AN: this is a stupid play on a line from Gladiator. You know how they said "the Barbarian horde"? I thought it was funny to put "the monkey horde" as a dumb parallel. BIG APOLOGY to all those who reviewed my fic, I love you guys dearly but I haven't really had time to respond to all ur beautiful comments. Today, I will make amends to that (at the end of the fic of course ^_^) THANKS Y'ALL
Unlike previous days, a crayon blue sky plastered its happiness on everyone's faces. It was one of those days where the idea place to spend an afternoon was sitting in a park, boating on a lake or, really, just staying outside so it was possible to bathe in the cheerful attitude of nature.
After a period of grey mornings and raining evenings, Mikagami couldn't help but feel his spirits lift as he stepped outside. It would be a shame, he thought if this day was ruined by his encounter with the famous Hokage nija monkeys.
Mikagami felt the ground rumble as an innumerable number of fan girls lunged towards him. Luckily, his battle instincts have not waned. He leapt adroitly onto a tree and remained perching on it, incognito. Mikagami unconsciously chuckled inwardly as he recalled one of his few civil conversations with Fuuko where they were discussing the implications of his increasing fandom. Eventually, Fuuko gave up trying to find a reason for these bimbos' extraordinary eccentric behavior. She angrily characterized the fangirls' attack as similar to the "Ride of the Valkyries" (Richard Wagner, classical composer). She caught Mikagami off guard. The monkey actually knew of classical composers? Mikgami shook his head, why, off all times, is Fuuko occupying his mind? There was absolutely nothing between them, well; he has welcomed those occasional friendly exchanges, but he was definitely feeling nothing more than that.
He entered the rooftop but immediately turned back to leave as he saw the Seth there, sitting by Fuuko. The two were too engrossed in their conversation to notice Mikgami. He felt a giant pang of regret in his heart. Could this have been him if he had approached Fuuko last night? Hmmm. . . he is not developing any feelings for that monkey, his pang of jealousy occurred out of brotherly concern. Satisfied with his conclusion, Mikagami was about to turn and leave the two to their privacy when he was interrupted by a sudden grab.
"Recca?!" hissed Mikgami
"Shhhh. You'll create too much noise" Reeca attempted to whisper inaudibly.
"What are you guys doing here?" Mikagami was quite annoyed by this persistence of this gorillas to entrench themselves in other people's affairs. Affairs!?? Mikagami silently slapped himself. Don't, he warned himself, don't get carried away with diction.
"We're spying on them. Duh!" Reeca grinned mischievously.
"You know how mad she is going to be when she catches you?" Mikagami lapsed back into his famed icy nonchalant manner.
"My darling Fuuko!! How could you~~~" wailed Domon as he was suddenly interrupted with a quick slap over his month by a pair of firm hands.
"Domon-san, will you be quite please? She might hear us and then we will truly get into trouble," Yangai cautioned Domon sternly.
"Hime is right. Shut up everyone!" Recca pulled Mikagami into their hiding place by grabbing his sacred pony tail, "accidentally."
"You have just won yourself a date with my Ensui, stupid monkey" Mikagami retained his urge to immediately decapitate Recca for contaminating his hair. He was amazed as his ability to control his emotions. . .
"Why you. . ." Recca started towards Mikagami but was held back by Yanagi.
"Both you boys!" Yanagi hissed, with an extremely stern look on her face "Both of you! Be quite and sit down. If Fuuko catches us, I will just say that you guys made me do it and make you take the brunt of Fuuko's anger" If anything, Yangai's words quieted Recca and Mikgami down, but, way in the background, one can still hear the muffled but persistent wails of Domon.
"Hey, you know, thanks for listening, I feel a lot better" Fuuko squeezed a smile out of her face. Did she feel any better? Not really though, Seth was a nice person, but whenever she tried to talk to him, she felt so drained. Talking to him drained all her energy. . . what a weird feeling? Would have been easier if she had talked to someone else she knew, Fuuko thought, if only . . . wait! Fuuko checked herself. No way is she going to go off fantasizing about. . . nah. If she does it'll be too weird anyway. Seth interrupted Fuuko's inner emotional turmoil.
