[Naruto + Curse] Magician's Guide to Reemployment

Just as he turned the corner, Shikamaru spotted a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye. His Qingmei was squatting next to the telephone pole, her back arched, her wrists resting on her knees, her eyes fixed on something for a moment. He took a few steps forward and saw that what was just in the blind corner of his vision was a cat leaning against the wall.

It was a thin and deep alley, squeezed between two residential buildings, with the end pointing vertically upwards and tightly blocked by debris. Someone's clothesline hangs upward. One person and one cat squatted at the entrance of the alley, and the other stuck in the alley, as if they were competing to see who could lose their composure first.

"Hey, Izumi." Rongjima noticed someone approaching behind him early in the morning, but after hearing the sound, he raised his head and looked at the person with a look of languid interest. "Is this the cat your class is looking for?" Shikamaru bowed. He lowered his body and lowered his gaze slightly to look at the cat in the alley. It was a three-flowered cat. It looked like it had not been wandering around for long, and its fur was still clean and shiny.

Qingmei straightened her neck so that she could look back at him, and stared at Sanhua for a while with lowered eyelids.

"No." She answered quite calmly, as usual, cherishing words like gold. He probably knew early on that this three-flowered flower was not the target of his mission, but he was still held back. To Shikamaru, it even sounded quite reasonable. Sanhua pressed against the wall, sliding down like liquid, and curled up into a ball in her hands.

Sanhua turned her head away, not bothering to glance at her bipedal beast.

Lungdao's feet were probably numb from squatting, so he finally moved to stand up from the ground, and was about to walk out as if he was sleepwalking. She heard Shikamaru sigh and call out: "Wait...Chouji, let me lend you some snacks." Dingci, who had just approached, made a confused tone: "Shikamaru, when will you fall in love too?" Do you have any snacks?" Then with a sharp look, he looked up and swallowed the last piece of potato in the bag with lightning speed - like the momentum of pulling out a kunai from his ninja bag when he was suddenly attacked by an enemy. piece. Then he said sternly: "Even if you are Shikamaru for the last bite, I won't give it up."

Shikamaru let out a helpless sigh: "No one wants to compete with you for potato chips, Choji. You still have the corn sausage, right? Lend me that."

"In return, I will treat you to barbecue." He added, looking old-fashioned. As if he heard the right keyword, Choji's eyes instantly lit up: "Oh! It's settled, Shikamaru!"

"Yes, yes..." Although his tone was too troublesome, Shikamaru still waited patiently for Choji, then broke it into pieces and placed it on the ground at the entrance of the alley under the gaze of two pairs of eyes. Probably because she smelled the food, Sanhua squinted her eyes to follow the taste. There was still some vigilance hidden in her slender brown eyes. She arched her back slightly and lifted her body from the front paws buried under her chest. The tips of its ears twitched twice quickly, and then it slowly opened its eyelids, revealing its round pupils.

Shikamaru took a half step back at a very slow and gentle speed, leaving plenty of space for Sanka. The confrontation lasted for about half a minute. In the end, hunger probably took over, and he estimated that the people outside the alley were no threat to him. Sanhua tentatively walked out from the depths of the narrow alley.

The cat, which gradually let down its guard, lowered its head and slowly chewed the food offered by the two-legged beast. Even when Shikamaru stretched out his hand to stroke its fur, not only did he not resist, but he even rubbed his palm affectionately against it. A piece of ham was probably not enough to fill Sanhua's long-hungry belly. It used its fluffy head to push the boy's fingers, and made several soft and thin sounds.

"Looks like you've been hungry for a long time." Choji held his knees and squatted down gently. Sanhua raised her eyes while acting coquettishly, raising her tail and wagging it leisurely. Then it ducked under the person's hand with a low body and flowed like water. The tail that stood up behind it like an antenna patted the person's knee like a feather. It raised its head and barked at the person as if urging it. Choji peeled off another small piece of ham, and before he put it on the ground, the back of his hand was tickled by Sanhua's beard and hair as he came closer to sniff it. Choji laughed, "Don't be so anxious...Okay, please use it."

As soon as Shikamaru turned his head, he saw his childhood sweetheart crouching far away. Although his face was still calm - she had the same expression when she was staring at the void when she was in the air, and she also had the same expression when looking at the flowers and plants - but Rongjima's eyes were almost the same. Without blinking, he was completely focused on Sanhua between the two. So he called to Qingmei, who was still standing. Qingmei turned her eyes and hesitated for a moment before coming closer.

