Journey to the Land of Lightening
Chapter 11
It was quarter till two and together, Kankuro and Mikkay were on their way to town hall. Mikkay had told him before they left that it wasn't far from the ramen shop, so they didn't have to leave too much earlier than needed. During the entire walk, she was feeling a little nervous. It wasn't because of the ceremony, as would be expected. She was by far too used to doing these ceremonies. What did have her nervous, though, was that today she would do her plan that will tell her whether or not Kankuro had the same feelings for her that she just discovered that she had for him.
"So, um, Kankuro?" she said.
"Yeah?" he asked, turning to her.
"You don't have to wait up for me after the ceremony," she told him. "I'll be going out right after."
"Oh?" he said, eyebrow rose. "With who?"
"Well, yesterday while I was out with Keiko," she explained, "I met this guy named Jun and he asked if I would like to see him after the ceremony and I told him that I would."
Kankuro gave her a wary look, but then shrugged. "Okay," he said. "I'll see you back at the apartment, then. We'll be leaving tomorrow since you have that…date, or whatever it is."
"I guess you could call it a date," she said.
"Start packing after you get back, okay?"
She nodded. "Okay, I will."
They walked up the stairs of town hall, having arrived, and went to where the guards in front said the Daimyo would be. They were told that he would be in the Grande Hall of the town hall – don't know why they felt the need to have one of those, but whatever. Regardless, they arrived and were greeted well.
"Hello, Daimyo-sama," Mikkay greeted him as both she and Kankuro bowed, showing their respects. "Did you find anything in the document that you were not pleased with?"
"Actually," he said, sounding very pleased, "I did not. Kazekage-sama did well in the making of this treaty. Send him my respects when you get back to your fine country."
Mikkay smiled. "Will do, Daimyo-sama."
The group spent the duration of the rest of the hour before the ceremony started talking about the economies of both the Sand and the Cloud. At three, they went outside to the Grande Patio – there were a lot of "Grande" things in this hall, it would appear. Once they were on the Grande Patio, they saw that there was a rather large group standing out at the base to witness this. There were a lot of speeches that went on. First there was a speech about the relationship between the two countries before. There was also a speech about the future. Also, there was a speech about how they should take this time to appreciate all that they had. They also talked about both countries for a while.
Basically, it was a long ceremony. Mikkay had to wait a while before she could co-sign the document with the Daimyo. While she waited, she peered into the crowd. She could see Keiko standing in the front of the crowd. That made her smile. She also saw that Jun was with her, and he was looking right at her. Seeing Jun, Mikkay started thinking about her plan. She then started to think about Kankuro. She hoped this worked out well, or she knew she would just be making a fool of herself, and no one ever wanted that.
Finally, it was her turn to present. She gave a speech, saying that she was glad the two countries can finally come together. Her speech wasn't as long as the others, but it still got the job done. She then signed the document underneath Gaara's name. The Daimyo took his turn and then signed his name next to where Gaara's name was. The ceremony was now over. Everyone clapped and then began to scatter.
Mikkay said her respects to the Daimyo and then she was permitted to leave. She went over to where Kankuro was standing, which was in the back – he had to stay in the back with the guards since he was technically the guard of Mikkay.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey," he said back. "Good job."
"Thanks," she smiled.
"You heading out to go on your date now?" he asked her.
"Yeah," she nodded. "I'll see you back at the apartments, okay? You don't have to wait up."
"Okay," he said. "Try to not be too long, all right?"
"I will."
"Bye," he said rather sadly. "I'll see you when you get back."
"Bye." Mikkay went to leave, but then stopped. Hesitantly, she turned back around and hugged him. He stiffed slightly, probably because he was shocked. He was still shocked when she pulled away and smiled at him. "I'll see you later."
With that, she ran off. She was blushing from both jogging down the stairs and her hugging Kankuro. She just thought that she would hug him. She really wanted to, so she did. The girl thought it was funny how he was shocked when she hugged him. It made her giggle. He was just so cute.
It was late when the ceremony stopped, and when she checked her watch as she approached the ramen shop she saw that it was about 7:15.
