“It’s a shame you missed the Chuunin exams.” A thoughtful voice said from above me.
I suppressed a groan as they put more pressure on my chest with their foot, readjusting slightly.
Here I was, just laying on the ground. Exhausted, annoyed, frustrated, and currently having the breath practically squeezed out of me by this foot. This is why I hated this training. No matter what I did, her personality always switched to this one.
“So weak.”
I glanced around for something I could use, spotting a senbon needle in my reach. I grabbed it, fumbling with it for a second before coming straight down on her hand.
She jumped back, finally letting me get up. I frowned at my sensei.
“Miya-Miya,” I started, dodging a blade of wind that was hurled at me. “Does this really have to happen every time?”
Her eyes snapped to mine, the light returned to them almost immediately, and her whole body seemed to relax. Suddenly, she smiled at me. “Naomi! Why do you look so annoyed?”
I gave her a flat look, crossing my arms. She returned my look with an innocent, questioning one. “Because you did it again, sensei.”
Miyako tilted her head, placing a finger on her cheek in a thoughtful manner. Her lavender eyes widened as she realized what I meant. “I hurt you again?!”
“Yes.”
She was suddenly at me side, engulfing me into a bear hug and swinging me around. “I’m so sorry, Mimi!” She apologized between her sobs.
“Miya.” I growled.
“I’ll never do it again, I promise!”
“Mi--”
She cut me off with a gasp. “We need to get you to a doctor!”
“Miya!” I snapped, covering her mouth with my hand. “I’m fine, I just need rest.” I assured her, which she nodded her head at.
I felt like I had been training forever. It must have been at least twenty-four hours, if not more. I glanced at the time on my iPod, twenty hours of training. Well… close enough, I guess.
I messed with my iPod for a second, flipping through one of the playlists. Until I noticed Miyako staring at me.
“What?”
Miya beamed at me. “You remind me so much of Kaede!”
I stared at her in confusion. Who? And what?
A sudden realization hit me. Kaede, as in Tanaka Kaede, is who she meant. “Kaede, the woman from my clan?”
Miyako nodded her head eagerly, clasping her hands together. “The one who knew all four kinds of your kekkei genkai.”
“Wasn’t she one of the only ones to ever reach her third stage?” I asked, frowning.
“Yes, along with her brother.”
I thought about Miyako’s words for a second, practically throwing myself at the ground so I could peacefully lay down. “Ryuu’s close to reaching his third stage, right?”
“I believe so, yes.” Miyako nodded, closing her eyes.
“And, what about Shan?”
Miyako glanced at me, her eyebrow raised. “Not even close.” She finally answered, sounding a little amused.
I turned away from her, and stared at the clouds. Shan’s nowhere near Ryuu, huh? Is that why he’s always so mad at him? I can’t think of any other reason why… I always thought Shan had looked up to Ryuu.
“How exactly do you get to the third stage?” I asked.
“It’s different for everyone.” She answered, shrugging her shoulders. “Why are you even asking? Don’t tell me you want to try and get to your third stage.”
I made a face at her, slightly annoyed. “Miyako-Sensei, I told you I need to become stronger!”
Miyako snorted, suddenly pushing herself to her feet. “There’s no way you’re going to learn the third stage.”
“Why not?” I demanded, also getting on my feet. Did she not think I could do it? Am I that weak that even my sensei doubts me? The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I felt.
“It’s dangerous, Naomi.”
“So? Everything’s dangerous!” I hissed back.
“This is too dangerous.” Miyako shot back, now glaring at me.
“But--”
“Naomi,” She started, cutting me off. “I’m saying no.”
“But, why?!” I cried, stomping my foot.
Miyako suddenly looked at me in amusement. which made me even more frustrated.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“You’re acting like a child.” She pointed out with a chuckle.
I stared at her incredulously, with my mouth slightly open. Unbelievable. I’m acting like a child because I want to be stronger? Miyako’s just being silly.
“I am not.” I finally denied, crossing my arms.
Miyako sent me a ‘Oh yes you are’ kind of look. “If you can’t handle even twenty hours of training, then how do you think can handle training for a third stage?”
I paused, but only for a second, before any negative thoughts could interrupt. “I want to do it, no matter what. I can handle it.” I told her.
We both stayed quiet. Miya seemed to be thinking about it, and twirled a piece of her dark hair. Meanwhile, I bit my lip, hopefully she would agree.
Finally, she nodded, immediately my face flooded with a grin.
“How about we start tomorrow? You’ll need rest.”
I nodded my head excitedly. “I’ll be here!”
“Seven in the morning!” She called to me, as I was already on my way out of the forest.
