Hiya, chapter 2.
Read+enjoy pleaseeee.
;D
It was much darker now than it had been earlier. The sky was changing from the orange of dusk to the blue-gray of night, and there was a chill present in the air. The last rays of the sun cast long rays, stretching out Kurenai's small figure to an almost comical size. She had tied her hair back to keep it from blowing across her face, and it felt good to have the breeze on her bare neck.
It was strangely warm for autumn, and she didn't mind letting the kids stay out training until this time as long as the weather was like this. She watched her students from afar, as they sparred playfully with each other. Although she had noticed that neither Shino or Kiba wanted to fight with Hinata. She didn't blame them for it though - she hated to admit it to herself but Hinata was weak. The poor girl tried hard, but it seemed she couldn't keep up with the other two.
Now and again, the tall, straight, isolated trees let go of some of their dirty yellow leaves. She looked up toward the sky. It was getting far too dark now. The kids should have been home long ago.
"Come on you three, time's up! Back home!" she called to them.
"Awww, Kurenai-sensei, don't be so boring," Kiba whined, dragging slowly behind her.
"You can train tomorrow. Come on!"
Shino and Kiba trailed along after her, annoyed she was making them stop. They enjoyed training, and hated when it ended. She supposed she was fairly lucky for that - it meant she didn't have to force them. Hinata was the only one who seemed happy it was finished, and she walked fast to keep pace with Kurenai. The two boys were still complaining behind her. She turned around to face them, hands on hips and her lips pursed.
"Fine," she said, putting on a smile. "If you want to train so desperately I'll come get you at 6 in the morning, how's that?"
Kiba's eyes widened, and he hurriedly replied to her: "No, no, Kurenai-sensei, it's okay. I'm tired, see?" he faked a yawn.
She turned around, and smiled to herself. She knew that would shut him up - Kiba hated to have less sleep than he could possibly have.
Asuma, meanwhile, was taking a totally different approach with his students. They were sat in the food district eating barbecue in one of the stores. He used bribery and trickery to get his students to work - the barbecue would work best with Choji, and tomorrow he had no doubt that Choji would work the hardest out of all of them.
With Ino, he would use "well Sakura would..." That would work a charm, since Ino was fiercely competitive with Sakura. Mostly over the love of that boy Sasuke.
Shikamaru was, of course, the most difficult to deal with. He had been able to trick Shikamaru with puzzles in the past, but the boy was starting to understand what he was doing, and it was becoming harder and harder to fool him.
Asuma searched around in his trouser pocket, to find his packet of cigarettes. Oh, there they were. He was lucky that the barbecue place let people smoke inside - although he had realized it was hardly the most hygenic thing. Asuma put one in his mouth, and brought the lighter to it.
"Asuma-sensei!" Ino shouted.
"What? What? What's wrong?" he seemed genuinely confused as he held the lighter, still lit, in front of his face. The cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth as he waited for Ino to tell him what was wrong.
"Smoking is bad for you," she said, frowning at him.
Asuma laughed - a deep, happy laugh. Ino pointed it out every time he started smoking that it was unhealthy. And every time he didn't pay attention to her. It had been a habit of his for far too long that he could never give it up so easily. He held the flame to the end of the cigarette, and breathed in deeply, setting it alight. The smoke rose up in a lazy spiral, tracing lines of grey throughout the clear air. He watched it drift upwards to the ceiling. Breathed in deeply. There was nothing quite like smoking to him. Or drinking. He wasn't addicted though, no, and he wasn't an alcoholic. But life could just seem like you were being punched in the face sometimes, and he took great comfort in cigarettes and alcohol.
Hmm... I reckon it's improved in comparison to what it used to be. Suppose we shall have to wait and see.
Review please(:
