Don't Be Such a Baby!
by, Satsumi
Notes: Just in case it should come up, this is the Hokage team's current age group: Recca, Yanagi, Fuuko, Domon: 20 Tokiya: 21 Kaoru: 17 Ganko: 15. I know the actual age gap between Kaoru and Ganko is 4 years, forgive the intentional mistake, hehe. It's to make this story flow nicer, else it'd seem as if Ganko's left out of everything if she's too young :P Oh, and a bit of OOC warning for the Hokage's little-kid forms. Honestly! They HAVE to be cuter when they're young! If not it just defeats the whole point of the story cause being young means being cute!
Oh yea! And disclaimer: Do you honestly think there's a chance I might own FoR? Sheesh! Oh, but I do own the new weird madougu in the story, unless by any chance it came up in the manga and I didn't know about it! Um, that's all I think.
The morning sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky, and Sakoshita Yanagi awoke to the merry chirping of the song birds outside her window. She stretched lazily, jumped out of bed, went over to the window and took a deep breath of spring air. She was happy.
It was the beginning of a new year, a new semester, and a new day where the Hokage team was living.
One of the earliest to awake and get dressed, Yanagi skipped down the steps and headed towards the kitchen to get breakfast. Soon, when she was half way through frying eggs, more footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs and a pretty young blond appeared at the kitchen doorway. Yanagi turned at smiled at the fifteen-year-old. "Ohayou, Ganko-chan!"
Stifling a still sleepy yawn, Morikawa Ganko mumbled an indistinguishable greeting to Yanagi. She had grown much taller since you readers have last seen her, and her silky, golden blond hair has grown past her shoulders, held up by the same red headband she'd used since I don't know when. Ganko started to prepare a whole jug of morning tea. Yanagi looked at her watch.
Hmm... any minute now.
Then, she and Ganko automatically started to put away breakable cups and plates and take down easily-fallen pictures and covering up the huge pot of miso soup on the stove with a lid.
Soon, a few minutes later, a completely chaotic series of ringing of different alarm clocks went off upstairs at the same time. Then, there came the yelps, and finally, loud booming sounds of objects falling onto the floor above rattled the ceiling below. Then, everything went quiet.
"They're up," said Ganko mildly, sipping from her cup of tea, and Yanagi, who had been protecting the pot of miso, sighed heavily. But alas, one last deafening thud and a crash coming from upstairs shook the entire house and emptied half of the pot's contents onto the cold marble floor.
Ganko rolled her eyes, put down her cup and shook her head, "No use crying over spilt miso, we'll just make them pay."
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
Kirisawa Fuuko rubbed her painful backside where she had fallen onto from her bed earlier. Her stupid alarm clock had yet again succeeded in startling her out of bed and onto the floor, like it always did. Well! She hoped the others had had a similar wake-up call. She cursed and got up promptly to dress.
Shortly, pattering sounds of feet tumbled pell-mell down the stairs, threatening to crash it down to pieces. And soon, the complete Hokage team appeared at the dining table, waiting like a pack of hungry wolves. Yanagi came out of the kitchen, holding the half-filled miso pot. "Ok, who fell out of their bed today?" she asked, looking at all of them. As expected, four hesitant hands rose up into the air.
Recca, Fuuko, Kaoru and Domon.
Ganko rolled her eyes. She knew it.
"Who fell out last?" Yanagi continued to probe.
They shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads. "W- which one?" Hanabishi Recca ventured to ask.
"The one with a crash at the end."
Immediately, there were sighs of relief and Ishijima Domon turned white.
"I... I think it was me," he stuttered.
"Well, great then!" said Yanagi finally with a smile. "No miso soup for you today."
"NOOOOO!"
Domon's imaginary self fell down and down into and empty space of doom but didn't die.
"Hmph, pathetic," Mikagami Tokiya sipped his tea slowly in his usual composed self.
"Don't 'hmph, pathetic' us!" snapped Fuuko. "How do YOU get up without falling out of bed?"
Tokiya put down his cup. "For one thing, I don't have a stupid overly loud alarm clock."
"Then how do you wake up on time?" Recca immediately joined in the discussion.
"For another," Tokiya continued as if Recca hadn't spoken. "Every morning, there comes a time when the whole house will shake with ringing, yells and bangs, and that, unfortunately, is able to wake even the dead. All I have to do is stay firmly in bed and get up later." Tokiya grabbed a piece of toast, then looked up and saw the rest of the stupid people all staring at him with tiny beady eyes.
