Author's Note:
Eva: Okay, we get back from school, and we check our reviews and there's one that says 'It's the 29th! Update!' PATIENCE PEOPLE! Give us a chance to breathe first. -.-;;;;
I am very proud of myself. I wrote a lot of this chapter. Almost all of it. And we meet people. And I get to read my porn. XDDDDDD And Claire's being bitchy…. -.-
But we made a new friend at school. Her name's Alyssa. She's cool. Yeah.
Claire: You are so random and pointless. DX
It irks me.
Yeah, though, we only got out of school forty minutes ago (13 of which Eva spent typing her pointless author's note)! And then we have to go through and do last minute editing and add our author's notes and…yeah! So there!
Eva: …You counted…?
Leah: -playing Kingdom Hearts-
Claire: Finally! I've been trying to get her to play it for years. And so last weekend I forced my Playstation 2 on her to give her no excuse not to. :D
Chapter 6:
"…and then the ANBU will come out and attack Hidan and Kakuzu. Kakuzu should hold them off and more than likely die in the process. Hidan sneaks into Tsunade's office and by that time Zetsu, Itachi, and Kisame should have Tsunade in captivity. If she resists questioning, Hidan can kill Shizune thus making her think that you'll go through with all of your threats. Deidara hovers above the city with all bombs ready to be detonated at his will unless Tsunade tells us where the girls are. Since she'll consider the safety of her village over the girls, she'll give them up and you can all leave. Deidara will stay poised until you all get a good enough head start, and then he will leave without blowing up the city. So that's the plan with minimal loss of life," she said, labeling the said positions on her map of Konoha.
Kakuzu raised his hand, "Why do I die in six of seven of your plans?"
"Because I hate you," Charli said simply.
"Better question," Kisame said, "Why are we listening to an eleven year old?"
Charli rolled her eyes at his inferior intelligence, "Because I happen to know what I'm talking about."
They all went quiet and looked to Leader, who was looking at the map for the first plan of Charli's that didn't involve anyone dying.
"Leader-sama?" Tobi asked, "Why are you listening to her?"
Pein blinked, realizing how weird this was, but made no other facial expressions that would give away his feelings. He was a grown man with a lot more shinobi experience, life experience, and higher intelligence, yet he was paying attention. He turned his ringed, glowing eyes in Tobi's direction. "Don't question my judgment."
Charli turned toward Pein, smiling in her sickly cute way, blue eyes sparkling with admiration and hope that only little kids could ever possess. Pein sighed and pushed the first map towards her, deciding that that would be the best plan of action, "We'll do this one. Do you think you and Konan can be ready in an hour?"
Charli smiled, "You're really going to use one of my plans? Golly Leader, I didn't know that your God-like stature would allow for that," she said innocently as she skipped around the table to where Konan was standing. "I'll be ready in a few minutes," she answered. She then smiled at Konan, "Isn't this great? We'll be like mother and daughter." She chuckled darkly and skipped out of the room.
XxX
Standing there, with his white open shirt, ninja katana, butt-belt, and looking more like a duck than ever, was Uchiha Sasuke.
"Hello to you, too," Claire sniffed.
"Whoa," Eva said, blinking, "We're getting kidnapped…while we're kidnapped." She sounded like a high hippy.
"No shit Sherlock," Leah snapped at her unhappily.
Sasuke made a motion with his hand, and simultaneously, three people moved behind the girls and hit them on the head, knocking them out. They fell to the ground, and were lifted onto their attackers' shoulders and carried out of Konoha, the rain still falling through the sky onto the muddy street.
xXx
When the girls finally regained consciousness, they were bound with some strange black ropes, though their unusual smooth texture did not stop them from completely restricting the girls' movement. It took a few more seconds for their eyes to focus, but when they did, the girls looked down and realized that their bindings were snakes. The scaly reptiles reared their heads up and angled their beady black eyes towards their captives.
Leah and Claire both gasped, at first appearing to have a look of horror, but within seconds their expressions changed to idiotic grins. "SNAKIES!!!" they squealed.
