Chapter 9

Aika crawled up to Katsu.

"Who has it?" she asked.

He pointed at the boy on the left.

"No way," Tsukiko whispered, "That guy's a total dip! I can't believe he got to hole the scroll! I mean, who wears spandex anymore? Or even GREEN spandex! Who dresses him? His sensei?"

I probably looked pretty nervous, "Um, actually, he does."

Tsukiko almost fell on the ground laughing. "R-really?"

"Yeah, are you sure we'll be able to defeat these guys? Neji Hyuuga's pretty strong."

Tsukiko sighed "Oh, fine. We'll attack when they go to sleep."

Hikara sat down. "Well, We're gonna be waiting for a whi-Katsu, does dirt ever feel circularish, kinda like a scro- oh, duh."

She stood up again, and dug into the earth. "Hey, Tsukiko, I think we found our scroll. Its 'earth,' get it? You get it? It's…oh, never mind."

Tsukiko had been giving her the "The queen is not amused look," a look I knew well/

"Well, you have your scroll," said Aika, "Now we just have to head toward the tower."

Katsu raised his hands, and formed a simple sign. He closed his eyes, and stood still for a minute. Tsukiko raised my eyebrows, and looked at me. She looked at me, and put her finger to her lips.

"Shh," I said, and looked at Katsu.

He sat there comfortably for a little bit, while I felt a line of sweat trickle down my forehead. Six people in an enclosed space isn't a good experience.

Then Katsu opened his eyes, and watched Hikara pocket the scroll.

"No!" he grunted, and threw himself at her, grabbing the scroll.

"What the-?" Hikara shouted, as Tsukiko cried, "That's our scroll!" at the same time.

But we saw what he was doing; he opened it about halfway, and tore it off, throwing the piece far away. Then he re-sealed the scroll, and handed it back.

"Trick," he said.

Aika was amazed. "Wow, you two are really good at making him talk. That must have been at least five words."

"Hey, what about me?!" asked Ryota.

"S'all right," I said, grinning, "We still love you."

I looked at them, raising an eyebrow. "You guys do realize that you were shouting, right?"

"Yeah, so what?" asked Tsukiko

"Well, we're standing right in front of another group, right? And now THEY'RE WALKING RIGHT TOWARD US!"

She was right. Neji and his teammates, who I think were called Rock Lee and Tenten were walking toward our hiding.

Hikara silently reached her hand around me and gently pushed Tsukiko forward.

She turned, giving Hikara a look, which came off as, 'are you crazy? Can't we just run?'

But Tsukiko sighed, and stepped out.