4
Age: 10
Kakashi was no fool.
When the girl showed him her address he had memorized it into the complex depths of his genius brain.
He had to stalk his prey.
He had to know who he was dealing with and what type of strengths she possessed. So the first thing he did after plotting for the length of a sleeplessnight was to perch himself outside the victim's window.
He had absolutely nothing better to do for the entire weekend vacation (bedside's training that is), and that is exactly what he would do. He would dedicate his vacation to enhancing his stalking skills.
The first day of watching he learned that Ryou, like most children, had two parents.
Mr. Noa also known as Aru is a well-known jewelry maker who specializes in crystal chakra gems. Mrs. Noa, Natsume, who was an elegant socialite, had kind eyes and greeted everyone that came to the house nicely. Then there was Miharu. She was Ryou's older sister who was a Chunnin and four years older. There was something peculiar about this girl, like the way she had to do everything 3 times. She would lock and unlock the front door, three times each time. And wipe her feet three times on the front rug even if they were already clean. Some peculiar type of OCD he figured...
Nothing peculiar happened the first day... They were the picture perfect ordinary family.
Ryou ate well, trained hard, helped around the house and read most of the day in her room. She would also write from what he could tell.
It was tempting to break in, but too risky…
If caught there would be sure consequences.
Two more days passed by and the third day the sister returned home from lunch like every other day. He wasn't surprised they hadn't noticed him yet, his skills were just that good.
Meanwhile at the lunch table inside the house the family ate the delicious fish the father had cooked. Ryou ate quietly barely touching her food.
Her father was whining around some business deal gone bad. The mother listened carefully and the teenager rolled her eyes.
"Are we all just going to ignore the fact that for the last three days there's been a boy living on the tree outside. Stalking us?" She said flatly stuffing her mouth with fish. Her honey eyes plastered on the younger sister.
"A boy?" This caught Aru's attention and he clenched his chopsticks tightly making them crack.
"Don't worry dad, I know him." Ryou shook her head embarassed.
Of course she'd noticed the boy creeping and glaring at her from the tree top. Even in her room she could feel his icy glare which would make her heart stop and a chill run up her spine.
"A suitor?" Her mother asked with a dreamy smile clapping her hands together. It almost seems like hearts were glowing in her eyes.
"Mom that's terrifying…" The older sister said with disgust.
"No. He's just upset because he's rookie number 2 in the class now,"
Ryou said still upset playing with a broccoli on her plate.
"We should invite him down for lunch, poor homie must be hungry," Aru said peeking over looking at the tree. He emphasized on the word "homie", in an attempt to be cool with whatever lingo today's teens were speaking in.
Ryou shook her head, and excused herself from the table.
She returned to her room and pretended to water the white Chrysanthemum flowers outside of her window balcony.
Through her lashes she eyed the boy who thought was well hidden in the tree almost- felt sorry for him, and she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to him to make him be the way he was. She debated throwing a shoe at him and shouting "Don't you have anything better to do?" or should she invite him in?
Not sure of what to do Ryou ignored him and returned to her room to do one of her guilty pleasure write: She wrote about adventures, and a fantasy world were people fought for a greater justice, with mythical creatures and a lot of terrible dry humor.
Yes, one day her ambition was to be at an even higher rank than the Hokage- she still didn't know what that was, but she would figure it out. Another one of her future ambitions was to become a published writer, and maybe lead her own squad in the future?
The afternoon passed by quickly and when Natsume called Ryou down for dinner, she was surprised to see the young silver haired ninja was still perched outside of her window.
Nevertheless, she rushed downstairs and helped her mother set the table for dinner now. Aru was back and sitting at the head of the table. The only one missing was Miharu. It was odd for her OCD sister to be late, and Ryou wasn't the only one who had a bad feeling about it.
"I wonder what's taking Miharu so long…" Her mother said concerned looking at a large clock on the wall.
Soon the older sister walked into the house.
"Sorry I'm late. Sorry, sorry." She apologized three times.
Ryou's mouth went dry and all the blood drained from her face when the sister finally stepped into the kitchen.
Over her shoulder was Kakashi completely tied up in a knotted rope. She placed him in the chair next to her in front of Ryou who looked horrified.
"Oh, I didn't know we would be having a guest tonight." Her father smiled at Kakashi with a teasing grin.
"It's nice of you too join us you must be starving," The mother said casually serving a handful of kaiseki ryori on his place.
Ryou looked absolutely mortified. Here was the boy who absolutely hated her sitting in her dinning table glaring daggers at her. Tied up.
Meanwhile, Kakashi was horrified 'I'm surrounded by this family of psychos. How the hell can they handle this so naturally?!'
He felt caught and humiliated, and just wanted to get out of here. Oh, and for Ryou to take her massive cat like green eyes off him.
Miharu only sparred a side glance at the boy as she began eating her dinner.
"How are you supposed to eat with that mask on?" she asked in an apathetic tone, glaring.
"How am I supposed to eat tied up?" Kakashi retorted in the same tone.
"Boys got a point." Aru nodded as he swallowed his food.
With a flick of her wrist Miharu cut the ropes that were holding the boy back, and before her mother finished saying "No weapons on the dinner table!"
Kakashi had sprinted out of the house and had hopped out through the closest window. He ran as fast as he could, with a ragged breath and his heart pounding on his chest he successfully escaped.
'J-Just what type of person was Ryou Noa..?' He wondered turning his eyes towards her massive home which became smaller and smaller in the distance.
Back at the Noa manor, Miharu still continued eating her food like nothing had happened.
Aru raised his eyebrows, "Must have been in a rush," was all he said. Natsume looked concerned and in a worried voice she said to herself that she should've packed his food to go.
Ryou was speechless, 'what had just happened?'
"What a weirdo." Miharu said simply shaking her head.