A/N: I am really sleepy. It's currently 10 pm, and I'm still up. (Duh!)Well, anyway, sorry for the lack of excitement in the first chapter. I swear, it will get better in the chapters near to come.
Of course, this is your final chance to stop reading this story and save yourself from minutes of great sadness.
Yes, I'm exaggerating. All right, here's chapter 2…
Chapter 2: Uneasiness
Kai woke up with a start, as abruptly as if someone had yelled in his ear. He stayed like that, stiff as a log, eyes open wide, for a few seconds, then slowly turned on his side and consulted the digital alarm clock on his bedside table.
5:58.
Damn nightmares, he thought bitterly, sitting up and swinging his legs over the bed. Usually, he was used to waking up early, but the battle against Max had drained him considerably, and he was in no mood right now to be the early bird.
He put on his usual attire-plain tee shirt, cargo pants, red and black Chucks-and slowly slipped out of the door, trying not to wake his roommate. Max was easily knocked-out when it came to sleeping, but he woke up easily as well.
The boy had the hearing skills of a bloodhound.
Walking down the hall, he noted that it was kind of dark for 6, then realized that there were absolutely no windows in this place. The only sources of light came from the florescent lights on the ceiling and the lamps that stood in small, chiseled out crevices in the walls.
All in all, the place greatly resembled a prison.
Trying to remember whether this was the 4th or 5th floor, and whether or not this compound had, indeed, 12 floors, he eventually bumped into someone on his way to the stairs.
"I'm sor-you!" Kai immediately narrowed his eyes as his gaze met Voltaire's cold, steely one.
A small smile-actually, it was more of a smirk (the man was incapable of smiling normally)-crept onto his pale, haven't-seen-the-sun-in-ten-years face.
"Kai," he said, his tone delicate yet mocking, "you're up quite early, aren't you?"
"Maybe I am. What are you doing up here?" he asked, his eyes still narrowed. Despite his seemingly good intentions, he did not trust this man one bit.
"Only fulfilling my duty of caretaker and making sure all the children", his smile grew more mocking, "are comfortably safe in their beds. Now, if you'll excuse me…" he made his way past Kai and down the hallway, the shadows seemingly engulfing him.
Kai glared at the direction he had taken for a moment or two, then, swearing under his breath, made his way down the steps.
It was quite a long way down.
oOo
Naruto set down his backpack and sat down next to it. It was currently 7:32, and the three Jounins, who were supposed to be taking charge of the whole mission, were late.
Next to him, Hinata was absentmindedly twiddling her thumbs. Across from him was Sakura, who was fighting a losing battle to engage Sasuke into conversation.
Sitting down on the other side of him was Shikamaru, his hands laced behind his head and darkly muttering something that contained the words 'inconsiderate', 'not serious enough' and 'troublesome'.
Next to Hinata were Gaara and Temari, both looking so foreboding that Hinata tried her best not to look at them. Neji, Lee and TenTen were all standing and looking restless and bored.
Actually, it was only Neji. TenTen and Lee were engaged in an animated conversation about the possible meanings of purple chakra.
"Sorry were late!" a voice rang out. All Chuunins looked up to see Kakashi-sensei sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. Next to him, apparently unfazed, were Asuma and Kurenai. The two were whispering in low tones.
The Chuunins hurriedly scrambled to their feet. Kakashi placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder to stop him from walking right out the city gates.
"Before we leave," Kakashi said loudly, "Kurenai and Asuma have given me the unpleasant task of telling you the rules and guidelines. Firstly, we want all of you to stay near us at all times during the journey. Only exceptions to this rule are bathroom breaks and bathing."
"Secondly, should we encounter any…unfriendly ninja's along the way, we want you to follow every single thing we say. If we say, throw kunai not shuriken, you throw them. If we say forget the bunshin techniques and just hit them hard and fast, hard and fast it is."
"And if we say, run away and save yourselves, leaving us to rot and die, you run. Got it?"
"I got the first two examples," Naruto said slowly, "but I'm not sure I agree with the third."
The other Chuunins nodded in agreement.
"You'll have to," Kakashi said, "or else we'll not go at all. Thirdly, we want you to never, ever use your ninja techniques in 'Tokyo', unless we tell you to."
"Why not?" Naruto asked, brow furrowed.
"Ammendment to number two," Kakashi said loudly, "when we give you an order, you follow it. No questions asked. So, do we you guys promise to follow the rules? I know rules are made to be broken, but, trust me, you will be very sorry if you do. Do we have you word?"
"I…" Naruto trailed off.
"The thing is…" Sakura said softly, not so sure she like the sound of number two.
"We're not sure…" TenTen said, slightly nervous.
"Your word!" Kakashi said loudly. "Do we have it?"
"I…"
"Naruto?" Kakashi looked at him with those soft, gray eyes, and finally, he nodded.
"Yes."
This prompted the others to nod in a sort of defeated way.
"Good." Kakashi said cheerfully. "Now we can get going. It should take us only two days, three nights, but that is if we run. If you want, we could walk…"
"And get there by the end of the month." Kurenai supplied, giving him an annoyed look. "No way, Kakashi. We're running."
