a/n chapters will NEVER look right without an authors note, I am tellign you! THAT is why I continuously put these on here, even when I have NOTHING to say!! I hope you enjoy the chapter! HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!! which is, in fact, a holiday but it's the one I celebrate so I have to make sure to say it...
Cherry Blossom Kiss
Chapter Two-Three New Acquaintances
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"It was no problem. After all, it's our job. Being Ninjas and all..." The girl grinned, putting a hand behind her head. She looked tired--I could tell no matter how hard she pretended to be perfectly fine.
I nodded slowly as an awkward silence took over. Looking down at the ground, I furrowed my eyebrows. "They aren't...dead...are they?" I asked slowly, looking back up at the three ninjas.
"No...Theyre just unconscious...I think..." The girl seemed to be the only one interested in talking to me. With a quick smile directed towards me, she eyed all the bandits carefully; I followed her gaze. One had some sort of weapon sticking out of his back. The blood surrounded the wound was thick. I shuddered.
"Well...that one might be dead..." she said sheepishly. I shuddered at the thought. I hated death, especially the gruesome ones such as that one bandit's.
"I should probably head off...I was supposed to meet my friend..." I mumbled. The girl ninjas didn't seem to hear me though, or just pretended to not because, as I started to walk off, she gently grabbed my elbow.
"Why don't you come with us? To get all bandaged and stuff..." Her voice trailed off, but she never lost her eye contact with me.
"Umm..."was all I got out; she took this as a yes and, somehow gathering a ton of energy, grabbed my elbow again--much more forcefully.
"Come on you two! We need to get to the waterfall!" The girl called over her shoulder at the two boys who just watched. The bobbed-boy was the first to take after his teammate, jumping up into a tree, getting far ahead.
"Hope you aren't afraid of heights!" the girl said good-naturedly, tightening her grip on my arm as she too jumped up into the trees.
Everything passed by in a blur as I was dragged along after the girl. Even though I am sure she was slowing herself somewhat because she had another person to carry along, she was still going awfully fast. I felt sick watching everything pass, and soon squeezed my eyes shut.
"You okay back there?" she shouted over the roar of the wind that was created as she jumped from branch to branch.
I grunted loudly in response, afraid to open my mouth.
"Well, hold on! We're almost there!"
She wasn't lying. Soon I felt a drop and then, my feet slapped against a solid that felt nothing like the tree bark I had gotten used to. The ninjas released my elbow, allowing the normal blood flow to continue. I stumbled a little, not feeling the support of another being anymore, but after stomping a foot on the ground, confirming it was truly there, I felt better.
"You can open your eyes, you know..." The girl laughed a little; I blushed, my eyes fluttering open. It took a while to adjust to the bright light. It was so much different from the shade in the forest, and then the complete darkness of the back of my eyelids.
We were at a waterfall. Not much else was there besides shrubs. To my right there was the edge of the forest I had just exited. Hesitantly, I walked towards the water, dipping my scratched up hands in it.
"Hey, you! Get over here so I can bandage up your wounds as much as possible!"
I looked over my shoulder, blinking at her. "No, it's okay. It's only a few scratches. You three have it much worse. After all, you were the ones fighting. I just got marked up by a stupid thorn bush..." I laughed lightly as a way to cover up my embarrassment.
The brown-haired-boy snorted from where he crouched at the water's bank. I looked over at him, and frowned.
"Come on over here!!" The girl shouted. I nodded a little, watching the boy as I walked over to where the frighteningly energetic girl sat.
"Don't mind Neji. It's just how he is." Obviously she had heard the snort as well. "Hang on a minute, okay?"
The brown haired girl jumped down from the rock and walked over to a bush, where she pulled out a bag. As she walked towards me, she rummaged through the sack, eyebrows knitting together.
"There doesn't seem to be too much left. Lee! Have you been using this after your private training with Gai-sensei?" The girl's eyes narrowed as she looked over at the bobbed hair boy.
Her teammate shook his head in reply, not even bothering to look over.
She sighed, taking her seat beside me on the rock once more. "There won't be enough to treat Neji, Lee, you, and me..."
"Please, don't waste it on me. You three look pretty beaten. I've had worse than this--seriously."
She sighed. "Yes, and we'd be less injured if a certain someone would have just used his techniques!" she said loudly, her eyes throwing daggers at the back of the one called Neji's head.
A breath of air escaped his mouth "It just would have been a waste, using it on those pitiful, weak, men," he replied as he straightened himself; his head was slightly turned, and he watched the female ninja and I with his pale eyes.
