"Donauquell, dein Anderlass, wo Trost und Leid zerfliessen~" Happy March :)
...Chapter fourteen :)
X X X X
"Have you ever considered painting your face?"
Kankuro looked back at the strange boy who'd been following them like a lost puppy, only much less cute. "And why would I paint my face?" He asked wearily, expecting yet another needlessly rude answer. The guy had literally come out of nowhere, just as the three of them had started to walk Hinata back into the school.
"Well," The boy began, as if it were very obvious. "Your face." He could see Temari grinning as she helped the pale girl sit up so that the nurse's assistant could take her temperature. "It's hideous."
"I've been telling him for years!" She chimed in. "He really needs to get that checked out." One person seemed to be enjoying Sai's company at least.
"Hey shut up Temari." Kankuro turned back to Sai with a sarcastic smile. "You know, you might want to take your own advice- maybe dare to venture out into the sun once in a while."
"I have sensitive sk-"
"Good news! Your temperature's normal," Sakura, paying no attention to their conversation, clapped her hands in congratulations and held out the thermometer for proof, almost dropping it. "Whoops," she giggled before continuing in a slightly more serious tone. "It was probably just a little dizzy spell- someone came in like that last week." She patted Hinata's shoulder for emphasis.
Sai stared at her, annoyed at being interrupted. "Old hags shouldn't talk so much, it draws attention to their appearance."
Sakura looked around as if just noticing him. "Uh, excuse me? Trying to take care of a sick person here-"
"'Trying' being the operative word. Keep your day job, you're terrible at pretending to be a nurse."
Temari mouthed the word 'burn' to the semi-conscious Hinata but Sakura was too busy glaring acidly at Sai to notice. "For your information, I am practically a nurse- like for all intents and purposes. I've seen the inside of an OR room more times than the real one!"
"So you admit that you're a fake?"
Sakura looked as if she might strange him. "Shouldn't you be off hiding in a closet somewhere?"
"You might take your own advice, do the world a favour."
"Hey, that's what I said!" Kankuro looked offended that Sai would try and pass off a comeback he'd said less than two minutes ago as his own, but quailed when Sakura turned her anger on him instead.
"You!"
"No, I meant the 'take your own'-"
"Out! Get out! My patient needs rest, get out now or I'm calling the school police!"
Kankuro muttered something about the school not even having its own police squad, but followed Sai to the door anyway. He didn't notice that Temari wasn't with them until the door slammed shut and he was watching the two girls talking animatedly over Hinata, who seemed to be trying to say something. Pfft. Women. Well that was fine, he preferred hanging out with guys anyway.
"Now what?" Sai asked amusedly, leaning against the wall.
Not with him...
/POV/
"To the left- no, no, your other left!" God, did no one understand basic directions in this place?
Deidara glared at him fiercely, but one look from Pain made him bite back a colourful retort.
I saw that... Sasuke had to stop himself from rolling his eyes in exasperation. The girlish blond boy (honestly, long hair did not suit him, it just made it look like he was trying to hard, which Sasuke totally knew he was) had done his best to be a nuissance from the moment he'd arrived in the Uchiha-Sabaku dorm, first complaining that the desk fragments were heavy, then that they were cutting him with their sharp edges, and now he couldn't even navigate himself through a simple door.
"Hold it up more, you're going to drop it!" Sasuke scolded, much as he'd been forced to do several times before. The sickly, blue-looking boy opposite the blond made a face but still shifted the weight in his hands, trying to get a better grip. Sasuke couldn't decide whether this one was depressed or just moody.
"Argh! FU-" Deidara swore angrily, pulling his foot out from where the desk had fallen on it. "-cking watch what you're doin'! yeah."
"I did tell you..." Sasuke muttered under his breath, not quite loud enough for the other boys to hear him. He wasn't suicidal.
"Yo, carry it better, would you? I'm doin' all the work over he-"
Perhaps just moody then- depressed people generally didn't have enough energy to bare their sharp little teeth like that. The image of a Great White shark rose unbidden to Sasuke's mind and he had to suppress a smirk.
"Me? yeah- no, I mean, it wasn't my fault!"
"Uh, 'yeah', it was. Pick it up already." Kisame nodded at what was left of the polished wood surface. "-it, we been doin' this for long enough."
They certainly had, Sasuke silently agreed. It had been a good thirty minutes of slow progress since the delinquents had arrived to carry away the evidence. This on top of the additional fifteen minutes it had taken Sasuke to negotiate a price had Sasuke wondering nervously when Gaara would be back. He really had no explanation as to why the dregs of the school were making off the mangled remains of the other boy's writing desk, however much he'd tried to come up with one.
/POV/
"How strange and unprecedented!" Danzo exclaimed to no one in particular.