Kakashi shrugged. Under his breath, the Chuunins heard him mutter; "the leader had spoken."
oOo
Kai was seriously starting to get annoyed. The whole damn compound was like a maze. Sometimes stairways could only be accessed by opening a door, or by opening a door which led to a hallway which led to the stairs, or by opening a door which led to a hallway which led to several other doors…
You get the picture.
Anyway, Kai was trying to go down to the ground floor, but because of the doors, stairs, curves, turns, hallways, and other things, he had completely forgotten which floor he was.
The dimness of the atmosphere didn't exactly help things either.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit." He muttered under his breath, trying another door, only to see that it was locked.
"Okay," he said out loud. "That was the last door in this hallway. If it's not here, then it's probably in another hallway."
He was just to go out the door he had came in, when he stopped.
He just realized something important.
Something really important.
He forgot which door he had come through.
Hr groaned. There were over ten doors in this hallway. He didn't wan to check all of them again.
"It was this one, wasn't it?" A voice called. Kai snapped his head up and turned to the source.
There, standing and pointing in an annoyingly cute manner, was Max Mizuhara. He had a certain cutely puzzled and innocent look on his face, and Kai couldn't help it. The anger slipped away.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, folding his arms.
Max smiled his kitty-cat smile. "Following you. I want to get to the ground floor, too."
"Yeah, well," Kai looked ruefully at the door, "I'm not sure it's that one."
Max studied it for a moment, then nodded. "Yes it is."
"And…you know that…how?"
"When I came in after you, I noticed that there was a good two-inch scar on the door's carving." Max said cheerily. "When I realized that the other doors didn't have a scar, I realized I could probably use that knowledge if you ever got confused. And you did!" He finished happily.
Kai just nodded. Max was sometimes cute, but more often than not, he was annoying. He pushed past him and opened the door. Sure enough, it led to the previous hallway.
"Good observance skills." Kai muttered grudgingly.
Max beamed. "Thanks."
oOo
Kyouju looked up as the door swung open to reveal Kai and Max.
"There you guys are!" he exclaimed, shutting his laptop shut. "I was beginning to worry."
"How'd you get down here so fast?" Kai asked, walking over.
"Voltaire woke all of us up at around 6:30. Then, he made us form a line and led us down here."
"Oh," Max grinned and took a seat across from him, "I guess waking up early also has its disadvantages. Right, Kai?" He looked up at him, grinning.
Kai's face said it all.
Max's smile slid off his face, and turned back to Kyouju. "I don't think he liked that crack."
Kyouju shook his head. "You think?"
"They're finally here!" Tyson's voice rang out. The two turned to see Rei and Tyson waving at them from a small table. Kai and Max wandered over.
"Morning!" Max said cheerily. Kai merely grunted. Tyson hardly noticed. "Hurry up, guys. The food's fast disappearing. You don't want to train on an empty stomach, do you?"
Kai would have said that the contents of his stomach hardly made a difference, but Max beat him to it.
"You're right. C'mon Kai." Max grabbed his arm and dragged him to the buffet table.
"I-will-skin-you." Kai muttered through gritted teeth. It hardly bothered Max. "Could you do it after breakfast?" he asked, happily piling eggs on his platter. "I'm starved, and I wanna eat before I get skinned."
Kai shook his head. The boy was completely innocent.
After filling up their plates, they made their way back to the table.
"So," Rei said, taking a bite of a small roll. "Where were you guys? Voltaire checked you room and found out that you guys weren't in it."
"We were busy getting lost," Max said happily, beating Kai to the punch. "See, Kai woke me up early because he was groaning 'Hillary! No…Hillary!" in his sleep."
Kai choked on a particularly large piece of omelet.
"I tried to go back to sleep, but by that time, Kai had woken up. He slid out of bed and I knew he was going to go down and I didn't want to be alone in the room, so…I followed him."
Kai glared at Max, trying to tell him to shut up. Either Max was really that dense, or he just wanted to torture Kai. Whatever the reason, he continued on.
"Then, Kai started to get really confused with the setting of the place. He would have gotten lost, too, if I didn't point out which door we had to go through."
"Sweet!" Tyson whooped. "Even the great Kai Hiwatari can fail, too."
"But why were you groaning about Hillary in your sleep, Kai?" Rei asked.
Once again, Max beat him to the punch.
"I'm willing to bet that he had a bad dream where he couldn't save Hillary," he said cheerily, digging into a large amount of waffles, "because he want like, 'I tried to save her…I tried…she was just in my reach, and I swear I…"
Thud.
Crash!
"And next time," Kai said, standing up and brushing off his hands, "you'll have enough sense to keep what you hear to your self."
"Why is it dark so early today?" Max piped up from the floor. "And why are all of you spinning?"
oOo
"Stop!" Kurenai called, landing on a particularly large branch.
'Thuds', 'whomps', and 'ouch's' soon followed.
She turned around to see that all the Chuunins had hit each other in the process of landing and halting on the same branch.
"We'll take a quick 20-minute lunch break here," she said, as if she hardly noticed that her charges had become what very much resembled tossed salad.
