"H-HEY! C'mon, now's not a good ti- JUST WAKE UP WILL YA?!"
SLAP.
That certainly did the trick. In a matter of seconds Minato scrambled to his feet, green eyes wide as he cried out and ducked down. "YOU'RE GONNA DIE TODAY UZUMAKI!" A wooden shuriken went flying where only moments ago, Minato's head had been. Bright blue eyes stared at him from around the corner, hands gripping the wall tightly. "C-C'mon! You idiot, LET'S GO!"
"U-uh, right!" The words took a bit longer to process in his head than usual, but Minato managed to get his feet moving, and turned the corner sharply, narrowly missing running into his dark haired friend. She cried out as a shout came from around the wall, and took off behind Minato. Their legs carried them as quickly as they could, but experience from the jounin chasing them would win this battle, and they both knew that. In this case, they'd have to be clever, or risk getting caught by the person chasing after them. After turning another corner, Minato ducked under a wildly grown hedge off to the side, quietly waving his hand at Lilli to get her to follow. Lilli bit her lip and ducked under as well, Minato pulling her in further as she did. Holding his own breath, Minato reached over and covered Lilli's mouth. He could feel a whimper building in her throat as the man's feet came into view. Instead of panicking however, Minato eased his nerves, and slowly pulled the two of them deeper under the hedge, waiting in silence. The pair of feet slowly walked off, the sound of footsteps gradually fading.
Lilli swatted off Minato's hand and took a breath, eyes sparkling in joy that they hadn't been caught. "Thank go- AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Whatever momentary happiness she had was destroyed as the hedge rustled and twisted itself out of the way, revealing the two hidden genin. From above them, one of the jounin instructors hung upside down, vines curled around both of his legs which suspended him silently above the two. Before they could run, the hedge seemed to come to life, pinning them both down and keeping them still and silent.
"YOU'LL NEVER GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Lilli cried, kicking her feet against the head jounin's desk.
"Don't be so dramatic…" He sighed, reaching up and rubbing his temples, wondering what he ever did wrong to deserve such rambunctious students. "You two skipped class the past three days, and then came to school today and stole everyone's lunches. You're going to get cleaning detention whether you want to or not."
Uh oh. Not good, Minato's father was going to KILL him. Actually no, his father would probably just laugh and ask how he managed to be so sneaky, and then reward him for it. His MOTHER however was going to brutally wound him and probably serve him for dinner, with Lilli as a pleasant garnish. "Uh, sir, with all due respect, we've been having trouble with some of the students in our class and well…Lilli hasn't wanted to go, and I promised her I'd look after her." That was such a sincere, brave, and heart softening tone. Minato turned his eyes up to the head jounin, giving the most genuinely pathetic look possible.
"Shuddap ya baby, you're the one who was being beat up by Lard-Mouth, I had to make sure YOU were okay. Plus YOU were the one who wanted to sleep in the past several days!" Lilli puffed her red cheeks at Minato, eyebrows furrowed in frustration towards being made to seem like the weak one.
"HEY!" Minato began, snapping back at the girl, "YOU'RE the one who kept me up all night with your stupid games-"
"They are NOT stupid! I told you, we played them as a group at Lotus all the time, you don't have to whine so much-"
"I WHINE SO MUCH?! I couldn't even go to the bathroom in peace this morning without you sitting outside the door WHINING about how you felt oily and wanted to wash your face! A MAN NEEDS HIS TIME!"
"Pfff, MAN?! You're thirteen! That doesn't count as a man-"
"JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A YEAR OLDER THAN ME DOESN'T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO-"
"WOULD YOU BOTH JUST SHUT UP!" The jounin bellowed, bashing a fist on the desk and getting the immediate attention of both the feisty young children. As they stared sparks of hatred at each other, he gave another exasperated sigh and pushed up his glasses. "Would someone just kill me now…" He went through a brief mental exercise, trying to regain his calm composure (despite his extremely stressed physical appearance), before continuing on. "Okay, how about this. If you guys go to class and BEHAVE for the rest of the day, and you don't have to do detention tonight. But you will do it for the rest of the week, to make up for the many class disruptions and chaos you two brought with you this week."
"NO FAIR NO FAIR-" Lilli was quickly interrupted again by the instructor.
"OKAY, THEN DO YOU WANT ME TO MAKE IT TWO WEEKS?!"
