They got there with a minute to spare. Mei fell to the ground, panting for breath, and Guido was right beside her, wishing that he hadn't decided to sleep in. Seda was the only one still standing but even she was out of breath, leaning against the large stone for support.
"Damn that teacher..." Mei grumbled, gasping for breath. She reached up a hand to block out the sun, which was glaring down at her, but something else did it for her. Curious, she opened her eyes a crack. Her vision was met by a pair of blue eyes, blond spiky hair and a goofy grin. She was about to open her mouth to ask the oh-so-important question, when a finger poked her in the nose.
"Do you always lie around in the middle of the woods?" The blond guy asked, grinning. Mei thought he looked somewhat like a cat or something with his grinning face and the weird lines on either cheek.
"Ummm..." She began, not entirely sure how to explain the situation.
The blond cocked his head to the side, "What? Cat got your tounge?" he commented at Mei's failure to answer, seeming to have completely forgotten that he still had his finger attached to her nose. Mei was getting a tad annoyed at this, so she did the only thing she could think of. She Bit. She bit hard on the offending finger.
The guy yelled and withdrew his finger immediately, retreating to the safety of a nearby tree. "Hey!" He called down at her angrily, cradling his injured appendage, "What was that for?!"
"...Remind me never to touch your nose." Guido pointed out, getting to his feet and brushing himself off, then inching away from Mei, who had that murderous look in her eyes again.
Mei stood up and glared at the guy hiding in the tree, "That's for sticking your finger were it DOSEN'T BELONG!" she grabbed a throwing star form her pouch and was about to throw it at the blond when a hand clamped over her wrist.
"Now, now, Children." said a cheery voice beside her. Mei looked up into the single eye of a silver haired man, he seemed to be smiling but his mouth was covered with a black mask so Mei couldn't tell.
"Wha..." Mei blinked. Where had this guy come from? The man let go of her wrist and stood up to his full height, while Mei retreated to safety behind Guido.
"So you're who they sent?" the one eyed guy asked, looking the three of them over. As he spoke, two others approached from behind him, a dark haired and very unamused looking boy and a pink haired girl in a red outfit.
Mei looked, confused, at each of the new persons then back to her teammates. Guido had a serious look on his face, like he always did when he fought. 'The guy might be a pervert but he's a good fighter.', Mei thought to herself. Seda was... well not really looking at anything, but more or less staring in the direction of the intruders. Mei was racking her brain for something to say when Seda answered for them.
"If you are the ninjas from Konoha, then yes."
"They send these weak ninjas to help us." The black haired guy said, not looking at them. "They must not have much faith in us..." He added quietly.
"Hey, we aren't weak!" Mei cried, pointing a finger at them. "Our instructor told us that we were capable enough for this task, because we are!" She added dramatically.
The guy looked around, then looked back at the three low level ninjas.
"So where is your instructor, then?" he asked.
Mei turned pale and twitched. "Well uh..." she stuttered.
"We've never met our instructor." Seda answered for Mei, who was having a difficult time trying to explain why their instructor was not there.
The dark haired boy turned to look at Seda, and Mei could have sworn Seda actually took interest in this because she turned and looked at him...well looked in his general direction, anyway.
"Well, be that as it may, we're stuck together." The silver haired man pointed out. "My name is Instructor Kakashi...you three, introduce yourselves." he said casually, but it was obvious it was a command, and not a suggestion.
"I'm Sakura." the pink haired girl smiled.
The dark haired guy humphed and said simply: "Sasuke"
The blond boy jumped down from his tree, apparantly having completely forgotten his injured finger and said with feeling: "Naruto here!!!" and plastered another goofy grin on his face.
Mei twitched at the blond's antics, but suppressed the urge to sink her teeth into his flesh again. "I'm Mei, " she said, standing boldly out from behind Guido,
Guido raised his hand in a lazy manner, and said "Guido."
Seda was again staring off into space but answered anyway with "Seda." Instructor Kakashi nodded his head, and a note landed on Mei's head. She sighed "And this would be our Instructor."
While their four new companions looked on, sweatdropping, she pulled the note off her head (an action that was quite routine by now), and read it aloud.
"Good luck on your mission, team! Be good!" It was signed with the ever present smiley face. After reading it out loud she sighed and crumpled it up, throwing it over her shoulder.
Kakashi nodded his head, as if he understood what was going on here. "Well, seeing that your instructor is a piece of paper, I must ask: Do you know what this misson is about?"
"Oh oh, I know this one!" Mei cried, holding up her hand enthusiastically. When everyone had turned their attention to her, she grinned. "We haven't got a clue!" She replied happily.
"I thought so." Kakashi nodded knowingly as if this were all perfectly normal. Sakura, would you care to explain?"
Sakura jumped at the sound of her name then stood forward. "Of course. Our mission is to deliver this bag of...well we don't know what it is because we're not allowed to look at it." She indicated a small plain looking burlap bag, then took a deep breath. "In the spirit of creating links with other nations, we requested help from your village, since the trip will be a long one." having finished, she stood back again.
"But why us?" Mei asked. She didn't see why they were being given this privilege. "I mean sure our town is good for churning out students but there's probably a lot more villages out there with people to spare. We're not exactly a bustling metropolis here you know." What Mei really wanted to know was why their itty bitty town was being given this honor...although she couldn't seem put the words together respectfully.
Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know. My guess is that the village rulers are attempting to bring the smaller villages into the swing of things." He answered. "Since it's only been the main villages getting attention, they feel as if the rest are being left out."
Mei fell silent. She wasn't sure about this whole idea, and she was possibly even more confused than before.