After disentangling themselves from each other, they jumped to the ground and opened up their knapsacks.
In-between bites of onigiri, Kakashi described the rest of the journey to them.
"If we hurry, and take only a quick 10-minute break for a snack of sorts, we should be able to make camp in the far-east mountains by…"
Chomp. Chew, chew. Swallow.
"Two hours after sunset." He continued, "If we take no breaks at all, we'll arrive there earlier, of course. We'll hit the sack at exactly an hour after dinner, and…"
Chomp. Chew. Swallow.
"Begin traveling at twenty minutes before sun-up. That means, we'll be in the east territory by tomorrow evening."
The Chuunins nodded. Naruto began to feel quite excited. The 'east territory', had only been explored twice in the past ten years, and by Jounins only. To travel it was considered very dangerous, especially since bandits, thieves and other dirt bags were reported to reside there.
After digging in his bag for another onigiri, Kakashi continued. "If we follow that schedule, we'll be in Tokyo by the third evening."
Nod, nod, went the Chuunins.
Asuma, having consumed his lunch, lay back on the grass, plucked a blade of grass, and chewed on it, closing his eyes as he did so.
"Planning to sleep?" Kurenai asked, plucking the blade from in-between his lips.
"There's still five minutes left," he said, pretending to be annoyed, "a man can sleep where and when he wants to."
"And you, my friend," she shot back, "have just shown me how pig-headed and relaxed men can really be. Almost all of us are done. If we leave now, we'll get there earlier and have a little more time to rest, to be better prepared for the journey."
"And you, my friend," he said, imitating her voice, "have just shown me how bossy and stiff women can be."
"N-naruto-kun," Hinata whispered, re-packing her things, "is that normal?"
"Those two bickering?" Kakashi said, having overheard her, "yeah, it's normal. But don't worry, Hinata, those two secretly love each other. The more you hate, the more you love."
"The next time I hear you say that, Kakashi," Kurenai said loudly, "you'll regret you ever did."
"Yes, ma'am." he said, giving her a mock salute and causing Asuma to erupt into chortles.
"Let's move out!" she called, choosing to ignore the two Jounins behind her, although they could see the veins in her forehead bulge quite clearly.
"Hinata-chan," Naruto said later, as both of them were hopping from branch to branch, "is Kurenai-sensei always this bossy."
"Well…I wouldn't call her bossy," she whispered, "just…really take-charge."
"Yeah, right." Shikamaru snorted. He had overheard their conversation. "To be honest, I'm glad Asuma-sensei and Kakashi-sensei are here. We need some people to keep it light, you know."
"Yeah, but still…" Hinata bit her lip, "I guess she was raised that way. We can't blame her. Besides, at least we have someone here who can maintain order."
"I'd still rather have a flakey, funny instructor than a strict, uptight one."
oOo
"You sure you're alright, Max?" Rei asked worriedly. "I mean, Kai can plant a mean uppercut when he wants to."
Max smiled sheepishly. "I found that out already, but yeah, I'm alright. He didn't hit me that hard."
"Okay," Tyson checked to see if both were ready. "Let'r rip, guys!"
Both launched their blades into the stadium.
"Okay," Kyouju said, opening his laptop, "I'd like to see if the engine gear in Max's beyblade makes any difference. Since he's purely defense, we'll know if the engine gear can increase defense as well, or if it's only for attack."
After several moments, the results were clear. An engine gear gave a serious advantage to the beyblade that had it, regardless of its specialty.
Quickly, Max knocked Rei's Driger out for the count.
"Yes!" he said, pumping his fist into the air. "And Max Mizuhara emerges victorious!"
"All thanks to the engine gear installed in his beyblade and no thanks to his skills." Rei teased, picking up his beyblade.
The comment stung, but Max brushed it away. "Haha," he grinned, "someone's tweaked."
"Shut up and hand over one of those engine gears," Rei said, smiling as well. "The moment I install one in Driger, let's see who'll emerge victorious."
oOo
Voltaire watched the scenes play out, then he turned around to face the figure seated in the chair in front of his desk.
"As you see," he said, hitting the rewind button. He watched the scenes of Max and Rei's battle flash in front of him, then quickly hit the pause button to show Rei releasing Driger.
"These beasts are quite powerful," he smiled coyly, "I assure you that they'll be more than en even match for your 'ninjas'."
" 'My ninjas' as you say, are quite skilled," came the answer in a low voice, "and two of them posses beasts inside them."
Voltaire was momentarily shocked to know that bit beasts could reside in a human being, then he got over it.
"What are two possessed ninjas compared to over twenty beast wielders?" he asked.
"True," came the response, "true."
"So…when will they arrive?"
"Well, at the speed they're traveling, they should be here within three to four days."
"I see." He said softly. "Very well then."
It took that as its cue to leave. It stood up and slowly vanished into the shadows.
A/N: Yeah. Not exciting in the least. At least I opened up a new mystery (?) Tell me who you think it is.
And I'm really sorry if this is starting to bore you out…I just want to pace it nice and steady. That's all.
Thanks for reading.