Eva on the other hand, craned her neck as far away as possible. Her expression of fear and disgust was genuine. "Ehh….snakes…I don't like snakes…."
"How can you hate them? They're so cute!" Claire crooned uncharacteristically.
"Yeah, they're too cool to be scary," Leah added with a smile.
The ditzy girl ignored them, choosing to look around at their new kidnapping site instead. What she saw was slightly disturbing. Karin, Juugo, and Suigetsu were in front of them and looking through their bags. Eva nudged the other two as best she could while bound to get them to notice. At first this struck them as annoying and a violation of privacy, but then they realized it was good, as it meant their bags were at least there. They were in the middle of a clearing of rocks and dirt surrounded by the same types of trees they had seen bordering Konoha. Off to their left was a camp-fire, and two simple tents were set up next to it.
Juugo, who was looking through Eva's bag, held up her iPod by the headphones. "What's this?"
Eva's eyes widened in horror. "Drop it."
He looked it up curiously, twisting the cord so that it swiveled slightly. "Is it a weapon, a communication device?"
"It plays music," she protested. "It's harmless, I swear! Don't break it!"
He pressed a button and the sounds of the band Thrice began to blast out of the speakers.
He winced at the sound, but seemed to be satisfied that the little square of metal wasn't dangerous. "Fine…." He pressed a couple buttons until it stopped playing music and set it aside.
Karin pulled a teal plushy, part of the Ugly Doll collection, out of Leah's bag. "What the hell is this ugly thing?" she asked, holding as far away from her as she could and inching her fingers towards the end so as little as possible of her skin had to touch the offending object.
All three of the girls gasped. Eva proclaimed, "How dare you call it ugly you foul little slut!"
Her cold eyes turned to her dangerously and her glasses flashed. "Excuse me?"
"I apologize, perhaps I wasn't loud enough." She cleared her throat, and then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU CALL GREG IN ALL HIS HOTNESS, UGLY? YOU ARE A FOUL BEING THAT DISGRACES THE NAME OF WHORE!"
Suigetsu chuckled darkly. "I like this chick…." He turned to his distressed red-haired team-mate. "She's just met you and has already read you like an open book!"
Juugo, who decided to continue the conversation without adding insults of his own, frowned. "It most definitely is ugly." He was talking about Greg.
Suigetsu shrugged. "I think it's damn sexy."
"Greg is the sexiest thing that ever was or will be in existence," Leah said.
"He's is too hot to be sexy, or even sexy-fine, he is hot-sexy-fine," Claire added.
"He's too hot for you," Eva said to Karin.
Karin was furious. "Don't you dare change the subject! You," she pointed at Eva. "You insulted me and—"
Claire snickered, cutting her off. "Eva, I don't think it was possible for you to make a worse impression."
Eva had a smug and rather proud smile on her face. "On the contrary, I was holding back."
"I was talking!" Karin protested.
"Um…do you think we could get…unwrapped?" Leah mumbled softly, as always being the most rational in the situation. Her eyes were avoiding everyone's, and she was completely still. Karin huffed and went back to looking through Leah's things.
Sasuke was the only one who had been out of view and had not yet spoken. He sniffed and the girls were alerted to his presence, so they attempted to crane their necks around to look at him. "You'll be released when you tell me where Itachi is," he said.
The girls said nothing.
Sasuke took their silence as an indicator that they wanted him to directly state the question before answering. He looked at Claire. "Where is Itachi?"
"No comment," she replied with a mocking yawn. He raised an eyebrow and shifted his gaze towards Eva expectantly.
She said simply, "Greg forbids me to tell you. I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not."
He retained his cold and unamused scowl. "Fine. Continue your feeble attempts at humor. You'll simply stay wrapped up until you feel like telling me." Sasuke walked away, and his team continued rummaging through the girls' bags. It was then that Eva realized what Suigetsu was holding in his hand.
She swallowed nervously. If she pissed him off it wouldn't be good. She carefully formulated her sentence in her head before saying it aloud so she didn't seem hostile. "I am going to get my sword back, right?"