Seda sighed and patted her team-mate's head, "Don't think too hard on it Mei. We were given a job and now we have to do it." Mei stared back at her freaky eyed team-mate. She was entirely all to calm about the whole thing. Even Guido looked annoyed with the assignment.
"Er...can we have some time to gather our things?" Mei asked, holding up her hand.
Seda sighed and crossed a hand over her chest. "The first rule of ninja is to carry everything you need for survival at all times." she recited.
Guido looked at her. "I thought you said the first rule of ninja was to know your limitations." he said with a raised eyebrow.
In the blink of an eye Seda had Guido on the ground with her foot pressed into his back while twisting his arm behind him. "You're right, you must always be aware of your limitations Guido, but that means nothing if you are not prepared for what is to come." The four onlookers were all staring open-mouthed at Seda, even Mei, who had never seen her team-mate act this way before...it was scary.
"Ok, ok, uncle uncle already!" Guido cried desperately. Seda gave his arm one more twist then let him go. Guido rushed to his feet and tried to hide behind Mei to keep away from the psycho girl. Unfortunately Mei, as usual, took it the wrong way.
"Don't touch me, pervert!!!!" She cried, and floored him with one swing of her fist.
"Why me?" Guido complained pathetically as he hit the ground.
Naruto hunched down by the fallen Guido, "Hey man, are you still alive?" he asked, poking him.
"I wish I wasn't..." came the reply, then he promptly passed out from the pain. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "Well it seems that now we will have to spend the night here in your village, since one of us is incapacitated." he pointed to the fallen Guido.
A note fell out of the sky and landed once more on Mei's head. This time it was folded over and sealed, however, and addressed to "Instructor Kakashi." She blinked and handed it to the silver haired instructor. Kakashi opened it and read it, and without divulging any of the contents, nodded. "Seems like it's all settled, then. Let's go." He stuffed the paper in his pocket and wandered down the path towards the town.
Naruto was bouncing up and down as they entered the village "SO Kakashi! where are we gonna stay? In a fancy Inn?"
Kakashi blinked, and looked at Naruto "Right, you three need a place to stay." his students stared at him, unamused by his forgetfulness. "All right, Naruto you can stay with Mei, Sakura with Guido, and Sasuke with Seda." With a wave of his hand he was gone, leaving five very annoyed ninjas, and one unconscious boy in his wake.
Naruto and Mei slowly turned their heads to look at each other. "I have to stay with you?" Naruto complained. "Your not going to bite me again, are you?"
"Not unless you give me reason to." she replied simply, refusing to look at him.
"Hmmm...I wonder how my parents are going to like me having a boy stay with me..." Seda pondered while Sasuke twitched next to her. Sakura was simply obviously disgusted at having the 'pervert as her host.
Seeing that their teacher had already deserted them they could not argue for better accomodations, so Susuke sighed and fell into step behind Seda, leaving the rest of his team-mates to quarrel over the injustice of it all. He counted himself lucky that he didn't have to share a place with the female version of Dead Last or that weakling who was beaten up by girls. Seda at least didnt seem to be a talkative person so he figured it wouldn't be too bad.
Sasuke didn't say a word as they entered the town, and neither did his guide. Several people looked up at the sight of a ninja from another villiage in their town, but didn't say anything about it. At last, Seda reached her house, which was rather large, and opened the door to allow him in. "Mom, I'm home!" she called into the silent house. When she got no answer she shrugged. "Guess they must be out." she said. "Make yourself at home, I'll go have the cook make dinner." She dropped her pack on the floor and left Sasuke to his own devices.
Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and placed his pack down beside Seda's, then began to snoop around. Hey he's a ninja, what would you expect?. He came accross the living area first. There wasn't much in the way of personal stuff, so he moved on. He entered other rooms in the house, all showing a distinct lack of decorating skills, 'Note to sellf: Orange carpet does not go with yellow walls.' He thought to himself.
This bizzare colour scheme prevailed in most of the rooms, he noticed as he ambled aimlessly down a hallway. Finally, however, he came across one without it. In fact, this room didn't have much of anything. The walls were grey, there was very little furnature in it, and everything about it seemed to be...well...grey.
What was with these people? He wondered, as curiosity got the better of him and he entered the room. Compared to the rest of the house this room was a godsend, but compared to anyone else's house it was beyond drab. There was a bed in the corner, and a dresser opposite a comfy looking chair by an open widow. There was also a small bookshelf propped up against one wall.
Sasuke picked up one of the books, which was rather heavy, and opened it. It had plastic sheets instead of paper and instead of words it had little raised dots arranged in patterns. 'Whoever owns this room must be blind.' he thought, running a hand along the little bumps.
"I see you've found my room." a voice said from the doorway. Sasuke glanced up as Seda entered. She wordlessly took the book from his hands, felt the bumps on it's surface, and smiled. "It's probably a good thing you can't read this." she said, and placed the book back where it had been before. "Supper will be ready shortly, so I'll show you to a guest room." She smiled again, and waited patiently for him to answer.
Sasuke was struck dumb for a moment. 'Seda's blind?' he thought incredulously to himself, but nodded and followed her out of the room. He didn't think that a blind person could become a ninja. He studed her movements as Seda lead the way down the hall. 'That would explain why she never really looks at a person ...just in their general area...' He noticed that she didn't need to place her hand on the wall for guidence, nor did she hesitate when it came to corners. 'She must know this house well...' Sasuke thought to himself, 'But it will be very different when we get out into the wild.'
A grey cat jumped out into the hallway in front of her and Sasuke feared for a moment that she would trip over it, behind blind and all. Instead she stopped and waited for the cat to walk by before continuing down the hall. She stopped again in front of an inconspicuous door and opened it. "How about this room?" she asked, letting him take a look.
