August Serenade

August Serenade

By Hatake Megumi

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto. If I did, there would be more scenes with these two. I also don’t own the Michael Finnigan song…

AN: I am so obsessed with this couple, I think they are so cute together. I wrote this story a long time ago but didn’t finish it and it’s ironic that I publish it in September instead of August. The title is inspired by one of my favourite songs by Suga Shikao by the same name. It was originally called “Asking Someone Out”.

AN: Happens before Asuma’s death.

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“Hmm… what should I say? Do you want to go out for dinner? You look pretty tonight: let’s go out for dinner. No, I sound like some pervert trying to pick up girls,” said Asuma, out loud. He was trying to come up with a brilliant thing to say to a special someone but there were no brilliant words coming into head.

“Who’s sounds like a pervert and is trying to pick up girls?” asked a teasing female voice behind him. Kurenai was in the doorway with a bemused smile on her face. The August sunlight from the window shone on Kurenai’s features, revealing her soft complexion and accentuating her crimson eyes. Asuma was supposed to be doing paperwork, but unfortunately, there were other things on his mind…

“Eh… I was um… talking about Jiraiya of course…” he replied, without the sheepish tone in his voice that most men usually had. Asuma was no womanizer but he was a ninja and he knew how to keep it cool, even in situations like these.

“Sheesh. When will that man get the idea? Really… what do perverted old men think they can get away with with young girls? I hope that you’ll never be like that Asuma.”

“What? Why?” he asked.

“Why? We can’t have a half-decent man like you turning into one of those pedophile/perverts can we?”

“We? Who’s we?” asked Asuma with a smirk.

“Well… you get the idea…” Kurenai’s cheeks were tinged with the slightest bit of crimson.

“No… anyways, that’s not the point.”

“Exactly, the point is, what’s on your mind Asuma-kun?” Kurenai’s crimson eyes were shining with mischief, as if she wanted to pry his secret out and tease him with it.

“Well… I want to ask this person… out for dinner,” he replied. He had nothing to fear or lose.

“Oh…” her face fell slightly. “Well… I’m a woman so shouldn’t I know better?”

“You’re right. So what should I say?” he asked almost eagerly.

“Umm… tell her she looks nice and bring her flowers… or maybe serenade her at her balcony…” she said dreamily. She blushed at her strange comments. Since her teenage years, she had noticed that all of the romance in those old movies she used to watch never seemed to happen. But still, it gave her no excuse to look vulnerable in front of Asuma. “Girls would probably fall for things like that,” she said with an air of certainty.

“Thanks for advice,” he said with a grin. “I should go and hand in this paperwork in now. It’s finally done.” And with a wave, he left.

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Kurenai walked up the stairs to her flat on the second floor. She sighed. Nothing was going right today. Akamaru and Kiba got into a fight and nearly mauled each other to death; needless to say, Kurenai was the one who had to break up the fight. And if you thought that nothing could be worse, they were on a D-class mission to weed the Yamanaka flowerbed but instead the whole brawl caused the total destruction of the gardens. They obviously weren’t rewarded. And then… then there was Asuma.

“Just forget about what he said today,” she muttered as she lay on her sofa and closed her eyes.

Just as she was falling asleep, she heard a little sound by her balcony door. Her ninja instincts alert, she got up immediately. Cautiously, she looked out the window seeing the sun starting to set. She crept up to balcony doors and look out of the clear panes of glass that made them. It seemed that Asuma was below. She stepped on to the balcony, suspicious but curious at what Asuma was doing.

“There was an old man called Michael Finnigan, he grew whiskers on his chin-igan…” With a goofy smile on his face and a ukulele in his arms, he was singing this random camp song. His ukulele playing skills were less than perfect with many awkward pauses in between to find the right chords and his singing was quite out of tune but it was all very funny to Kurenai.

“What are you doing?” she yelled off her balcony.

“Serenading you!” he declared, while still playing the ukulele randomly. Kurenai was now laughing uncontrollably.

“Is it normal to serenade people with the ‘Michael Finnigan’ song?” she teased.

“Of course,” he replied, whispering into her ear. In the few seconds that took her laughing fit to end, Asuma hopped behind her on her balcony. “As usual, you look beautiful tonight my lady,” he said. Kurenai blushed and turned around to face Asuma who had a bunch of… paper in his hands.

“What are those?” she asked.

“Well, it seemed that the Yamanaka flower shop seemed to be closed today and then I met up with Hinata – who’s not gossipy thank goodness – and asked for her advice and so she gave me this origami book, so I tried folding these origami flowers… I don’t think they turned out quite right…” he said sheepishly as he offered them to her. With another bout of laughter, she accepted them.

“So… what is this all about?” she questioned.

“Well, will you have dinner with me… tomorrow evening?”

‘So that’s what that whole conversation this afternoon was about…’ she thought.

“I look forward to it,” she said and kissed him on the cheek. “Now, I need to get some rest. Good night.” Both shinobi left the balcony very happy. Kurenai had a happy ending to her day and a happy ending for tomorrow night.

THE END

The author apologizes if this has filled your head with fluff.