Chapter Eleven
Pint-sized and- Hey! Just What are You Doing Here?
"Number fifty-six, please present your flare design now." Hinata and the others reclined on the dunes, waiting for Gaara to present his flare design. He was out there somewhere, probably a nervous wreck after seeing the competition. The current one shot up and popped in the air, glowing red as it drifted down.
"Number fifty-seven, please present your flare now," the toneless male voice said from the loud speakers. Another flare went up, but detonated prematurely, sending green sparks whizzing over the dunes. Fortunately for Hinata and the rest, they were far enough away that the danger of catching on fire was minimal. After a short interlude, the competition resumed.
"Number fifty-eight, please present your flare design now."
"Hey, what number is the midget?" Shikamaru asked Hinata.
"Sixty."
"Oh, that's not too far away-heads up!" the flare had gone flying out of control and had landed and detonated in the audience. After several minutes of mayhem, the spectators resumed their seats, albeit quite a distance further back.
"Number fifty-nine, please present your flare now." This one shot up high into the air and lit the area with a golden light that lasted longer than its predecessors.
"Number sixty; please present your flare design now," Gaara's design rocketed very high into the air and exploded with a pop; sending brilliant blue projectiles horizontal from the main flare. They lit the surrounding night with a vibrant light as they slowly drifted down. The thing must've gone on for about five or six minutes, longer than the others. Shikamaru summed it up in one word.
"Cool." Hinata and the others agreed, and it was no surprise to see him win. After his number was called up he darted everywhere excitedly and freaked out the citizens, shinobi, professors and others with lots of moving sand platforms that he hopped around on to get to Hinata.
"Yay! I won I won I won! We can remodel now! And I want a giant cookie sign out front! The biggest cookie sign ever! I won! Me! I won! Can I have a cookie? Can I can I can I can I?" Hinata smiled and nodded, and the others cracked up. The kid should have a sign around his neck that said "will work for cookies."
It was the dead of night when two dark strangers entered Suna. A giant of a man with a large sword on his back and another, shorter, slighter man walked intently to a seedy part of town.
"You mean to tell me that not only did we leave the organization, you're not even sure that we'll even get to stay here? You have absolutely no backup plan? What the hell is up with that? You always have a backup plan!"
"We had to, Kisame. Pain is mad, Madara is mad, Deidara and Sasori are dead, Zetsu is nuts, Hidan is mad, Kakuzo can't see past his numbers and figures, Orochimaru is gone…"
"Probably the most screwed up one of us all…" Kisame muttered.
"And Konan will do whatever Pain says, so she's just as bad as he is. We're the only ones left that have a decent head on our shoulders," Itachi continued on as if he hadn't been interrupted, "face it, we had to get out of there." Kisame sighed, and relented.
"Fine, but why here? What the hell do you expect to accomplish? The Kazekage is a nut who infused a fetus with the Shukaku, then pissed him off and turned him into a murdering nutcase! And Deidara was a basket case that wanted to blow up the world!"
"The Kazekage is weak, so I think we can handle him. Relax. And I was referring to Sasori when I said that part about having decent intellect. "
"One-tail was more than enough to take them out so why are we in his village? Sasori liked to turn people into puppets I might add, what is with our group and dead people? There are a lot of dead people being played with in our group, I might tell you. Orochimaru brings them back, Sasori turns them into puppets, Kakuzo takes their hearts and absorbs them, and I'm not even going to get into Pain…"
"Silence, Kisame, we're here." Itachi knocked on the door.
"A bakery? You brought us to a bakery? What for?" Itachi pointed to the sign in the window.
"You've got to be kidding me! What the-oh, uh hi there!" Gaara's sudden appearance in the doorway shut him up. Itachi cleared his throat.
"Hello, we noticed the sign on your window and that your lights were still on. We were wondering if we could submit an application."
