The Raven Chronicles: Book 1

Chapter 13- Bet

Raven's pov

"You sure you can walk?" Ibiki questioned, raising a brow. I glared back dryly. Albeit, he doesn't know I have to demons sealed inside of me. Though at times I do think they'll eventually be the death of me. It would be ironic for the two things that saved me several times to be the ultimate cause of my death in the end, but somehow not all that surprising. Especially considering how much they argue. One day I'm going to suffer the backlash of their conflict.

"Rude." Kuro chimed.

"I'm offended." Igneous agreed. I sighed.

"Yeah, I've got this in the bag." I assure the man who'd nearly beat me to death in a cave. I may look like shit, but these two idiots give me an abundance of chakra. The day I die from chakra exhaustion will be a day to behold, truly. Now I've just got to go to this exam and pass, because I really don't have the money not to. But I also don't go back on bets.

"Alright. Don't die, brat." Ibiki said flippantly. I shrugged, even though I'm totally going to win this thing. However, all the money is probably going to soap. Considering how... well, it's Igneous. He's a cunning demon, even if he's not trying to get to rain hell down upon this earth like one might expect a hellish being of his sort to. 

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before." I shrugged him off. "I'm going to win this."

"Doubtful." 

"You know, you can shove your rainy disposition and your fat, bald head right up your-"

He gave me a look. Not any particular sort of look that I can accurately described, but it let me know that this conversation was over. I huffed, a bit of smoke billowing past my lips. It dissipated into nothing before he could really take note of it or process it. Or at least, I hope it did. It wasn't a lot, but knowing my luck he's probably about to go report me to the Hokage right this moment.

I gave a mock bow, dodging a punch over the head and darting off towards the academy. I didn't go through all that training just to be late and miss the damn thing. That would be the definition of anticlimactic, and this is me we're talking about. My whole life has been an underwhelming, downhill battle that typically ends with me wondering how the hell I got here in the first place and why I was born. Not to mention the fact that I've got two demons sealed in me. Who on God's green Earth thought that was a good idea? Satan?

I darted straight past the receptionist. I barely missed the spray of coffee that escaped her mouth as she stared after me with wide eyes and an unhinged jaw. I decided to shrug it off. I haven't seen the full of my dashing appearance, but it can't be all that good based on the reactions I've been getting. A shame, really. How many people have missed out on my charming personality simply because they're afraid of my appearance?

I walked into Iruka's classroom, praying to the heaven't above that I wasn't late. Pretty much everyone turned to me, a few going pale. Some didn't really care, raising a brow and looking me over before going back to what they were doing before. I offered a shrug to those who bothered to gape, as though that actually explained things. Looking down at myself, it wasn't good.

My right side was ultimately dominated by blood. That was probably due to my arm, which Ibiki oh-so-kindly bandaged for my sorry old self. The other side was a lot of dirt. I've always had the bad habit of trying to land on my non-dominant side if at all possible, so I've got some mud caked onto that shoulder especially. Other than that, I'm covered in bruises and a thin layer of rock dust from that stupid cave. I think my new bandages are the only clean thing about me.

"R-Raven?" Iruka finally managed to squeak out.

"It's not all my blood." I responded simply, like an idiot. Iruka stared at me in a way that showed he was rather dumbfounded. That makes two of us.