"Hey, anytime. Like I said, it is in a gentleman's nature to aid a damsel in distress"
Mikagami snorted, this guy was acting too much like Raiha for comfort. Moreover, he was acting like Raiha but wearing his face. He wondered if this guy had a darker side, like Raiha did.
"Yo, Mikagami! SHUT UP!" Recca nudged Mikagami and accidentally toppled the crouching Mikgami over.
"You're being the loud one. You stupid sea monkey" Recca was topping Mikgami's patience. One more thing, Mikagami thought to himself, just one more and Recca will be sorry that he is so annoying.
"So, do you like it here?" Fuuko was desperate to switch topics. She didn't find Seth's affection all that comfortable. Granted it was nice to know that someone liked you, but she didn't know, with Seth she kept on receiving unnatural vibes.
"Well, not really, those fan girls are starting to get annoying. But, you know? I'm grateful that I meet you. I would trade all their affection for yours." Seth flashed one of his Raiha-style smiles at Fuuko and Fuuko burst out laughing. She couldn't help it, but hearing those corny words and seeing a Mikagami smile like Raiha was more than she could take.
Mikgami couldn't take it anymore. Recca's persistent giggles, Yanagi's blushing face, Domon's wails, all topped by this guy Seth's corniness. He had to leave. How could you try to talk to monkeys when they are acting so strangely? He dusted himself off and got up to leave, forgetting that he was supposed to be hiding and thus exposed himself to a laughing Fuuko and a blushing Seth. Oops. The graceful Mikgami has made a huge blunder.
"Mi-Chan!!" Fuuko came storming over. "I didn't know you were here!"
"Um . . ." This was one of the few moments in Mikagami's eloquent life that he was at a complete loss for words.
"What are you…" Fuuko gazed straight into the eyes of Mikagami, searching for an answer while he tried to fight her gaze by returning it. They completely mesmerized by each other.
His eyes, so blue, thought Fuuko, never knew how deep they went
Her eyes, so quizzical, pondered Mikagami I wonder much more there is to her than . . . what normally meets the eye
Recca chose this most inopportune moment to make his existence known to Fuuko by bursting out into peals of laughter. Quite depressing actually, since his famous ninja should have yielded to more careful assessment of this delicate situation
Fuuko immediately tore her eyes away from Mikagami's stare as she turned to face a grinning Reeca, a blushing Yanagi and a crying Domon (not to mention a wordless, okay, okay, not wordless, insult-deprived Mikgami). She felt her face flame. She didn't not know why, but she felt. . . ashamed . . . ashamed to have been caught at one of her more vulnerable moments. . . vulnerable because she was exposing her emotional feminine side. She had took her tomboy mask down for one minute and let her guard down by accident. What was it her mother said again? Don't get too close. But she was already entrenched. Why did her mother warn her of that?
"What are you guys doing here?" Fuuko demanded "For heaven's sake Domon, QUIT CRYING!" A quick punch sent that spiky haired "gorilla" flying into the crayon blue sky.
Reeca glanced over at Yanagi, uncertain as to what to tell Fuuko. Much to his surprise, Fuuko laughed, as she turned Seth over to face her friends
"Hey, you guys, this is Seth. He just transferred here. . .he is another resident heartthrob." Fuuko forced out a laugh "Mikagami, beware, your fan club might diminish" Fuuko did not dare to look in his direction. She didn't know why but she kept locked her gaze onto someone point on the fence surrounding the rooftop.
"Nice to meet you guys" Seth smiled and extended his hand to the nearest Hokage member near him (who happened to be Mikagami). Mikagmi took his hand hesitantly. The moment their hands made contact, Mikagami felt shivers climb up his spine. What was this? Why am I getting an unpleasant feeling from this seemingly harmless person? Mikagami buried his thought as he focused his attention back onto the present situation at hand.
"Um. Well. You guys enjoy each other's company, huh?" Fuuko smiled as she leap out of sigh from the remaining figures on the rooftop.
"Oh look! I spot Domon! Hime, come with me, you may need to heal him" Reeca grabbed Yanagi and dashed off the rooftop leaving Seth and Mikagami staring in each other's face.
