Groceries [O, NK]

Nero Yuki Mall Cop was on the job again. What was this? A person, holding a lane hostage? Not allowing people to walk through? Nero was on it. He adjusted his jacket first, then the headband he was wearing on his arm (so, armband?). Either way, he was the man for the job. He slowly approached the rather large man, standing in front of the yogurt aisle. "Do I want fruit? Huh...". The man looked like he was contemplating life, not his choice of yogurt. "Low fat, or high fat?". Nero kept walking, until he reached him, after passing the other people in the aisle. "Excuse me, sir?" he said, poking at the man's shoulder. His finger went 1 centimeter into the man's fat, but he only seemed to notice with the fourth poke. "You're blocking MY aisle.". He flashed his headband, "Yeah, I'm gonna need you to step aside or move on. LET THE PEOPLE WALK, MISTER!".

The man turned back to Nero with sass, it was obvious from the snake-like movement of his body. But as soon as he saw Nero flashing his headband, his 'badge'. He nodded, and moved on. "Yeah, that's what I thought!" Nero said behind the man's back. On second thought, maybe this wasn't one of the more honorable or respectable jobs Nero had accepted. Nero turned back to adress the other people in the aisle. "Are we all good, ladies and gentleman? If you have any questions, suggestions, or need any help, I'll be around.".

Two days.

Kirigakure's night of souls took place only two days ago and yet it felt much longer than that to one of the village's youngest chuunin, Asami Miyamoto. Two days ago she wouldn't have dared dream that she could smile again after the untimely demise of both her parents. She was a girl with an empty home and without a loving family. It seemed to her—and to many of her concerned neighbors—that she would soon sink into a near-inescapable mire of depression, for, despite the false smile she so often wore, it did not take a professional to tell that life had begun to hollow out her small frame. Though she would never admit it to herself, she was on track to become another one of Kirigakure's latest mindless martyrs willing to throw away her life for the village without a second thought.

The night of souls, however, changed everything—it gave her something to live for. Azami and Asumi were beings born of Asami’s desperation to once more connect with those around her. Truthfully, she had tried to do the unthinkable on the night of souls: bring back her parents from the world beyond. Death, unfortunately, was loathe to relinquish its property and instead, the chuunin found herself drawn to Asumi and Azami through the spatial nether. In a bout of selfishness, Asami spirited both Asumi and Azami from their dimensions and into her own.

She now had a family of sorts.

It was, however, a distinctly unhappy family as neither Asumi nor Azami took kindly to their apparent abduction. In fact, the trio—Asami, Asumi, and Azami—spent the last two days sorting out their differences and, while there were more than a few things left unsorted, Asumi and Azami begrudgingly agreed that there was not much they could do about their link to Asami until they all better understood the nature of it. To put it more simply, they were stuck with each other for the time being, which, as Asami’s fast-thinning wallet soon found, meant they would need a lot more food around the house.

“Let’s see,” Asami mused aloud gazing down at her rather extensive shopping list. “We still need rice, chicken, eggs, milk, strawberries, annnnnd cookies—chocolate chip cookies to be exact.”

“We don’t need cookies,” the taller Asumi commented as she turned the cart down one of the busier aisles. “They’re empty calories that have no place in a warriors’ diet.”

“You’re no fun,” Azami chirped walking on the opposite side of Asumi as Asami. “We should get sugar cookies too. If they’re even half as good here as they are back home then we’re in for a treat.”

Having passed by a rather indecisive old lady, the trio came to a halt halfway down the aisle where there seemed to be something of a scene. Standing behind a shopper not much taller than either Asami or Azami, they waited for the commotion between an oddly familiar mall cop and a larger gentleman to play out. Azami, however, was not as patient as her fellow shoppers and directed a jeer at the large man blocking the aisle.

“Hurry it up, fatso!”

Asami’s face went so red the scar running across the right side of her face nearly disappeared. You can’t go around saying things like that, Asami thought to herself, didn’t Azami know that?

“Sorry!” Asami added her voice sounding nearly identical to Azami’s. “She didn’t mean that…”

Azami tapped her foot, Asumi stood motionless behind the cart as if the whole thing bored her, and Asami tried her best to melt into the ground from embarrassment.

Oh, the joys of family.

---
WC: 606
TWC: 606

Nero could have analyzed the situation in his mind deeply. But there was no reason. This was a store after all. People bought toilet paper. There wasn't anything deep going on, so there was no reason to pretend. He nodded to the random citizen that thanked him. He was mostly indifferent to his surroundings, until he heard a familiar voice coming from behind the fat person, whose gender Nero wasn't very sure about anymore.

Asami! And she had two girls with her. They were shopping together, so Nero assumed they must have been her roommates or sisters. Well, either way, Nero wanted to impress all of them. Kirigakure was a small town, and Nero considered Asami to be his teammate, regardless of that team actually existing or not. "Hey Asami! Hi!". The second Hi came with two bows, to the other two girls beside Asami. "Are you Asami's sisters? Her roommates?". Nero Yuki Mall Cop was slowly changing personas, going to Nero Yuki Best Ninja Friend... At least in his mind. "You guys need any help with anything, let me know." he said, pulling out sunglasses from his jacket, and slapping them onto his face. The glasses slided on to fit his face perfectly, in a perfect pace of movement.

