I don't know how long I slept, but it was definitely what you'd call a good night's sleep. When I opened my eyes I found that no one was in the tent, and smelled something edible. When I finally brought myself to my feet, I saw a bowl of something steaming all the way in the corner. I crept up to it, and found that it was a bowl of ramen. Wonder who THAT is from…
I figured it was mine since there was no one left in the tent, but after slurping enough of my ramen to wake me up, I noticed how empty the tent looked. It was all tidy—no blankets, no bags, not one sign that life had been here. Minus the ramen and where I slept, of course. I practically dropped the bowl as I ripped open the entrance to the tent.
Gone. Nothing.
A breeze drifted through the campsite and I realized that they were gone just like that.
"Hey Kakashi-sensei, are you sure we should have left Belle-san in the forest like that?" Naruto interrogated his teacher as the ninja walked towards the town called Yumai.
"For the last time Naruto, you need to understand that she can read. The note will tell her exactly where the town is—it's even in a straight line from the tent. There's no way she'd get lost." Kakashi-sensei was very tired of reassuring his student. Luckily the town was now in sight.
"Yeah, but sensei, weren't we supposed to keep an eye on her?" Sai added in.
"Yeah, Belle-san might have been a spy or something." Naruto was still annoyed that he had to give up his ramen and was taking it out on Kakashi, since it was his idea to leave her breakfast.
"Jeez, Naruto, it was only one bowl of ramen. Your house is stocked with millions of them." Kakashi was more exhausted from answering Naruto's questions than he was when he had carried Belle. And he would have much rather been carrying Belle, but he just couldn't face her after last night. He only seemed to be doing wrong things around her. Not saying he didn't know how to apologize, but he knew from his books that the guys who apologize always get the girls. He wasn't so sure he wanted Belle-chan to cling to him…but he didn't exactly like to leave her back in the forest. It had to be done for the mission, right? She could have become a target if she stayed with them…
Kakashi didn't realize that there was a large silent gap as he thought about these things, and the quietness was broke when Sai chimed in again.
"What are you thinking about, Kakashi-sensei?" He wondered.
"Nothing, just the mission. It's been years since I've been to Yumai. It wasn't so nice back then, and from the looks of it now, I would guess it hasn't changed much." Kakashi-sensei tried to pull his mind away from Belle, but after another 10 seconds, he found himself remembering her stretch in the pond. He was temporarily lost in thought.
"Yeah, it looks pretty run down. Are some of those buildings even safe?" Sakura was looking at an old clock tower in the middle of the town that seemed to be leaning a little to its right. There were lots of little shack-like buildings on the edge of town, and towards the center the buildings got larger but no matter the size, they were all extremely old-looking.
The rest of the team waited to see if their sensei had anything to add, but he seemed to be staring at nothing in particular. Naruto was trying to stop laughing after 3 minutes of walking next to a clueless Kakashi, and Sakura was smiling too. Sai didn't know Kakashi well enough to realize that he didn't usually have that spaced-out look on his face. Naruto started to make moose antlers with his hands on both sides of the sensei's head, and Sakura finally started laughing. Sai was about to smile when the white-haired man snapped back into reality.
"What did you guys say? I didn't seem to catch that…" He started laughing a little bit, and then noticed Sakura and Naruto were laughing at something too. "What's so funny?"
"Naruto was making strange hand gestures by your face." Sai stated. "I guess it was funny."
I couldn't believe that they just left me like that. Was it even fair? I wouldn't have minded being woken up to come with them, or at least say goodbye. Not to Kakashi, that is. I knew I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye for a while.
I was lying down in the tent again and staring at the ceiling. It wasn't a bad tent, but this wasn't how I envisioned getting my replacement one. I still thought I had one more day…
I pulled my blanket higher over myself, but when I moved my right hand under the blanket, I felt the stinging of a paper cut. I jumped and pulled my hand out of the blanket to examine it.
Then I threw the covers up off me, and found a piece of paper, crumpled up from me having probably slept with it. I straightened it out and read through the message:
Hey Belle-chan,
Sorry to leave you, but hopefully you realized that this tent is now yours. We left for Yumai, which is directly north from here. It may take you a couple hours or two to reach it, but when you do we hope you find a good place to stay and/or a good job.
Have a great life.
~Naruto, Sakura, Sai, & Kakashi
P.S. Don't go asking around for us, and if you happen to bump into us, act like you've never seen us before. It's in your best interest to not get involved.
Have a great life.
Well, I guess that means that I'll never see them again.
It's probably for the best.
Not.