It was....normal. Sasuke sighed and nodded his head, then remembered that she was blind and couldn't see the motion he had just made. He was about to open his mouth and say it was fine, but Seda nodded her head as if she had actually seen what he'd done. "There's a bathroom down the hall, you should wash up before supper." She told him, then left Sasuke standing in the doorway staring after her in confusion.
Naruto glanced around his new surroundings, and was torn between feeling sorry for the girl and his annoyance at the whole situation. It was a tiny little apartment, with only one small bedroom off to the side. The kitchen area, living room and dining room were all basically combined into one medium sized room, and there was furniture that was apparently designed to move around, obviously intended to allow Mei her space when she needed it. Dispite all of this it was tidy and somewhat nicely decorated. Mei flushed and indicated her humble abode sheepishly. "Well...this is my house..." she said quietly.
"Its..." Naruto started to say, then tried to think of a word to describe it. 'umm small, cozy, nicely decorated...' "Tiny" was the word that poped out oh his mouth. Mei twiched. "Ummm I mean its cozy!" Naruto frantically tried to save himself form the blunder he had made.
Mei turned her head and looked behind her. "No, your right, it's tiny." she agreed with a sigh. "Oh well, come on in, put your stuff...wherever there's some room." She closed the door after him, then took the two steps to her 'kitchen', opened a cupboard, and closed it again almost immediately when she discovered it was almost empty. "Ummmm...." she blushed and opened another cupboard, this time holding two packages of instant noodles. "Ummm....do you like...noodles?" she asked, holding one up and realising it was an incredibly pathetic offering to a guest in her home.
Naruto's eyes suddenly went wide and teary. "You...You have R-Ramen!" he cried happily and attached himself to her leg. Mei was caught off balance by the sudden...attack... and toppled over.
"Gack, leggo!" She cried, trying to shake him off but to no avail. Deciding the ramen was what he wanted, she threw the package at him, and he let go. Naruto sat there, hugging the package of instant ramen with tears in his eyes.
'Gee...does he have noodles on the brain or what?' Mei thought as she watched the blond hug the thing of instant noodles. Naruto looked up to thank Mei, but stopped when he saw the face she was making, -.-' "Umm do you have a tummy ache?" he asked not realizing that she was making the face because of him.
"Ummm, no..." She answered, getting to her face and giving him another look, this time of disbelief. Was he a complete idiot? She ignored the fact that she had been called just that many times in her life. "Would you like me to cook that for you?" she asked, wondering if he was just going to hug it all night.
'I should never have offered ' Mei thought miserably as she once again had a blue eyed blond boy attatched to her leg. She attempted to shake him off but to no avail. At last she was reduced to dragging him along on the ground, still attached to her leg, and just barely made it to the stove without falling over. 'Why me?' She thought as she stretched to her full capacity for a pot hanging above the stove but couldn't quite reach.
Stretched out as she was, Mei almost had ahold of the pot. Unfortunately, she lost her balance, and knocked the pot off its hook as she fell, landing on the floor with the pot on her head. "Why me?" she asked aloud this time, wincing at the echoes within the pot.
The pot was lifted off her head and Naruto looked at her with one eyebrow raised. "Why do you keep falling down?" he asked. Mei could feel a vein in her head start to pop out, and she suppressed the need to call him an idiot. Instead she angrily snatched the Ramen from his hand and stood up, pulling the pot wholly off her head and placing it on the stove.
"Ewww aren't you going to wash that first?" Naruto asked. Mei twitched, turned and was about to lecture him on...anything really, but Naruto was already distracted by the many intresting things that cluttered her small home. Mei was left standing there with her finger raised and a twitch in her eye.
"Ooh, this looks neat." Naruto said, pulling an old scroll off one of her shelves.
"Hey, put that down!" she cried, and snatched it from him. Before she could tell him off, however, he was already on the other side of the room, examining the books on her bookshelf and pulling them out at random.
Seeing that there was no way to stop the little snoop and make ramen at the same time, Mei emptied the contents of one of the ramen packets into the pot and threw the styrofoam container at the blond. It bounced off Naruto's head and he turned to look at her with a confused expression on his face.
She ignored the look and turned around, pulling a large wooden spoon off the same place her pot had been hanging, and put it in the pot with the dry ramen. "When your finished maiming my house, would you go out and get a bucket of water from the barrel outside?" she asked, exasperated.
Naruto was only too happy to comply. 'Anything for ramen,' Mei thought with a sigh as he snatched a bucket and dashed outside. He was back in a few moments, slopping water everywhere in his excitement. The bucket was only half full when he reached her, Mei looked at the bucket then to the wet floor, then to Naruto's grinning face.
"Anything else I can do?" He asked eagerly. Mei twitched and looked beyond his shoulder to the puddles of water soaking into the only strip of carpet in her house, and several more veins appeared on her forehead. She was also turning a slight shade of purple. With a trembling hand she pointed to her sofa. "Just...sit..." she ordered, trying not to lose her temper.
Naruto scratched his head, not really understanding why Mei was so annoyed all the time. With a shrug, however, he brushed off the whole thing and sat on the sofa. Mei sighed and turned back to the still uncooked ramen in front of her. She reached up and pulled the second package off the counter, as she was hungry as well. As she dumped this package in and dipped a ladel into the small bucket of water to measure it, Naruto watched her intently from the sofa. "Is it done yet?" he asked eagerly. In response she threw the second empty package over her shoulder. It landed on his head and stuck into his hair.
"Hey!" Naruto snatched the thing from his head, "Do I look like a garbage can to you?" he demanded. Mei ignored him, she was really not in the mood to look after an annoying brat that trashed her house at a whim.
