Electra Rose
patreon
Great Lakes & Expectations chp 23
🕑 Added 2019-12-18 08:24:21 +0000 UTCRegina woke with the sun, and immediately resolved to buy light-reducing curtains.
Naruto was snuffling into his pillow. He was moving enough that she figured he was probably starting to wake up by himself, so she crawled out from under the covers and left the room in her pajamas.
She did her usual morning yoga stretches and the exercises Tsunade had mandated, before taking a quick shower and starting breakfast.
She was making toast and eggs when someone knocked on the door.
Regina looked down at her clothes- she was perfectly decent. Her house wear was pretty nice, actually. So she turned off the heat on the eggs and went to the door.
Might Gai was standing outside, grinning.
“Good morning, Jiraiya-hime!” He boomed. He gave an extremely positive set of thumbs up.
Regina gave him a thumbs-up back. She was too overstimulated to perform at his level, even if she was naturally inclined to that kind of outward positivity.
“Good morning!” she said, as cheerily as she could. “You’re up early.”
“Always up early!” he walked closer to the door. “I wished to confirm our tea ceremony learning experience for this evening, Jiraiya-hime.”
“Rejina, please.” She said, waving the name away. “Can you believe he named himself Jiraiya Jiraiya? If we’re going to be friends, please don’t make me think about my dad in a dress.” she grimaced a little bit, “And I’d like to be known for things I do. Not things he did.”
He laughed. “Very true! It is most youthful of you to determine your own future!” he leaned in, “Rejina-hime, what time is this class? I wish to challenge my Eternal Rival today, and I need to know what time I have available.”
“Oh, yes, your Eternal Rival.” Regina blinked. He’d… talked about that person the other day, hadn’t he? “Um, Might-san, would you like to come in? Naruto is sleeping and we can talk about it while I try to make eggs.”
He gave a thumbs up and came inside. Might-san was very precise about how he took off his shoes and stowed them in the genkan, which was interesting. Usually Regina shed them like a skin and flopped down onto the floor like a jellyfish.
He chattered at her about his Eternal Rival and their lifelong series of competitions (current score: 28-29, favor to Rival), his philosophy involving Youth (always with what she thought of as a capital emphasis), and his passion for taijutsu.
They agreed to meet for class at 5:45 and walk there together because Regina was nervous about being judged, and afterwards Might-san would seek out his Rival for their next competition.
“Rejina-hime, would you mind taking the finishing photos of our competition?” he asked, looking a bit embarrassed.
“I wouldn’t mind at all, Might-san.” She answered thoughtlessly. It wasn’t like he was asking a lot. “I don’t have a camera, though.”
“No problem, Rejina-hime!” he gave her a decidedly more genuine smile. “And please, if I can call you by your name, I insist you call me by mine. Gai.”
She blinked again. Oh yeah, that was fair. She just hadn’t considered that other people would accept the decrease in formality as easily as that.
“Of course, Gai-san.”
Naruto walked out in his pajamas and sleep hat, yawning.
“I smelled eggs…” he said, mewling pitifully. “I’m hungry.”
She just looked at him. “That’s probably because I was making eggs. You want some?”
He threw himself onto a zabuton and smacked his hands in front of his face. “Itadakimasu!” He crowed.
Gai just blinked at him, then laughed. “So much youth in this home!”
Regina put a plate full of eggs and some toast in front of Naruto. “Do you want anything, Gai-san?”
She didn’t actually want to make any more, but it seemed very rude. Definitely not very Midwestern. Gai could have moved in at that moment if he’d wanted to, and she’d never tell him to leave. If she violated those kinds of rules, she genuinely believed her grandmother would somehow both be raised from the dead and transport dimensions to ask her what barn she was born in.
“No, no, I ate.” He waved it away. He leaned towards her, as if sharing a secret.“Don’t offer shinobi food often. We eat too much.”
“Oh, yes. I remember how much Momo ate.” She said grimly. “Unfortunately, my upbringing makes it impossible for me to not offer.”
He seemed a little confused, but sympathetic.
Naruto made a truly awful horking sound. She patted his back.
“Manners.” She reminded him quietly. “Don’t choke yourself on scrambled eggs. It sounds like a particularly embarrassing reason to go to the hospital.”
Naruto just grinned and started shoveling more down his cheerful little maw.
“He’s some sort of egg-fueled fiend.” She said to Gai, with a quirked smile. “I’m sorry, his manners are…” she shrugged. “Youthful?’
