once you did too. Naruto is the same now as he was then, so I wonder what happened to us."

"Isn't that easy?" Sakura said. "We figured out that it doesn't work out the way you think it will. Naruto will never figure that out. Either that's his best quality or his worst, I'm not sure, but it keeps him more cheerful than we could ever be."

"There are people smarter than Naruto who aren't as negative as we are," Sasuke countered.

"Then they have something that we don't," Sakura said. "Maybe it comes easier to some people to shake off failing."

"Maybe they just never put as much stock in their own success to begin with." Sasuke had, by now, started to see this was the difference. It had taken him a long time to figure out why Shine never took full credit for any of the team's successes, and neither did Wally or Gaara or any of the heroes, even.

They knew that if you never believed anything was entirely up to you, then you would not be crushed by failure, because there was always something you couldn't control about it.

It seemed like false humility at first, but it was wisdom; they bounced back more than other people did because of that attitude.

By contrast, the ninjas thought everything was up to them, and they were crushed by failure so often that they turned to darkness over it.

Sasuke even saw that had he not believed Itachi and had not concluded only he could stop him alone, he'd probably never have been driven mad by repeated failure at doing it--only thought they needed a better plan.

He was a fool to believe him and to work alone all this time--now he even wondered uneasily if Itachi had not intended that all along, knowing that Sasuke could never beat him alone and had been trying to make sure he would never ally with anyone who had a chance.

[Whatever the stans say, I still think Itachi never really wanted to help Sasuke. Too many red flags in how he acted, even if you took the massacre out of it, which I don't.]

Sakura didn't know why he was being so silent. She didn't know if she cared anymore.

Since she'd smacked him with that mast, she'd felt guilty, though everyone had said it was an accident and she shouldn't blame herself too much when he'd come out of nowhere.

Only Bakugo had said it was her own fault for not checking the area more, like he'd been telling her to do.

The problem was that Sakura had a bad feeling he was right. Had she applied what he'd taught her, in his annoying way, and thought before she'd done that, she might have thought that anyone in their team could have moved in her way unexpectedly, so it was smart to make sure first.

But when she was frustrated, as she usually was fighting, she never thought that hard about anything.

That was her real flaw as a fighter, in fact, which Bakugo had been trying to get her to see without exactly saying it that way. She never planned anything. She only fought with blind rage, and her usual intelligence in other areas was never present.

[This is absolutely true. You will never see Sakura fight with strategy barring, like, one time with Kakashi's training, and it's not her fist fighting the--which is too bad, as she probably would be much more formidable if she used her head at all to plan her moves. But other than Momo, I've never seen any anime girl use strategy to win a fight. It's even more unlikely than them using power to.]

Sasuke didn't realize that Sakura was sort of in the same place he was here...questioning herself and her methods and even her goals in life and wondering if they'd ever been as good as she thought they were.

But if he had known what was going through her head, he might have noticed that, while he was slowly moving out of his pit of despair about all this and becoming clearer in his head, Sakura was moving deeper into the mire. At least she felt like she was. She saw no light at the end of the tunnel.

While he got sullen about it, she only got more angry.

What Sasuke didn't know, though, was why Sakura was still treating him hostilely.

The others had told him that she'd been quite upset about knocking him out...so he knew that, deep down, she did still care.

Which...was oddly reassuring. For a while he'd started to think she finally hated him now--and he hadn't figured out how much that idea would have bothered him till he thought it was not true after all.

But then why was she so angry?

It wasn't just him, as he'd said, but he knew he'd caused a lot of it.

Camie and Bakugo were right--Sakura probably was disappointed in his decision, but that didn't seem like all there was to it anymore.

And sometimes it sounded like she resented that he wasn't actually failing to change...

Suddenly the most shocking explanation in the world occurred to him, and it did so simply that he didn't even react to it at first.

Was Sakura actually envious of his progress?

No that... That couldn't be it.

That was nuts.

But then, Sasuke reflected on how Shoto had kind of been envious of him getting so much attention, when he never did anything to deserve it...and Naruto had envied him his skill with ninjutsu many times, though Naruto never got bitter over it.

Sakura had voiced several times in the past that she never could compete with them or sway them or stop them--and had even prided herself on getting closer to being their equal--but every time she'd gotten close, they'd changed their goals.

She had been very touchy about this mission--and her place in it, too, not just how she perceived their place.

It suddenly seemed laughable, Sakura envying them, with their messed up lives.

But that was when Sasuke unwillingly remembered that Sakura, even from the start with Team 7, had often seemed left out of their successes, since she had no innate family jutsu like they did. It had taken her ages to catch up just on her own talents, and she still never really got included when anyone talked about Team 7 as a threat. It was always Naruto, the Fox, and Sasuke, the Uchiha. No one cared about Sakura.