After a beat of relative silence, Kakashi reluctantly asked what he meant by that. Chatter had died down during the second course but more than trying to include the lonely old man in the conversation, he wanted Kurenai and Asuma to stop accidentally playing footsie with him. Maybe a little crazy talk would distract them...
"Why my dear fellow colleague," Danzo breathed, clutching at Kakshi's arm to the genuine surprise of the other diners, as it was well known within the office that Danzo criticized the silver-haired man under his breath at every possible opportunity, even suggesting that there be a financial penalty for those who regularly arrived to their respective classes late, a group of which Kakashi was the only member. "That our good principal has not come to share in the festivities!"
Shizune stole another covert glance at the door. She'd known it to be only a matter of time before someone pointed out Tsunade's absence, but had been dreading it still. She knew her concern over Tonton would have to wait for dinner to be over, but if the principal had been there, perhaps she could have skipped out early to continue her search. For now she would just have to assume that the little piggy was safe somewhere to prevent herself going crazy.
"Oh, I'm sorry- I thought everyone knew." Shizune explained non-chalantly, praying that the other teachers and especially the board members would believe her. "She has an important engagement this evening- sympathetic personal reasons." She looked around the table innocently, noting that many of the other diners seemed to want to pretend that they had known about this all along.
"Bu- What?" Danzo spluttered- litterally spluttered his drink all over the tablecloth in front of him. "Tsunade is where, exactly?"
Shizune nodded, only slightly worried that some spittle might have landed in her cup. "I'm afraid it's up to her to divulge that information, but I can assure you that she sorely wishes that she could have been here with all of you."
Danzo bristled now that the immediate shock had worn off, "What could be so important that she had to miss dinner with the Head-chairwoman!" and Kakashi felt two pairs of feet retreat to their respective seating arrangements with relief. He had no idea what was up with Tsunade but as long as it wasn't serious, it was alright with him.
"Now now, Danzo, we mustn't pry." The well dresed man smoothed his mustache thoughtfully while Danzo aparently choked on his own muffled scream. "Shizune, you will give Tsunade my best, won't you?"
"Oh! Certainly."
"And-" He looked at the chairwoman imploringly but she was busy plugging her ears to better hear the sobs of the employee she'd been scolding. Her plate of green lentils had hardly been touched "Well, I'm sure Denise sends her regards as well."
Shizune thanked him politely, promising to add his name to an imaginary consolation card, an offer he affably refused at first but a few drinks later, heartily accepted.
Well there was one problem solved.
/POV/
Tonton stared wide-eyed at the shiny brass doorknob high above her snout, wondering if she could reach it if she jumped. The room she was in felt a lot smaller than what she was used to and smelled faintly of something like ink. Certainly, it was interesting to chew these sweaters strewn on the ground, but she was starting to miss her real food- not to mention her water dish. The sugary liquid the boy had left her on a lid of some sort had been much too sweet.
Tonton sneezed and her eyes started to water. This whole place smelled rather dusty. The woman Mother called Shi would never have allowed this, everything at home was fresh and clean. She blearily started to trip her way back to the sugary liquid- it was better than nothing, but accidentally knocked over a pile of boxes piled hurriedly by the door. Each one came crashing down with a muffled thud, the last spilling a wide assortment of colourful paper across the carpet. Tonton jumped at the noise but calmed down when nothing else moved. Despite the extra cloud of dust the boxes had spewed, she seemed to be safe.
"Choo."
/POV/
"Wow!" Naruto smiled appreciatively at the miniature doll house sitting on the big wooden table in the centre of the room. Aside from a single armchair off to one side and a stool, it was the only furniture. "This is so cool, did you make it?" He asked, looking up.
But Itachi didn't answer, wasn't even in the room. The only thing he'd said since they'd entered had been a soft order to 'wait there' before swishing away through the only other door. It was weird that Naruto couldn't even hear him, even though the two rooms had to be really close together. He nodded to himself and turned back to the little chair he'd been playing with, thinking how still the air inside the cabin was. Kind of like the haunted room in the movie he'd seen... It'd turned out to have been the old grandmother's doll that was killing everyone, Naruto remembered, suddenly eyeing the little house with apprehension. Actually, the shadows these dirty windows were casting on the bare floor looked kinda like the figure of that thing stalking... creeping... slashing...
"Heh. Heh." Naruto laughed nervously to Gaara, who was still staring out the window with his arms crossed.
"..."
"Heh..."
"..."
"..."
"Here you are."
"!" Naruto jumped badly at Itachi's voice so close to his ear. No one was that stealthy- he hadn't even heard the door open. "Uh... Itachi?"
"Follow the instructions carefully."
"Right, but I was just wondering..." How do you ask someone if they're really a ghost?
"You'll want to get started quickly, the sooner you finish the better."
"Uh huh..." The blond boy absently took the folded paper Itachi was holding out for him. "So..." Time passed. "Uh..."
"Naruto. We should go."
X X X X
I'm not updating so quickly, eh?
:) Review?