“Very.” he said, seriously. But his eyes twinkled. “Will Naruto-kun be coming to tea ceremony class with us today?”
“I dunno, do you want to, Naruto?” she lovingly poked his little shoulder.
He gave her a skeptical face.
She tried really hard not to laugh. The corners of her mouth hurt. He was just so cute.
“No, I did shodo with you yesterday. Today, I want to keep Sasuke-kun safe from assassins until you get done. Tea sounds boring.” Then he started putting eggs on his toast and eating them as toppings.
‘I feel like somehow mentioning assassins did not make me feel better.’
She blanked for a moment, then turned to Gai.
“I guess not! I’m afraid you’re stuck with just me.”
Gai left a little bit later, promising to meet her outside the Hokage Tower.
She and Naruto got dressed, walked to a bento place, and grabbed their lunches. Then she dropped him off at school with a big, embarrassingly loud kiss on the forehead.
“Ewwww!” He grumbled, but she could tell he was enjoying the attention. “Come and pick me up after school?”
“Of course. Then we’ll get you some art supplies. You can do your homework and your art in Sasuke’s room, while you’re keeping him safe for me.”
He gave her a Gai-style thumbs up, complete with gleaming grin. It was uncanny.
“You should consider acting.” She told him. “If this shinobi thing doesn’t work out.”
He giggled at her and raced into the building.
Regina worked on her police proposal on the couch in the Hokage’s office. He took meeting after meeting. Mostly she was just there to maybe absorb anything through osmosis and repetitive listening, apparently.
She had a vague idea sketched up pretty quickly- and the twenty or so shinobi were scheduled to come in for a meeting with her and the Hokage at 2 pm. That gave her enough time to have a proposal worked up.
The timeline for training was something she wasn’t sure on. And how this training should be done- was it a job, and they went home at night? Were they brought to a special facility and stayed there for a few weeks?
She supposed it depended on the goals of the police force. She knew she wanted to significantly demilitarize it, and make it accessible to civilians. They shouldn’t be violence-prone people.
There would need to be entry testing and at least yearly evaluations. She didn’t want to start a program that killed people.
But what indicators would she be testing for? And perhaps more importantly, what indicators would mean elimination from candidacy?
For sure a history of personal violence would have to disqualify a candidate. If that was disqualifying, it also had to be a fireable offense.
The kind of people who might apply to be part of a historically shinobi (violent) police force were probably already disqualified. That meant that the whole idea of police needed rebranding and marketing. The goals had to be different. This wasn’t just an extension of anbu or an outlet for people who didn’t wish to be held accountable for their actions.
She wrote up multiple proposals and trashed them all one by one.
Regina caught more than one person staring at the overflowing trash can beside her, but she didn’t really care. She had the opportunity to do this thing right, it had to be thought through.
So, the role of police as she saw it was to inform and protect its citizens. They did traffic control, awareness campaigns, and investigated crimes.
Although, what happened once those crimes were investigated?
She waited until a brief lull in between meetings to ask her Hokage.
“Hokage-sama, who decides whether a person is guilty? And decides their punishment?”
He gave her a wry smile.
She slumped her shoulders. “It’s you, isn’t it.”
He nodded, and took out his pipe.
“That’s not sustainable or particularly fair.” She pointed out. “What if you were some sort of loon? You’re not, but you’re also busy.”
“That’s a good point.” the Hokage looked at her. “I suppose that means you’ll have to add that aspect of things into your proposal.”
Then another genin team walked in, and he was busy again.
Fine. She would reinvent the judicial courts system. But probably not today. Unless this plan went incredibly well.
Regina went back to writing.
Something white flashed in his peripheral as he rounded the staircase. He had a spike of adrenaline and a hand on a kunai before he looked at it directly.
Someone had attached a note to his door with green washi tape. There was a lumpy turtle bluntly scrawled in thick black ink.
The suspect list was short.
Kakashi put the weapon down and readjusted the groceries in his left arm so that he could tear it down on his way in.
“Dearest Eternal Rival,” the letter began.
That was convincing evidence for his theory.
He shoved the paper in his back pocket and put his vegetables in the fridge. He left the eggs out because he had ambitions of making tamagoyaki in the morning and he wanted the visual reminder. That done, he wandered through his apartment.
Had it always been this small? Or had he just not been spending time in it? The answer was obvious and did not improve his mood.