I gave a thumbs up and went to a full run to the streets. I let my feet carry me, not even looking at where I was going. I could feel the excitement bubbling up. This was it, this was how I could get stronger!
I could feel something big was going to happen.
Slam!
Ow.
Immediately, I found myself on the ground, blinking. What did I run into? Glancing up, I saw a familiar face, smirking back at me.
“Long time, no see.” He commented, holding a hand for me to take. “You should really start paying attention where you’re walking… or should I say running?”
“Ryuu!” I cried, happily grabbing his hand so he could pull me up.
He grinned back at me. “Where were you running off to?”
“I don’t know!”
Ryuu sweatdropped at my answer, and sighed. “Of course.”
I beamed at him, and then turned my attention to looking around us, searching for something-- or more like, someone. Not finding it, I frowned. “That’s weird. Usually when I find one of you, I find all of you…”
“Well, I am on my way to them.” He motioned his hand to follow. “If you want to come with?”
Nodding my head excitedly, I immediately matched his steps. Focusing intensely on keeping my steps in perfect sync with his, I heard a chuckle.
“So where have you been lately?”
“Training.” I mumbled back, furrowing my eyebrows at the task at hand, or should I say feet?
“With Miyako?”
“Yeah… She agreed to help me with my third stage!” I looked back up to him, grinning.
His expression seemed like he was horrified. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was open just slightly.He quickly composed himself, and his mouth formed into a tight line, and he frowned. “What? She wouldn’t let you do that.”
“She agreed after I said I could handle it!”
“You’ll die.” Ryuu said bluntly, shaking his head.
My smile faded at his words. “I’m not that weak…”
Ryuu sighed at me before pulling up his sleeve, I raised an eyebrow at him. He held up his arm to show a bunch of bruises, and his arm was basically another color. “I’ve gotten seriously injured from the training, I have no doubt you’d die.”
I paused for a moment, panicking about his arms, and what he said. Ryuu almost died from it? Maybe he’s right then… no, definitely not. After a moment, I dismissed it. “Miya said it was different for everyone.”
He gave me a flat look. “Doesn’t mean the difficulty goes down…”
I lightly slapped his back, laughing a little. “You’re worrying too much, Ryuu. That’s not like you!”
I glanced in front of me to see that we were here. Surprised, I hopped up the steps, not waiting for Ryuu. It didn’t take long at all to get to their house that everyone shared, it was a nice two story house, it had a small yard and it was like any other house around here.
I bursted through the door, taking my shoes off immediately. I don’t think I’ve actually ever been here before. I decided to take in my surroundings, clearly I had walked into the living room. It was small and had a gray couch and two matching chairs, the walls were plain white and the floors were dark, and wood. “Nice living room.”
A wry smile appeared on Ryuu’s face, and he grunted before going into the kitchen. I slowly followed him in there, glancing around for my other family members.
As I walked into the decent size kitchen, I immediately smelled something burning. Obviously, Ryuu smelled it too and once we spotted who did it, we both stared directly at him, who seemed to be panicking.
It was Shan. No surprise there. Ryuu took action immediately, grabbing the burning object and taking it off the stove. He turned around, narrowing his eyes at Shan. “I left the house for five minutes, and you’re trying to burn it down? Where’s Ayame?”
Crossing his arms, Shan glared daggers at Ryuu, a scowl on his face. “I was doing fine.” He pushed past me, walking out into the living room.
Ryuu and I exchanged matching eye rolls, before he followed Shan into the living room, shortly after I joined them.
“Pretty sure you were panicking, Shanny.” I said, amusement written all over my face.
“Shut up.” He muttered, keeping his eyes on the tv, which I just noticed was there. Since when do they have tvs here?
Smirking, I bounded up the stairs, hoping to find a certain kitty girl. Surely she had to be up here somewhere, I just have to find the right door. I checked the first door my right, I didn’t find anyone, just a plain bedroom. Blue walls, gray bedding, nothing interesting.
So I went to the next door, this time on my left. Nothing in there either, this time it had white walls, and red bedding, and swords were everywhere. That is clearly Ryuu’s room… Next door, a bathroom.
So on the last door, I practically kicked the door open. My eyes landed on two people, and immediately I turned away from them. “Gross!”
There was Aya, like I was hoping, but with Neji, laying on top of her, making out. I made gagging noises as I banged my head against the wall.
A hand pulled me away from the wall, and a particularly girly voice met my ears. “Mimi-Chan, why are you so grossed out? It’s not like you haven’t made out with someone before.”
I glared at her, pursing my lips slightly. “I haven’t.”
