Chapter 4 - Line Talk
As soon as Kakashi and Yamato walked out of the lobby through the entrance we just went through, everyone made a mad dash for the check in desk, practically scaring the workers sitting there half to death with the sudden onslaught.
Well, almost everyone. I did not want to get stuck in all that mess, so I decided to stay back until the line was more straightened out, and shorter.
I wasn't the only one to hang back either. Hinata, TenTen, Neji and the Sabakuno siblings were also staying behind. I didn't need to look to see if Naruto was among the crowd. With his kind of personality, it's basically a no-brainer at this point.
"I really don't get it," Hinata says, her voice finally breaking the momentary silence that had befallen our little group. "Our rooms must have been assigned to us already, and yet people still rushed to the desk as if the first ones there are going to get the best rooms."
"Our rooms may have been pre-arraigned for us, but I must point out that our beds sure haven't," I say with a smirk as we watched as the crowd finally formed into a reasonable-looking line. "It's pretty simple if you think about it. The hotel has definitely not arraigned for 100 rooms to be available to each and every semifinalist to have for themselves. It's simply not possible, no matter how much we wish it was. . . We're going to have roommates, and unfortunately, some people can get pretty picky when it comes to choosing where they want to rest their heads."
"I can see where you're going with this. It's basically a case of 'first come, first serve'," TenTen adds, leading me to nod my head in confirmation. "Whoever gets to their room first will get the first pick of the beds . . . And now that I think about it, I'm kinda regretting not joining the line when I could have."
"This hotel looks like one that really likes to maintain whatever high standards it has, so I think a bad bed will be the least of your worries TenTen," says Neji, playful sarcasm lacing his tone as we joined the line just behind the siblings. "What you really should be focusing on is the competition. I'd hate to see you go in the first round just because you didn't keep your head in the game."
"Like I would ever let that happen," TenTen says with a megawatt smile. "There's no way in hell I'm going to let myself get eliminated in the first round."
"If you want my advice, I wouldn't get too cocky if I were you."
At the sound of the new voice, we all turn to see Temari Sabakuno looking at us over her shoulder, a small smirk lining her face. Her brother Kankuro was moving his gaze between us and the rest of the line while Gaara kept looking straight ahead, as if his sister's sudden intrusion into our little conversation wasn't worth his time.
"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear your little talk just now," Temari says, her smirk still in place. "It's nice to show some confidence, but you don't want to show too much that it makes you sound cocky and arrogant, do you?"
"Like you're starting to sound right now?" TenTen couldn't help but ask as she rearranged her features into a composed façade. Temari, admittedly, looked slightly impressed, not showing that she was fazed in the slightest by the well said comeback.
"You think I sound arrogant?" Temari asked, crossing her hands over her well-developed chest.
"Well you certainly look it from where I'm standing," TenTen said, grinning from ear to ear, her voice challenging as she maintained eye contact with the blonde. "Let me ask you this: Are you this arrogant at home?"
"You have no idea . . ." Kankuro whispers under his breath, but it was still loud enough that we all heard it. Temari slapped his right shoulder, hard, as a result. "C'mon sis, we both know you got an arrogant streak to you."
"Still can't get over the fact that I have a higher IQ than you can ya?" she asks him, not a hint of shame found in her tone. Kankuro ended up rolling his eyes at the remark, but that only made his sister smirk even more. "C'mon Kankuro, we both know you rolling your eyes is a dead giveaway when your annoyed over something."
"No one likes a braggart sis, and yes. Yes, I admit that I get annoyed whenever you start showing off your intellect, just as much as you get annoyed when that Nara kid you always go up against in academic competitions beats you. . . You end up pouting up a storm for the rest of the day every time."
"I don't get annoyed when Shikamaru beats me!" says Temari in an attempt to appear unbothered by what her brother just said.
She was failing miserably.