He looked at her curiously. "This is yours? I could have sworn it was mine."
"Yeah, it was in my belt. I got it at the festival a couple days ago…."
He looked at her strangely. "It's a nice sword; the color scheme isn't something you see very often."
"I know. And it's mine." She was beginning to get worried that she wouldn't be getting it back.
"And because it's a decent sword, and it belongs to our prisoner," he had a grin on his face, displaying pointy teeth, "it is now my sword."
'Oh you fagball…' she thought angrily, but said, "No. No it is not. You're going to give it back to me because eventually I will be un-bound, and when that happens I will want to train, which is something I cannot do without my sword."
"So you can't train." He shrugged, uncaring. "You probably suck anyways." He continued looking through Claire's bag.
Claire was simply extremely happy that she hadn't put anything of value in her bag. The only expensive things that she had even brought to Konoha were her cell phone and her iPod; both of which were safely in her pocket. There was only one thing that she was worried about. She found out a few seconds later that she was completely justified in her worries. "Don't touch my Pocky."
Suigetsu looked up at her with a very large grin. "But I do so love strawberry pocky. In fact, I think I'll eat it now." And he did. He ripped off the cardboard top unceremoniously, and tore off the plastic wrapping with his teeth before shoving all of the pocky sticks into his mouth at once.
Claire's eyes shot bullets straight through his flesh. "Sleep with your eyes open, bitch," she spat at him.
He laughed sadistically, and it was cut off only when he poured the other bag of pocky down his throat. Suigetsu pulled out his water-bottle and chugged what was left in it down before flashing another grin at Claire. Then, the three members of Team Hebi picked up their bags and walked away to the campfire, where Sasuke was waiting.
One of the snakes wrapped around Eva brought its head up to her face again and hissed.
"GAH!!! Get it away from me!" She froze, not moving but eyeing the snake warily. "Meh…," her voice was shaky and, from a ninja's point of view, pathetic to the point of hilarity.
Karin casually wandered back over to them, perhaps thinking she would be a more successful interrogator. "So you guys survived the Akatsuki for…how many months?"
"A few," Claire replied vaguely.
"Was Itachi even there?" Karin asked.
"Yes."
She narrowed her eyes. "Then why won't you tell Sasuke about him?"
"Oh, I don't know, probably because we like his brother better," Eva snapped irritably.
"His brother killed their entire clan!" Karin yelled, shocked that they could be this stupid.
"If they were so weak that they could be taken out by one person, then they were long overdue!" Eva said.
Leah glared at her since she was the one who came up with that in the first place. She remained silent.
Karin scoffed and walked away. Eva smiled smugly. "Tee hee, I made her leave."
"Eva…you're going to die," Leah said sorrowfully, but seriously.
She blinked. "Yeah, probably."
They were ignored by Team Hebi for several hours.
Then…
"Um…Sasuke?" Eva muttered, barely loud enough for him to hear.
He looked at her.
"I have to pee."
"Deal with it."
She blinked, eyes widening. "That's just cruel!"
"Nasty bastard," Claire added disdainfully.
"Would you like to tell me something about Itachi, then?"
Eva searched her memory. Something that was relevant enough to getting her out of her slithery wrappings that didn't actually give away anything important. "He got—"
"Oi! Why the fuck are you talking?! As if you meant to say something?!" Claire protested angrily, and distressed at her stupidity.
"I'm not doing what you think I am," she whispered, "Trust me."
"Yeah, sure. That's a super idea."
"Either way," Eva pointed out, "you can't stop me."
For once, Eva had Claire stumped. "Once I'm free, I will slap you."
"If any damage was done."
She glared at the morbid Goth. "Damn you."
She smiled. Score one for Eva.
Sasuke was waiting patiently.
"An eleven year old non-ninja girl drugged him and made him pee purple."
Sasuke's eyebrows drew together slightly. Whether it was in irritation, disbelief, or confusion was hard to tell. "That's impossible."
"I'm a God-awful liar. If I was lying, you'd know. But that was true. I swear on Jesus."
