This one's more of a companion to the previous one-shot than a direct follow-up, but eh, close enough.
In which Konoha does not understand shiny blue girls.

Indication of Days to Come

Konoha wondered at times, how much he didn't know.

Everyone told him he had amnesia, meaning that by default, Konoha's mind was pretty blank, like a slate. He wasn't great with manners, or the casual functions of society. It wouldn't be a very hard throw to say that Konoha was almost comparable to a child in how experienced he was with the world. Yet Konoha knew none of this.

To Konoha, the world was new, marvelous, and full of delights. Every single action he performed seemed to elicit a variety of responses, and they always seemed to be a little different!

Everyone he met seemed to have a different way of interacting with him, and Shintaro had said there were a grand total of seven billion people in the world, and growing. Konoha wasn't sure he could count that high, but he knew for sure that he couldn't be bored with that many people to meet.

Whether it be "Boy, you have to pay for that.", or "Konoha, please, just please put on some pants.", Konoha was enjoying himself.

His days were always eventful, almost too eventful. He would wonder at times, if this would change eventually, because to Konoha, life was almost too good to be true.

And then, at the end of what his friends referred to as 'Summer Break', it did. No longer did they play, for no longer did they stay together.

Everyone had to go to that abomination called school. That dreadful thing that took away Konoha's friends, made them busy all the time, and took away Kido's cooking.

In Kido's absence, Konoha had to settle for convenience store goods. Convenience store. He even had to give them shiny metal coins for his food!

Ignoring that struggle, Konoha had uncovered a new mystery, much like the mystery of why people valued little strips of green.

Ene, one of the few characters Konoha was associated with, didn't seem to like him much.

It was a very astute observation, and Konoha was proud of the fact that it had only taken him two months to ascertain this.

The blue girl, who flitted from screen to screen, was one of the three people who didn't go to this 'school' trap. Along with Marry, the three spent their days camped out in the secret base, minding their own business.

Marry made flowers all day, so she wouldn't play with Konoha. Thus, within the first two days after the 'school' started up again, Konoha had no food left, and no people to entertain himself with.

That is, except for the cyber girl. Shintaro called her 'Ene', but Konoha had never gotten the opportunity to speak to her. He wondered why.

"Ene!"

The cyber girl disappeared, floating off to another screen, somewhere else in the wide world of yet-to-turn-blue screens.

"Blue girl!"

Konoha called out, having forgotten the name he had written down on his hand in permanent marker. The day before, Konoha had been determined to talk to the mysterious blue girl in the wake of Marry's rejections.

"Blue girl, are you there?"

Konoha caught a glimpse of her on a laptop before she evaded him again. That's when it hit Konoha, like the truck that had warped his two short friends out of existence and returned one.

They.

Were.

Playing.

Tag.

The yellow-haired boy had taught Konoha this fascinating game, this game of 'tag'. It was complex, yet Konoha managed to retain all memory of the event. The red-shirted one had squealed a lot when Konoha had lifted him up in tagging, but the yellow-haired one gave Konoha food, so it all went well.

Now understanding the evasive measures that the blue girl undertook, Konoha dashed through the secret base, whirling his way around the screens that dominated the rooms.

"Blue girl!"

Konoha called out once more, alerting his prey as he stalked it. Konoha was akin to a hunter, hunting his sport as he pounced through the halls.

A leap and a bound, Konoha had reached the next screen, catching a fleeting glimpse of his target, the fleeting blue flash vanishing just as he got there.

That split second glimpse was enough motivation for Konoha to keep tracking his quarry. He knew that eventually, he would catch up to the fleeing girl.

And so he ran for hours, like the wind, flying after the blue girl, who had elusively managed to escape him so far. Konoha was a persistent and ruthless bloodhound, following the girl to the ends of the secret base and back.

Konoha's efforts would be rewarded by a glimpse every once in awhile of the girl, whose broken feet carried her far, maybe faster than his did. It was weird, for broken feet to work just as well as a regular foot.

Then it stopped. Literally. Konoha was confused at first, because either he'd gotten slower, or the girl had become much much faster. As the hours passed, Konoha had caught up to the blue girl considerably, going from barely able to see her to almost prodding her in the screen at one point. He was sprinting faster than he ever had before, yet she wasn't there.

Suspecting foul play, Konoha ripped every screen from its chained position, and gathered them in one place, where he could collectively stare at the mass of black shining objects. They reminded him of the fireworks that he had held once, sparkly and shooting off little specs of warm somethings.

Marry screamed. Konoha stared. The blue girl was nowhere to be found.

Oddly enough, although the gathered screens had set the ground alight, which the wild Marry was heaving liquids at, none of the screens possessed their inner light, the one that usually enchanted them.

Konoha felt a trace of sadness, having lost his target, his prey, and for the perfectly good carpet that was giving off a nasty smell. In his melancholy, Konoha slumped down onto the ground, watching the battle between Marry and the screens.

Konoha wondered where the blue girl had gone. With the best of his mental capabilities, Konoha had made the assumption that the blue girl, or Ene as his right hand told him, lived in the screens.

Did that mean that Ene was homeless now? Would she come out of the screens and stop being shy and live with them? Strange thoughts. Konoha supposed he'd have to ask the girl with green hair, since she always gave him food.

The lightshow died down, and Marry collapsed onto the couch, exhausted from the encounter. Konoha however, stared at the blackened remains of the screens, waiting for the blue girl to make her reappearance, or maybe even emerge from the ashes.

It was in this manner that the rest of Konoha's friends, back from the wretched school that consumed their days. Oddly enough, the red one and the orange-haired one seemed to be absent.

Konoha knew that they didn't sleep at the secret base, but they always spent their time there. Konoha had concocted a deep investigation of where the two occupied their nightly hours, but that case had gone cold in the refrigerator.

Of Konoha's friends, the yellow-haired one laughed, the green-haired one froze up, and the tall green one never came either. Konoha had learned that the tall green one had to 'work' outside of the work that the school work provided in the form of work to work on.

Konoha greeted them lightly, still wondering where the blue girl was.

"Konoha."

He nodded, affirming his attention to the green haired girl. After all, Konoha didn't have any food, so his friends were the next best thing. Maybe if he listened well enough, he'd get fed?

"What happened?"

Konoha rubbed his stomach. Those hours of non-stop chase really worked up his desire for consumable food products.

"We played tag."

Was that a good answer? Would food products be prepared now? Or did they already have readied foods on hand? Konoha couldn't see anything in their hands since they dropped their bags, but maybe there was food in the bags? Maybe he should check.

Taking the silence as an affirmation, Konoha grabbed ahold of the bags, aggressively tearing through them for food, scattering tons of thin sheets and wooden sticks.

Still, by throwing away all of the useless trash, he was able to pinpoint the location of a melon pan, and began his favourite activity. Eating.

And with that, it was happily ever after to everyone who was Konoha.

Hm. I was going to try to do two chapters today, but I ended up spending an hour and a half reading a webtoon called Annarasumanara. Really long name, but I recommend it to everyone here.

Er, that is to say, I really enjoyed it and that's my excuse for not catching up today. I also tried Warframe for the first time, and that might've also affected my writing time.

I was also originally going to try to make this srs stuff or something, but then I realized that Konoha is not a serious boy. Thus, a game of tag destroying thousands of dollars of technology sounded better to me. I left the title though, which doesn't really match the story anymore, but oh well.