Chapter 4: Trust or tension
Sasuke's voice was again distorted to sound in English.
"Who is Slade?" Hinata asked confused and she heard gasps behind her before she turned around in confusion.
"Slade?" Robin asked heatedly and stepped up to Sasuke. "Where is he?" he shouted in utter anger and Sasuke narrowed his eyes annoyed.
"Get out of my face!" Sasuke replied and Robin grabbed the other boy by the collar. Sasuke of course, saw that as a threat and aimed a punch at the Boy Wonder but he blocked it.
"Tell me where he is or I'll make you!" Robin shouted and Sasuke pulled out a kunai and aimed it at his angered face before Raven used her magic and flung Robin to the ground.
"Shouldn't your last encounter with Slade have shown you that it's not wise to run blindly into a fight with him?" Raven said sternly as she stood over him with arms crossed.
"We have to find out what he is up to!"
"Yeah, but blindly falling into his traps is not how we're supposed to do it," Raven countered before Robin stood up and dusted himself off.
"Do you know what he was doing here? Or what he wants with your scroll?" Cyborg asked but only received confused and annoyed glances.
"Uh…Slade…scroll?" Beast Boy repeated and used various hand movements to make it understandable for the two but saw with disappointment that Sasuke had turned away.
"I gotta find him! Hinata, let's go," he ordered but she didn't move.
"Uh…Sasuke, I think it's better if we stay with them. This boy seems to know who this Slade is," she reasoned as she pointed at Robin but Sasuke wasn't complying.
"You mean the boy who just attacked me? Don't tell me you want to stay with the enemy?" he asked.
"If they are the only ones that can help us get to Slade and to get home, yes," she replied with determination and Sasuke remained silent for a moment.
He anyways had time until tomorrow and also needed a place to sleep.
He sighed. "Fine."
Having received the translation via Cyborg, Beast Boy, Terra and Starfire were the first ones breaking out into huge smiles.
"Does that mean our new friends will be staying in the Tower with us?" Starfire asked.
"You heard right," the shape-shifter replied and the alien broke out in a huge squeal and hugged the Hyuga like her life depended on it.
"U-Uh…what happened?" she asked surprised and a bit uncomfortable.
"You'll stay with us. Isn't that great?" Terra grinned but received confused stares directed at her.
Raven wasn't very enthusiastic about it. "But only until we find Slade."
"And while they stay with us, I could also get to make those translators," Cyborg said before they started moving homewards.
"Uh…where are we going?" Hinata asked, looking at each of them in turn.
"Home," Terra replied and pulled the girl by her hand.
Sasuke stayed behind, not knowing if it would be such a good idea to trust them.
"Come on! We don't have all day," Beast Boy complained before shoving the boy as a ram from behind before receiving a death glare and morphed back and hurried after the others.
He didn't want to risk losing his teeth.
After some time, they came up at the coast and Raven and Starfire helped Cyborg and Robin respectively to get a lift over the water while Terra and Beast Boy used their powers on their own to get across.
"Huh? Beast Boy, look at those two," Terra called over the rushing wind and the falcon next to her flew closer to the two that were apparently…running on the water.
How were they doing that?
Terra tried imitating the two and dropped from her rock and landed waist deep with a splash. Seeing that she'd stay behind if she tried to get this right, she simply used her rock as a surfboard and followed the two shinobi.
It didn't take them long to reach the tower and gather in the common room.
"Let me prepare the meal that will fill our hungry stomachs," Starfire declared but Cyborg interrupted her.
"I'm not sure they can handle any of your food, Star. How about I do the cooking?" he suggested.
"A little testing will not do any harm," she protested and Cyborg sighed.
"Fine. But let us order some pizza in case they don't like it," he said more for the team than for the two newcomers and Starfire luckily agreed.
"And you two?" he called Sasuke and Hinata who eyed him confused (or in Sasuke's case) disinterested. "You can sleep in the common room," he told them before he went to his room to prepare the new communicators.
Meanwhile Raven ordered the pizzas before she left the common room as well.