He coughed composedly. "Ahem, so now you see why I can do very well even without an alarm clock like some stupid people."
At the insult, Fuuko instantly snapped back into reality. "Who're you calling stupid, Stupid?" she stood up, grabbing Tokiya's collar.
"Let go, you crazyass tomboy!" cried a voice that sounded like Tokiya's. But the silver-haired youth's handsome face immediately turned white, and heard Ganko's fierce whisper.
"Kondo! What are you doing behind Mikagami-niichan? Get back here!" She hissed frantically at the yellow fox creature.
"It... it wasn't me!" Tokiya began to defend immediately, looking with horror at the murderous and diabolic grin on Fuuko's face. She leaned forward, lightly pressing an index finger on his smooth left cheek.
"I never knew you thought I was a crazyass tomboy, Mi-chan~" she said in a dangerously seductive tone, that would've turned any guy on if not for that crazy pissed off look on her face (and that vein-pop on her forehead). Everyone, including Tokiya, gulped. Usually, these were the warning signs that Fuuko was about to...
At a distance, the house in which the Hokage team was living gave a loud thundering explosion, and the roof was blown off.
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
BREAK! Hm... you readers are probably wondering why those people are all staying together and what the hell is going on and all that stuff. Well, I had MEANT to clear that up somewhere above but too many things were happening and I just couldn't find the space to slot in the information. *grins* typical Hokage day huh, everything happening at once. OKAY, to get on to whatever, the fact is this: The older Hokage team members are all in university now! YAY! (GASP! Domon too? IMPOSSIBLE!) And they've all moved to Tokyo from wherever it was they previously stayed. And, unable to leave Kaoru and Ganko behind since all of them were kind of inseparable already, they brought the two along and now they're studying at a normal high school in the city. So NATURALLY! All of them are staying together, and YOU, the readers, are free to imagine that they rented a house or bought one or inherited one or found one or whatever cos obviously I don't care. OKAY! Back to the story!
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
Later, it was Mikagami Tokiya's turn to drive Kaoru and Ganko to school.
From the passenger's seat, Koganei Kaoru dared a sideways glance at the smoldering block of ice beside him, gripping the steering wheel. Hm... a smoldering block of ice? Kind of an oxymoron, he thought to himself. Suddenly, the pretty blonde head of Morikawa Ganko popped out in between the two front seats from the back seat.
"Ne ne, Mikagami-niichan..." she turned to Tokiya and asked hesitantly. "Anou... are you... alright?"
Kaoru nearly died on the spot trying not to laugh. Alright? Mikagami's face wouldn'tve looked as bad if it had been run over by a hundred-ton-truck. It was literally buried under bruises and scratches!
"You mean besides the fact that his face is nearly torn to pieces? Then I think he's alright," said Kaoru, trying to sound as mild as he could. Immediately, Ganko shot him a 'you-really-didn't-HAVE-to-say-that' glare, then turned back to the driving man.
"That wasn't what I meant, niichan-" she explained, but was cut off.
"I'm okay," came the short but firm answer.
"But niichan, Kondo-"
"Back to your seat, Ganko." Definitely a no-more-nonsense command.
Ganko slumped back into her seat, a small pout forming on her pink lips. She was only trying to apologize on Kondo's behalf for getting Mikagami-niichan into trouble, and that baka-Kaoru just had to rub it in and get him mad! Failing to find anyone to blame, she turned and hissed into her bag where Kondo was settled. "It's all your fault!"
The yellow fox doll sweat-dropped and laughed guiltily.
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
A seething Fuuko slammed her locker shut. She couldn't believe it! It was already the end of classes for the day, and naturally she hadn't managed to absorb anything discussed in lectures today because she STILL couldn't get over the insult that morning!
Mikagami! Calling her a crazyass tomboy?
"The first day of second year and it gets this lousy," she muttered as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "I have a feeling it's not going to be a good year."
She spotted her best friend at the entrance hall, waiting for her. "Yanagi!" she waved and walked over. "Why're you waiting for me? Isn't Recca taking his 'Hime' home?" she taunted playfully. The shy girl blushed predictably at the remark.