Damn, that was a long ceremony. That man can talk!
Jun was waiting outside the shop for her when she arrived. She hoped that she was appropriately dressed, because Jun seemed to look semi-formally dressed. She wondered where he could be taking her on this date.
"Hey," he said. "You looked good up there tonight."
"Thanks," she smiled. "I saw you there. In the crowd."
"Nice," he said. "So are you hungry?"
"Starved," she told him. "Where are we going? The ramen shop?"
"No. We're going somewhere just a tad bit fancier. Follow me."
Together they walked through the town. She followed behind him slightly the entire time because she had no idea where this guy was taking her. It was a long walk, and he didn't say a thing to her. She was feeling sort of uncomfortable. This wasn't much of a date yet.
They got to this semi-formal place called Cha-Cha's. They already had a table reserved for them, Jun explained, because he had called while he waited for her to arrive at the ramen shop earlier. Cha-Cha's had good food, but you didn't have to be dressed a certain way to get in. Good thing, too, because otherwise Mikkay would have had to go back to the apartments and changed, and Jun knew she probably wouldn't have done that – and she didn't so he was right.
The dinner lasted about an hour and a half. The food was freaking delicious, she thought. The only thing that really bothered her was the awkward silence that passed between the two of them. They didn't really talk about anything. When they did talk about something, it was about Jun. He didn't really seem interested in getting to know here. It was annoying. It was early on in the date and she was already very much convinced that she did not like the guy. He didn't even compare with Kankuro. It was a waste of her time, but she still had to get Kankuro jealous, so she persevered.
After the dinner, Jun took Mikkay to the shopping district. They spend the better part of two hours going through shops. Mikkay liked looking at clothes, jewelry, books, etc. That she found fun. Though, the entire time that she was with Jun, she was thinking about how she and Kankuro did this in that other small village that was off of the Land of Rice Patties. It was way more fun when she was with Kankuro. Not only did he buy her things that she wanted – which made her smile like a silly school girl – but she also liked him way more than she liked Jun. Jun was okay, but Kankuro was amazing.
At 10:30, Mikkay wanted to go back to the apartments. The date had lasted about three hours, and she was done. She wanted to get back and see Kankuro. That would make this night so much better.
"I had a wonderful time, Jun," she told the boy. "Thanks for showing me a good time."
"No problem," he said.
"Maybe I'll see you around. Until then, goodbye."
Mikkay turned to leave. She knew which way she had to go in order to return to the apartment. It hadn't been a week, but she had been walking around so much that she was beginning to remember her way around his town. As she was walking away, she felt a hand grab onto her wrist and pull her back. She gasped. "Jun?" she said. "What's going on? Let me go."
Suddenly, she felt a cold object press against her neck. She gasped. Was that a kunai? Oh, no. This definitely was not good. Why the heck was Jun pressing a kunai against her cheek? Was he a ninja or something? What did she do wrong? What's going on?
"You know," he said, "I never wanted to ever meet one of you Sunan scum. I most definitely didn't want to ever be in an alliance with your damn country. Your country is worse than dirt, and so are your people. I always hated Suna. Ever since you killed my family in an ambush, I knew that Sunan people were no fucking good. I'm going to get you back. I'm going to kill you and your Kazekage will never know about the treaty being signed. You'll die and a messenger bird will be sent back with the wrong document. No one will ever know a thing."
"I'm sorry, Jun," she said. "I'm sorry someone from my country killed your people – your family. That doesn't mean you have to get even by killing me, though. It wasn't personally against you, I promise. I know how it is for your parents to be killed in a mission – mine were, too. It's okay."
"Stop fucking talking," he threatened, pressing the kunai against her cheek more. "I'm going to kill you. You're going to die tonight, Mikkay."
Her mind was going a mile a minute. She gasped as she felt a sharp pain in her cheek and something warm run down it. Was that her blood? Oh, no. God, why did this have to happen to her? She had to be dumb and agree to go out with this guy. What a smart idea – not.
She was so scared. She needed some help.
"Kankuro!"
