Angels without Wings

Chapter 22

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 had been at the drunk's house for just about a week by the time that the bridge was almost done, and so we, of course, had to follow the drunk around all the time. Except Naruto, who had had a 'who-can-train-the-longest'-competition with the brood and thus still was asleep. Yuuto had wanted to join the competition, but I didn't let him; Naruto was older though, so I had allowed it. That would be the last time though; he clearly needed someone to take care of him.

He seriously didn't return before early that morning, which was just about when I threw him to bed. The brood returned with him, though I didn't care much to send him to bed and he denied Whitey, when he asked him to go to sleep. So, he went with us to the bridge.

Where every single one of the workers laid unconsciously, I poked a little at one of the people closest to me with my foot, trying to decide whether they had actually passed; the drool that ran down the chin of the one closest to me told me that I had been right. They were unconscious then. Better than dead, I guess.

I looked up as I noticed how Whitey, almost accidentally, stepped in front of me and Yuuto, shielding us from the two people that had just arrived. Was he being weirdly protective again?

What am I ever gonna do with him? That strange, strange boy.

I watched the two from over his shoulder, trying to read the situation, mostly because nobody was making any moves. The two of them were just awkwardly watching us, while we were waiting for them to make the first move. This is gonna take a while, ain't it?

I yawned into the quiet, making Whitey wink back at me. Surprisingly even that didn't make the two make a move. What was even more surprising was the fact that Naruto turned out to be the one to break the silence, by jumping in front of the pinkette and the drunk, while loudly proclaiming that he had arrived. He swung his arms in large gestures as did so, 'accidentally' hitting the pinkette in the face and effectively stopping her from throwing the kunai, that she had just been about to throw. Then he itched his head and in the most deadpan voice I've ever heard him use he turned to the two in front of us.

"Ehh, do I know you?"

I smirked and almost laughed; I knew for a fact that he remembered the cow-skin man. Yet he still sounded quite convincing. The moment of mirth was cut short however, as the pinkette got back up from the ground and she wasn't happy. She basically assaulted Naruto and I instantly turned my back to the two and walked over to where the pinkette was hitting Naruto, it wasn't like they were going to make a move any time soon, besides Whitey had my back.

I grabbed the pinkette's hand mid swing, I wasn't all that physically strong, but I was stronger than her untrained body, which she quickly realized when she turned her anger on me and nearly hit Yuuto, who as always were on my back. I clenched my hand around her fist, squishing her hand harder and harder as I used my Kekkei Genkai to induce fear and horror in her, and slowly I started choking her with smoke, also through my Kekkei Genkai. I wasn't going to kill her; I was only going to hurt her real bad and teach her a lesson. A lesson long overdue.

The brood ripped her away from me and pushed her to the ground on the order from Whitey, where I, after a look from Whitey, let the smoke dissolve and the fear and horror wash away. He left her there though and went with me as I made an annoyed tsk sound and moved to Naruto, who was looking weirdly at me, though I don't think it was a negative way, from where the pinkette had hit him to the ground. I gently kneeled down next to him and examined his wounds, while Yuuto asked him if he was alright. He was almost already healed, so I didn't do anything to heal him more, instead I gently pulled him to his feet and pulled him with me to Whitey, who reached out to touch Naruto, asking if he was alright. A weird sound sounded from in front of us, which led my attention back to them, after a little while I realized that they were holding their breaths as Whitey reached to touch Naruto. Whitey seemed to notice too as he was watching them from the corner of his eye, when he reached up and ruffled Yuuto's hair; the two in front of us both seemed to pale at this. They still weren't breathing.

"Breathe." I suggested quietly, surprisingly my voice cut through the pinkette's screaming, she was wailing about how she'd have her mother jail me and how the brood saved her and how he should feel sorry for her, quite uninteresting really.

The two did as I suggested and slowly the cow-skin man stepped further, but only by a step. Then he lifted his arms in a disarmingly manner.

"We're not gonna fight you." He said slowly and took another slow, careful step. "We wish to deflect to the hidden leaf. We have a lot of information on the hidden mist, that we'd be willing to offer in exchange."

"What do you really want?" Whitey asked with a glare and an angry defensive voice.

"We want to belong to a village again." He said in a carefully guarded voice, looking back at the guy behind him.

"There's a lot of villages you could join." Whitey commented, but he didn't seem angry anymore.

"You don't think I've tried?! I'm one of the seven swordsmen and my ward is of the Yuki clan. We're not welcome." He shouted, then stopped and sighed, before continuing in a voice that made it obvious how much he longed for a place to belong. "A village that can hold someone like that, surely would be able to hold someone like me and my ward."

I'm keeping them.