When he didn't get a response he humphed and hunched back down onto the couch, folding the package absent mindedly. "Sheesh, why are girls so confusing?" he asked to no one in particular. Having nothing more to throw at him, Mei just ignored him and concentrated on the ramen
Guido tried to ignore the pink haired girl following him, an action he felt was for the best, because if he had paid attention to her something would inevitably have happened and Guido would have gotten smacked ...or worse.
He sighed and slumped his shoulders, wondering not for the first time what he had done to deserve the pain and suffering that seemed to plague him wherever he went. Reaching the small house he shared with his father, he opened it quietly, and peered inside nervously for a second. The last person he wanted to see right now was his dad, and he hoped he'd already gone off on the trip he'd been planning.
Seeing that the place was uninhabited, Guido entered with Sakura following close behind him. They had not even exchanged two words the entire trip here, and Sakura had had enough of the silence. "I'ts...nice..." she said politely, while Inner Sakura cursed 'DAMN!DAMN!DAMN! WHY Couldn't I be with Sasuke?!'
"Thanks, I..." He started, when a the door opened once more, revealing a tall man who had dark hair and was wearing a suit. Guido paled, dreading what was to come next. The man, his father, stared at him for a moment, then stared at Sakura, then back at him again. For a moment Sakura was afraid he was going to be angry, but he suddenly broke into a huge grin and jumped over to slap his son on the back in congratulations
His eyes were filled with tears, "I-I'm SO PROUD OF YOU, SON!" he cried, and engulfed Guido in a bear hug. Sakura was standing as far back from the man as she could.
Guido looked very unamused as his father let go of him and slapped him on the back again so hard he almost fell over. His father turned to Sakura and nodded appreciatively. "Ooh, and she's a pretty one, too! Good work son!"
Guido twitched. "It's not like that!" he complained.
"Ohhhhh..." His father rubbed his chin and gave his son a skeptical look, "Reeeealy?" He asked, his eyes glinting.
Guido flushed even more 'W-what is he implying?' he thought to himself, and backed up a little as his dad moved his face so that it was inches from his own. "Then WHAT is it?" his father asked, leaning even closer. Involuntarily, Guido leaned back more to get out of his father's reach.
"It's...she has to stay here for the night..." Guido said, caught off guard, then immediately wished he hadn't said anything. His dad positively glowed with pride, tears streaming down his cheek.
"Ahh my son! I knew you would someday follow in my footsteps! This is a proud day for fathers everywhere when..." Guido left his father to his ranting, grabbed Sakura's hand and dragged her upstairs.
Sakura was too stunned by the display she'd just witnessed to even think of resisting, but as soon as they were away from Guido's father she nailed him in the back of the head with her elbow. "Y-you .... You..." Sakura tried dasperately to think of a name to call him, but Guido supplied one himself.
"Pervert?" he suggested, rubbing his sore head.
Sakura blinked, and collapsed cross legged on the floor and seemed to brood to himself. For a pervert he was sure...non pervertish. "Um...are you ok?" she asked, feeling slightly guilty for causing the huge lump that was forming on his head.
"Don't worry, this is nothing, compared to the beatings I get from Mei." he said with a lazy wave and a sigh.
The silence between them was a bit unsettling for Sakura, so she said the first thing that popped into her head. "Um, your dad seems..." again she tred to think of what to say, and again Guido finished her sentence for her.
"Perverted?" He sighed and closed his eyes.
"Um, yeah..." Sakura answered and shuffled over to sit next to him. "What's up with him, anyway?"
Guido looked at her with eyes that were tired and worn. "He's been like that ever since I can remember...no wonder the whole village thinks I'm some kind of inherent pervert." He looked back at the floor and sighed again. "No wonder my mom would never want a child of his living with her..." He stood up and walked up to a bookshelf, and fingered the spines of his ninja books, something his father had never understood about him.
Sakura looked at him in the dim light, 'he looks so sad...and he's not all that bad looking....' Her thoughts were interrupted by Inner Sakura 'WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! SASUKE'S #1! SA-SU-KE! SA-SU-KE! SA-SU-KE!!' Sakura twitched a little as Inner Sakura chanted away. Guido turned to look at his guest, "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Umm...I'm fine." Sakura smiled sheepishly, waving it away with her hand. He looked at her skeptically, then pulled a book out at random and opened it.
"You probably think I'm some kind of sick-o, too..." He mused, flipping absent mindedly through the pages. "Don't worry, I'm used to it by now, even though I haven't done anything to earn it..."
Again Sakura was struck by how good he looked, and again inner Sakura squashed those thoughts, but that was okay because Guido continued talking.
"I almost wish I had done something wrong...then maybe it wouldn't hurt so much..." he sighed and looked at Sakura. "Do you know how much it hurts to be accused of something you've never done?" he asked.
"Well...no not really." Sakura confessed. "Must be tough, though." She added with sympathy.
Guido blinked, then smiled. "That's the nicest thing a girl's ever said to me." he told her. "You just made my day, thanks." he smiled again. "And I'm sorry about my dad...you won't have to worry about him because he'll have to leave soon anyway..." A quick door slam from downstairs confirmed this. He put the book down on a table. "Umm...I guess you can stay in the guest room, I'll just have to get rid of dad's...er...decorations first." He blushed. "I suggest you wait here till I'm done...it's really not something a lady should have to see."
Sakura twitched and tried not to run away screaming at the mere thought of what might be 'unsuitable for a lady.' She sighed and drew her legs up to hug them.. "Well I guess things could be worse...I could be with Naruto!" she then thought of how things could be so much better, 'DAMN THAT SEDA! SHE HAD BETTER NOT TUCH HIM!' Inner Sakura ranted.
