Dance of Flute and Horn
Ch.3: Puppy-Dog Eyes
A/N: This chapter is also dedicated to my reviewers:
Sakura4eva
Higura Natume
For once in my life, when Tayuya woke me up, it wasn't with yelling. Rather, she still looked like she did when Kabuto finished our punishment. So of course, I just had to poke fun at her.
"You look like you've just seen a ghost," I began. "Or maybe you just heard another one of Kabuto's stories?" I started to laugh loudly at my own joke. I had completely forgiven Kabuto after finding a lot of evidence in his tale with Orochimaru that Kabuto had no interest whatsoever in Tayuya… or any other girl for that matter.
Tayuya shot a playfully mad look at me from my doorway as I got up, now quietly chuckling to myself.
I walked past her out my door and she blushed.
"Why are you blushing?" I asked. Even if she had begun to like me as a bit more than a friend, she wouldn't be blushing like that.
"Don't you think that you should put some clothes on?" she asked quietly.
"Since when are you shy?" I asked, but went back into my room anyways. Ukon was always saying that my boxers made me look fat, and not the good kind of fat.
I noticed Tayuya staring at me from the door as I slipped my pants on, and I saw her face go extremely red when I pulled my shirt down slowly over my torso. I think that she liked what she saw, so I was feeling pretty confident when I followed her out of my room and to breakfast. So confident, in fact, that I didn't notice that I was in the kitchen until Tayuya passed me the water jug.
Tayuya' hand brushed mine, and she nervously dropped the jug because of it. Or that's what I thought had happened. I should have known that I didn't have that kind of an effect on her. It turns out that Kimimaro had just entered the room and was standing in a position that was an accidental pose. From Tayuya's point of view, I'm sure that Kimimaro looked handsome. Kimimaro is the kind of person that just naturally attracts the attention of others and is really hard to ignore, even if I really want to ignore his positive comments about Orochimaru. Sometimes I wonder if Kimimaro shares the same kind of admiration for Orochimaru as Kabuto does…
But there Kimimaro was, standing in the doorway to the kitchen with his lips slightly parted and his skin glistening slightly, as if he had just come from training (which was highly likely). His shirt sleeve had slid down off of one shoulder, giving him an alluring look, and his gaze was neutral, seeming as if nothing at all had an effect on him. His voice was pure and almost liquid when he spoke, and even I could tell that he absorbed the tension in the room and released calm admiration in its place.
"Sakon, Tayuya, Kabuto has requested your presence, I am to send you to his office,"
I looked to Tayuya partially to see if she knew what Kabuto wanted, and partially to see how she was reacting to Kimimaro's attraction. Despite her earlier action of dropping the water jug at Kimimaro's appearance, Tayuya now appeared indifferent. She stood and scowled, but anyone could tell that she was really scared of Kabuto and on alert.
Tayuya and I walked silently and apprehensively to Kabuto's office, and Tayuya stiffened at the door, not moving. She stood there for a full minute and then I realized that Tayuya wouldn't go through that door anytime soon. I suppose that she had developed Kabuto-phobia, but what girl wouldn't after hearing that kind of vile speech spout from the mouth of a very knowledgeable and respected man?
I started to drag Tayuya forcibly towards the door, but stopped after she spoke.
"Do you care at all for my health? If I hear another word anything like what he said yesterday, I swear that I'll puke all over his little dirt-bag of a head and slit my wrist."
I still had a little bit of me that feared we would have to listen to more stories if we didn't enter, so I moved my hand to push Tayuya in.
Of course, at that point, Tayuya pulled out her ultimate defense, the puppy-dog eyes. She knew full and well that I couldn't refuse her anything when she did that, but I think that she had forgotten the consequences of such an action. The last time she used those eyes on me was a year ago when she couldn't beat me during training, and the results were dastardly.
Tayuya seemed to quickly realize her mistake and I backed up as fast as possible to try to negate the effect, but our efforts were in vain. My curse mark flared across my skin as I changed state at an alarming speed until I was fully transformed. And I sent as much chakra to my feet as I could, fleeing to above ground before I did something that I'd regret.
A/N: You'll find out next chapter about what exactly the puppy-dog eyes do, so check for an update tomorrow (If any of you care…). I'll try my best to put up a new chapter tomorrow!