"Um... No, not today," she said. "Something came up, so I'll have to hitch a ride home with you. I thought Recca-kun sent you a message."
Fuuko raised an eyebrow. "I didn't hear anything from him all day." Then, her mobile phone beeped right on cue. She fished the green thing out of her pocket and read the late message from Recca asking her to drive Yanagi home for him. She rolled her eyes and stuffed the phone back into her pocket.
"Right, Hime, it looks like I'll have to take over his ninja job for today! Come on, and I hope you don't get carsick on motorcycles," she winked at Yanagi and both of them headed towards the car park where Fuuko had her green motorcycle parked.
"So, what's Recca so busy about?" The Fuujin-master asked casually, slipping on her helmet and handing Yanagi a spare one.
"Recca-kun said that they were having an all boys' night-out this evening straight away after school. Just the four of them," explained Yanagi.
"Hmph!" grunted Fuuko. Talking about the Hokage boys reminded her again of the infuriating block of ice who insulted her this morning. "Well, at least the place's gonna be a boys-free zone for one evening," she said huffily, hoisting herself in one graceful movement onto the seat and pulling Yanagi up behind her.
"Fuuko-chan, are... are you still mad at Mikagami-san?" asked Yanagi cautiously as they drove along the main streets. Her hands around Fuuko's slim, shapely waist felt the body underneath it tense slightly.
Fuuko turned to face the girl behind her and smiled. "Hold on tight, I'm going faster," she said hastily before turning back and slowly gathering speed.
Yanagi tightened her grip on her best friend's waist. She guessed she got her answer.
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
Morikawa Ganko shuffled along slowly behind the group of people in front, kicking a pebble along the way. School that day had ended and she and Kaoru were supposed to walk home together, as usual. She glanced up at the group of kids walking a little way in front of her, which consisted of Koganei Kaoru and his forever-there-girlfriends. Three of them today. (Not girlfriends as in "I-love-you,-you-love-me-girlfriends", it's female friends, ok?)
As he usually would, being the "gentleman" that he was, Kaoru had agreed to walk the girls home upon their request. And now SHE was stuck tagging along behind, thought Ganko furiously as she kicked that same pebble another couple feet ahead. Out of boredom with the mindless chatting that consisted of 'what kind of girls are you interested in, Koganei-kun?', 'do you enjoy cookies and sweets, Koganei-kun?" and 'oh, you're so smart, Koganei-kun!', she had been kicking the same poor pebble down a few streets already. Then, she stopped and thought for a moment. To be perfectly honest, she didn't have to put herself through this, really. She could've just gone straight home because she didn't exactly NEEDED him to walk her home like the other girls.
So why was she here?
"Ganko, why're you stoning there?" Kaoru's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, leaving her a little unsettled.
"Huh? Um, why don't you go ahead and walk the girls home, I... think I'll just head on home first," said Ganko, a little flustered, and with that, was about to turn to go when a whine sounded.
"But Ganko~"
She turned around and saw the charming boy's big brown puppy-dog eyes.
"Then who's going to walk me home after that?" said Kaoru, flashing her his most beseeching look.
Ganko couldn't believe the thickness of his skin! She rolled her eyes. "Fiiine..." Refusing to look at his puppy-dog face any longer, she pushed past the girls and walked up front. Let's hurry and get this over with...
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
"Bye, Koganei-chan! Thanks for walking me home, see you tomorrow at school, ne?" cried the last girl, finally disappearing into her house.
Ganko sighed to herself. Finally! They could go home. Kaoru turned to face her and flashed her his most charming smile. "Now, let's go home!"
"Uh-huh..." said Ganko unenthusiastically. At this time, she could've BEEN home already!
"You don't seem very keen to walk with me," Kaoru commented, noticing her mood.
After all that, no.
"I'm just tired I guess." Ganko wasn't about to admit that to him!
Just then, Kaoru's mobile phone beeped, signalling that a message has arrived. Ganko looked up at him and saw his eyes widen. "Oh god, I've forgotten that I have Recca and the other boys to meet!" he exclaimed, and gave a huge leap up onto the nearest roof.
"Where're you going?" cried Ganko.
"Sorry, Ganko! I'm meeting up with the boys. I'm sure I can trust you to walk home alone without getting lost? Bye then!" And with an imaginary flying-kiss, he leapt out of sight with amazing speed, leaving Ganko gaping behind him.
