Angels without Wings

Chapter 20

Edited the 29th of January 2020: I've cleaned up the grammar, fixed most spelling errors and cleaned up the language a little, hope you enjoy!

We left the morning after meeting the drunk, with the pinkette, even though Whitey did everything he could to prevent it.

Naruto was very excited about leaving the village and, with how the villagers treated him, I couldn't blame him; I would probably be happy to leave too. My poor little blob.

He was so very excited. But he stayed with me and Yuuto as soon as he noticed the glance, I sent him, he walked beside me, only maybe half a step behind me. Which fit me well, since that made it easier to protect him, should it be needed.

It was however annoying that Whitey seemed so happy with me calling Naruto to me. He seemed pleasantly surprised when the brood feel in step on my other side, paralleled with Naruto. I personally didn't like it all that much, since he was a bit too close to me and mine, while I didn't know him all that well.

What was his name again?...

What does it matter anyway? I don't think he knows my name either.

We were walking a bit behind the drunk, while Whitey walked in front of him. Meanwhile the pinkette was hanging around the poor brood. Poor guy...

It hadn't even been more than a couple hours since we left the village, when we got a tail. In other words; we were being followed. I instinctively wanted act, but Whitey sent me a look that clearly stated that I shouldn't, so I didn't. Instead I focused on him and his body language, allowing him to silently show me when it really was dangerous. He wasn't tense at all when the people following us came closer, he didn't even blink when chains rapped around him and I had had enough training sessions with him to recognize when he isn't there and when he's faking.

Which he was. He wasn't in the chains at all, instead he went ahead and faked his own death, right then and there. Weirdo...

The two attackers instantly went after the drunk, after thinking they got rid of the strongest opponent, and I honestly considered letting them have their fun and go ask Whitey what he was thinking, but the village probably wouldn't be happy with me and they might even throw Yuuto and I out of the Shinobi-academy-whatever-thing, that we were/were in at that time. So, I just knocked them both out instantly using Shinshin iryūjon, before I just turned to the forest where Whitey was hiding, ignoring the pinkette's screech and yelling, and just waited for Whitey to get his *ss out of the bushed.

He was laughing, when he finally stepped back on the path. Which the drunk wasn't too happy about, and he certainly wasn't happy when Whitey scolded him for lying to us. Yuuto and Naruto both spoke in his defense though, and soon enough we were walking again.

It felt like forever before we reached the river, that we had to cross, mostly because the pinkette was demanding to know what had happened to those two guys. I didn't bother with telling her and as we all got on the boat she finally gave up.

Everyone, but Naruto, the brood and me, were talking on the boat, though as we had almost reached the other side Naruto couldn't help but comment on the bridge's size so far, all in a whisper, lower that the pinkette and the drunk had been talking on the whole trip. Yet the guy, who was taking us to the other side, still decided to scold him.

I, in response, got up and, while ignoring how everybody was staring at me, and walked across the boat, all the way to the sailor, and without a word pushed him overboard, before I took over the helm and left the sailor behind in the river. It wasn't the first time I had sailed a boat, and he could swim, besides we were close to the shore. So, it wasn't all that bad.

The rest of the trip was silent, and Whitey placed his hand on my lower back as we left the boat for the swimming sailor to find by the shore. And again, Whitey decided not to remove his hand from my back...

He's so strange...

He stayed next to me, letting Naruto and the brood take his place in front of the drunk. It wasn't long before the feeling that we weren't alone returned and this time Whitey seemed tense, so he, too, was aware. A giant sword flew through the air and ebbed itself into a tree log not too far from us. Only seconds later a familiar man in cow-skin legwarmers landed on said sword with his back to us, though he was looking at us over his shoulder. Did I know this fashion challenged individual?

Probably not.

I stayed back as Whitey quickly moved to the front, ready to fight this weirdo. Though said weirdo froze as he turned and looked at our group properly.

"You... Kaiba... We meet again." He said darkly, making me look at him uninterestedly.

Oh? So, I had met him before? Well, that clears that up.

"You... You don't recognize me?" He asked slowly as I had already lost interest in him and was removing stray leaves from Naruto's hair.

I shrugged at him and ignored Whitey's halfhearted attempt at choking a laugh, though I watched the guy out of the corner of my eye, to make sure that he wouldn't attack.

"We fought 7 times the last two years...?" He said tryingly, he seemed very shocked that I didn't quite remember him, too bad for him. "Hoping that you would have considered our offer to join us would be too much to hope for then?"

"Kaito's with us now." Whitey stated smugly, making the other guy turn to him instead of me.

"Do you even know what you're dealing with." The weird guy asked as he looked back at me shortly, before he looked back at Whitey.

"Do you?" Whitey shot back smugly.

The weird guy narrowed his eyes at Whitey and then upped and left with the words: "This isn't over."

It was quiet for a little while after that, then Naruto turned to me and asked: "Did you know that guy?"

"Don't know. Seems familiar, though I can't place him..." I answered back.

"Of course, you can't." Whitey smirked at me and placed his hand on my lower back, leading me towards the drunk's house.

Which apparently was the sign for everyone to start moving again.