Sasuke and Hinata busied themselves with taking a closer look around the common room. A lot of the furniture was also available in Konoha but the TV here was huge and some of the furniture was very strange looking and…high-tech. Hinata found a particular interest at watching the scenery from those giant windows of the tower.
The view gave a sense of tranquility.
The sun was already beginning to set and suddenly Beast Boy joined Terra and Hinata by the window.
"Ok, who wants to have a tour of the Tower?" he asked.
"Definitely not him," Terra giggled, pointing at Sasuke who had dropped onto the couch and began sharpening his kunai.
"He doesn't know what he's missing out on," Beast Boy retorted before Sasuke gave him a quick glance. "On with the tour," he added hurriedly and pulled Hinata by her hand before Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his retreating form.
"Have fun, you two. I'll be in my room if you need anything," Terra called after them before sighing.
She went back to the scenery and her worried expression was reflected in the window-pane. What did Slade want with a scroll?
Would…it include her?
Sasuke caught that worried look before she went to her room.
What was up with her?
And why did he wonder about it?
He sighed and got up from the couch, deciding to get some training done. He couldn't just sit here and waste time.
Meanwhile the heiress and the changeling were walking around the Tower as the green Titan showed her each and every corner of their home.
"How about we skip this room?" Beast Boy said as they reached Raven's room and Hinata looked at him in confusion when he just passed it.
"Aren't you going to show me this room as well?" she asked with a cocked head and the shape-shifter turned to her with a somewhat nervous smile.
"I'm sure Raven's in there meditating and you know, she doesn't like it when people just barge into her room. I should know," he mumbled the last part. "You still haven't seen my room yet," he cried excitedly and pulled the still confused girl on her arm.
"Welcome to my lair," he joked as he stepped into his room, knowing that she wouldn't understand his joke he just made.
Hinata noticed a pile of clothes in the middle of the room. "Oh, it's…nice," she mumbled, trying to be polite and the changeling chuckled embarrassed.
"Yeah, I haven't had time to clean up," he mumbled as he rushed to shove his pile into the closet. "Just ignore the-"
"Guys? Look what I got," Cyborg's voice came from behind and Beast Boy turned around to get a new communicator thrown into his hands.
Hinata almost let hers drop before she looked in confusion at it. "W-what is it?" she asked as she studied it.
Her voice suddenly played out in English and Cyborg spoke into his device.
"This is the T-communicator. Now you communicate with us with no problems, right?"
His voice came from her communicator, distorted to sound Japanese and she cried out with a smile. "I-I…can understand you!"
"Thought so. I'll just give this to your friend and then, you'll all have one," Cyborg grinned and left the room.
"How cool is that? Now we don't have to play pantomime to talk to each other," Beast Boy chuckled and his voice played on her communicator and she giggled a little.
"Hey, I haven't even told you a joke yet," Beast Boy bragged, not believing how easy it would be to crack her up.
But her smile vanished before he even had the chance to say one word.
"Beast Boy? Who is this…Slade?" she asked.
Confusion struck him before he frowned a little, remembering that the scroll they were looking for was with him.
"He's bad news, that's for sure."
Hearing the translation, the changeling noticed a worried expression on her face.
"Is he strong?"
"Strong enough to make Robin almost his apprentice," he mumbled, remembering how they were forced to fight against their leader.
"But…didn't Robin hate this Slade? At least it seemed so."
"He still does…but he was being forced to work for him. And trust me, it hurt us as much as it did him," Beast Boy replied, not meaning for the wordplay to be funny in any way.
Slade wasn't one to mess around after all.
Her brows furrowed and her hands turned to fists.
"Cheer up!" he said suddenly and Hinata was brought out of her troublesome thoughts. "I bet your friend knows how to stay clear of him. I mean, he does that with almost everyone," he laughed and Hinata couldn't help but chuckle a little.
She might not know Sasuke that much but during their time on the mission together, she realized that this statement wasn't so very wrong.
"Can you…tell me more about you and your friends?" she asked suddenly. "If Sasuke…knows more about you…maybe he will be friendlier towards you," she suggested, remembering that he had eventually opened up towards Sakura and Naruto.
Maybe the same thing might happen with this team.