When he felt like he couldn’t avoid it any longer, he fished out the letter and smoothed out the worst of the wrinkles to read it. It began the way he expected it to.
“I am writing to inform you of two things. I would like to have a rematch tonight at 8pm, at the site of our most recent challenge.”
His impulse was to claim that he had work, but then he remembered he was borderline unemployed now.
He waited a moment. Ah, yes, there it was. Sadness? Was it soul-sucking despair? Something like that. He was fairly fucking certain he was still unhappy about losing ANBU status.
He had been told to look at this as an opportunity. Maybe one day he’d find meaning in churning through B class missions, now that he’d been robbed of any opportunities to numb himself.
Ah, right. Letter.
“And I have made a Best Friend. You will always be my Eternal Rival in my heart, and cannot be replaced.”
He squinted.
‘Is he reassuring me?’
“Love, Your Eternal Rival Might Gai, Green Beast of Konoha. Sunflower park place, apartment 202.”
Kakashi took a moment to breathe that in. It didn’t clear up. Optimistically, he flipped it over to see if the back had anything that might put this into context.
Despite himself, he was a little bit curious. This was new.
...that did mean he had to go meet Gai.
At one pm, she had something that she was fairly pleased with. It wasn’t final, but it was a good start. She had it typed up and printed immediately, after getting the Hokage’s approval. Getting her new police officers on board was likely going to be much more difficult.
“Why would we not be armed.” One of the shinobi said deprecatingly, looking to the Hokage like she was some sort of idiot. “Our job is to apprehend and eliminate criminals.”
Okay. Regina put a mark next to his name. Kagami-san would not likely be in charge of her new police force. He would be lucky if she didn’t try to have him demoted to a living trash can. Or worse, Anko-san’s assistant. She might be able to pretend that one was a promotion.
Being super into extrajudicial executions was definitely a disqualifier.
“With all due respect, that is not the job anymore.” The Hokage said, watching her reaction. “The police of Konoha serve a different function.”
Kagami-san didn’t insult his Kage, which meant he at least wasn’t ridiculously infantile. But he wasn’t happy either.
“As I was saying,” Regina continued, “the police force is better used as a friendly face of Konoha, and a protective arm to investigate crime. Your special skills in investigating crimes and finding guilty parties are necessary to the stability of Konoha. However,” and she looked around the room to see who might be actually paying attention, “punishment is no longer within your purview. To investigate and non-violently apprehend those who have committed crimes is the goal, as well as to provide information to citizens and visitors, making the city appear safer and more navigable.”
“How is it safer if we don’t have weapons?” One man asked. Regina clocked his face. This one was Inoue-san.
“Good question.” She complimented. “The answer is complex. Traditionally, we think of safety in shinobi terms- which is why it is difficult to comprehend using no weapons or lethal force.”
Heads around the room nodded.
“However, safety relies on a number of components. For example- someone steals something. Traditionally, the punishment is left up to the police, or maybe the Kage. It tends to be extreme in nature.”
Kagami-san nodded, gruffly.
“However, this makes people feel more unsafe. They believe that the police are there to attack them and maybe even kill them, for crimes which are nonviolent in nature. They do not believe that the police are acting in their best interests.”
There was a mildly offended murmur around the room. She ignored it.
“There is little authority over the traditional police, except for the Kage, which means that justice may actually be elusive. There is little for evidentiary requirements and no guidelines for punishment.”
She wanted to lick her lips. They were feeling dry. But she persisted.
“This leads people away from Konoha, and into villages without shinobi protection. They may fear us more than other threats. This harms them, and brings harm to the village when our people die or leave the country, both realistically and in matters of reputation.”
A few of them were obviously chewing on that. She took it as a win. She didn’t think she’d be winning over much of anyone in just one meeting. It was going to be a gradual process.
“In that vein, we must think about what face we want to present to both Konoha and the Elemental Nations at large. Shinobi are by nature feared and secretive, whereas in your position you are able to represent Konoha very visibly in your specific duties. This allows ANBU, border patrol, and our assigned shinobi to continue their work separately, while changing the perception people have of our country and shinobi as a whole. The idea behind adding civilians to the police is that showing cooperation and mutual benefit of different skill sets projects strength and wisdom to the rest of the Elemental Nations, as well as providing further incentive and comfort for the civilians who live here and drive the economy.”
She eyed them. A couple of them looked promising.