"You're Christian?"
"Yes, I am. I have a cross necklace if you need proof," she said arrogantly.
Suddenly, the snake (which she had named Edward) unwound itself and hissed at her on his way back to Sasuke.
She stood up and ran off to the bushes.
Leah blinked. "So, if we tell you anything about Itachi we get out."
"As long as it's moderately useful, yes."
Leah opened her mouth, but Claire was faster. "When he's drunk he sings in a falsetto and demanded fried cheese."
"You mean a cheese fondue?"
"No. Fried cheese."
"Not really what I meant by useful…" he muttered, but released her anyway.
Claire stood up next to Leah and stretched, pleased that she had gotten released on one of the most meaningless bits of information about Itachi that could ever possibly exist. She looked at Leah worriedly, noticing Sasuke's expectant glare still trained on her.
She inhaled deeply, trying to think of something since Claire stole the thing that she was going to say. Since Itachi hardly talked at all the entire time he was there, there really wasn't much she could say that Sasuke didn't already know.
Sasuke waited while Claire bitched about Suigetsu eating her Pocky.
"He pretends to be gay," Leah offered.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "You're lying."
"Aw, come on! You believe that he sings in a falsetto, demands fried cheese when he's drunk, and got drugged by my sister, but you won't believe that he pretends to be gay?!"
"Yes."
"Actually, it's true," Claire offered.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "Why would he say that?"
"Come on!" Leah said again, "Do you have something against me already?"
Sasuke said nothing, and his face remained inscrutable.
"He was trying to get rid of this girl who wouldn't stop flirting with him," Claire answered in Leah's silence, "She's a complete whore and becomes obsessed with every guy she encounters."
Sasuke closed his eyes, seeming slightly annoyed at the meager stash of information he had acquired, and freed Leah of her snake too.
Leah stood up and rubbed her arms where the snake had squeezed them. "I'm just curious. Why did you believe them, but not me? My story was believable too!" She tried to not sound disappointed, just confused—she didn't want to give the message that she was annoyed he had let her go only after Claire had validated her story.
"I can tell just by looking at them that they're horrible liars. If they tried something just to get out, I would know. You, however, strike me as a good liar, hence I don't trust you," he explained blandly.
"Ah." She wasn't sure whether to take it as an insult or a compliment.
He walked over to the camp-fire, opting for a seat next to Juugo instead of the other more vexing members of his little squad. Karin flipped her hair and pretended not to be annoyed, but the gesture had sort of an opposite effect. Eva returned a few seconds later and blinked when she saw both Claire and Leah standing next to each other. "He let you go?"
"No. This is an illusion," Claire mocked.
Eva believed didn't catch the sarcasm. "What? Am I in a genjutsu or something? Holy shit…how do I get out?!" She began looking around frantically as if there would be a neon exit sign above a door leading out of the mirage.
Claire could have slapped herself. She settled for slapping Eva, realizing only seconds later that she had resolved to do that earlier anyway. "Dumb-shit! I was KIDDING!"
Eva was being extra slow today. Apparently her good idea of telling Sasuke something completely un-important had left her brain cells limp, exhausted, and useless. "Ohhhh!"
Suigetsu, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation along with the others, raised an eyebrow. "Wow. That's really all I have to say. Just, wow."
Karin snickered. "What an idiot…."
Eva ignored them. She had gotten used to taunting over the years of her friendship with Leah and Claire. The three girls made their own small circle away from their hated captors and started to discuss what they were going to do.
"How screwed are we?" Leah moaned.
"Very…" Claire sighed.
"I dunno. It might be fun," Eva said optimistically, "The evil people seem to like us here."
Claire sighed. "No, Eva. The other 'evil people' only tolerate us. You're alive because you can cook. I'm alive because I'm entertaining. And Leah's alive because Deidara's obsessed with her," she shrugged.
"Let's try to be optimistic," Eva said, still cheery.
They looked at her as if she had gone insane.
"Optimistic?" Leah gaped, "We were kidnapped by someone who has no problem torturing and or killing us! How can we be optimistic?"