Minato gulped. Two weeks? But next week was the week that all the teams were arranged and began to train together. No way was he going to miss out on that! "No no, okay! We'll do it for the rest of the week. I promise. I'm extremely sorry for the trouble we might have caused sir…"
"Might…" Instructor Kori scoffed, rolling his eyes and picking back up a pile of papers. "Whatever. I'll see you two here after school tomorrow, AND DON'T BE LATE! Or else…"
"So remind me again what happened?" Kazu grinned brightly, bemused at the two getting in trouble. Just as amusing was Lilli's idea that he had germs around him for being a "dirty Inuzuka", and to further aggravate her, he flicked a piece of bread at Lilli to watch her squirm. Minato chuckled slightly, and tossed a clean napkin in her direction, Lilli quickly taking it and obsessively scrubbing at the spot where the bread crumb hit her.
"Well, I told you, we skipped to try and find that body that everyone's been talking about!"
"Oh, you mean from that story that I've been telling?" How proud Kazu was that HE started the newest rumor around the campus this time.
"Yeah." Minato took a bite of his onigiri, pushing the rest of his lunch box Lilli's way. Her pout disappeared, and she snatched the box up, eyeing Kazu curiously.
"Wait what story-ah!" Kazu had flicked yet another bread crumb at Lilli, making the girl twitch angrily as she placed down the box and resumed wiping off the spot where it hit her. Kazu gave his usual bright grin, running a hand through his already messy brunette hair and leaning back against the tree the three were sitting under.
"Let me tell you…." He paused for dramatic effect, jumping up as he finished his sentence to frighten Lilli. "THE STORY OF THE DEMONIC FOREIGNER, OOOO~"
Lilli looked uninterested, and took a bite of onigiri in an unimpressed manner. "Please, your last murder story was already terrible, this one is bound to be worse."
"Hey! My murder stories are the finest in all of the academy! I'd like to see Minato do bett- Minato? Hey Minato? You there?"
Once again, he had grown dizzy, and things were fading in spots of black. A voice called to him, perhaps it was Kazu's? Or maybe Lilli's? They sounded the same; just distant, slurred voices without meaning. The wind was so much louder all of a sudden, and it washed away the voices crying out to him. The world spun, and seemed to change from the academy's field at lunch time to the blue sky, several clouds spotting through it. They swirled and spun, and eventually all began to blend into one. And then all at once that one single color began to fade into nothing, dissipating into complete and utter darkne-
No wait. Lilli?
"Not again, c'mon! Get up!" Minato could feel hands wringing his shoulders frantically, and soon, a pair of brilliantly blue eyes stared down at him in concern. Behind Lilli, Kazu was frowning and held a cup of water, mumbling something incoherently. "Minato, get up! Don't do this again!"
"W…what?"
"Oh thank you, he's okay." Lilli let go of the breath she had been holding in, and leaned back, pulling Minato up into a sitting position. Kazu gave a warm smile, despite the concern hiding behind it, and handed the cup of water over to Minato. As Minato steadily sipped at the cold liquid, Lilli jumped up and waved to two people passing by, calling them over towards under the tree. The two people, a male and female, approached, and tilted their heads in questioning at the situation. Both red heads bore the same clan symbol on their jackets, and seemed to stand at the exact same height. Kazu looked up at them with a look of recognition, and tossed them an empty water bottle.
"Hey, can you guys grab some water for us?" The girl caught the bottle, and the brother gave a cheerful nod.
"Sure thing," chimed the female of the two, "Anything else you need?"
"No, that's all, thanks Umeko, and thanks Satoshi." Kazu waved as the two turned and jogged off to the building.
"Who're they?" Over the cup of water Minato gave a quizzical expression to his two friends. Both redheads were in their class, but since it was only still the beginning of this year, and most of the year had been spent either skipping class or in testing for genin teams, he didn't really get to know many people other than Lilli and Kazu.
"The Sabaku twins! I'd be sure you'd know them Minato. After all, both Suna and Konoha work pretty closely knit because of the link between your father and the Kazekage."
Minato just shook his head. "That reminds me though," Kazu started, "Why does Lilli live with you again?" Being as Lilli had only transferred in at the start of the year, it was a fair enough question. Minato set down the cup, having finished off the water and feeling a bit better now, he glanced over at the concerned female. "She's staying with our family until the top secret mission involving the disappearance of her family clears."
"Top secret mission?"
Lilli piped up this time. "Well yeah, something happened and the details are hidden while investigation goes on. But I'm from kirigakure, and my mom and I were coming here for information on the upcoming chuunin exams when we were attacked." She looked down and flicked a piece of grass, biting her lip and obviously trying to keep her calm. "My mom disappeared, and my dad did too a few days after. You'd think just a disappearance case wouldn't have all this secretive stuff around it, but I'm technically not even allowed to talk about it. There's apparently a whole lot of stuff they're investigating that I don't know, but I'm not even supposed to talk about the basic stuff! I told Minato since we're close friends now, but you can't tell anyone Kazu, okay? I trust you." This time it was Lilli who threw something at Kazu, a handful of grass to be exact.