Though if you went by raw talent and effort and not inherent ability, she was far ahead of them, but the world never would care about effort, only results. [What people hate about the later part of Naruto.]

Sasuke had never thought about what it would be like to be Sakura and be on their team till now.

It was almost...funny. But he knew, in her place, it would have driven him crazy to be always behind--it had driven him crazy to be behind Naruto, even. What if it had been everyone?

Yet again he couldn't help but think Sakura was a lot mentally tougher than he was if she was even still trying to keep it together after so much embarrassment, but, that was a passing thought.

Sakura finally got tired of him just standing there.

"Did you want something else?" she said, and she startled him by speaking after such a long silence.

"What?" Sasuke hadn't even remembered what she'd said last. "Oh...no...I just realized something, that was all."

"Oh really?" Flatly. "I wonder what."

"I realized it must have been difficult for you to be part of Team 7 all this time and not have any of the inherited abilities that we did." Sasuke probably shouldn't have said it outright, but he'd never learned tact.

Sakura's mouth dropped open.

She had no idea where that had come from.

And she almost would have laughed, if it hadn't pissed her off. After all, how obvious was it?

But that Sasuke would even have thought of it--he had only ever seen his own pain, and he'd never have seen her frustrations as something to worry about. It probably seemed like a joke to him.

"Don't look down on me!" she said angrily. "I didn't ask for pity. I didn't need inherited power--I worked for my own!"

"I never said that wasn't true," Sasuke said carelessly. "I only just realized that you told us enough times that you didn't like it, but we never really knew what you meant. I wonder why they put you on Team 7."

Sakura sat up. "I wondered that too. Now I think it's because they figured that I couldn't complain. Everyone else has a clan that might actually raise a fuss about being put with two outcasts, but I didn't. So I was stuck with you. Not that I really cared. I was just happy to make it to Genin school."

"Why did you even care about that?" Sasuke had never asked Sakura why she'd wanted to be a ninja, and it was telling that he didn't know the answer. Naruto had never shut up about his.

Sakura didn't intend to tell Sasuke that a lot of it had been her crush on him at the time...but then, it hadn't been all there was to it. It wasn't as if she couldn't have pursued Sasuke without being a Genin...and she'd wanted to be one before she'd even liked him.

She frowned. "It was so long ago... My original reason? I don't know, Ino was doing it, and maybe I thought it sounded cool... She used to help me with the work, too. I didn't know a lot of it already. I got picked on by the people whose families were clan shinobi." [You know, it's never stated, but that would make a lot of sense as to why Sakura was singled out by the mean girls in Leaf and Ino wasn't. Sakura didn't have a clan who'd back her up, so she was an easy target.]

"Was that it?" Sasuke hadn't given this any thought either.

"Oh, sure," Sakura said. "My mother didn't even really think it was a good idea. My dad didn't really care, but...I stuck with it. I guess I didn't have anything else to do with my time. My parents are both totally ordinary, and no one knows anything about the Haruno family. In fact, they've not ever done anything to stand out, and we're not in history books as more than a footnote. Just another name."

She tilted her head. "And when you grow up hearing about all the legendary shinobi and everybody who's anybody is a shinobi--even the worst shinobi is still honorable if they die in battle. Everyone else just...dies. No one remembers them."

That had to be the most depressing thing Sasuke had heard, and he was himself.

"Significance? That's your reason?" he said.

But that was the one reason Sakura ever did anything, if he thought about it again. It threaded through all her other actions. Even ones towards him.

"That's not an unusual reason to do stuff," Sakura said sharply. "A lot of people want to be important. And I am now...if only for one reason--if all of you would just let me do it and stop expecting me to care about frivolous stuff."

"It's just strange that no one actually seems to know your motivation for anything."

Sakura rapped the table loudly. "No one asks."

Silence.

"That explains it then," Sasuke said.

"Explains...what?"

"I wondered why you'd even come on this mission when you didn't like anyone leading it that much," Sasuke explained casually. "But if you wanted to be significant--and this mission is important--then it doesn't matter how much you don't like them. You have your spot in history now. But you're still not satisfied."

Sakura almost looked wry, as if she realized how ironic this point was too. But then she frowned. "I guess it takes more than that to be happy...but it's something. Do you have anything to show for this?"

"I don't know." Sasuke looked away. "But time is running out to decide that. It will be 100 days tomorrow. Is that enough time to choose your path for the rest of your life?"

"One hundred days is not that long to decide anything." Sakura frowned to herself again. "I guess I don't have to keep doing the same thing, but I don't have anything else to do. I can't add anything to this team but medical skills. At least they admit those are good."

"If you tried doing something else, they might accept it," Sasuke stated. "Isn't it just your choice not to try?"