"Well, we lived with the Akatsuki for a few months and all the injuries that we got during that time were well deserved or self-inflicted. I don't think a couple of teenagers would be worse than the entire Akatsuki."
"You just jinxed us you idiot!" Claire accused, "Go knock on wood now!" she ordered.
Eva, her brain still exhausted from thinking of something pointless to tell Sasuke, didn't register the fact that the trees that surrounded them were, indeed, made of wood. Instead, she ran over to the campfire where the four members of team Snake were seated, and quickly knocked on the fire wood that was lying next to Suigetsu.
"What the hell was that for?" Suigetsu scoffed.
"I had to knock on wood so we wouldn't get jinxed."
Suigetsu and Karin stared at her, unable to accept the existence of someone this idiotic.
"You do realize that we're in a forest?" Karin pointed jerkily to the trees.
"I don't see your poin—oh! Never mind, the trees are made of wood! Right…" Eva said sheepishly. Laughing nervously, she sprinted back to her friends, blushing in embarrassment.
Leah was pinching the bridge of her nose. "Honestly, Eva…."
"Shut up! You know common sense doesn't come easily to me…," she protested quietly.
"Yeah, honestly…" Claire huffed, "That was just pathetic. You're going to get yourself killed just because you annoy them with your stupidity. I'm not even being sarcastic."
Deciding not to injure her already-dead mental abilities by wondering whether or not she was being sarcastic about not being sarcastic, Eva sat down next to Leah, who was less likely to hurt her for her idiocy. She brought her knees up to her face, wrapping her arms around them and going into her emo bubble.
Claire sighed, but ignored it. "So, Leah…."
"Mm?"
"What are we going to do about our situation? Should we keep feeding them harmless information about 'Scott' and 'Alexander', and…all of those people? Or should we just completely hold back any and all information?"
Leah looked un-easy, and then responded awkwardly, "Um…I'm not good at things like this, so…you decide."
"…If I knew what to do I wouldn't have asked you," the self-proclaimed bitch pointed out.
Leah turned to her other friend, "Eva, what do you think?"
"I think the world has no meaning—there's only suffering and death," she replied depressingly.
Claire stared at her blankly. "I think you're being very melodramatic."
"Leave me to die."
Leah sighed. "You can be very bi-polar sometimes; do you realize that?"
"Eva, why does this even matter remotely?" Claire asked, genuinely curious.
Her head popped up from her knees, suddenly her bubbly self again. "I guess it doesn't, huh?"
If the other two girls were stared at her with disbelief. Claire spoke first. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
Eva smiled happily. "Nope!"
"Leah, hit Eva please."
She did. Eva rubbed her injured head. "Ow…. Why do you always listen to Claire when she tells you to injure me?"
Leah laughed.
Suigetsu was watching the three girls with a muted curiosity. Karin looked at her violent teammate with interest. "Since when have you taken an interest in random hostages? Usually you just ask to kill them."
He shrugged. "These three girls are interesting. They're not ninjas, for one—and yet they survived with the Akatsuki. How? And why did they bother to let them live when they're such dumb-shits? Especially Eba or whatever her name is."
"Anything else?" Karin pressed.
Suigetsu looked at her with a toothy grin. "Yup."
"Well, what is it?"
"Why should I tell you?"
She glared at him. "Human decency."
"Ah," he sighed, mockingly disappointed. "But that would require both of us to be human; and I don't think sluts qualify."
"Bastard," she growled, pulling out a kunai and charging at him. Immediately, Suigetsu pulled his large sword from the ground, drawing it back as if to charge at her. They were roughly a foot apart, and then suddenly Sasuke stood in the middle of them. He didn't say a single word, but with a single look from their leader, both of them receded to loath-full glares, and sat back down.
Karin turned her head from him. Sasuke slowly made his way back to the log he had been on before.
"Suigetsu," Sasuke ordered. "Watch the hostages. Make sure they don't contact anyone or devise an escape plan—we still are unsure of their true skill level."