"Damn that teacher..." Mei grumbled, gasping for breath. She reached up a hand to block out the sun, which was glaring down at her, but something else did it for her. Curious, she opened her eyes a crack. Her vision was met by a pair of blue eyes, blond spiky hair and a goofy grin. She was about to open her mouth to ask the oh-so-important question, when a finger poked her in the nose.
"Do you always lie around in the middle of the woods?" The blond guy asked, grinning. Mei thought he looked somewhat like a cat or something with his grinning face and the weird lines on either cheek.
"Ummm..." She began, not entirely sure how to explain the situation.
The blond cocked his head to the side, "What? Cat got your tounge?" he commented at Mei's failure to answer, seeming to have completely forgotten that he still had his finger attached to her nose. Mei was getting a tad annoyed at this, so she did the only thing she could think of. She Bit. She bit hard on the offending finger.
The guy yelled and withdrew his finger immediately, retreating to the safety of a nearby tree. "Hey!" He called down at her angrily, cradling his injured appendage, "What was that for?!"
"...Remind me never to touch your nose." Guido pointed out, getting to his feet and brushing himself off, then inching away from Mei, who had that murderous look in her eyes again.
Mei stood up and glared at the guy hiding in the tree, "That's for sticking your finger were it DOSEN'T BELONG!" she grabbed a throwing star form her pouch and was about to throw it at the blond when a hand clamped over her wrist.
"Now, now, Children." said a cheery voice beside her. Mei looked up into the single eye of a silver haired man, he seemed to be smiling but his mouth was covered with a black mask so Mei couldn't tell.
"Wha..." Mei blinked. Where had this guy come from? The man let go of her wrist and stood up to his full height, while Mei retreated to safety behind Guido.
"So you're who they sent?" the one eyed guy asked, looking the three of them over. As he spoke, two others approached from behind him, a dark haired and very unamused looking boy and a pink haired girl in a red outfit.
Mei looked, confused, at each of the new persons then back to her teammates. Guido had a serious look on his face, like he always did when he fought. 'The guy might be a pervert but he's a good fighter.', Mei thought to herself. Seda was... well not really looking at anything, but more or less staring in the direction of the intruders. Mei was racking her brain for something to say when Seda answered for them.
"If you are the ninjas from Konoha, then yes."
"They send these weak ninjas to help us." The black haired guy said, not looking at them. "They must not have much faith in us..." He added quietly.
"Hey, we aren't weak!" Mei cried, pointing a finger at them. "Our instructor told us that we were capable enough for this task, because we are!" She added dramatically.
The guy looked around, then looked back at the three low level ninjas.
"So where is your instructor, then?" he asked.
Mei turned pale and twitched. "Well uh..." she stuttered.
"We've never met our instructor." Seda answered for Mei, who was having a difficult time trying to explain why their instructor was not there.
The dark haired boy turned to look at Seda, and Mei could have sworn Seda actually took interest in this because she turned and looked at him...well looked in his general direction, anyway.
"Well, be that as it may, we're stuck together." The silver haired man pointed out. "My name is Instructor Kakashi...you three, introduce yourselves." he said casually, but it was obvious it was a command, and not a suggestion.
"I'm Sakura." the pink haired girl smiled.
The dark haired guy humphed and said simply: "Sasuke"
The blond boy jumped down from his tree, apparantly having completely forgotten his injured finger and said with feeling: "Naruto here!!!" and plastered another goofy grin on his face.
Mei twitched at the blond's antics, but suppressed the urge to sink her teeth into his flesh again. "I'm Mei, " she said, standing boldly out from behind Guido,
Guido raised his hand in a lazy manner, and said "Guido."
Seda was again staring off into space but answered anyway with "Seda." Instructor Kakashi nodded his head, and a note landed on Mei's head. She sighed "And this would be our Instructor."
While their four new companions looked on, sweatdropping, she pulled the note off her head (an action that was quite routine by now), and read it aloud.
"Good luck on your mission, team! Be good!" It was signed with the ever present smiley face. After reading it out loud she sighed and crumpled it up, throwing it over her shoulder.
Kakashi nodded his head, as if he understood what was going on here. "Well, seeing that your instructor is a piece of paper, I must ask: Do you know what this misson is about?"
"Oh oh, I know this one!" Mei cried, holding up her hand enthusiastically. When everyone had turned their attention to her, she grinned. "We haven't got a clue!" She replied happily.
"I thought so." Kakashi nodded knowingly as if this were all perfectly normal. Sakura, would you care to explain?"
Sakura jumped at the sound of her name then stood forward. "Of course. Our mission is to deliver this bag of...well we don't know what it is because we're not allowed to look at it." She indicated a small plain looking burlap bag, then took a deep breath. "In the spirit of creating links with other nations, we requested help from your village, since the trip will be a long one." having finished, she stood back again.
"But why us?" Mei asked. She didn't see why they were being given this privilege. "I mean sure our town is good for churning out students but there's probably a lot more villages out there with people to spare. We're not exactly a bustling metropolis here you know." What Mei really wanted to know was why their itty bitty town was being given this honor...although she couldn't seem put the words together respectfully.
Kakashi shrugged. "I don't know. My guess is that the village rulers are attempting to bring the smaller villages into the swing of things." He answered. "Since it's only been the main villages getting attention, they feel as if the rest are being left out."
Mei fell silent. She wasn't sure about this whole idea, and she was possibly even more confused than before.
Seda sighed and patted her team-mate's head, "Don't think too hard on it Mei. We were given a job and now we have to do it." Mei stared back at her freaky eyed team-mate. She was entirely all to calm about the whole thing. Even Guido looked annoyed with the assignment.