“Are there any further questions?”
Kagami-san raised his finger to indicate that he had one.
“Yes, please.” She gestured.
He grunted. “What happens to the criminals that are caught? If we don’t punish them, who does? Do they just go free?”
She smiled. He tensed up a little bit.
“Also a wonderful question. They would not go free- though the plan for the judicial system is not fully finished.”
He looked skeptical again.
“We would nominate people who understand the laws as listed to judge offenders, and must create a significant amount of rules and sentencing guidelines for punishment for those found guilty. It will require a significant amount of work, which is why Konoha needs your perspectives and experience.”
They perked up a little bit at that. She wasn’t surprised. They seemed to love it when she threw out the party line.
“This change is necessary, but it cannot be executed properly without your input and support.” She gestured down at the proposal on the table. “You are the ones who have held these positions, and know how vital they are. I am asking you to help improve upon the system you know, for the betterment of Konoha and its people.”
They didn’t give her much feedback- but it wasn’t surprising when this was the first meeting and the Hokage was watching. She made sure they all took their proposal booklets with them. She’d meet with them individually later for further interviews.
“Do you have any input for me, Hokage-sama?” She asked, after the room was cleared and secured again.
He put down some papers and looked at her for a long moment, evidently dissecting her and her performance.
“Good job.”
That would put her on a high all day, she just knew it. The thing was damned far from done, but that was a great start.
“How are we going to fund it?” He asked, looking at her. “You say yourself that our economy isn’t as strong as it could be.”
“That’s very true.” She admitted. “Lack of promotion to civilian merchants, trade contracts, and confidence in security mean that Konoha isn’t as financially stable as it could be.”
She twitched her nose in thought.
“Does that mean you want me to work on that, too?”
He held up his hand, as if to ward off her enthusiasm. To be fair, every single thing she did caused him much more trouble and paperwork in the short term.
“Not today, I think. One thing at a time. I don’t wish for you to become overworked.” The thought seemed to make him sad for a moment and he looked away, lost in his own head.
Regina let him wallow for a minute. She’d be a real ass not to let other people do that when she did that all the time.
She didn’t know what it was about, but she could guess. The access she’d had to some records indicated that suicide rates were high, even when conflict casualties were low.
She carefully did not contemplate which death(s) he was currently mourning.
She quietly cleared her throat to bring him back down to Earth. “So, I should look at our yearly budgets, then?” She asked. “And see if there are any extra expenditures that we should cut, or reallocate.”
He blinked a few times and turned back to her.
“Yes, that’s a good plan, Rejina-hime. Thank you.” he looked off to the side again. “Please ask Keiko-san for all the necessary paperwork and records.”
“Of course, Hokage-sama.”
She bowed low, and then she left him to his thoughts.
Keiko-san had all the paperwork delivered to Regina’s large, surprisingly luxurious, and newly- cleared office.
Or now, newly-filled-with-budget-shit office.
“Why is there so much.” Regina asked incredulously, as Marunosuke-san brought in box after box. She couldn’t even reach her desk like this. Reaching the couch was a pipe dream.
Keiko-san shrugged her shoulders. “Big village. This is all our income and outgo for the last few years.”
“I don’t really need the income right now.” Regina rubbed at her temples. “Can we take that out, and I’ll look at it later? I just need our expenses.”
About ¾ of the boxes were removed.
‘That’s better.’ She thought idly, watching the shinobi move the boxes all around again. She noted that they were normally kept in a locked room near the Jounin Commander’s office.
‘I probably need security for my office, sooner rather than later.’
Locks weren’t really much of a deterrent to shinobi. Or even a significant amount of civilians.
No, for this, she’d need…
“The fine arts.” she growled.
“What?” Keiko-san asked, from her desk. “Is there a problem?”
‘Yes. I have to learn the art that displaced me from my home and dumped me in this mess. It’s my nemesis, if I’ve ever had one.’
“No.” She lied brightly. “Sorry, my stomach was growling.”
Keiko either bought the lie or decided it wasn’t worth pursuing. Either way was fine.
She only had time to start on the first box before it was time to get Naruto from school.
Regina pulled herself away with a mixture of feelings. She regretted having the extra obligation, she wanted to finish the work she’d started, but…
Hanging out with her little weirdo kids and Gai was a lot more fun than circling line items in a budget and asking people what the hell they were. She found that the office discretionary fund was oddly high for what they got, for one. There were some weird numbers, which meant she was going to have to do a lot of her other worst enemy, math.