"Still, it would have saved us all a lot of trouble--and energy. You're supposed to be a genius, right?" She seemed to be getting angry. I looked over at her curiously, remaining silent. The way she looked at Neji...it wasn't just anger and frustration.
Looking into the depths of her brown eyes, I saw admiration, heavy, heavy admiration.
"Tenten..." he said in a low voice. It wasn't soft, nor was it gentle, just quiet. "You know I do not waste energy on weak people like those bandits. Now drop it."
The girl immediately fell quiet, head dropping towards her lap; she seemed to be ashamed of herself.
"Sumimasen, Neji-kun..." she whispered.
Tenten emptied the remains of what was in the bag onto the rock and began splitting it all up after seeing who was injured where and guessing on how badly. She glanced over at me a few times, as if making sure I didn't need any, but soon brought her attention back to what she was doing.
I watched her for a few moments, and then looked towards the forest. Only I didn't really see the forest; Lee stood next to the rock where I sat, smiling a little.
"I suspect you have learned all of our names, but we never got to know yours," he said cheerfully.
Still a little startled by his sudden appearance beside me, it took me a little while to answer--my mouth just opened and closed like a fish. Once I finally managed to make a noise, it was a stutter. "E-Emi..."
"It's a pleasure meeting you, Emi," Lee said, smiling.
"Oh! Yes..." I looked towards the ground, not knowing what to say.
"Lee! Stop it! You're making her nervous!" Tenten hissed. "Now get over here so I can bandage you!"
Demanding, isn't she? I thought laughingly. I hid my smile behind one hand; apparently that was the wrong move to make, because Lee and Tenten looked over, concerned.
"Are you okay? You arent going to throw up--are you?" Tenten inquired nervously, abandoning the wrapping up of Lee's hand.
"Nani? Oh. No, no! If I was going to do that, I would have done it way back when we were hopping from tree to tree."
Tenten nodded understandingly and picked up the bandages again, continuing to wrap up Lee's hand. I thought it was already bandaged, but, looking at it, I guessed he always wore those. Plus, something had torn through that and made a gash.
"I should probably go. The sun's starting to set, and I still haven't gone to go pick up Cho from the school. It's very likely that she'll be upset..."
I hopped off the rock, onto the dirt covered ground, and began to walk away; abruptly, I stopped. "You aren't gonna try and stop me now, are you, Tenten?" Looking over my shoulder, I grinned a nice, big grin.
Tenten watched me curiously before smiling a little, shaking her head. "You need to go, so...go ahead. I'm sure I'll see you around town, now that I know you...Emi."
I nodded, and set off at a run. If only I knew where I was, then it would be easier to get to where I needed to be. But since I hadn't the slightest idea where I was, I was just going to have to run around for a while until I found Cho's house.
I was already tired from the past events of the day--yeah, I'm pretty weak--but I ran anyway. I weaved in and out of the crowds of people, barely pausing to say 'excuse me' or 'sorry'.
It didn't take as long to get there as I had expected. The sky was completely orange when I did though--not unlike Naruto's jumpsuit.
"Cho! Cho, I'm sooo sorry!" I exclaimed, running up to her house and straight onto the steps of her house.
Cho sat on the bench of her porch, staring up towards the sky when I got there. As she looked back down to earth, she blinked as if just coming back from a dream world.
"Oh! Hi, Emi!"
"Hi." I smiled and took a deep breath. "I promise I'll explain everything to you! Just...can I wait a little bit? I'm still getting over it..."
"What? Oh...sure."
Well she certainly is talkative today.. I thought sarcastically, smirking a little to myself. I wonder what she was thinking about...Shikamaru, perhaps? Inside of myself, I snickered, but soon discarded the thought. She would be blushing furiously and would look as if she wanted to slap herself if she had been thinking of him. Maybe she didn't realize how she acted when thinking or speaking of him That's probably why she can deny so persistently that she doens't have a thing for him...
"Thanks, Cho." I looked over my shoulder and then up at the sky. "Wanna go for a walk? You know...to make up for not coming to pick you up." As I spoke, I suddenly realized that my whole body was shaking.
Still? I hope it's no longer from fright, because that would just be ridiculous. I paused. Though it was really scary back there, me not being a ninja and all...
"If you think you're that important, then fine. I'll come."
Jokingly, I pondered on this for a moment before coming up with my answer and grinning as I nodded. "Yeah, I do think I'm that important."
Cho shrugged. "Well then I suppose I'm going since I'm bound to my word, after all."
"Good, because--you know what? Let's stop that now."