"Yeah yeah don't worry! We're all friends here!" Kazu stopped only to spot the redheaded twins, who had returned with the water. The female on Minato's left, and the male on his right, they curiously prodded either shoulder.
"So what happened?" chimed Umeko, quickly followed by her twin brother.
"Yeah, you seem to have those things where you almost pass out a lot, do you have some kinda disorder?"
Feeling somewhat overwhelmed, Minato squirmed out from in between the two, moving beside Lilli and giving a sheepish smile. "Well, I dunno really. I've only had these blackouts recently, I haven't had time yet to go to see a medical ninja and see what's wrong, with…uh, testing and all."
"By testing, you mean skipping class and causing a ruckus out in the hallway?" Umeko laughed at her brother, nudging him slightly as she added on.
"Y'know, and accidentally breaking through the door to the academy student's room?"
Immediately the two were chuckling with each other, leaving Lilli and Minato somewhat flustered.
"Were we really THAT loud?" Lilli seemed somewhat insecure suddenly, and looked up at Minato with a frown, wondering if they were going to get made fun of by the other students even more now? People hadn't exactly been kind towards the transfer student.
"I have an idea!" Sensing the situation was getting a bit uncomfortable for Lilli, and considering that Minato had only just now come back from a near blackout, Kazu interrupted the twins teasing. "Why don't I tell that murder story now?"
At the mere mention of a murder story, the twins were right up in Kazu's face, wide eyes begging for him to say more. Lilli turned and blinked blankly for a moment, before smiling and seeming into the idea. Finally, Minato merely sighed, scooting in closer with the other four and leaning against Lilli's back, tearing at a few strands of grass as he made himself comfortable.
"Yeah, okay then. So a couple weeks ago, I heard there was this foreigner who was in town. Dunno where from, just that they weren't from Konohagakure. Well, they stayed at the inn across the village, and kept to themselves. But y'know how it is here, everyone here is born here, aside from the occasional foreigner. So when there IS a foreigner, they're pretty noticeable, from their accent to their looks and clothes."
"This story sucks so far."
"UMEKO, shush!"
"ANYWAY AS I WAS SAYING, this foreigner was just kinda snooping around town. People would stop to talk to them but the foreigner wouldn't answer anyone, and would just keep on going with their business."
"What's so weird about that?"
"UMEKO CAN I PLEASE TELL THE STORY?! AGAIN, ANYWAY, they were just buying random items. Not anything normal like food, clothes, or trinkets. But just random things like, maybe two nails here, a carpet here, some twine, beads, vials, weird liquids-"
"Y'know, maybe it was just someone dressed up to do some home improvement, and they didn't want anyone to know about their secret obsession with flamboyant home décor."
"YOU KNOW WHAT, I'M NOT TELLING THE STORY ANYMORE!"
"Whatever, I've heard the rest of it," Satoshi happily started, "Kazu and I were talking about this the other day, right? I remember now…"
Nothing more than a grumpy nod was given from Kazu and he sulked against the tree.
"Yeah yeah, I remember us talking about it. This foreigner-" Satoshi stopped only to grab one of the onigiri from Minato's lunch box and shove it in his sisters mouth to silence her, "Just bought a bunch of weird stuff, and wrote on a wall of an alleyway 'The Demon Curse Will Return.' Well it was the alleyway by the inn, so the innkeeper found the person writing it and took their room, telling them they couldn't stay there anymore if they were just going to vandalize the area. That's why the innkeeper went missing recently, the foreigner killed him, and as part of the demonic ritual he was preforming, he cut off limbs from the man and buried them in a pentagram shape across the village, the torso being left where ever the center of the pentagram is."
Finishing off the onigiri with a satisfied lick of her fingers, Umeko scoffed. "Please, that story sucks. BOOOO, ORI-GIN-AL. ORI-GIN-AL." She began to chant, beating her hands against her legs.
Minato sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that wasn't that great. You shouldn't listen to Kazu's stories Satoshi, he has a big mouth and thinks he's clever."
"I am too extremely clever! And my mouth isn't that big…."
Mildly amused by the two friend's arguing, Satoshi rolled his eyes and looked over to Lilli, who didn't seem to give much of a response, but instead, seemed spaced out and stared off into the distance.
"What's up Lilli? Did the story get to you?" Satoshi teased, leaning over to poke her.
"No….but that did." And with that, Lilli pointed up in the leaves of the tree. While it wouldn't be seen from a distance, from this spot where they sat for lunch, a severed hand could be seen dangling down from a branch.