"You're one to talk. You only ever fight. You don't do anything else to help them," Sakura shot back.

Sasuke was hit right between the eyes. She was right.

"Well, what else can I do?" he grumbled.

"Maybe if you tried--" Sakura took way too much savage pleasure in saying that. "--you'd find they'd accept it."

Sasuke glared at her. "That's not clever."

"I thought it was just true."

"It's different for me." Sasuke slipped more into his usual gloomy mood. "My clan is born to fight... That's all we're good for is bloodshed, it seems."

"Oh, Sasuke, don't be such a dolt!" Sakura said very rudely, and she got up indignantly as she said it, as if he was not worth her time. "You're the only Uchiha left--you decide what the Uchiha stand for now. Literally, it's all up to what you want. You're such a moron. Why did I ever think you were a genius?"

Sasuke was caught off guard by her making the same point Shine had once made. And doing it, as usual, in a much meaner way, but it was still the same point.

"Good for bloodshed," Sakura huffed to herself as she left the room. "He wasn't even that good at it to begin with. Look at his track record. And they say I can't see outside my limitations..."

Sasuke still heard her, whether she thought he did or not.

He caught himself smiling in a weird way and stopped.

https://youtu.be/4JwHhVOOmfw

["What I've Done"--Caleb Hyles]

* * *

Choji had the good luck to run into Karui at Aisuku's ice cream stand when he went to ask him if he could do a large order.

Aisuku was more than willing to do it.

Karui walked up while they were still talking.

"I told you you'd be hooked on this once you tried it," she said.

"You were right--it is the best ice cream," Choji said. 

"He's having a party," Aisuku said. "I'll throw in my special party toppings mixer at half price. Not as good as my personalized choices, but it's a decent stand in."

"That does sound good," Choji said.

"What are you celebrating?" Karui couldn't think of any reason they'd be happy.

"It's the 100th day of our mission tomorrow," Choji said. "Also, we're off probation, but the girls want to turn it into a birthday party as well. We're giving gifts and wearing hats. It's a little silly, but some of us have never had a big party, so they want to try it."

"That's kinda sad," Karui said. "Though it's not that big a deal. I've never had a party either...just the gifts and birthday soup. You're doing the birthday soup, right?"

"Bakugo is doing that," Choji said.

"Hmrpf, he'll probably make it all wrong," Karui said.

Choji personally liked Bakugo's soup just fine, but he wasn't going to argue with a lady about it.

 "You're invited to join us," he said. "And Omoi and Samui, if they want. What's a party without guests?"

"Us? But isn't it just your team?"

"No, it's fine. Besides, Mabui will be the only Cloud there otherwise. She might be uncomfortable." Choji knew how to get Karui to agree. He'd noticed that, while she was kind of rough on the outside, she was pretty quick to be worried about her own people feeling uncomfortable.

It worked.

"I guess we shouldn't let that happen. I thought she'd be moving back out now," Karui said.

"She hasn't found a way yet, but no one minds her being there for now," Choji sad. "Actually, I think Dabi likes it, if you know what I mean."

"Dabi?" Karui snorted. "He can't stand her. Have you heard the way he talks?"

"I have, and I think he's never paid anyone else that much attention." Choji was sage. "Some boys do not know how to talk to girls nicely. Like Shikamaru... He never knows what to say to his girl either."

"Temari?" Karui said. "Yeah, huh...he's dense."

"Maybe sometimes being smart in your head isn't the same thing as being perceptive." Choji had always thought this about Shikamaru.

"True." Karui nodded. "Omoi is supposed to be pretty smart, but every time he opens his mouth, it's a disaster."

"If you're gonna stand there, do you want to order?" Aisuku interrupted. "Not that I want to interrupt a young couple, but I have customers..."

Karui blushed bright red. "We're not a couple, old man! I'm just trying to be hospitable to the visitors."

"Oh," Aisuku said, as if he understood. "I see."

"Karui is just a friendly person," Choji said.

This was a lie, unless he counted her food offerings--which, admittedly, he did. In his book, bringing people food was the best show of friendship.

Karui was never called friendly by anyone else, but, like most girls, she kinda liked someone being wrong about her if it made her look better.

She smiled a little faintly.

Aisuku winked at Choji as he handed him his receipt. "You know what you're doing, young man. It's nice to see it. Cloud men are very brash, but they don't have any skills sweet talking a lady at all. A woman likes to be praised before she agrees to be your special person."

"That's what my father always says too." Choji took a bite of ice cream. "And he and my mother get along great."

"Good for them." Aisuku winked again.

Choji was not the least bothered by it. Nothing ever bothered him that much, after all.

Karui didn't hear any of that, thankfully. Though if she had, she might have been flattered.