The Replacement

Meddlers

Sai had been searching for a word to describe his teammates all week. Their recent actions had been frustrating, to say the least.

"So I hear you're quite the popular one these days."

The artist stared at Kakashi blankly. Quite frankly, he didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

"Tenten... Lee..." the copy nin prompted.

"Hinata," Neji added.

"How do you know that?" Sai questioned Kakashi slowly.

"I have sources."

The artist shot a glare at Neji, who took a great interest in some imaginary speck on his glove.

"They're not my friends."

Kakashi nodded dismissively. "They seem to like you."

"How would you know? Oh wait, sources." He took this opportunity to glower at Neji again.

The Hyuuga shrugged. "Lee talks." A pause. "A lot," he muttered the last bit.

"Perhaps someone should do something about that," Sai said.

Neji sent him a threatening look, but the artist remained unimpressed.

"No need to be defensive. It's a good thing," the copy-nin said.

Meddlers. That was the word he was looking for.

Sai ground his teeth together. He hated everyone interfering with his life all of a sudden, especially Kakashi. Couldn't they leave well enough alone? He was a big boy. He didn't need their praise for making a friend... Which he didn't do.

Wow, really short, I know. This was supposed to be a drabble though :)

And now on to my defense of why this story (if you think so) is somewhat disjointed. If you have no idea where this story is going, there's a reason for that. More than one actually...

It's a drabble (Can I use that excuse?)

About ten or fifteen chapters ago this went an entirely different direction than I had originally planned (I think I mentioned this before). The characters misbehaved and didn't listen to me. I like when that happens though ;)

As a result, I'm writing this by the seat of my pants.

Which brings us to the final reason... I didn't want this to go any predictable way after the first time my characters strayed. This was going to be a cliche story and now it's not and I'm pleased with that. So if you're lost or confused then yeah, I've probably failed, but I'm learning from it and that brings me to the most important message...

Thanks for the reviews and constructive criticism. I write for you guys and if something's not working for you, let me know what it is. If something is working particularly well, I'd also like to hear about it.

Thanks for reading!

Next Update: Friday