"Fine, fine," he mumbled, slinging his sword over his shoulder and walking towards them. They immediately hushed their voices, glad that they had already decided what to do. He sat down in between Leah and Eva, both of whom immediately scooted over.
It was then that Eva saw it. Her sword was attached to his belt. Unfortunately, it was on the side that Leah was on. The only way she could get it was to….
"Don't even think about it," Suigetsu muttered.
"What?" Eva asked innocently.
"You were going to jump across me and try to get my sword."
"My sword."
"We've been over this."
"You're hot."
He blinked, shocked at her off-topic-ness. "Excuse me?"
"You are very sexy," Eva said bluntly. "Of course, not as sexy as Greg," she amended apologetically.
"Of course. Who could be as sexy as Greg?"
Eva giggled, and a small smirk crossed Suigetsu's face.
"No sword," he said.
"That actually wasn't what I was going to ask for."
He looked at her curiously. "Then what do you want?" His legs were spread apart, and he swung his sword around so it was sticking in the ground behind his seat.
Well…there's this book in my bag, and I wasn't done reading it…," she began.
"What's it called?"
"You probably wouldn't recognize it."
"No," Claire mused. "He probably would." She looked at him intensely. "Strikes me as a pervert."
He frowned, glaring at Claire. "And why did you decide that?"
She shrugged. "Just fits."
"Whatever." He turns back to Eva. "So, what book?"
"Um…give it to me and then you'll know," she spat out hastily. Now that she thought there was a chance she couldn't get her books, she wanted them even more.
He was intrigued. "Don't talk while I'm gone," he ordered, and walked over to the bags. He didn't take the entire bag back, but instead returned carrying six or seven books.
Leah pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose. "Eva…I thought you only bought four books."
She swiveled a bit in her seat. This is why she had been hoping he just took back the bag. "I might have kind of managed to maybe bring some of my manga…sort of. And another book."
"What worries me is that we just found out," Claire sighed.
Eva blinked. "No. Not necessarily. There's a lot of other stuff I brought that you didn't know about."
"Then how did you get your backpack to be as flat as mine?" Leah wondered.
Eva grinned. "La la la la la, la la la la…," she began singing. "La la la la la la la-la-la."
Suigetsu came back. "I said no talking, dumb-shits." He smacked them all on their heads.
"Ow…," Eva whimpered. "Rude…."
Leah said nothing.
Claire stuck out her tongue at him. "Bastard."
"Look bitch, I really don't have that big of a problem with you, but talk to me that way again and I'll kill you no matter what Sasuke says," he growled.
Claire narrowed her eyes. Someone's PMSing, she thought grimly, Guess I won't be having any swearing fights for a while…
Suigetsu shook his head with a sigh. "The couple of days you spent with the Konoha pricks must have been too long. You forgot how to treat people who don't have a problem killing you. Actually," he realized. "People who would have already killed you except that you know something they want."
"Honestly guys," Leah huffed. "You need to learn when to shut up or you're going to get us all killed."
"Go to hell Leah," Eva hissed. She looked at Suigetsu. "So…'bout that book…."
"Oh yeah!" He looked down at the books he held in his arm. The two on top were the manga 'Vampire Doll,' but as soon as his eyes touched the third one in the pile, he started laughing. "I did not see this coming at all." He held up the second installment of Ichi Ichi up by the spine. It had a bookmark in it. Then he saw the next one—which just happened to be the newest one in the series. He tossed the other one to the ground. "I'm taking this one." He sat back down next to Eva and Leah, and cracked open the book. There was a thick book with a black cover at the bottom of the pile that Leah, fortunately, didn't notice. Eva grabbed the second one that she had been working on from the dirt, and they sat side by side, reading.
"Wow…" Claire muttered.
"You guys are pathetic," Leah moaned.
"Shut up," Eva snapped. "I'm reading."
"Porn," Claire finished for her, louder than she had to. Karin's head snapped up from across the campsite.
She marched over. "Suigetsu, you're looking at porn? That's low even for you!"
"None of your business, woman!" he yelled back at her.