Her wide eyes stared at me in disbelief, like I grew another head. “No way! Sas--” She froze, apparently noticing what name she was about to say. “I mean… he never made out with you?”
“I didn’t want him to!” I cried, ducking my head from embarrassment at the whole thing.
“Really?” She asked in a doubtful kind of voice, her hand on her hip. “You were dating.”
I cringed at the whole thing, and swatted away a few memories that were trying to pop up. “Really.”
She opened her mouth again, but I threw a hopeful look at Neji, begging him to help me. He appeared next to us instantly, pulling her to a tight embrace. “Aya-Chan, leave the poor girl alone.”
I could almost just see her melting, she sighed happily and giggled. Lovesick puppy. I turned my head and stuck my tongue out in disgust. PDA is so not my thing.
“I love you, Neji-Kun!”
“I love you, too.”
“Everybody loves everybody, I get it.” I sent a bored look towards them.
“Mimiiii, you’re no fun.” Aya whined, pouting at me. Her pout went away as she suddenly started sniffing and looking around, her eyes widened. “Why do I smell something burning?”
“Shan burnt down the house while you were busy sucking faces--”
“What?!” Aya cried, dashing down the stairs into the living room. Neji and I turned to each other, sharing the same amused look.
Slowly, we both made our way downstairs as well. First thing I noticed was Ayame beating Shan over the head, shouting things about him being dumb, and she couldn’t believe the house was gone… clearly she hadn’t looked around.
“You might want to fix that.” I said to Neji, pointing a finger at the cat girl, who was pretty much in tears.
Neji sighed before pulling Aya close and pressing his hand against her mouth. “Look around, it’s not burnt at all.”
“Oh...” She replied lamely, just now looking around. A sheepish grin appeared on her face. “Sorry Shan.”
“Whatever.”
Turning my attention back to Aya, I pulled on her hand slightly. “It’s been forever, Aya-Chan. I feel like I’ve barely talked to you since I got back.” I said with a frown.
“I know, right? No time for your friends! Tsk, tsk.”
I puffed my cheeks out in response. “But, that’s all I was doing! I was literally chasing friends. First Gaara, then… that… dumb boy.”
She frowned. “Oh yeah, Neji told me about the mission with Gaara.”
“And Shizuka heard about ‘that dumb boy’ from Kakashi.” Ryuu mocked, glancing at me.
“Oh, yeah. Shizuka and Kakashi are twins, right--”
“No.”
I smirked at Ryuu’s quick response. “Well, that’s okay. I’ll have lots of time to hang out now, guys!”
Aya tilted her head a bit in confusion. “Why? No more missions for team Kakashi?”
Glancing at Ryuu, he sent me an apologetic look, like he already knew. I was sure he knew anyway, most people knew already. Word gets around fast. “I guess you could call it that.” I finally responded, casting my gaze down at my hands, which was messing with the tips of my hair.
“Either way,” Aya started, pulling me into a hug with her and Neji, “I can’t wait to hang out with you more!”
“Eww, human contact.” I complained, trying my best to push myself away. Aya wrapped her hands around me tighter, and even Neji put his hands around to secure me. “Eww.”
Aya laughed at me, struggling to keep me in place. Reaching a hand out, I sent a ‘help me’ look to Ryuu, hoping he’d get me out of this whole thing. He shook his head, making me sigh. What a rude.
“Let me go! You’re all rude, and… and… waffle tarts, or something!” I flailed my arms, hoping it’d be enough to get them to let go. Neji was the first to let go, sighing in annoyance.
“Neji!” Ayame yelled, pouting at him. “You weren’t suppose to let go…”
Easily pushing her off of me, I dodged her attempt to recollect me in her arms by jumping over the couch. Both the boys on the couch, shot their head down to the side, dodging my foot to their face. I pointed my finger at her accusingly. “I take back what I said about coming over here more often!”
“Noo, Mimi-Chan! Don’t say that!” She whined, jumping over the couch as well and practically tackling me to the ground. “I miss you!”
I tried to keep a straight face, but couldn’t fight the small smile on my face. “You’re a dork.”
“You love me.”
“Pfft, yeah. Okay.”
She gasped and covered her mouth in fake horror. “Hurt!”
“Fine, fine. I love you, Aya-Chan.”
She grinned. “Good.”
__
End of chapter 17!
Not sick anymore, just a cough. This chapter is pretty much to bring Ayame, Shan, and Ryuu back. I miss writing them, I guess! I like writing cutesy stuff, and I miss it too. :c And not to mention I’ve kind of forgotten how to write, in general… xD HOW DOES ONE WRITE?! argh. Hope everyone enjoyed!