We all stared at her unconvinced, except Gaara, who kept looking forward, giving no indication that he was even paying attention. After looking at each of our unconvinced faces, Temari, looking defeated, quickly recanted. "Okay, so I do get annoyed when he beats me. It's just that, I don't understand how he does it! He's got to be one of the laziest people in all of Japan! He acts like a complete slacker and he doesn't seem to pay attention for long. . . He's so lazy that the only reason he even competes on the academic competition circuit is because his mom forces him to do it!"
"I'll be honest. I don't get how he does it either," Kankuro adds as he scratches the back of his neck. "He's even admitted that he doesn't even prepare for the competitions, not even on the night before! No fanfare, no showing off. He's just in, does his work, wins, collects his prize, and he's out, and here's the kicker. No one can ever prove that he's cheating or not, which means he is either the most devious sneak known to man, or an absolute genius that none of us can even try to comprehend."
"Wait a minute . . . Shikamaru Nara. I think I've heard of that name before," I say, bringing a hand to my chin. "Isn't he the son of one of the brightest professors teaching at Tokyo University? The one known for wearing his hair in a ponytail that makes his head look like a pineapple?"
"Like that guy down the line, right next to the other guy with the long, spiky brown hair?" Hinata asks, pointing forward. We follow her finger to see two guys about 20 people away talking to each other. The guy with the spiky brown hair was chowing down on a bag of chips as he listened to the other guy talk, his dark hair styled in a ponytail that reminded me of a certain tropical fruit. "Something like that, right?"
"'Something like that', I think, is a bit of an understatement Hinata," I say as the ponytailed guy turned his head, giving us a good view of his profile. "I think that is him! It's way too much of a coincidence not to be him."
"I can't believe it!" Temari says, watching him with irritation in her eyes. "Shikamaru Nara is here! He's actually fucking here!? When did he get interested in modelling?"
"Maybe his mother forced him to do this too?" Kankuro suggested as we continued shuffling forward. Temari's eyes were like piercing daggers as she stared at her brother, who quickly averted his eyes to avoid the full effect. "Okay, pretend I didn't ask."
"You shouldn't be focusing on him so much Temari. It'll only stress you out even more."
As soon as we heard her other brother's voice - and my, isn't it deep - we all turned to see him looking at us from over his shoulder. Like seriously, he has the raspy voice of a man that has already lived on this Earth for many decades now, and yet he doesn't even look older than 20, tops.
And it's so damn smooth too! No wonder he's been gaining a cult following among the girls in his hometown . . . Not that I care, well, too much.
"Gaara," Temari said unsurely, as if she had no clue on what to make of her brother's sudden interruption. "You were actually listening in to our conversation?"
"How could I not? I've been standing right here the entire time. It was hard to ignore it," he tells her, shrugging. "I must admit though, I'm usually not one for butting in to trivial conversations like this, so I hope you guys can excuse the interruption."
"He's dressed like he's part of a biker gang, yet speaks in the tongue of a perfect gentleman," Kankuro says with a smirk, already used to how his brother acts toward people. "That's basically our little brother in a nutshell for ya folks. Get used to it."
"As I was saying before, Temari, you shouldn't be so hung up on the fact that Shikamaru is here," Gaara continued, ignoring his brother's commentary. "So, what if he's a semifinalist? That shouldn't be something that troubles you. Be more concerned with yourself. . . If you want to make it far in this competition, focus on you, not on the other guy."
"Unless she likes him . . ."
Kankuro narrowly dodges an elbow to the gut, the act courtesy of his seething sister. "Hey! Don't elbow me! All I'm saying is that it's possible, and that's it. Sue me!"
"Huh, this conversation has really gone into a different direction hasn't it?" Neji mumbles as he crossed his arms. "It went from TenTen and Temari trading barbs with each other to Temari being called out by her own brother about needing to focus more."
"Eh, I don't care, I'm completely over it anyway," TenTen says with a small shake of her head. "All I want to do is go upstairs, get to my room, and claim my bed already!"