Then... The tragedy... The atrocity... It happened. FAT-FREE? Nero, from his point of view, couldn't tell if it was aimed at his close friend (yeah they were close friends now, Nero had a lot of character development with her, granted most were part of his delusions) or her sister/roommate/friends.

Now... Where to draw the line? What would be looking out for a friend, and what would be whiteknighting?

Either way, Nero's mouth was wide open now, as he was looking at the Mean Girl^TM. He then looked back at Asami (his mouth now closed), waiting to see her reaction to see if he should interfere.

Nero

Asami knew the man looked familiar and, of course, it had to be Nero. She had hoped that the trip to the store would prove to be uneventful, but the appearance of Nero dashed any such hopes. The man, it seemed to Asami anyway, possessed the strange ability to create events on a whim. Honestly? She didn't mind the man as much as she once did, but, at the same time, she did not want to go explaining how her two companions came to be living with her. For one she doubted she could explain it because she didn't totally understand it herself and two what she had tried to do—bring back the dead—was frowned upon on Kirigakure where the dead are meant to remain dead. So, perhaps the young girl's bumbling response was understandable.

"Oh...hey, Nero," Asami sounded like a wounded animal, she wanted to be anywhere but here. "Yeah, they're my rooma—"

"We're her sisters," the taller Asumi interjected causing Asami's face to flush an even deeper red as her 'sister' contradicted her. "It's nice to meet you Nero. My name's Asumi—"

Now it was Asumi's turn get cut off halfway through the shallow bow she offered to the mall cop. Unfortunately, what interrupted her was not another voice. No, rather it was something more of a snarl that one would be forgiven if they attributed it a dog of some sort. It was not a dog, however; it was Azami.

“Say that again.”

While Asami kept busy trying to wake up from this social nightmare and Asumi traded pleasantries with Nero, Azami caught the attention of another shopper. It went well at first. After all, it seemed like one of her fellow shoppers was offering to help her find the cookies and she needed to get to them before Asumi who—from what Azami knew of the taller woman—had horrible taste in the sugary confections. Alas, it was not meant to be because the stranger had the gall to pivot from offering advice to throwing shade. Now it was time for Azami’s face to turn red, not out embarrassment like Asami, but from anger.

“Say that again!” Azami repeated herself more forcefully, balled up her fists, and took a step towards the other shopper. “Come on, I’ll—”

The fiery young girl would have taken another step, but Asumi’s firm hand appearing on her shoulder prevented her from advancing further.

“Asumi,” Azami cast a dark glance back at the taller woman. “Let go.”

“No,” Asumi responded flatly. “Tell me what happened.”

Azami tried to shake out the older woman’s grip once more to no avail.

“Fine,” Azami let out an exasperated breath and jabbed a finger at the other shopper. “She called me fa—”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Asumi cut her off coldly. “What happened?”

The woman gave a half nod to the other shopper who had become the object of Azami’s anger. Azami’s emotional state was clearly not to be trusted and, the way Asumi saw it, it was best to hear what happened from a less volatile source as she had not paid attention to the exchange herself. Asami, for her part, had not heard much of the conversation either as she had been too preoccupied with pretending not exist. Even now the chuunin cast a nervous glance behind her as a few other shoppers stopped to watch the new spectacle.

Why here...?

Why now...?

---
WC: 575
TWC: 1,181

Nero sighed. "Your roommates, Asami? You think I would have bought that? When your names are Asami, Azami and Asumi? Well nice to meet you two, Azami and Asumi. You must feel very lucky to have a sister like her. It's like... Most of us wouldn't even be alive without her. Do you get that feeling?". Nero turned back to the other person causing this distress... Until one of the sisters distracted him again. "Azami's kind of cool actually." Nero thought.

"This is a grocery store, not an arena? Umm... Okay buddies, I know this was none of my business until now, but as the ninja in working hours right now I should handle this...". He 'asked for the permission' of the three Miyamoto's, and turned to address the girl that Azami seemed to be fighting. "Hi. You must be new in town, or maybe just uninterested in the law, the rules and your rights but here's the thing. In Kirigakure, most establishments are legally at the same time part-arenas, including this one. That's why we don't have aisles 5,6 and 6 anymore. It's a ring now. Okay you can go on.". He then let the fight continue if it did.

Nero smiled, in a fashion not creepy at all. "I wouldn't show what I'm taught at the academy here. Lucky day.". He would go back to his business, and his mind would wander off at that point, if his attention wasn't required.

[EXIT unless interrupted. WC: 812. Claiming:

Upgrading  Ice Release: Weapons from C to B (359+641=1000/1000)
171 towards upgrading from B to A (171/1000)]