"Don't talk to me like that you sexist bastard!"
"Go to hell, I'm not sexist!"
"You definitely are! The only guy you can stand—"
"Is someone who isn't you!"
"Is Sasuke!" He finished.
Eva grimaced, and turned her back to both of them, wishing only to be allowed to be completely engrossed in her book.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she huffed.
"Oh, bullshit," Suigetsu snapped. "Even these three girls already picked up that you're obsessed with him."
Leah grimaced. Please don't get drawn into the conversation, she pleaded with herself.
"Leah, am I obsessed with Sasuke?" Karin asked politely. Her eyes had lightning flashing through them.
The laws of the universe hate us, "Um…not really. Obsession is a very strong word," she said feebly.
"Claire?" Karin began again.
"I agree with Leah." She probably couldn't have sounded more insincere if she tried. Karin chose to ignore this. Or maybe she was just too stupid to catch it.
"Eva?"
Claire sent her a glare, as if to say, 'Agree with us if you want to live.'
Unfortunately, this went against her morals. "You want honesty, right?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yes…"
"Um…yeah you're obsessed," she said quickly. "But that's not a bad thing, necessarily. I'm obsessed about a lot of stuff."
"Ugh!" Karin cried, and stomped away.
Suigetsu cough-snickered. Leah looked at Eva, un-believing. "You now have a ninja completely bent on killing you. Congratulations."
"But it was honesty. I'm honest—it's just me," she defended. Inching away from Claire, who had picked up a stick and looked like she was about to chuck it at her friend, Eva cursed her honesty. They weren't kidding when they said that she was going to get herself killed. Crap.
"Shut up," Suigetsu snapped. "I'm reading and you're not allowed to be talking."
Eva smiled, and stuck her nose back into the book. A stick hit her square in the forehead the moment she did so. "Damn you, Claire," she said angrily, rubbing the area.
"You deserved it."
"Still…damn you."
XxX
Two rice balls were shoved into each of the girls' hands. Sasuke left them without a word to return to his fire.
Eva, Leah, and Claire were very hungry, very thirsty, and very cold; but mostly the last one. It was around nine o' clock at night, and, Eva guessed, about thirty degrees outside.
Eva choked down the first piece of food, and the other one she slowly nibbled on— just because she was weird like that. Leah ate hers very slowly, as she did with all food. Claire ate hers quickly, mostly because they were making her hands sticky. She glared at the stars. "Fucking fiery orbs—I bet they aren't freezing their asses off."
"Lucky bastards," Eva agreed.
Leah stared longingly over at the camp-fire. Sasuke being nonchalant, Karin and Suigetsu pissed off at each other for whatever reason, Juugo looking lonely and staring at ants. An idea struck her. She turned to Claire. "Did anyone ever tell us we had to stay over here?"
"Not really," Claire said, picking at a clump of grass near her right knee.
Leah stood up. "I'm going to go talk to Juugo," she announced, walking over to their camp-site.
Eva blinked twice, and then sighed. "Now I really wish they didn't all hate me."
"Suigetsu doesn't hate you—he just thinks you're a dumbshit. And he's right. Not too bad."
"Still, what am I going to do?" Eva inquired, ignoring the dumbshit comment. "Walk over to him and ask what his favorite part in Ichi Ichi was? Plus, then you'd be here alone."
Claire hopped up and dusted off her pants. "Nope, I'm sick of being a popsicle. I'll just talk to Leah and Juugo, so on the contrary, you're going to be here alone." She ambled over to the fire while Eva scoffed and followed.
"Why didn't you come over earlier?" Suigetsu asked once the other two had joined them.
"Um…we didn't think we were supposed to," Eva explained, embarrassed. "You know, being captured and all…."
"We would have told you if we didn't want you to."
"We didn't need to sit there in the cold?!"
"Nope."
"Damn."
They sat there, finished with their meal and just enjoying the warmth of the fire, as they slowly warmed-up.
Suddenly, Eva looked over at Claire with a meaningful glint in her eye, and Claire looked over at Leah, who looked back at Eva. Then they looked at the campfire. They all smiled wide and full.