"Er...can we have some time to gather our things?" Mei asked, holding up her hand.
Seda sighed and crossed a hand over her chest. "The first rule of ninja is to carry everything you need for survival at all times." she recited.
Guido looked at her. "I thought you said the first rule of ninja was to know your limitations." he said with a raised eyebrow.
In the blink of an eye Seda had Guido on the ground with her foot pressed into his back while twisting his arm behind him. "You're right, you must always be aware of your limitations Guido, but that means nothing if you are not prepared for what is to come." The four onlookers were all staring open-mouthed at Seda, even Mei, who had never seen her team-mate act this way before...it was scary.
"Ok, ok, uncle uncle already!" Guido cried desperately. Seda gave his arm one more twist then let him go. Guido rushed to his feet and tried to hide behind Mei to keep away from the psycho girl. Unfortunately Mei, as usual, took it the wrong way.
"Don't touch me, pervert!!!!" She cried, and floored him with one swing of her fist.
"Why me?" Guido complained pathetically as he hit the ground.
Naruto hunched down by the fallen Guido, "Hey man, are you still alive?" he asked, poking him.
"I wish I wasn't..." came the reply, then he promptly passed out from the pain. Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "Well it seems that now we will have to spend the night here in your village, since one of us is incapacitated." he pointed to the fallen Guido.
A note fell out of the sky and landed once more on Mei's head. This time it was folded over and sealed, however, and addressed to "Instructor Kakashi." She blinked and handed it to the silver haired instructor. Kakashi opened it and read it, and without divulging any of the contents, nodded. "Seems like it's all settled, then. Let's go." He stuffed the paper in his pocket and wandered down the path towards the town.
Naruto was bouncing up and down as they entered the village "SO Kakashi! where are we gonna stay? In a fancy Inn?"
Kakashi blinked, and looked at Naruto "Right, you three need a place to stay." his students stared at him, unamused by his forgetfulness. "All right, Naruto you can stay with Mei, Sakura with Guido, and Sasuke with Seda." With a wave of his hand he was gone, leaving five very annoyed ninjas, and one unconscious boy in his wake.
Naruto and Mei slowly turned their heads to look at each other. "I have to stay with you?" Naruto complained. "Your not going to bite me again, are you?"
"Not unless you give me reason to." she replied simply, refusing to look at him.
"Hmmm...I wonder how my parents are going to like me having a boy stay with me..." Seda pondered while Sasuke twitched next to her. Sakura was simply obviously disgusted at having the 'pervert as her host.
Seeing that their teacher had already deserted them they could not argue for better accomodations, so Susuke sighed and fell into step behind Seda, leaving the rest of his team-mates to quarrel over the injustice of it all. He counted himself lucky that he didn't have to share a place with the female version of Dead Last or that weakling who was beaten up by girls. Seda at least didnt seem to be a talkative person so he figured it wouldn't be too bad.
Sasuke didn't say a word as they entered the town, and neither did his guide. Several people looked up at the sight of a ninja from another villiage in their town, but didn't say anything about it. At last, Seda reached her house, which was rather large, and opened the door to allow him in. "Mom, I'm home!" she called into the silent house. When she got no answer she shrugged. "Guess they must be out." she said. "Make yourself at home, I'll go have the cook make dinner." She dropped her pack on the floor and left Sasuke to his own devices.
Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and placed his pack down beside Seda's, then began to snoop around. Hey he's a ninja, what would you expect?. He came accross the living area first. There wasn't much in the way of personal stuff, so he moved on. He entered other rooms in the house, all showing a distinct lack of decorating skills, 'Note to sellf: Orange carpet does not go with yellow walls.' He thought to himself.
This bizzare colour scheme prevailed in most of the rooms, he noticed as he ambled aimlessly down a hallway. Finally, however, he came across one without it. In fact, this room didn't have much of anything. The walls were grey, there was very little furnature in it, and everything about it seemed to be...well...grey.
What was with these people? He wondered, as curiosity got the better of him and he entered the room. Compared to the rest of the house this room was a godsend, but compared to anyone else's house it was beyond drab. There was a bed in the corner, and a dresser opposite a comfy looking chair by an open widow. There was also a small bookshelf propped up against one wall.
Sasuke picked up one of the books, which was rather heavy, and opened it. It had plastic sheets instead of paper and instead of words it had little raised dots arranged in patterns. 'Whoever owns this room must be blind.' he thought, running a hand along the little bumps.
"I see you've found my room." a voice said from the doorway. Sasuke glanced up as Seda entered. She wordlessly took the book from his hands, felt the bumps on it's surface, and smiled. "It's probably a good thing you can't read this." she said, and placed the book back where it had been before. "Supper will be ready shortly, so I'll show you to a guest room." She smiled again, and waited patiently for him to answer.
Sasuke was struck dumb for a moment. 'Seda's blind?' he thought incredulously to himself, but nodded and followed her out of the room. He didn't think that a blind person could become a ninja. He studed her movements as Seda lead the way down the hall. 'That would explain why she never really looks at a person ...just in their general area...' He noticed that she didn't need to place her hand on the wall for guidence, nor did she hesitate when it came to corners. 'She must know this house well...' Sasuke thought to himself, 'But it will be very different when we get out into the wild.'
A grey cat jumped out into the hallway in front of her and Sasuke feared for a moment that she would trip over it, behind blind and all. Instead she stopped and waited for the cat to walk by before continuing down the hall. She stopped again in front of an inconspicuous door and opened it. "How about this room?" she asked, letting him take a look.