Thanks to her good mood after filling her stomach, Sanhua touched Gongjima twice, then turned around and ran away from Choji's knees with her eyes closed - without touching him again. The girl curled her fingers and retracted her hand slightly angrily. In a blissful state of mind, Shikamaru suddenly realized that this situation did not seem to have happened for the first time. Under the gaze of the two companions, the girl who just showed an unspeakable expression stood up, said a light and quick thank you, and said goodbye to the two of them in the name of the mission. The two people who fell behind her watched Cage Island escape from something. Shikamaru sighed and said with emotion: "This guy... is unexpectedly dishonest sometimes."

……

Near noon, as agreed, Class 9 met at the entrance of Ichiraku Ramen. Compared with Inoue and Cagejima who failed to find valuable information, Shimizu is extremely purposeful. While the three of them were waiting for the ramen to come out of the pot, Qingshui briefly explained the location where the employer's cat was suspected to be. After a busy morning, Inoue, who had looked "as if his body had been hollowed out" just now, jumped up from his seat as if he was fully charged after hearing Qingshui's plan, and was so excited that he almost wanted to set off immediately. Qing Shui covered his forehead, which was about to hurt due to psychological reasons, and held down the overly excited one.

As for Team 9, Idianhong, she had no energy at all and expressed in a perfunctory manner that she already knew the mission plan.

Shimizu Souji: I really tied my Q.

At that time, the silver-haired Jonin had just sent away the three little devils from Class 7. He was walking by the river with the Love Paradise in his hand, and he was immersed in the story of the protagonist written by Jiraiya. At this moment, there was a rustling sound in the grass on the embankment, and then something suddenly jumped out. The silver-haired Jonin's head was heavy, and his eyes stuck in the pages of the book looked up listlessly - the cat occupying the high ground did not show any intention of showing off, and sat up triumphantly, suppressing the standing hair on his head. Submissive. The cat's soft belly was pressed against the top of his head, feeling warm. From a distance, it looked like there was a arrogant cat on top of his head.

"There! It just jumped!"

Before Qingshui could stop him, Inoue followed suit and slid down in the direction where the cat jumped. He shouted in vain behind him at the same time, looking like he had a headache. Then he ran a few steps quickly, poked his head out to look for Inoue's figure, and sighed helplessly when he saw that he was covered in grass clippings but safe and sound. Rongdao, who arrived at the same time, lowered his head and looked at the river bank as if he was thinking about something. After a while, he looked away and looked at the stairs leading down in the distance - it felt like he was gesturing to estimate the distance between the two. Shimizu Souji, who unexpectedly became the only taijutsu waste in Class 9, suddenly had a bad premonition, and soon this premonition came true.

"Xiaoquan you..."

Rongdao took the time to turn his gaze to his face, then slowly took a half step back, moving on his toes as if he was accumulating strength. A puzzled expression appeared on the half of her face that was tilted toward him, and Qing Shui relied on his clever brain to read her less than enthusiastic concern. Just when he was debating whether he should stop the other party's behavior, Inoue's urging voice sounded first. He lowered his shoulders as if surrendering and muttered: "I know, I know, you go down first, I will be there soon."

However, Congdao, who originally planned to jump straight down, stopped moving at this time. She glanced up and down at the same time, and then stared at the clear water quietly without moving. Qingshui had long thought that this little red person looked like some kind of animal. He seemed to prefer eye contact without even opening his mouth to verbal communication, but his expressions were pitiful. Just as he was mentally cursing this difficult colleague, the girl finally broke out of her completely still state. Then he stretched out a hand towards him, as if to take something. Qingshui lowered his head to confirm that he was indeed empty-handed. There really was nothing to deliver to Cage Island, so he stared back with an expression that was still in the situation: "What's wrong?"

"Take you down, do you need me?"

Probably because his expression of surprise was too exaggerated, the person who had just made a friendly gesture raised his eyelids a little coldly, looking a little impatient.

Gongjima chose to simply interpret Qingshui's hesitation as a reluctance to take long detours just like her own. However, judging from her observations during this period, her contemporaries did not seem to be very good at taijutsu. So Izumi Gongdao, who had been taught to be helpful since childhood, decided to lend a helping hand to him. The girl who saw all Qing Shui's surprise and hesitation quickly lost her patience. After going through the possible conversations in her mind, she gave up and took back her hand in the air, and then jumped lightly and skillfully from the edge of the embankment. Go down. Qing Shui was left with no place to vent her doubts, and muttered in distress: "Why do I always feel like she's a little angry..."