Eva began with, "I call this one, the Campfire Song song."
The other girls joined in the song immediately. "Let's gather 'round the campfire and sing our campfire song! Our C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song! And if you don't think that we can sing it faster then you're wrong, but it'll help if you just sing along…."
Eva and Claire continued singing, but Leah was on the ground laughing too hard to join in anymore. She had actually stopped singing by the time they got to the first 'campfire'. He two friends continued. "BUM BUM BUM…," Eva added in a deep voice. Leah's laughter doubled. Juugo blinked, confused. Karin sat with her mouth agape then looked to Sasuke. He was just giving them a 'What are you smoking?' look. Suigetsu openly grinned at his comrades baffled expressions.
Claire and Eva's speed picked up as they got to the second round. "C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song, C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song, and if you don't think that we can sing it faster then you're wrong, but it'll help if you just sing along…. C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G song." Eva called out, "Leah!"
"You guys are idiots," she laughed, knowing that she couldn't start singing again even if she wanted to.
"Sasuke!"
He said nothing.
"Good!" Claire praised. The two girls' voices were interrupted by giggles completed the song. "It'll help! It'll heeelp…if you just sing along!"
Eva stood up. "HELL YEAH!"
Claire and Leah clapped while the others still watched in disbelieving near-horror.
All three girls erupted in laughter, and Suigetsu chuckled a bit. "Not scared of much, huh?"
Eva smiled. "I'm not."
Karin sniffed. "I noticed."
Sasuke, of course, said nothing.
When it was nearing ten-thirty, Suigetsu hazily announced that he was tired.
Leah blinked frequently, like she was trying to keep her eyes open. "I've been saying that for a while."
"Fine." Sasuke stood up. "Karin, the girls will sleep in your tent. Suigetsu, put the fire out." He walked away and into the tent.
Karin stood up. "I don't want Eva to be in my tent," she hissed. "I can't stand her!"
"Deal with it. We can't have them getting sick or it will be harder to get information from them," Sasuke said.
"Why can't she sleep with you guys? I'm sure the little slut would love it," she sneered.
"Since when have I been the slut?" Eva commented dryly.
"Eva, what do you want to do?" Juugo asked politely, "Sleep in Karin's tent, sleep outside, or sleep in our tent?"
"When you say your tent—"
"I mean Sasuke's, Suigetsu's, and mine."
"So basically the guys' tent," Eva guessed, trying to clarify it.
"Yes."
"Um…" Eva said tentatively, "Karin would probably kill me in my sleep or something, so…the guys' tent I guess…."
Claire and Leah gaped at her, open-mouthed. "Are you serious?"
"That Karin would kill me in my sleep? Yeah. Very serious."
"You are an idiot, Eva," Claire said for probably the trillionth time that…week, "Isn't Suigetsu perverted too? That just seems weird to me…"
"Just because I read Ichi Ichi doesn't mean I'm going to try something," he snapped, "Eva'll be completely safe."
Claire held up her hands, dismissing all responsibility she might hold in the subject. "Fine, fine…do whatever you want."
Leah shrugged, and the three other girls went off to Karin's tent.
The rest of them climbed into the other tent. Sasuke was closest to the entrance; Juugo was next to him, then Suigetsu, and then Eva at the edge. Rectangular in shape, and all of them lying with their feet pointing length-wise, it was easy to call it crowded. But Eva was actually thankful for the body-heat, since she was the only one who didn't have a sleeping bag, and so she fell asleep relatively comfortable.
Author's Note:
Claire: …I'm feeling very uninteresting today. Probably because Leah's having a lot of really depressing drama with Durham, which is making me sad, and cuz I have about 18 hours of homework.
Leah: Indeed…
Eva: XD I like Suigetsu. He's sexy and has an awesome sword. Enough said. Yeah…drama isn't fun. Ever. –sigh- And there's been a LOT of it lately. Honestly, high school's a soap opera.
Next chapter should be out March 9th. Don't nag. :[