She wasn't the only one.
x ~ Y ~ W ~ B ~ O ~ T ~ x
"Alright ladies, we have arrived! Suite 9-K!" Temari says with a confident grin as we finally pulled up to our room. It was the last door on the eastern side of the hotel's ninth floor, which served as the designated 'girls wing'. The tenth floor belonged to the boys. "Now then, I believe it's best if we just walked into the room in an orderly fashion rather than fight with each other on the way in."
"Is this your way of raising your chances in getting a better bed, because if it is, you're not hiding it well," TenTen says, being the picture of skepticism with her hands on her hips. "If you ask me, I'd say let's just go with the 'first come, first serve' approach. This competition is pretty much survival of the fittest, living arrangements included. To the loser goes the spoils; that's what my Mom likes to say."
"Your mom sounds like quite the cutthroat, and you're only saying that because you want to rush in there and claim the first bed you see!" Temari bites back as she slides the room key through the lock. As soon as the door is open, TenTen barrels right past the blonde and into the room with her luggage in tow, making Temari scowl even more. "See what I mean?! You just proved my point!"
"Hey! I never said you were wrong, did I?" TenTen calls back as we hear a door slam shut somewhere inside. Temari mumbles some rather vulgar words to herself before stomping into the room, leaving Hinata and I alone in the hallway.
"Those two don't seem to get along with each other very well." Hinata mumbles as she steps into the suite.
"Let's just hope they don't kill each other. I'm not in the mood get any bloodstains on my clothes," I say as I bring up the rear, closing the door behind me before joining the others in the living room area. "I don't want to be called up to be a witness in a murder trial anytime soon okay?"
"I'll keep that in mind when I organize my legal team. I'm sure they'll have to subpoena you in that case," Temari grumbles as she crosses her arms. "Alright then, TenTen has made it quite clear that the main bedroom is going to be hers. That room only has one bed, which leaves us with the two beds in the other bedroom up for grabs."
"Then that means one of us would either have to share with TenTen - since the main bedroom always has the bigger bed - or sleep on the couch." Hinata concludes as she points to said piece of furniture off to our left.
"How bout I just save us the trouble and take the couch for myself?" I suggest as I throw my bag right onto the cushions. "I'm an insomniac, so I barely sleep anyway. It would be redundant for me to take a bed when one of you guys will need it way more than I do."
"That sounds reasonable enough to me," TenTen says, smirking all the way to the kitchen. "Right now, I need a drink."
"Are you sure about this Izuka?" Hinata asks, ever the unsure one. "I mean, you don't really need to sleep on the couch. You could badger TenTen about sharing the master bed."
"It's okay Hinata. Like I said, I barely sleep, so why bother anyway?" I ask as I walked into the kitchen to see TenTen reading a notecard. "What's with the note TenTen?"
"Ladies, we got Tsunade Mail!" she exclaims as she waved it in the air. Temari and Hinata both run in before TenTen could even finished saying 'Tsunade', their eyes going straight to the item that TenTen was rereading.
"Models,
Congrats on making it to the semifinals.
Make sure to dress your best tomorrow because you'll be stomping it out to keep your spot in the competition.
Cuts are coming.
Love, Tsunade."
"'Stomping it out' can only mean one thing," Temari mumbles as she brings a hand to her chin. "Tomorrow's a runway challenge!"
"I wonder how many are going to be cut after the first round though," Hinata whispers, but it wasn't low enough that the rest of us couldn't hear it. "The thought of eliminations already really makes me worry. . ."
"Don't sweat it Hinata!" TenTen exclaims as she sets down the note. "As long as you do your damn best, you shouldn't have any problem moving on to the next round. I guarantee it."
"Can I get that in writing? I'm sure it'll make me feel better." Apparently, even the Hyuga has jokes.
"I hate to admit it, but TenTen does make a good point," Temari reluctantly admits, slightly scowling when the double bun wearing model grins victoriously. "Besides, you'll never get anywhere without trying your hardest first. Right?"
"You can either agree or disagree, but that is some good advice," I say with a small nod of my head. "Ladies, tomorrow is when the real work begins. We got a lot ahead of us. Let's make it count."
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