"Are you Fuuko-san's good friend?" Seth asked Mikagami
"Why?" Mikgami couldn't help but notice the tone of Seth's voice. It had changed somehow. . . it was less. . . less warm
"Nothing" Seth flushed. "Don't worry about it"
"Well, I go to go" Mikagami noted the unpleasantness of his conversation with Seth. "I have class next. . . see you later" Mikagami turned and left Seth alone on the rooftop
"Fuuko-san" Seth extended his hand to the place she last stood "Fuuko-san. . . I . . " his voice trailed off as the bell rang.
Okay sorry guys, so I lied about Raiha making an appearance in this chapter. Will you ever forgive this sorry excuse as a fanfiction author? I didn't want to make this chapter too long, I still have more things to write. Here is a flavor of the upcoming chapter: Mikagmi will discuss the present "situation" with the rest of the Hokage. More To/fuu. Hopefully more of a set up for the problems to begin (don't worry, I will add some action into this fic later on) But, you know, **sniff** I need encouragement! Ha ha! Can I shamefully ask for at least 5 reviews . . . THANKS GUYS!
Thanks to reviewers
Yangai: ^_^ I get emotional too! Don't worry too much about Seth. He, well, he is an asshole. . . but we shall soon find out why. . .I'm glad u like this. . .I'll try harder to keep this fic up to standard yeah? Help me make it good please ^_^
hyper_shark: I know its kinda sad, Fuuko isn't really herself huh? I hate writing depressing Fuuko stuff, but. . . all I can say is that it will get better (well, less depressing) in due time.
TouTetsu: Thanks for your enthusiasm ^_^ I will try my best to update as much as I humanly can but you know, with finals looming and travels ahead, I probably won't be updating for sometime. But I will try.
Zidane: Yes! I am finally satisfying tofu cravings! Whooo hoooo. Well, on the more serious side of things, tofu is my favorite pairing! I will never ever betray them (ever). Even though, I gottttttts to admit, Raiha is pretty sweet. . . I just can't see him with Fuuko.
Vanessa: That lunch break was hard to write, you know? I love how frigid Tokiya is. It makes everything so funny, ne? Thanks to your review, I wrote the next chapter, I was seriously thinking about abandoning this fic until I got ur review through e-mail. . . and I was like, "whoa! Someone still reads my stuff!" thanks. I hope you keep reading ^_^
Kurei: Fuuko's sad past. Its becoming quite a popular thing to write huh? Oh well. I hope this fic won't loose its "originality" (ahem, as if there was any to begin with). The voice? Yeah. When I reread the fic, those voices seem kinda funny. . . well, try and think of that voice as a onlooker. . . I will reveal his (oops) identity in due time
Acerean: Thanks for reading! I'm glad u don't think I am a rookie! Hopefully I won't disappoint you with my chapter developments. . . **sigh** I hate having typos, thanks for pointing them out ^_^
Dark Phoenix: You've been SOOO helpful. Thank you so much for reading my previous chapters. . . what do u think about the new ones?
none: Ano. I have no idea who u are. . . interesting name ^_^Thanks. I think I got rid of all my "iKs" since someone else pointed out what the problem was. . . do u like this better?"
veggie_eater: Thanks for reading! Heh. I'm glad you think my fic is interesting, I hope you like the new developments. . . **Sigh** tell me what u think, ne?
abnormal teenage girl: Cliff hangers are fun!! Well, actually its more like I can't think of anything better to write so I end on a cliff hanger. . . maybe it'll keep readers coming back yeah? Well. Sorry I couldn't write a response to you earlier, I was too lazy, hope you are still reading. . . please tell me what you think ^_^
ice water: I have inclinations of romance now ^_^ are you happy? I don't want to put it on full force because I feel I would make the characters too much out of their norm. Don't you think? Please tell me what you think
Rajin: ^_^ My first reviewer **hugs** Thank you soo much! I have kept my chapters coming!
THANKS TO ALL U REVIEWERS AND READERS! I LOVE U SOOO MUCH
