Burnt Food and Red Pandas (P, NK)

Den felt like cooking that day. He was a scientist, engineer, and a skilled shinobi, cooking should prove no challenge to him! Or so our young hero thought. A few minutes into his attempt Den’s fire alarm went off. He didn’t even know Takigakure could afford electricity, let alone afford fire alarms. Den had to think quickly in orde rto stop the fire alarm, he didn’t want anyone to know he had burnt his food completely. Moving quickly, Den detached the fire alarm from the ceiling and took the batteries out.  Now that things were silent, Den didn’t have to worry about people discovering his failure he thought.

You realize they can smell the smoke right? The gobi chuckled slightly, it was amusing that this near adult seemed incapable of preparing food. 

Shit. I guess so. Well there was nothing to be done. Den sat at his table in his apartment and thought about where he should go out to eat that night. There was that nice Ramen place, but he had eaten there the past 3 nights.

Eva was dreaming about petting an extremely white fluffy cat, when she was awoken by the sound of a fire alarm going off in the apartment next to hers.  Without thinking Eva quickly jumped out of bed and ransacked her apartment looking for her fire extinguisher. After finding it shoved in the back of her closet Eva ran out into the hallway. Eva could smell the smoke coming from the apartment. The front door of the apartment seemed to be on its last leg, so Eva didn’t feel too bad about having to kick it down. It took about ten seconds for Eva to realize that she had just kicked her neighbor’s front door down over burnt food. Eva stared at the young man sitting at the table in horror realizing what she had just done.

Den's door got kicked in while he was thinking about Ramen. An audible crash filled the room as Den's door slammed onto the ground, revealing to Den this trespasser.

It was a girl in pajamas. She held a fire extinguisher in her hands and seemed confused. After a few moment sit seemed her mind caught up with her body, and she looked at Den in horror, what did he have something on his face? Or maybe she just realized she broke into his house in the heat of the moment.

A quick use of his sensory ability showed Den this girl was not a highly skilled shinobi, though she did possess a decent enough amount of chakra that he believed she was one. A Genin or purhaps a more Taijutsu inclined chunin was Den's first guess, though the idea of her being a Chunin didn't seem right to Den. She was slightly younger than him, so he assumed Genin.

"So, do you always break into peoples houses when their alarms go off?" Den actually chuckled as he spoke, he was more amused than anything that the girl had broken down his door. If he wasn't ridiculously rich he might have cared about having to pay for the door, but he could easily afford any repairs.

Eva felt extremely uncomfortable as the young man stared at her processing what just happened. He seemed to be a few years older than Eva, but his cooking skills left Eva unsure of how old he actually is. Eva assumed by his relaxed demeanor that he was stronger than her, but most people usually are.

She was expecting him to yell at her, but she was pleasantly surprised at his amused reaction. “Actually yes it’s a hobby of mine. So have you always eaten your food charred, or is this a sudden lifestyle change?” Eva smiled as she spoke not wanting to give him more reason to hate her.

Eva suddenly realized she was still in her pajamas. In any normal situation she would feel slightly embarrassed, but she already made herself look like a fool so there’s really no point in caring.

Den's chuckle ended abruptly at the girls words, and he seemed to freeze in place as he tried to process the information. How long had it been since Den had been insulted? He was used to people being surprised by how good he was at things, not make fun of him for being terrible. And he was being made fun of by a girl that had kicked in his door while wearing pajamas. This was just weird for him

Stop being a bitch, you can't be great at everything. The five tailed beast spoke once more in his mind, at least he was used to her insulting him.

Still, he thought it best to try not to get to upset at the insult, especially seeing as he had asked for it. This time when he started laughing there was a hint of embarrassment, "no, just thought I'd try my hand at cooking. I usually travel so I usually barely cook things except simple stews.I didn't think it would be this hard." Even then though sometimes Den overcooked the meat from whatever animal he had killed for that stew, but he didn't feel the need to mention that to this girl whose name he didn't even know.

Eva felt extremely bad when the young man quit laughing. The young genin stood there unsure of what to do as her neighbor stood there frozen. She thought she had hurt his feelings until he let out a slightly embarrassed laugh. A wave of relief rushed over Eva, she hated hurting people’s feelings.

Eva was a bit curious to know where this young man had traveled, for she has yet to see many places. “If you wanted to I could teach you how to cook decently. Its one of my few talents, by the way my name is Eva Hozuki.” She avoiding joking on his cooking skills considering how that turned out last time.

Was Den willing to let this girl teach him how to cook? Well, it was a nice skill to have if one lived by them self, so he supposed he would be willing to let her teach him. Den didn't like obtaining knowledge on new things, but to learn form a younger person seemed strange to him. It wasn't a skill relating directly to genetics, engineering, or shinobi skills though which is what Den mainly focused on ,so he supposed he shouldn't be to embarrassed that this girl would teach him to cook.

The name of Hozuki was familiar to Den, it was a clan that originated in Kirigakure. He had actually met two others in his life, and it seemed as though this girl was the third.

"Mine's Denkiteki Hayato, and thank you I'd appreciate the help." Den thought he should try and be polite, as the girl had just offered to teach him. However he was still curious, so he spoke again almost as soon as he was done thanking the girl, "So are you a member of the Hozuki clan? Capable of turning into water at will?"

Den was surprised by how many Hozuki he had met since Kiri's destruction, he had been under the assumption that most Hozuki if not all had been from there. Yet nearly every shinobi he had met with a kekkai genkai since leaving Tengakure had possessed it. Den supposed that perhaps a branch of the clan had separated itself from Kiri long ago or something, and that's why there were still so many around.

"Though maybe not tonight, I've already decided on going out somewhere later. Is there anything I can do to reimburse you though? I'm not much of a cook obviously but if you ever need help....." he tried to think of what normal people/shinobi did that he could offer assistance in, "... moving stuff, maybe fixing something of yours if its broken." Den seemed to pause once more as though still thinking of ideas, if Eva didn't give any sign of wanting him to stop he would continue after a brief pause.

"I'm a pretty good doctor, and I've operated on a few animals before and they've all gone well, so I'd say I would make a decent vet too." Den woudl have offered to teach her a jutsu, but he was a horrible teacher and he wasn't sure if this girl was the kind of shinobi that did missions where powerful jutsu were helpful or if she just did small missions where those type of jutsu wouldn't be needed. and he didn't want to ask what type of missions she did because he didn't want to have to talk about his life as a shinobi either.

Hopefully Eva would be willing to let him pay for his teaching in some way, hell if she didn't actually need any help he could just pay her in cash. He only had the 6k he took form his personal vault, but he could easily go and get more if he needed to.

Eva was happy that Den had plans of his own tonight. She was still exhausted and wanted to go crawl back into her warm bed. Eva was surprised when Den offered to “reimburse” her. Eva felt like her teaching Den how to cook was her way of paying him back for his broken door. Although Eva did need to go back to her Father’s house and collect some of her things, so she decided not to mention it.

It had been quite some time since Eva had been to her old house. She didn’t want to get to many things, probably just family photos and clothes. Although with Den’s help she could probably get a few more things to make her new apartment feel more like home.

Eva instantly had a soft spot for Den when he said he had operated on animals. It reminded her of her dad when he used to nurse injured animals back to health. Eva missed having so many animals to play and cuddle with.

“Actually I have been thinking about going back to my father’s old house and getting a few things. Your help would be extremely appreciated.”  Eva smiled at Den when she spoke, happy for the help. Eva usually got a little sad when she moved things from her dad’s house, but the extra company would keep her mind off of things.