‘Why do I want to square up against whole disciplines? It’s not like math or the fine arts actually kicked my ass.’
She tabled that thought for later.
When she reached the Academy minutes later, the other parents received her presence with significantly less stares than the days before, which Regina took as a good sign. They’d get used to her eventually.
Someday, she might even get used to them.
Then she and Naruto bought a ton of markers, stickers, glitter pens, and two drawing pads. They stopped to get takeout and Sasuke’s file of homework on their way to the hospital.
Regina would normally worry about ruining her appetite for her mandatory party with Shimura-san, but she was as sure as the Hokage about her likelihood of actually eating it.
Sasuke happened to be awake when they got there, and gratefully received his homework , dinner, and art supplies. He tore into the homework almost immediately, forgoing his food.
“Don’t forget to eat your dinner.” She advised him, noting that his dinosaur had ended up on the floor. She put it back on his pillow. “How was your day?”
“I slept, mostly.” Sasuke sounded far away. He was obviously concentrating. “It was ok.”
“No bad dreams?” She asked, knowing she was prying a bit.
He shook his head. “Not lately.” his pencil danced over his homework.
Naruto broke into his donburi and started snarfing it down.
“You know, I’ve been asked to re-form the Konoha police.” She delicately placed the topic out there, to see if he’d touch it.
Dark eyes flickered her way. They narrowed a bit.
“I know it was traditionally a Uchiha clan position, is there anything you think I should know?” She watched him carefully, while she pretended to be super interested in her rice bowl. “I want to make sure I do a good job. I think the police are very good at helping people.”
The pencil dropped.
She could see Naruto look up out of the corner of her eye.
“I wanted to be a police officer.” Sasuke said, quietly.
She waited for him to say anything else, but he didn’t. “So you know how important it is to help people.” She pushed a bit.
He looked down at his papers. “Yes.”
God, was this how the Sandaime felt when he tried to ask her about her personal life? She momentarily felt bad.
But not really.
‘GiT GuD then, old man.’ She thought with some mild amusement.
“If you have any ideas or thoughts, you can tell me anytime.” she said, extending the offer.
“I think police are really cool.” Naruto said, eyes darting around the room. He was obviously straining to participate in the conversation, even as he seemed to recognize that it had an odd feeling to it.
The baby really did try.
“That’s a good thought. I like that.” Regina replied with a grin, tickling his stomach. He giggled and then scooched out of her reach.
“Anyway, you two watch each other and get some homework done.” She put her finished bowl in the recycling, and brushed off her clothes. “Don’t fight. The nurses will tell me if you do.”
“Where are you going?” Sasuke asked, looking sad.
She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “Unfortunately, since I’m new, I have to go to training at night most weekdays. So far, all my weekends are free. But until I’m finished with my classes…”
“You don’t have a lot of time for us.” Sasuke inserted. He sounded a little angry.
She slumped. It wasn’t her best, she knew that. She sat down on the bed, at his feet.
“It’s not good, I know.” She said quietly. “It’s all I can do right now. I have to work to pay for us, but also I came from an entirely different country.”
She looked at her boys. “Did you know that?”
They shook her heads.
“Not surprising, I guess.” She ran her hands through her hair. “I only came to the Elemental Nations less than a year ago. Japanese isn’t my first language, either.”
“Alone?” Naruto asked.
She didn’t want to cry, so she killed that urge violently. It wasn’t like she couldn’t be vulnerable. But right now probably wasn’t the time.
“Yeah.” she said. “Alone.”
“Isn’t Jiraiya your dad?” Naruto asked. “You told me he’s my ojii-chan.”
“That’s true.” The ojii-chan part. Legally, at least. “But I didn’t meet him until then. I didn’t know anything about him. Coming here wasn’t my choice.”
That was putting it lightly. But they didn’t need to hear the rest today, and she’d never say it outside of a room that wasn’t secured by a seal master and vetted.
‘Because I like living. Kinda. Sorta. Most days.’
“So I have to learn all of these things so I can live here.” She explained. “All the princess stuff, but everyday things, too. My reading ability is fairly limited. And I’m too old to take shinobi training, so I have to be perfect at everything else.”
They seemed to get it- as well as young kids could, anyway.
“So I want to spend all my time with you- but since I came here at the same time,” she looked at Sasuke, “I have to take care of those things too. After I’m finished, I’ll have more free time. And I’ll be with you whenever I can.”