"Damn you, Koganei!"
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
"Stand still Hanabishi so I can strangle you!" A booming voice erupted from one of the back alleys in Tokyo.
Hanabishi Recca leaped and ran from alley to alley, building to building, and hot on his trail was his three buddies, led by a livid Domon. Koganei Kaoru, trying to keep up behind them, sighed inwardly. What was meant to be a quiet night together was totally messed up when Recca had thieved Domon's entire piece of steak.
Um... well, he guessed HE had to be one of the causes as well. The boy turned back to see an infuriated Mikagami pursuing him closely with an over- powering urge to hurt, his Ensui all liquefied and ready. Maybe he shouldn'tve pushed that Fuuko-taunt too far.
"WAAAH!" Kaoru jumped up, dodging a strike from behind and blocked it with his Kougan Anki. The four raced and chased each other into a nearby park. A silent agreement crossing the between the escapers, Recca and Kaoru leaped into one of the trees and lay low. The pursuers caught up a second later, scanning the area for their targets.
Tokiya narrowed his eyes. When he gets his hands on that little shit...
In the tree, Recca and Kaoru dared not move, although they were currently in a VERY uncomfortable position. Recca was sitting on the branch while Kaoru was lying heavily on his front on one of Recca's out-stretched legs, and Recca had his other shoe in Kaoru's face. Kaoru pushed it away roughly. "Sit properly!" he hissed.
Recca moved his other leg, which was getting numb due to Kaoru's weight. "YOU sit properly!" And he pulled it out from underneath the kid.
"I can't- WHAAA!" Kaoru lost his balance and in the confusion, grabbed Recca's leg and both of them fell out of the tree!
"Hey, there's someone right below us!" cried Kaoru before they fell right on top of the poor innocent bystander who had been resting just below the tree! Before anyone could react, Domon and Tokiya were on top of them.
"AHAH! GOTCHA!" And a confused fight started amidst the kicked-up dust.
"STOP!"
"Ouch! Wrong person!"
"Oof!"
"Who are you?"
"Playing amnesia now, aren't we? Take THIS!"
"That was my FACE!"
"ARGH!"
When everything had finally settled down, Domon, panting, widened his eyes in surprise. "Who's that old guy?" he pointed towards the steaming heap behind them.
"That's why I told you guys to stop!" cried Kaoru. "We were beating this poor guy up!"
"Well, you should've told us earlier," said Domon accusingly.
"I did, you deaf gorilla!" yelled Kaoru.
"What didja call me?" cried Domon before pouncing on the kid and starting another fight.
"It seems..." Suddenly, the old man who had been silent, spoke up in an echoic, mysterious kind of voice. "It seems you youngsters still have a lot to learn about being adults. Fighting, squabbling over trivial incidents, waking me up and disturbing my peace... I see some of you might be in your twenties, but still you act like insufferable children."
Recca raised an eyebrow. "What's up with this guy?"
The man reached a dried up, wrinkled hand into his robe. Tokiya's sharp eyes caught the movement and moved into a prepared stance. "Careful, he's got something under his clothes."
Recca took a sharp breath as he saw the hand bringing out something round and shiny. It was a-
"Madougu!" he cried.
"Let me help you impertinent youngsters to act your age..." hissed the old man before the madougu in his hand started to glow red, illuminating the kanji character 'Sai', which meant age.
Briefly catching sight of the kanji character, Tokiya called out to the others. "He's going to do something, get-" but before he could finish, everywhere was overwhelmed by a blinding white light... and then, everything went black.
O+O+O+O+~ B R E A K ~+O+O+O+O
When Hanabishi Recca gradually came round, he felt funny. Not the funny-funny kind of funny, but the something-is-not-quite-right kind of funny, got it? He sat up and rubbed his half-closed eyes cutely with the back of his hands.
Wait a minute. Hanabishi Recca does NOT rub his half-closed eyes with the back of his hands!
He shook his head and moved his hands away from his eyes. He stood up, and immediately noticed that the world was wrong.
Hmm... not exactly wrong-wrong. But the world just kinda seemed bigger than it used to. The trees taller, the buildings larger...
Recca looked up.
Hm, the sky seemed further.
He looked down.
Hm... come to think of it, the ground seemed closer too.
Something was amiss. But what?
"You've got to be the slowest person in human history."
