Rainstorm Chapter 4

*Rising Storm*

Ugh… I got a cold. The most annoying sickness, whatever you guys think. But anyways, hey guys! How's life? Good? Cool. I have a small surprise for you people… Last chapter was the perfect position for a slight skip, right? Well, this is continuing from that point. Ha. Anyways, as always, review, favorite and follow! (Reviews preferred)

The entire class stared at Yahiko. With the fear in his eyes, people could tell he was scared. No one noticed the similar looks of fear in Konan and Nagato's eyes.

"Oh crap… I forgot my lunch, too," Konan whispered to Nagato. "Tsunade kicked us out of the house before we could get it…"

Nagato, who still seemed traumatized from what happened earlier was slightly annoyed with his friends. 'I get Yahiko… he didn't see what happened, but Konan too? She didn't even ask if I was okay…' Nagato's annoyance seemed to be more noticeable than he thought; Kushina came up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You didn't forget your lunch, did you?" she said with a friendly smile.

Nagato smiled slightly. "Nope. My scatterbrained friends did though. I don't want to be around when Tsunade gets here. Lunch is in an hour, right?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing! I'm starving! Hey cousin, want to sneak out during lunch? When I first got here, they took me to this awesome ramen place that just opened!" Kushina practically whispered the last part, a mischievous grin on her face.

Nagato put a hand behind his head, laughing nervously. "Well,-"

"Deep thought for a shallow mind!" Kushina interrupted. "Okay, continue."

Nagato stuttered momentarily, but regained his train of thought. "I don't have any money."

"Oh…" Kushina muttered, "Well,-"

Nagato saw his chance and interrupted, "Deep thought for a shallow mind, cousin," he said quietly.

Nagato instinctively backed away when Kushina loomed over him, red hair flying behind her. "What did you say?" she asked menacingly.

"Nothing!" he corrected himself.

"That's better. What I was going to say, is that plan is screwed. I was planning on using your money!"

Nagato sweatdropped. She was mooching off of him? He shrugged to himself. "Oh well. Class is starting, we should sit down." Together they sat in their old spots, followed by a very nervous looking Konan and Yahiko.

An hour later, something unforgettable happened. Right as the instructor dismissed them for lunch, the door was kicked open, and a familiar blonde woman walked through the door…

"Hi kids!" Tsunade yelled, drawing out the 'kids' in a singsong, obnoxious-motherly voice. "You forgot your luuuunches!" she sang, strutting over to Yahiko and Konan, whose faces were already beet red.

Luckily, Nagato knew enough about how Tsunade acted to get him and Kushina away from the targets in time. Tsunade ruffled Konan and Yahiko's hair, and began the real embarrassment.

"Everyone says breakfast is the most important meal, but I know better! You need your midday sustenance! So, Konan, if you want to be a fit woman, you need your vegetables! So, in your lunch I packed a raw salad, without dressing, just how you like it!" That was a lie. Konan hated vegetables in general. "I was looking through what I packed you earlier, but I was astonished! I had packed you a cookie! What was I thinking!" Konan's already depressed demeanor took the form of absolute despair, and she let her head fall to her desk, a near invisible tear falling from her face.

"Yahiko, I'm surprised at you! You thought you could fool me? I saw what you did! You replaced my healthy meal with ramen! RAMEN! Did you think I was so foolish that you could get by with that? NO! So, instead of that, you get tofu! It's nutritious, you know? You'll love it!"

After dropping two pink bento boxes in front of the embarrassed children, she left quickly, leaving a red Yahiko and a sniveling Konan in her wake. Once outside the classroom, Tsunade laughed and walked up to Dan. The man tried to keep himself from laughing, but let a small giggle escape.

"Oh, Dan, that was great! I would have never thought of that!" Tsunade said between laughs.

"Oh no, my dear, the acting was superb! I couldn't have pulled it off without you!"

Together, the couple left the Academy hand in hand.

Meanwhile, the classroom was quiet, until someone laughed. Then another. And another. Suddenly, the whole class was laughing at the two orphans' expense. This is where Nagato and Kushina came in. Kushina came by and helped Konan, while Nagato took Yahiko, and they escorted them outside.

"I never knew… she could be so cruel," Konan muttered, face completely blank, before contorting into grief. "SHE DEPRIVED ME OF A COOKIE! DO YOU KNOW HOW BAD THAT IS?!"

"Are you kidding, Konan? Now we're the laughing stock of the class!" Both Kushina and Nagato winced at this, unbeknownst to Yahiko. "They're gonna pick on us all year!"

