When Rain Falls: Chapter 4 – Don't Let the Bad Days Get You Down
Disclaimer: Everything, other than my own characters, belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
A loud sigh carried throughout the room. Takumi's eyebrow twitched as he attempted to focus on his book, but his snow haired teammate was making it almost impossible to do so.
"We've been her one day, Kotone, stop acting like a child!" he finally snapped, throwing his book at her.
Kotone grabbed the book and let out a huff. "Says the one throwing things. It's just I want to know what's next. Kaori is getting her arm looked at finally, but now I'm bored." She cradled her face in hear hands while sprawled across a couch.
Takumi blinked at her with a blank expression. He dragged his hands up to his ponytail and pulled it loose before ruffling his hair.
"What are you doing?" Kotone mumbled with minimal curiosity.
"You know it hurts if I don't let my hair down. I already went two days with it up."
Kotone restrained a giggle, but her bright expression made her teammate groan in annoyance. "It's not feminine!"
"You're right, the action is not. Simply the way you talk about it is a touch feminine."
Takumi shot his hair tie at Kotone, nailing her in the forehead, "Say what you will."
Kotone rubbed her forehead, but her smile was still there, "Thank you, Takumi."
"Ah. It's coming up, isn't it?"
Kotone's chartreuse eyes drooped slightly as her smile dimmed. She sat up on the bed and gave Takumi a curt nod.
It was Takumi's turn to sigh. "So that's part of it. You're not just bored. Sorry."
With a deep breath, Kotone smiled again and shook her head. "We've been a little busier this year! Plus with Kaori on the team, there's rarely time to think ab—"
"Kotone," Takumi interrupted, a weak smile on his face, "you don't have to do that with me."
A small nod was the only reply he got. They remained in silence for a few minutes before they sensed Kaori approaching. Kotone and Takumi both cheered up before their young teammate reached them.
Her arm was properly wrapped and hung from a clean sling, her smile ever present on her face.
"I'm back!" Kaori proudly announced.
"Welcome back," Kotone replied, a gentle look on her face still lingered from the direction of her conversation with Takumi.
"More teams are arriving. Should we go walk around and see if Naruto-san's team shows up?" Kaori suggested.
Takumi nodded and dug is elbow into Kotone's ribs. "Shall we evaluate the competition?"
"Takumi! You ass!" Kotone mumbled as she chased her teammates out of their room. The three came to an immediate stop when they nearly bumped into the team from Sunagakure.
Takumi wacked his arm across Kotone's collar bone to stop her, his hand drifting dangerously close to her softer features.
"Thank you for that sudden and lung depriving stop, Takumi," Kotone wheezed with a glare to her brunette teammate.
"Well, it looks like a team from Ame made it this far, huh?" The boy in black scoffed. The girl on the team grew a smug grin across her lips at the remark.
"It certainly is a surprise! Weren't you just saying how unlikely it was for us to have made it this far Takumi?" Kotone maintained a polite expression during the exchange.
Takumi nodded, following her lead, "Really, when it comes to potential Ame has been lacking. We're more focused on quantity over quality, so it's not the biggest surprise."
"Then again, you're the only team from Suna we've seen this far. Perhaps we are both the standout teams of our villages," Kotone's gaze flickered to the red haired boy who was devoid of emotion though leaning towards something undesirable.
The blonde chuckled and nodded. "Perhaps we are. I guess we'll just have to see what happens."
The trio moved to leave while Kotone lightly bowed her head. "I look forward to it."
"Kotone-chan, there's something I don't like about them. They're proud of beating out other people to get here."
"You're absolutely right, Kaori. That's why I can't wait to teach them some manners. My preference is for the blonde, but I'm sure the kid with the paint would put up an interesting fight!"
Takumi smirked and covered a laugh by coughing.
"What? What Takumi?"
"I'm sure you prefer the blonde."
"You're hilarious. Though I wouldn't be surprised if you preferred her. Don't you like the controlling and condescending ones?"
"If I liked those I would've dated you."
Takumi dodged a punch from Kotone before laughing heartily as he continued down the corridor.
"What an ass! Not like you have a chance with me anyways!" She finished her pout by sticking out her tongue at his retreating figure.
Kaori giggled and slapped her teammate on that arm, "You deserved that one, Kotone-chan!" With a wink she turned and ran down the hallway after the only male on their team.
"D-deserved it?! Oi! Kaori! What has he been telling you?" Kotone called after her.
AN: So this chapter was going to be much longer, but I realized how much time it was taking for me to write it so I opted to split the chapter at the beginning as filler for you folks waiting. I've got some health issues coming up – I should be fine but I am getting an MRI to be sure – and it's been rather time consuming when paired up with my work schedule. I do have the rest of this chapter going still and it should be out within a week! Thanks for reading!