Came a childish voice that Recca did not recognize. He turned around and found himself facing an incredibly cute, blue-eyed kid with slivery hair tied up in a short ponytail. The kid wore a very familiar scowl on his face and had his arms crossed hostilely.
Recca frowned, but since he couldn't seem to place the kid, he shouted back. "Who're YOU calling-" But before he finished, Recca cut himself off as his hands flew to his mouth. The squeaky, totally unmanly voice that erupted from his own throat caused him to shut up immediately.
"Hmph!" the kid grunted condescendingly. "I wonder how it feels like to be brainless."
"I'll be happy to dig yours out for you!" And with that, Recca jumped on top of the other boy and they started to pummel each other up. Then, suddenly in the middle of the fight there came a deafening yell.
"WHAAAT HAPPENED?"
The fighting boys stopped what they were doing, looked up and saw a tiny spiky brown head with large teary olive green eyes pop out from underneath a pile of overlarge clothes. It was a boy about three to four years of age, and Recca saw him open his eyes wide when the child noticed them.
"Recca-niichan? Tokiya-niichan?"
Recca frowned. "Who are you? How do you know me?" He asked solemnly as if it was the most sensible question to ask in the world.
He got an immediate whack in the back of the head by the first boy. "He's Koganei you insufferable idiot!"
"YOU'RE the insufferable idiot! Koganei is THIS tall!" argued Recca hotly, raising his hand level to his eyes where Koganei's height had reached when they last measured.
"Well, look at how tall you are now," the cool boy mocked, his arms crossed.
"I am NOT short you rude little brat!"
"And a little brat like yourself is going to stop me?"
Seeing sparks were about to fly again, Kaoru ran up to the glaring two. "Mou ii, let's call it a day, Tokiya-niichan, Recca-niichan."
"I am going to-!" Recca stopped in mid-sentence. "To- Tokiya?" he ogled at the narrow-eyed boy in front of him, recognition finally showing on his face.
"Hmph!" Tokiya, refusing to argue with stupidity any longer and disgrace himself, turned around. "Where's Domon?"
Then, right on cue, an ear-splitting wail shattered the air.
"WAAAaaa!"
"Domon!" Everyone spun around and made for some nearby bushes. And he was there, tiny, and crying a puddle of tears. "Wha... what happened?" Domon sobbed, looking at his little fists that he had once been so proud of. Recca looked at his own over-sized clothes, draping loosely over his shoulders.
"I- I think we've been... SHRUNK!"
Tokiya slapped his forehead.
"I think more likely we've been reduced back to children," Kaoru gave a more acceptable answer.
"Chi- children?" Domon gave a strangled cry.
Kaoru looked at himself, and nodded. "I think we're about three to four years of age."
"It's that madougu! And that old geezer! HE did this to us!" cried Recca in realization.
"Glad you finally figured that out, Hanabishi," said Tokiya sardonically.
"Where is HE? I'll beat the shit out of him!"
"Recca-niichan! This is no time to beat the shit out of anybody, he's gone now anyways, we have to figure out what to do," said Kaoru.
"I want my mama!" Domon wailed piteously.
WHACK!
"Shut up, I need to think," said Tokiya, tucking the Ensui hilt back into one of his pockets.
"I think we should first get back home," said Recca.
Having no better ideas himself, Tokiya nodded in agreement. "First sensible thing you've said all day, Hanabishi. Let's go."
And so, the four children hitched up their extremely baggy clothes and started shuffling hastily back onto the streets towards home.
"I wonder if we'll have to miss class after this," said Domon as he hurried on his now short little legs.
"You wouldn't have to worry about that for now," Recca muttered, trying to keep his trousers up.
"Hey, wait for me, you jerks!" yelled Kaoru, picking up his now relatively ginormous Kougan Anki. Remember it always used to seem already over-sized even when he was using it when he was 13? Well, imagine how it'll look now that he's 4! LOL~
Panting, he dragged his enormous weapon and clambered after the others.
Was that cruel? NAH! Just nice! If you thought that was nice, please review so I'll know and do better next time. If you thought it sucked, please review anyways so I can do worse next time! To those who enjoyed it or have some constructive advice to share, can I please ask for a well-deserved review? I'm not that sure about the next chapter any time soon (been kind of busy), but if the response is good I just might get the next chap up real soon. So, you know what to do, ne? ^_^