Kushina led them to a tree with a swing on it, farther away from the other kids. Nagato sat on the swing, while Kushina and Yahiko both claimed a tree branch, and Konan sat on the ground against the tree. The lunch-forgetters took forced bite after forced bite of their 'healthy' lunches.

Nagato opened his lunch to find a letter, along with some interesting food items. It was a small note, reading:

Dear Nagato,

I know you're probably going to be the only one who remembers their lunch, so you can decide what you do with these! If you eat them, make sure it's in front of Konan and Yahiko!

Tsunade.

Inside was a cookie and a cup of ramen. There were other food items, of course, but Nagato suddenly had an evil idea.

"Hey Kushina? Catch!" Nagato slowly tossed the ramen cup to the girl, who caught it with glee and thanked him. He took the cookie for himself, and right as he was about to take a bite, he felt something sharp against his neck.

Konan looked down at him, a piece of paper right next to his neck and multiple paper shuriken ready. "Don't. Eat. My. Cookie."

Nagato smirked, knowing she wouldn't actually hurt him, and then popped the entire cookie into his mouth. Konan was right. Cookies were great! Unfortunately, one cookie came at a great price… Nagato's lunch box fell to the ground in pieces, his other food going everywhere, and numerous paper shuriken lodged in the ground.

"Hey! Konan, that wasn't nice!" Nagato whined.

"Yeah, well get over it. You started it."

"The cookie was in my lunch! It's wasn't yours!"

"You fight over the pettiest things…" Kushina moaned, and then gasped as Yahiko made his move, swiping her cup of ramen. Kushina sat gaping for a moment, and then jumped on Yahiko, tackling him off the tree, and landing on Nagato's leg, who winced in pain. She brought her face mere inches from Yahiko's. "That wasn't a very good idea, Yahiko," she hissed, "I'll give you three seconds to rethink your decision. "

Yahiko returned her glare with stubborn eyes. "Oh yeah? I don't need three seconds to know this ramen is mine!"

"Wrong answer!" Kushina yelled and brought her fist down, only to have it caught by someone else.

"It seems everyone but the other redhead is itching for a fight," the newcomer girl said. She was about their height, with rough brown hair and two red tattoos under her eyes. She wore a light grey coat with the hood down, and long dark grey pants. "I'm all for a good fight myself, but save it for sparring. That happens at the end of the week; wouldn't want you all beat up before then."

Kushina and Yahiko glared at each other for a few more seconds, and then Kushina got off of him and walked away with her arms folded. No one noticed the cup of ramen she had hidden between her arms…

"Excuse me, who are you?" Konan asked as she helped Yahiko to his feet. Apparently, being tackled from a tree could hurt even Yahiko. Nagato

"Tsume Inuzuka's the name. I would introduce you to my partner, but he's gone and got himself sick…" she said, then smirked at them, showing a large pair of canines. "Oh well. You still have a few days; he'll be better by then. Now, tell me about yourselves. I love a good story."

Kushina seemed to judge the girl momentarily. "Okay. I'll tell you what I know, and it isn't much. My family sent me here on my own, I'm supposed to meet this old lady named Mito in a few weeks. That's all I got," she finished, shrugging.

"Interesting… What about you three? You smell strong…" Tsume said with her eyes glinting dangerously.

"What do you mean, smell?" Konan asked, seemingly over the cookie incident.

"It's for Inuzuka clan members to know and you not to. Now, stories. Speak," she commanded.

"We're all orphans from Amegakure. What else is there to know?" Yahiko stared at the girl with suspicion.

"Well, for one, tell me why you smell like frogs and blood."

The three orphans straightened. Nagato suddenly found the ground very appealing, a thought that was seconded by Konan, and Yahiko looked away with a scowl.

"Amegakure isn't the nicest place," Nagato muttered.

"Yeah, I figured that much. Now, the frog smell?" the Inuzuka just kept asking questions, disregarding their apprehension.

"That's probably from Jiraiya-sensei," Konan replied, "He helped us learn to fend for ourselves… then Hanzo found us."

"Ah. Interesting… I didn't think the town pervert trained you guys. I thought he was just on another research mission. Given, it did last longer than one of those trips," Tsume muttered.

Konan looked at the girl with confusion. "What do you mean by 'one of those trips?'"

