CHAPTER 2
Max and her friends landed and began walking after they lost the cover of the forest. They walked closer towards the brick wall with green gates, and they could see the guards' facial features. One had black spiky hair with a white bandage over his nose. The other had a beanie-type hat with a metal piece over his dark brown hair. He also had black eyes. Max saw their lips moving as if muttering an incantation, but Max thought that they were probably talking to each other. She knew the stealth drill! She went through it on several occasions herself.
"Hello," the spiky haired man greeted. "Are you the expected guests?"
"Could be," Max said difficultly. "Who are you expecting?"
"Yeah, they're with me," Nudge said, stepping out from behind the little structure from which they were sitting. It was like a little visitor center, but with a desk at which they were sitting, and a back wall, and a roof. That was pretty much it.
"Welcome to Konoha," the dark brown haired man said.
"Konoha?" Iggy asked expectantly. Max tried to mask her confusion, but the rest of them, well, at least Nudge and Gazzy, weren't making much of an effort to.
The guards glanced at each other quickly. The one with spiky black hair picked up a pen and looked at Max expectantly. She arched an eyebrow meaningfully at them. Yes…?
"The information please," the dark brown haired one said, as if it should have been obvious.
"We don't give our private information to strangers," Max leered, with a hand on her hip. She was having way too much fun, and almost forgetting the entire purpose of their mission.
One of the guards narrowed his eyes dangerously. Max got the feeling that he wouldn't tolerate much more screwing around. He seemed as dangerous as any of the Flock could be. "Stop messing around, kid. You follow the rules or you don't get into the village."
"Look, this little girl needs help," Iggy spoke up. Max inwardly slapped him for taking over. Outwardly, she tried to look uncaring. She begrudgingly silently allowed Iggy to take over for a few seconds. He might actually get them somewhere. Why hadn't she thought to pull out the Angel card?
"You wouldn't deny her help, would you?" Iggy continued. Max reluctantly agreed that Iggy was doing a pretty good job. The guards looked uncertain now.
The guards looked a little miffed at Iggy's statement, too. Max wished Iggy could see their faces. It was pretty funny. She would have to tell him later. Max wanted to silently thank Iggy but would have to do that later as well.
"We should know what to do about this," the dark brown haired one muttered.
"Lady Tsunade will get mad if we go to her with such a little problem," the other one said.
"Hello, Kamizuki and Hagane!" a man's voice asked.
"Yo, what's up?" asked a child's voice.
Everyone turned to looked at the sound and saw a little boy, possibly Nudge's age, with dark eyes ,spiky black hair that stuck straight up, and a long dark blue scarf around his neck, even though it wasn't cold, that trailed on the ground. There was a man standing behind him. The man had a spiky, dark pony and kind black eyes. He had on an olive green vest with tons of pockets. The vest matched the ones the two guards were wearing. After Max had noticed that, it as obvious to see that all the men, including the little scarf boy, had on a headband with a silver metal headpiece with a weird symbol on it. Was it come sort of voodoo clan marking?
"We have unaccountable visitors," one of the guards said with a little angry sigh, and a glance at Max. She stared definitely back at him, which seemed to set him even more off edge.
"What village did you guys come from?" the little boy asked, his large dark brown eyes skimming over Max, Nudge, and Iggy, but locking immediately with Gazzy's light blue ones.
"They refuse say," one of the guards said, sending an irritated look at the Flock's direction. Max gave him an innocent smile, which seemed to set him off edge even more. She giggled inwardly. Yes, she thought triumphantly. Max-ifed!
The man who had arrived with the scarf boy raised his eyebrows. "If this is a prank, it is definitely a very elaborate one."
Max raised her eyebrows in surprise. This dude had a sense of humor! How refreshing.
"We aren't joking," Iggy said, dead seriously, and totally killing the mood. Max sighed huffily. "She really needs help," Iggy continued. He held up Angel a little bit. The man's head jerked back a little, and his tiny eye became even tinier for a second.
"Oh, my!" he cried out in surpirse. "We'll take them to the hospital," the man said urgently to the guards. The guards widened their eyes and their mouths dropped open in animated surprise.
"You can't do that! It's illegal!" one of the guards said, standing up.
"We'll get in trouble!" the other guard cried.
"Don't worry, we will escort them," the ponytailed man said. He turned to Max in a way that said don't prove me wrong of you'll be sorry. Max tried to shoot her own glance back at him that said we will if we have to.
"We'll watch them like hawks!" the little boy said, smiling impishly at the Flock.
Gazzy smirked and Max felt a small glimmer of pride. Even small Gazzy sees the humor in that. Then again, Gazzy wasn't that small anymore.
"Come," the ponytailed man said, gesturing with his hand. "Follow me."