"Thank you! I've been waiting for you to say that!!" Cho exclaimed in an exasperated way as she twisted the doorknob of her front door.
"Mom! I'm going out with Emi, alright?" she called inside.
I smiled a little, looking down at my lavender skirt, torn up and filthy, as I waited to hear Mrs. Shirogane's approval.
It was a faint noise, but it was there. Cho turned to me, and then we left.
I pretended not to be sore or trembling as we headed off together on our walk.
Talking all the while, we walked around a couple blocks before turning a corner that would lead us back to the one we lived on. Going this direction, we walked alongside a river's path. It was 2 feet below the land we walked on, but every once and a while you would see a set of stairs that led down to its banks.
It was routine for Cho and I to go down one of those sets of stairs and take a seat on a bench. It was no different this time. The both of us turned to a staircase and, the moonlight our guide, jumped two steps at a time.
I felt as if I was going to totter over--which only reminded me further of how weak I am--but somehow managed to keep my balance.
"We shouldn't stay too long. It's dark and I see rain clouds..." I said, looking up at the sky. "Plus my mom and dad only got a glimpse of me after school. They're probably worried sick."
"There you go, acting all important again," Cho joked.
I playfully punches the unsuspecting Cho in the arm; she stumbled to the side, tripped over her own feet, and almost fell in the slowly moving river. I quickly took a step to the side and snatched her wrist, pulling her back next to me, farther away from the river.
"Next time I won't catch you. I'll let you fall into the nice, cold water and run away."
"Gee, thanks. You're so kind. No wonder you're my friend," Cho replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes; I grinned widely.
"Now let's go find a bench, okay? I can't believe we haven't passed one yet," I said; As we continued to walk, I looked from side to side, searching for one.
"Oh we just did. Right by the staircase we came down. I assumed you wanted to walk for a bit down here." Cho looked over her shoulder and pointed back to where we came down.
"Cho!! Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I just told you--I thought you wanted to walk for a bit down here!"
I sighed. "Well there's no point in going back now--we'll just be taking up more time. Come on, I think I see one up ahead."
Cho and I started walking again, after pausing when Cho informed me of the bench we passed earlier; with each step, the shape I recognized as a bench got larger and larger, and more distinguishable.
Come on bench!! Come on! My feet are killing me--I need somewhere to sit! Grr...why did I even suggest a walk?! Stupid Emi! Stupid! I screamed inside me head. I knew the answer to my question though--I enjoyed spending time with Cho. She Was my best friend, after all.
"Hey Emi...I have some news for you."
I stopped walking, an eager expression taking over my features. "Tell me, tell me, tell me! After all, as you say, nothing exciting ever happens at private school. But you go to a Ninja school so..."
"Well..." Cho began, but stopped short.
I watched her for a moment, curious, before deciding to nag her. "Well? Well what? COME ON CHO!!! I'M DYING HERE!!"
"It appears that you were right about Shikamaru..."
There she goes again, blushing and all...does she really not notice?!
I grew even more eager. "What happened?!" I exclaimed, practically jumping up and down.
"He um...well...he asked me out," she finally choked out. I discreetly watched her for a moment before doing something expected of me--
I went goggly eyed for a moment before she let out a shriek of delight. "Oh I knew it!!! I knew what he told me that day in the hospital wasn't the truth!!" Suddenly my eyes narrowed and I looked at her suspiciously--so that she noticed this time. "You said yes, right. I mean, you like him, too so..." Maybe she'll FINALLY figure it out...though I doubt it. She seems pretty set on not liking him. Oh how can she not know?!?
"Okay, first of all--I don't like him. And secondly, no I didn't say yes."
"What?! Why not?!" Well DUH I didnt actually expect her to say yes--well not COMPLETELY--she's Cho after all. STUBBORN. Especially on this subject...
"...because he didn't ask me..." Cho grinned sheepishly as she said it.
Well I wasn't expecting that...
My jaw dropped and I glared viciously at her. "Why would you even joke like that?!" I gave her a hard shove, sending my best friend flying; with a splash she landed in the cold river.
Ever true to my word, I ran off. But before doing that, since I felt guilty and was a kind spirit, I told Cho I was sorry and that I loved her.
So through the darkness I made my way back home, where I was much awaited.
a/n did any of the readers of Butterfly Prophecy recognize that scene? actually, I haven't posted that chapter yet...DARN IT!!! and I wrote it before this one, too! oh well, what's done is done. so if anyone who also reads BP read this um...that scene is in BP chapter...ten or eleven. Can't remember, but I'll be posting it today so...you know...yeah! anyway! hope you enjoyed:)