"You know, when he-" Tsume stopped talking when she noticed Nagato and Yahiko, who were both making 'shut up' signs from behind Konan. She smirked and gave a slight nod, before continuing, "goes and studies wildlife! I always thought they were stupid trips…"

There was the sound of a bell ringing, and Tsume perked up. "Aww… class starts already? That's too bad. I'll see you guys after school; I have a different teacher than you. You are so unlucky… the class you got is horrible! They're all idiots who probably won't even make shinobi… Well, that Minato kid might, if he stops wussing out." Tsume turned and jogged back to the school building and disappeared from sight.

"So, we got the bad class…" Kushina said under her breath, "Yay…"

"Oh well," Nagato said to her, "Guess it can't be helped. We'll just have to deal with it."

And deal with it they did. As soon as they got into class, they were divided into groups of four to plan mock strategies.. None of them were on the same team, leaving Kushina and Nagato to deal with the torment by themselves.

"Hey, Tomato 2, Ryuu said you had demon eyes! Let me see them!"

Nagato shook his head and replied politely. "No, I'm sorry. My eyes aren't demon eyes. They're just eyes."

"Kid, I said let me see them!" the tormentor threatened, backed up by the nods of the other two.

"I'd rather you didn't…" Nagato muttered, trying to defuse whatever kind of situation this was.

"Yeah? Well I'd rather you did, Tomato! Let me see them!" the boy reached for Nagato's hair, trying to pull it out of the way, but Nagato moved back to dodge him.

"Can't we just work on the project?" Nagato asked, dodging another grab.

"Not until I see your eyes, demon! Hold him still, guys!" The other two members moved forward to hold Nagato still, but didn't need to. Nagato just stood in shock.

'Demon? My eyes make me a demon? There isn't anything wrong with my eyes! They're just different!' Nagato thought, anxious and angry and scared at the same time. The lead boy grabbed Nagato's hair forcefully, and pulled it aside roughly, making Nagato wince and close his eyes.

"Open your eyes, Tomato 2! C'mon! We just want to see the demon eyes!" The boy pulled Nagato's hair more, making his thought process go elsewhere. 'How is the instructor not seeing this? This is a small room! It can't be that hard to see!'

"Let go of me…" Nagato muttered, his eyes still forced closed from the pain.

"Let me see your eyes, first!" the boy replied, pulling harder.

"Stop it…" Nagato said, on the verge of tears.

"Just show me the eyes, demon boy!"

Something snapped in Nagato at the word 'demon.' His fear turned into anger, and he did as he was told. He opened his eyes.

There was something that sounded like a sonic boom, and a sphere of wind formed around Nagato for a split second. The three boys were thrown off of him, each hitting a separate wall, the leader taking a piece of Nagato's red hair with him. Nagato stood in the center of a small, perfectly rounded crater, panting. A small streak of blood dripped down from his scalp where his hair was torn off, and his left eye was visible. At first Nagato looked slightly scared, but his resolve hardened as the boys slid down their respective wall, slumped in unconsciousness.

Then he noticed the entire class staring at him. Suddenly he felt a lot weaker, and couldn't catch himself as he began falling down. Before he hit the ground, however, he saw a flash of yellow hair, and was being softly supported by the blonde he had noticed earlier. As Nagato looked behind himself, he was there was already a paper stretcher behind him, so he would've been caught by Konan otherwise. Yahiko was hallway across the room by the time the blonde caught him, and Kushina was close behind him.

The blonde looked into Nagato's purple eyes with his blue eyes and smiled. "That would've been a nasty spill. Are you okay, friend?" the blonde's eyes suddenly widened as if he remembered something. "Oh, right, we haven't met. I'm Minato Namikaze, and I will be the next Hokage, one that everyone will respect." Minato then put Nagato down on Konan's stretcher, and Yahiko and Kushina made it to him.

"Oh man, Nagato that was awesome! You need to show me how to do that!" Yahiko said enthusiastically.

Kushina was a bit more caring, but not by much. "That was pretty cool, I must admit. You seem tired, though. You should rest."

Konan came up to him as well. "Nagato, are you okay!? That was a crazy jutsu, are you hurt?! This is only the first day of school and you're already hurting yourself…"

Nagato smiled slightly, but even that small effort took more out of him. In fact, the room was darkening… Why was he so tired all of a sudden? It didn't matter… Nagato fell into unconsciousness with a smile on his face.

Author's Notes: So, how'd I do? I think this chapter went well. If there's anything you see, feel free to tell me! I must know what I do wrong! Anyways- ACHOO!- I'm gonna go sleep now. As always, review, favorite and follow!

Nayod