However, when the three of them saw the situation on the river bank clearly, they fell into a tacit silence.

"Hey, good evening." The silver-haired Jonin raised his hand to greet the children in the subtle atmosphere, his eyes smiling like crescent moons. If it weren't for the huge cat growing on top of his head, it would probably look more like the scene where the head teacher of the next class who just got off work met a student from another class on his way home.

"Good evening, Kakashi-sensei." Kagoshima responded perfunctorily. Ever since she noticed the cat above him, the girl's eyes had been glued to the cat. Rather than saying hello to Kakashi, it's more like saying hello to the cat above him. Inoue's eyes were bright and he asked enthusiastically: "Is that a new hairstyle, Kakashi-sensei? So cool!" "No... I guess that's just the cat we are looking for..." Qing Shui weakly asked corrected.

"Yeah...it just suddenly fell from the sky while walking, and then it became like this." Kakashi said, reaching out to grab the plush skin on the back of the neck and pulling it off. It's like there is some kind of magnet on the cat. When the cat moves to the left, Cangdao's eyes also turn to the left, and when the cat moves to the right, the little girl's eyes turn to the right. This kind of tangible sight is really hard to ignore. Kakashi slumped his shoulders helplessly and lowered his head in the direction of the girl who had been looking longingly at the cat he was carrying, "That's too perfunctory, Koizumi..."

The accused person was motionless and his eyes seemed to be wired. Qingshui coughed suggestively several times from behind, almost coughing out his throat, but the two of them didn't receive the signal at the same time.

"Kakashi-sensei, can you hand that cat over to us?" Shimizu finally asked. Unexpectedly, the silver-haired Jonin raised his head and looked like he was thinking. He even tilted his head slightly, with a deliberately titillating look: "Well..." Kakashi glanced at it and finally was willing to divert his attention from the cat. The little girl was open, her tone of voice was protracted, and then she smiled and added the second half of the sentence, "Of course." After saying that, he waved to Congdao, asking her to come forward, and he was about to push the person who was already there. The cat in question was captured and put into the little girl's arms. There was a fluffy cage island in his arms and he stiffened unconsciously. Although his face still looked calm, his eyes were carefully fixed on the long-haired cat, not daring to move. The cat who was held in his arms was completely incomprehensible to the amorous feelings. Before Kakashi let go for a moment, he twisted his body and jumped out of Cageshima's body with a swish of his hind legs.

Kakashi:  …

Cage Island:......

It was quite sudden.

So the final outcome was that Inoue held a piece of grass clippings on his head and caught the cat that took the opportunity to escape from prison on the other side of the river. The long-haired cat, who was also in a state of embarrassment, seemed to have finally realized that it was about to be captured. Instead of jumping up and down earlier in the day, it obediently curled up in Inoue's arms and dozed off. The two boys who originally planned to give the task of holding the cat to the only girl in the class saw the cat using its hands and feet, and every hair on its body was struggling to express resistance (and almost jumped onto Inoue's head again). After escaping again), they tacitly chose to let Inoue take charge of this task.

Inoue and Shimizu racked their brains to find an explanation for this situation. As for Gongjima, he looked away after a flurry of prevarication from the boys. After a while, he said calmly: "It doesn't matter."

……

That happened not long after he broke his promise. Countless times in midnight dreams, he relived the feeling of the cold white electric light penetrating the girl's chest. Perhaps from that time on, he was thrown into a recurring, endless nightmare. The electricity made a popping sound as it rubbed the air in the rain, and the boy's eyes widened in disbelief——

"Lin."

He opened his eyes silently. The rainy season seems to be a steady stream of rain that will never end. He didn't even dare to retract the hand that took away the girl's life, he just looked at Lin with disbelief. She smiled at him as she did countless days before. Only after the latter sentenced himself to life imprisonment for which he had to atone, this smile that tolerated everything, even death, became a weapon for him to criticize himself.

It's because he's not strong enough, it's because he can't protect Lin, it's because he broke the promise he made with Obito.

It was his Hatake Kakashi's fault.

The second summer after Lin's death, Kakashi was not awakened by nightmares like in the past. In a rare and peaceful dream, there is nothing as far as the eye can see, sounds, emotions, five senses, thinking... everything is blank, and all existence is zero - like a dead coast, forcibly cutting off all connections between internal and external, depriving everything It’s redundant and makes no sense. There, he was just Kakashi and seemed to be no one else. This dream lasted for three days, until he was vaguely aware of the presence of someone in this void, tried his best to mobilize his instinctive vigilance, and asked inquiringly:

"who are you?"