Advocated Wars

Chapter Twenty-One

                                                                                                                  XXI

Surge never did make promises. And, for good reason, too. He claimed to never know the outcome, and by making a promise, was liable to get himself into a sticky situation.

However, despite the fact, Souta had decided to tag along with us, anyways.

Surge had leisurely strolled into the hotel lobby the next morning, with a worn smirk playing along his lips and his shirt wrapped around his shoulders. He didn’t seem to care that we could see the multiple red sports and occasional bite marks that littered, and instead, walked as if he had been showing them off to us. Souta, however, had trouble looking at him.

“The play rough, huh?” The orange-haired boy leaned over to whisper in my ear, probably a little too close.

“Don’t,” I warned, glaring at the smiling boy as he wrapped an arm around Calix, both laughing at something he had said. “He just so happens to be an ex of mine.”

“Ouch,” Souta murmured. “That’s tough.”

I shrugged, stretching my arms out in front of me. I wasn’t exactly bothered that Surge was engaged in another relationship—female or not. I didn’t, however, want to hear about his sexual escapades. I didn’t want to hear about anyone’s sexual escapades. “If you’re referring to Surge being in a relationship—I don’t care. Or, if on the case of his sexuality—I still don’t care. What he does is solely up to him. I just wish that while we are on missions, he would keep things a bit more professional.”

“So, you’re over him?”

“I am on a job,” I reminded him. “Missions are no place for personal affairs.”

“So, in other words—”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Right!” Souta gave me a salute, nodding his head. “It doesn’t matter!”

The smile I returned to him was tight. Not because I found his behavior impeccably childish, or because he had perhaps annoyed me. The problem was not Souta, so to say, but rather how something so small reminded me of Naruto. And, for a moment, the thought of him made my chest constrict and my head feel light.

Personal affairs don’t matter, Champion.

~       ~       ~

“You know,” I yawned, shaking my head as a small wave of fatigue washed over me. We had only been walking around for roughly an hour, but this mission had already begun to carry on for longer than it was worth. “It’s not nice to stare, Souta.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. The boy’s face had changed to an interesting pink-ish color, clashing greatly with the orange atop of his head. “I was just thinking—you’re fairly young, aren’t you?”

“Sixteen.”

“Right!” The boy nodded. And, slowly, a rather sheepish, but interestingly coy smile crept along the corners of his mouth. “You’re very…old for your actual age, I guess. And strong. You’re kind of plain, and you don’t stand out too much—but…but, you have this certain grace about you, y’know? You’re not like any sixteen-year-old I’ve ever met.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re very brave, Souta.”

He shook his head. “Brave is the last thing I’ve ever been. But, once you get past the cold exterior you’ve put up for everyone, you’re someone completely different, aren’t you? I don’t think you’re at all how you want people to see you.”

“Then, how am I?”

“Clumsy, scared, confused…” He let out a shy chuckle. “Kind.”

“Like I said, you’re very brave.” Souta’s ears reddened. It was strange to see such a tall and gangly boy blushing; tripping over his words just to talk to a girl he didn’t even think was that pretty. It was even strange to hear my personality being so deeply analyzed by a kid I didn’t even know. “Besides, it doesn’t matter who I am, but rather, what I am.”

“So, I was wrong?”

“Maybe.”

“It doesn’t matter?”

I nodded. “It doesn’t matter.”

Souta nodded, too, shoving his hands into his pockets. I ignored his fixation with me, however, and focused more on watching Mai. She had one of her hands around Calix’s, and the other in Surge’s. The three of them seemed to be getting along just fine, with the improvement of Mai’s steady feet. She no longer stumbled over things jutting out of the ground, or holes in the path that she always seemed to overlook. Instead, the girl was care freely laughing with my boys, letting out surprised giggles whenever they lifted her over something she could potentially trip over.

And, if I looked past my jealously just enough, I could almost admit how cute the scene was.

“So…” I drawled out, redirecting my attention to Souta. “How long do you plan to keep this up, Souta?”

“Keep up what?”

I sighed. “There’s been two options I’ve been weighing out for the better part of the hour, you see. Either you really are the worse ninja I’ve come across, or you’ve been leading the three shinobi over there to our sweet little Mai.”

Souta let out a sort of miserable huff. “That bad, huh?”

!~*~*~*!

Ugh woww. Ugh. Sorry. School is draining the life out of me. I’m typing this with what little energy I have left. More updates to come in the rather distanced future.