“It’s duty, then.” Sasuke seemed much more relaxed. “That’s why you can’t stay with us all the time.”
She nodded. “It’s not what I want. And I’ll try to make sure you both have everything you need, and keep things clear once I’m done. I’ll still have to go to work but so do you. You have Academy, then you’ll have your genin teams if you pass.”
“Okay.” He tapped his pencil on his papers. “So how long do we live with you?”
Her head snapped back a bit. What?
“Until you’re adults.” She pointed out. “And you’ll only be in the hospital for a few more days, really. Then you can come to the diplomatic housing I’ve been staying in. In a few weeks, we can move into the house.”
“Why not now?” Sasuke asked, eyebrow quirked.
“It’s being built.” Naruto said, seeming thrilled to be in the information loop for once.
She nodded. “That’s right.” She looked at Sasuke in specific. “I don’t know how you’ll feel about this, but it’s fairly close to your other home.”
He swallowed.
“Don’t worry about it too much.” She advised. “We’ll get to that issue in time. It’s still there, whenever you feel ready to deal with any of it. I won’t let anything happen to it.”
Sasuke nodded, but Naruto just looked confused.
“Sorry, buddy.” She patted him on the head. “I am getting rid of your old apartment with great prejudice. It was old, and we deserve to live in a tiny castle.”
“Tiny?” He asked. “I wanted a big one.”
“It has a natural hot spring and two floors of rooms.” She informed him. “I thought I would be living alone at the time.”
Sasuke made a face.
“Don’t judge.” She told him. “You don’t know me well enough yet. I deserve to be judged based on my real flaws.”
“Can we have staff like rich people?” Naruto asked, lights dancing in his big blue eyes.
That was an idea.
“I’ll see.” She said, musing over it. Regina was not much of a laborer. And running a house with two kids in it was a full-time job. She should probably hire somebody, if she could find anyone she trusted. “It’s a good idea, seeing as I work a lot and have so many classes.”
“Plus, you can’t cook very well.” Naruto pointed out.
Sasuke looked offended on her behalf.
“You can’t just say that, idiot.” He whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “It’s rude.”
“She can’t, though!” Naruto squeaked. “I mean, the eggs this morning were good, but you told me yourself, nee-chan!”
“She’s technically our mother, idiot.” Sasuke berated again.
Naruto stopped.
They both looked to her for confirmation.
“Technically, yes.” Regina ran her fingers through her hair again. She was self-soothing a lot, lately. “You don’t have to call me that though. ‘Nee-chan’ is also fine.” she swallowed. “I’m not trying to replace anyone.”
“Anyway, I’ll look into finding someone who can cook for us and look after you when I’m not around.” She looked at the clock. She’d have to run if she took much longer.
“I have to go to tea ceremony class now, though.” She gave them a sad smile.
“Sounds terrible. My mother said she hated those.” Sasuke said simply.
That didn’t really help.
“I have to go, though. Something about princesses being cultured.” She reached out to him, and he leaned closer.
She gave them each a peck on the forehead, and then slid off the bed and out the door.
“Come back to pick me up, after!” Naruto yelled.
How could she forget?
Gai-san was waiting for her outside the Tower, just like he said.
“Sorry Gai-san, got caught up with the boys.” She apologized.
He shook his head. “You’re not even late, Rejina-hime. Shall we go?”
They walked through the rapidly darkening streets, until they arrived at the appointed house. It was big, and fancy. Regina tried to be appropriately awed, instead of just nervous.
The class was small, evidently. And mostly done in kimono.
Regina felt underdressed. She should have accounted for that. But seriously- how could she have the time to put on a kimono in between her job and this, especially if she was responsible for kids?
Gai-san didn’t seem to notice. She doubted that was true, but maybe he was just immune to feeling out of place.
Comments
rubberducky
Aww, baby Naruto and Sasuke are so cute. Loved seeing Regina being a badass and redesigning the role of the police force in a military state. What an icon. I'm eager to see what kind of hell gets raised after she reviews the budget :)
ElectricMaehem
Wish it was something good, kind of is! It's stress from a surgery- I had to come in today to get checked in. I did need/want the surgery though.
Ellen
I like the Gai-positivity/goodness. R is tackling many problems head on. If you don't mind me asking: how come you are getting so many chapters out in such a short time? I hope something good happend to inspire you.