It was....normal. Sasuke sighed and nodded his head, then remembered that she was blind and couldn't see the motion he had just made. He was about to open his mouth and say it was fine, but Seda nodded her head as if she had actually seen what he'd done. "There's a bathroom down the hall, you should wash up before supper." She told him, then left Sasuke standing in the doorway staring after her in confusion.
Naruto glanced around his new surroundings, and was torn between feeling sorry for the girl and his annoyance at the whole situation. It was a tiny little apartment, with only one small bedroom off to the side. The kitchen area, living room and dining room were all basically combined into one medium sized room, and there was furniture that was apparently designed to move around, obviously intended to allow Mei her space when she needed it. Dispite all of this it was tidy and somewhat nicely decorated. Mei flushed and indicated her humble abode sheepishly. "Well...this is my house..." she said quietly.
"Its..." Naruto started to say, then tried to think of a word to describe it. 'umm small, cozy, nicely decorated...' "Tiny" was the word that poped out oh his mouth. Mei twiched. "Ummm I mean its cozy!" Naruto frantically tried to save himself form the blunder he had made.
Mei turned her head and looked behind her. "No, your right, it's tiny." she agreed with a sigh. "Oh well, come on in, put your stuff...wherever there's some room." She closed the door after him, then took the two steps to her 'kitchen', opened a cupboard, and closed it again almost immediately when she discovered it was almost empty. "Ummmm...." she blushed and opened another cupboard, this time holding two packages of instant noodles. "Ummm....do you like...noodles?" she asked, holding one up and realising it was an incredibly pathetic offering to a guest in her home.
Naruto's eyes suddenly went wide and teary. "You...You have R-Ramen!" he cried happily and attached himself to her leg. Mei was caught off balance by the sudden...attack... and toppled over.
"Gack, leggo!" She cried, trying to shake him off but to no avail. Deciding the ramen was what he wanted, she threw the package at him, and he let go. Naruto sat there, hugging the package of instant ramen with tears in his eyes.
'Gee...does he have noodles on the brain or what?' Mei thought as she watched the blond hug the thing of instant noodles. Naruto looked up to thank Mei, but stopped when he saw the face she was making, -.-' "Umm do you have a tummy ache?" he asked not realizing that she was making the face because of him.
"Ummm, no..." She answered, getting to her face and giving him another look, this time of disbelief. Was he a complete idiot? She ignored the fact that she had been called just that many times in her life. "Would you like me to cook that for you?" she asked, wondering if he was just going to hug it all night.
'I should never have offered ' Mei thought miserably as she once again had a blue eyed blond boy attatched to her leg. She attempted to shake him off but to no avail. At last she was reduced to dragging him along on the ground, still attached to her leg, and just barely made it to the stove without falling over. 'Why me?' She thought as she stretched to her full capacity for a pot hanging above the stove but couldn't quite reach.
Stretched out as she was, Mei almost had ahold of the pot. Unfortunately, she lost her balance, and knocked the pot off its hook as she fell, landing on the floor with the pot on her head. "Why me?" she asked aloud this time, wincing at the echoes within the pot.
The pot was lifted off her head and Naruto looked at her with one eyebrow raised. "Why do you keep falling down?" he asked. Mei could feel a vein in her head start to pop out, and she suppressed the need to call him an idiot. Instead she angrily snatched the Ramen from his hand and stood up, pulling the pot wholly off her head and placing it on the stove.
"Ewww aren't you going to wash that first?" Naruto asked. Mei twitched, turned and was about to lecture him on...anything really, but Naruto was already distracted by the many intresting things that cluttered her small home. Mei was left standing there with her finger raised and a twitch in her eye.
"Ooh, this looks neat." Naruto said, pulling an old scroll off one of her shelves.
"Hey, put that down!" she cried, and snatched it from him. Before she could tell him off, however, he was already on the other side of the room, examining the books on her bookshelf and pulling them out at random.
Seeing that there was no way to stop the little snoop and make ramen at the same time, Mei emptied the contents of one of the ramen packets into the pot and threw the styrofoam container at the blond. It bounced off Naruto's head and he turned to look at her with a confused expression on his face.
She ignored the look and turned around, pulling a large wooden spoon off the same place her pot had been hanging, and put it in the pot with the dry ramen. "When your finished maiming my house, would you go out and get a bucket of water from the barrel outside?" she asked, exasperated.
Naruto was only too happy to comply. 'Anything for ramen,' Mei thought with a sigh as he snatched a bucket and dashed outside. He was back in a few moments, slopping water everywhere in his excitement. The bucket was only half full when he reached her, Mei looked at the bucket then to the wet floor, then to Naruto's grinning face.
"Anything else I can do?" He asked eagerly. Mei twitched and looked beyond his shoulder to the puddles of water soaking into the only strip of carpet in her house, and several more veins appeared on her forehead. She was also turning a slight shade of purple. With a trembling hand she pointed to her sofa. "Just...sit..." she ordered, trying not to lose her temper.
Naruto scratched his head, not really understanding why Mei was so annoyed all the time. With a shrug, however, he brushed off the whole thing and sat on the sofa. Mei sighed and turned back to the still uncooked ramen in front of her. She reached up and pulled the second package off the counter, as she was hungry as well. As she dumped this package in and dipped a ladel into the small bucket of water to measure it, Naruto watched her intently from the sofa. "Is it done yet?" he asked eagerly. In response she threw the second empty package over her shoulder. It landed on his head and stuck into his hair.
"Hey!" Naruto snatched the thing from his head, "Do I look like a garbage can to you?" he demanded. Mei ignored him, she was really not in the mood to look after an annoying brat that trashed her house at a whim.