The Flock walked silently behind the man. "I am Iruka," the man said after a few moments. "This is Konohamaru," he said, pointing to the scarf boy.
"Hey, why did you tell them that?" Konohamaru cried out indignantly. "What if they are spies?" Konohamaru cried. Wow, Max thought, exchanging amused glanced with Nudge. Well, he has a good point. We very well could be. These guys were almost as paranoid as us, then. Possibly.
Iruka glanced around the Flock, and his gaze landed on Max. His small dark eyes were questioning as if to ask Max is she was going to break his trust. Max tried not to answer anything with her eyes, but she wasn't sure how well that worked out. "Let's hope we can trust them." the man said finally.
Max was looking around, taking in all the sights. It seemed like a busy town, but it wasn't very loud at all. It was calming and yet irking. Max wasn't really used to this town business, or this help business for that matter. She and her Flock got a few stares, though not as many as Max would have expected. She was glad for that. Some glances were cautious, but most of the others were just curious.
"Here we are," Iruka said. "Hopefully they are having a relatively slow day. Either way, they will take in everyone."
Max didn't like the way he had said that. They weren't charity cases! Her fist balled up intuitively, and Iruka's eyes shrunk in surprise again. He looked at Max questioningly.
Konohamaru looked up at Nudge, then towards Gazzy. Max wondered if she saw a curious light in the boy's dark eyes but her gaze was drawn to the building in front of them because of the radiating dull silence emanating from it.
They walked into the building and they saw a few people bustling around. Max wondered what a "busy' day for the hospital was. Max followed Iruka through the hospital, surprised at the amount of attention they were receiving (it was very little to none at all!) It begged the question, were they used to seeing bird kids here? Then, Max reminded herself that they didn't know her Flock was full of bird kids. At least, as far as she knew, which, she wanted to think was more than what they knew. Iruka led them to a desk and told the lady sitting behind it minimal information. The lady was young, in her twenties, or so, with black hair and black eyes. She gazed at Angel with a look of puzzlement. Then, a girl's voice greeted Iruka and the front desk lady cheerfully.
"Hey, what's up?" the girl asked. She blinked a light green eye in confusion. She was tall, thin, and pretty. She had on a short, purple cut off top and a black miniskirt, and black boots. Max wondered how much less clothing someone could put on. Then, she realized that she didn't want to think about it. The girl's hair was in an extremely long blonde ponytail and her bangs completely covered one eye. Her visible eye was fringed with long dark lashes. She looked at Max in curiosity. Then, her green gaze slid to Iggy, and Max tried not to notice any of the emotions flashing through the green eye at that time. Max wondered how much she was glad that Iggy was blind. Surely he would have been staring at her midriff the entire time.
"Come with me," the girl said. Max hoped that she hadn't only been talking to Iggy…If so, then something would have to go down, right there, right then. Something like punching her in her pretty face. She saw Nudge and Gazzy beginning to follow the girl. Gazzy tapped Iggy's hand, which still wrapped around Angel. Max noticed Iruka turning to leave, and she tried to call to him silently. She wasn't going to demean herself anymore by saying it out loud, but she truly didn't want him to leave just yet. She didn't quite trust that blonde girl completely. And it wasn't just her protective instincts kicking in. Yeah, she should have been suspicious of every freaking person in this whole place, but she didn't have that luxury right now. Iruka seemed like the only person that was capable of really caring about them. She didn't really have a good background with people like that, but Iruka seemed genuine. Unfortunately, he hadn't received her silent call. He was already halfway out of the hospital by now.
Max turned around and saw her Flock and the blonde girl walking further down the hall. She felt a flash of anger. How dare they leave her behind?
"I'm Ino, by the way," the blonde girl was saying.
"Hi! I'm Nudge!" Nudge said immediately, beaming. Max tried not to scowl.
"Who's this?" Ino asked, turning to Iggy. Max felt her mouth twist into a snarl. Was Ino trying to flirt…?
"That's Angel," Gazzy said. "She's my sister. There's something wrong with her…"
Blondie made an apologetic face. Max wanted to gag at the fakeness of it all. Its cheesiness made Max feel lactose intolerant. Blondie put a hand on Gazzy's shoulder, and that made Max fall off the edge. That was it! The last straw! Don't touch my family! Max thought furiously, trying glare flames at Blondie. It obviously wasn't working, because she was saying comforting words to Gazzy now. Stop, stop, stop! Max ordered, to no avail. "Don't worry, we'll have Angel fixed up in no time!" Blonde smiled, tilting her head cutely.
Max rolled her eyes. She reviewed the plan in her mind, and nodded to herself. Yes, perfect, she thought. Angel gets better, then we get the heck out of here.
