Chapter Eight:
“Team Seven, where are your positions?” The ear piece that dangles around my ear buzzes softly, Kakashi’s honey thick voice whispering to the kids.
“Sasuke. I’m in point b.”
“Sakura. I’m in point c.”
I yawn loudly, earning a small barely audible groan from Kakashi, and snicker softly as I lean against the thick tree trunk. I am directly across from him and see him flash a dirty look my way. I am unable to tell where the kids are without tapping into their chakra, but I’m pretty sure they are giving me dirty looks too.
“Naruto?” Kakashi whispers.
“Naruto. I’m at point a, believe it!” The blonde replies, voice cracking slightly as he tries not to laugh.
“Take it slow, Naruto. Okay squad Seven.” Kakashi leans forward, hand holding the earpiece to his ear as if it was about to fall out.
I lean forward as well, trying to see past the large tree trunk and thick canopy of leaves.
“Target has moved! Fallow it!” Kakashi whisper shouts.
The soft pitter-patters of feet crunching dead leaves sounds, the kids each moving to their new position. “Over there!” Naruto hisses.
“What’s your distance from the target?” Kakashi asks.
I giggle lightly but say nothing.
“Five meters. I’m ready, just give the signal.” Naruto answers.
“I’m ready too.” Sasuke and Sakura reply in unison, both sounding tense and stiff.
“Okay….”
“Pause for dramatic effect.” I grumble softly to myself. I hear Sakura giggle and Kakashi inhale deeply.
“Now!”
All three spring forward. I jump from my branch and bend my knees, allowing the balls of my feet to absorb the shocking impact. Kakashi is right behind me, but we move slowly, allowing the kids enough time to capture the target and respond.
“I got him! I got him!” Naruto shouts into the earpiece, almost drowning out the loud yowls of a tortured animal.
“Can you verify a red ribbon on the right ear?” Kakashi asks, grimacing at the loud shouts and turning the volume down slightly.
“Affirmative. We’ve got a positive id.” Sasuke replies.
I shriek, the ear splitting sound shattering my eardrum thanks to the earpiece, and begin to rapidly flail around. “SPIDER! NAZI-SPIDER! GET IT OFFFFFFFF!” I scream, running around Kakashi in circles, shaking my head wildly.
Kakashi reaches out, growling, and grabs me by the bicep. Yanking me to a standstill, the jonin flicks the small nazi-spider off my shoulder and sends me a dirty look. “That was my ear you just killed!” He snarls, removing the ear piece.
“Did you kill it?!” I hiss, looking around for the spider. “Was it slow and tortuous?! Did it bleed?!”
“It was just a spider. Calm down.” Kakashi sends me a strange look.
“You obviously did not see its large knives and bazooka.” I snarl back. I’m deathly afraid of spiders.
The kids run into view, the cat dangling from Naruto’s arms-hissing and spitting. I stop moving, frowning at the sound, and hold my arms out. The cat tears itself from Naruto’s grip and launches itself at me, clinging to my shoulder like a frightened child.
“There, there.” I soothe. “My ducklings won’t hurt you. Much.”
“Why do you call us ducklings?” Sakura scowls, folding her arms across her chest.
I shrug. “I dunno. Probably because of Sasuke’s hair. Get used to it.”
“Let’s go.” Kakashi lets out a loud sigh. “Before the cat runs off again.”
“She wont.” I grin wildly as we begin our long walk back to the Hokage’s office.
“What makes you say that?” They all ask in unison, sending me strange looks.
“She’s mah friend.” I smile sheepishly and rub my cheek against the brown cat’s head, listening to her purr sweetly and meow.
--------iwillsatisfyboth:D------------
'''''''''FF''''''''''''''''''''' Lol, the reason I don’t do the squigglys is cuz they don’t look right on my computer XP
I meow several more times, telling Tora that it’s better to live with the crazy witch lady than to live on your own in the wild. Tora meows in response-more of a disgruntled agreement.
“Can you really understand what she’s saying?” Sakura asks, mildly interested. I grin and nod.
“OH MY GOSH, MY BABY!” A fat woman shrieks.
I sigh softly and press my lips to Tora’s forehead quickly before handing her back to her owner. I’m afraid to hold onto her much longer, the lady could run me over and do some serious damage. Kakashi watches me, head tilted slightly to the side like a cocker spaniel’s, and raises his brow when I look his way.
“Stupid cat! That kitty deserves what he gets.” Naruto laughs.
I smack him upside the head. “Excuse you?” My tail flickers angrily.
“Calm down.” Kakashi pulls me back, sending me a dull look before smiling slightly to the Hokage.
I wave. “I wonder if I can call him an old man like Naruto does.” I whisper/hiss to Kakashi.
“Try it and die.” Kakashi smiles sweetly back.
“Oh really?” I smirk. “Who exactly won our bet?”
Kakashi blanches, his face paling slightly. He sends me a strangled look. “Please don’t. Anything else.”
I shake my head and smile up at him sweetly. “Don’t worry; I have a much more grand plan for your punishment, my dear.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” Kakashi frowns.
“Now then.” The Hokage starts, reading from a small scroll. “For Team Seven’s next mission we have several available tasks. Among them babysitting the chief counselor’s three year old, helping his wife to do the shopping, digging up potatoes-”
“NO!” Naruto cries out. “I wanna go on a real mission!” He crosses his arms over his chest in a x formation. “Something challenging and exciting. Not some baby mission!”
“How dare you!” Iruka shouts, glaring at Naruto as he starts his small rant.
I sigh and put my hands on my hips, sending the Hokage an ‘are-you-fucking-kidding-me’ look. The Hokage meets my gaze, his eyes narrowing slightly in response.
‘Just one.’ I mouth to him. ‘To show them how hard it can be without proper training.’
Subtly, he nods in response-eyes now wide and deep in thought.
“Are you serious?!” Naruto screams. “Babysitting isn’t a mission! It’s-” Kakashi hits Naruto upside the head. “Will you put a lid on it?” He says, sounding almost bored.
“So be it.” The Hokage smirks, flashing me a small smile. “If Naruto wants an exciting mission so badly, then let him have one.”
I let out a small sigh and bow my head. Kakashi glances over to me, eye narrowing.
“Since you are so determined, I’m going to give you a C-ranked mission. You’ll be bodyguards on a journey.”
“Really!?” Naruto grins, jumping up to his feet. “Who? Who?! Will we be guarding some princess? Or a business counselor?!”
“Don’t get your hopes up.” I murmur softly, trying to hide my smile.
“Don’t be so impatient.” The Hokage smiles, holding his pipe in between his teeth. “I will bring him in now. Send in our visitor!”
We all turn towards the door. Naruto is holding his breath, impatiently waiting to see our lucky victim. I press my lips together, sending Kakashi an all knowing smirk .
He glares back.
The door slides open. A man in his sixties enters the room; face flushed cherry red and thick meaty fingers curled around a sloshing bottle of beer. “What the? A bunch of little snot nosed kids?” He takes a long gulp, a trail of the bitter liquid escaping from the corner of his mouth.
“And you, the little one, with the idiot look on your face. You really expect me to believe you’re a ninja?” He leans against the doorframe, pointing towards the kids.
“Who’s the little one?” Naruto smirks smugly.
Sasuke and Sakura scoot closer, stomping all over Naruto’s parade with cleats. Naruto blinks, surprised to find that he is the shortest one there.
“And what the hell are you?!” He turns his drunk gaze to me. “A cat or something? How pathetic.”
“Damn straight.” I snarl. “And this cat could-”
Kakashi clamps a hand down on my shoulder, squeezing hard to stop the threat.
“Hey!” Sakura shouts. “You can’t talk about Alex-Sensei like that! She’s awesome!”
“Yeah!” Naruto screams. “She could kick your butt any day, believe it! I’ll kill you for saying something like that! Come here!”
“I’ve raised them so well.” I sniffle, wiping a pretend tear from my eye.
Kakashi releases me long enough to grab Naruto by the collar. “You can’t kill the client, Naruto. Not when you’re supposed to be protecting them.”
The man takes another long sip. “I am-”
“Tazuna, a master bridge builder, and you must return to my country. You’re building a bridge there that will change our world. And you expect us to get you there safely-even if it means giving up our life.” I cut him off, my eyes narrowing.
He blinks, taken aback. “Can you read minds or something?”
I nod. “I know everything, Tazuna. Everything.”
His eyes widen. I nod, face harder than stone, and step forward. “Kakashi, I want to get my sketch book before we leave. Kay?”
“I guess.” Kakashi sighs softly. “We’ll wait for you at the front gate.”
Voila! Another one. OH MY SWEET BABY POTATOES! Thanks so much for all the comments and reads and votes :’D I love reading them! (well the comments any ways- can’t exactly read a vote…) But yeah. College is finally over! Which means all I have left is to wait until public school ends-stupid Spanish-before I can officially have my computer back. Most likely, I will spend the first few weeks of summer rereading these and editing. I’m writing like superfast. Lol
-----Cloud<3