When he didn't get a response he humphed and hunched back down onto the couch, folding the package absent mindedly. "Sheesh, why are girls so confusing?" he asked to no one in particular. Having nothing more to throw at him, Mei just ignored him and concentrated on the ramen
Guido tried to ignore the pink haired girl following him, an action he felt was for the best, because if he had paid attention to her something would inevitably have happened and Guido would have gotten smacked ...or worse.
He sighed and slumped his shoulders, wondering not for the first time what he had done to deserve the pain and suffering that seemed to plague him wherever he went. Reaching the small house he shared with his father, he opened it quietly, and peered inside nervously for a second. The last person he wanted to see right now was his dad, and he hoped he'd already gone off on the trip he'd been planning.
Seeing that the place was uninhabited, Guido entered with Sakura following close behind him. They had not even exchanged two words the entire trip here, and Sakura had had enough of the silence. "I'ts...nice..." she said politely, while Inner Sakura cursed 'DAMN!DAMN!DAMN! WHY Couldn't I be with Sasuke?!'
"Thanks, I..." He started, when a the door opened once more, revealing a tall man who had dark hair and was wearing a suit. Guido paled, dreading what was to come next. The man, his father, stared at him for a moment, then stared at Sakura, then back at him again. For a moment Sakura was afraid he was going to be angry, but he suddenly broke into a huge grin and jumped over to slap his son on the back in congratulations
His eyes were filled with tears, "I-I'm SO PROUD OF YOU, SON!" he cried, and engulfed Guido in a bear hug. Sakura was standing as far back from the man as she could.
Guido looked very unamused as his father let go of him and slapped him on the back again so hard he almost fell over. His father turned to Sakura and nodded appreciatively. "Ooh, and she's a pretty one, too! Good work son!"
Guido twitched. "It's not like that!" he complained.
"Ohhhhh..." His father rubbed his chin and gave his son a skeptical look, "Reeeealy?" He asked, his eyes glinting.
Guido flushed even more 'W-what is he implying?' he thought to himself, and backed up a little as his dad moved his face so that it was inches from his own. "Then WHAT is it?" his father asked, leaning even closer. Involuntarily, Guido leaned back more to get out of his father's reach.
"It's...she has to stay here for the night..." Guido said, caught off guard, then immediately wished he hadn't said anything. His dad positively glowed with pride, tears streaming down his cheek.
"Ahh my son! I knew you would someday follow in my footsteps! This is a proud day for fathers everywhere when..." Guido left his father to his ranting, grabbed Sakura's hand and dragged her upstairs.
Sakura was too stunned by the display she'd just witnessed to even think of resisting, but as soon as they were away from Guido's father she nailed him in the back of the head with her elbow. "Y-you .... You..." Sakura tried dasperately to think of a name to call him, but Guido supplied one himself.
"Pervert?" he suggested, rubbing his sore head.
Sakura blinked, and collapsed cross legged on the floor and seemed to brood to himself. For a pervert he was sure...non pervertish. "Um...are you ok?" she asked, feeling slightly guilty for causing the huge lump that was forming on his head.
"Don't worry, this is nothing, compared to the beatings I get from Mei." he said with a lazy wave and a sigh.
The silence between them was a bit unsettling for Sakura, so she said the first thing that popped into her head. "Um, your dad seems..." again she tred to think of what to say, and again Guido finished her sentence for her.
"Perverted?" He sighed and closed his eyes.
"Um, yeah..." Sakura answered and shuffled over to sit next to him. "What's up with him, anyway?"
Guido looked at her with eyes that were tired and worn. "He's been like that ever since I can remember...no wonder the whole village thinks I'm some kind of inherent pervert." He looked back at the floor and sighed again. "No wonder my mom would never want a child of his living with her..." He stood up and walked up to a bookshelf, and fingered the spines of his ninja books, something his father had never understood about him.
Sakura looked at him in the dim light, 'he looks so sad...and he's not all that bad looking....' Her thoughts were interrupted by Inner Sakura 'WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! SASUKE'S #1! SA-SU-KE! SA-SU-KE! SA-SU-KE!!' Sakura twitched a little as Inner Sakura chanted away. Guido turned to look at his guest, "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Umm...I'm fine." Sakura smiled sheepishly, waving it away with her hand. He looked at her skeptically, then pulled a book out at random and opened it.
"You probably think I'm some kind of sick-o, too..." He mused, flipping absent mindedly through the pages. "Don't worry, I'm used to it by now, even though I haven't done anything to earn it..."
Again Sakura was struck by how good he looked, and again inner Sakura squashed those thoughts, but that was okay because Guido continued talking.
"I almost wish I had done something wrong...then maybe it wouldn't hurt so much..." he sighed and looked at Sakura. "Do you know how much it hurts to be accused of something you've never done?" he asked.
"Well...no not really." Sakura confessed. "Must be tough, though." She added with sympathy.
Guido blinked, then smiled. "That's the nicest thing a girl's ever said to me." he told her. "You just made my day, thanks." he smiled again. "And I'm sorry about my dad...you won't have to worry about him because he'll have to leave soon anyway..." A quick door slam from downstairs confirmed this. He put the book down on a table. "Umm...I guess you can stay in the guest room, I'll just have to get rid of dad's...er...decorations first." He blushed. "I suggest you wait here till I'm done...it's really not something a lady should have to see."
Sakura twitched and tried not to run away screaming at the mere thought of what might be 'unsuitable for a lady.' She sighed and drew her legs up to hug them.. "Well I guess things could be worse...I could be with Naruto!" she then thought of how things could be so much better, 'DAMN THAT SEDA! SHE HAD BETTER NOT TUCH HIM!' Inner Sakura ranted.