Alright! Second chapter! Oh, and thank GOD for the return of D. Gray-Man! I was starting to suffer withdrawl symptoms! xD

I don't own Naruto. I don't own D. Gray-Man. And neither do you, I bet. See, I'm psychic! DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!!!


The restaurant was warm and inviting. The bar was filled with people chatting happily and it was well-lit, even though it was getting late. At the little table near the corner of the establishment Allen and Kimimaro were getting to know one another. Rather, Allen was trying and getting absolutely nowhere in speaking happily with the Kaguya.

"So, do you have any family?"

"No."

"No? Neither do I, really. But I've got some friends around here. They're part of the Black Order. You ever heard of them?"

"No."

"… Well, that's okay! I'm going to have to introduce you to Head Officer Komui. He'll know what to do. He usually does but…" Allen trailed off and pulled Kimimaro in close for the next part of the conversation. "Just don't ruin your weapons or you'll have to deal with him."

"He gets angry?"

"No, he fixes them in a really traumatizing manner." As Allen's voice changed to a smaller pitch when speaking of the Head Officer, Kimimaro wasn't willing to push the conversation farther. Both sat back in their chairs. "You're not from around here, are you Kimimaro?"

"No." It was a bit obvious really. His clothes suggested he'd probably lived closer to Japan than anywhere else; even though they were torn up bad from a few weeks of wandering the streets and a couple of Akuma fights, as it had turned out an attack had taken place on him before. His shirt was quite a bit too big for him, though Allen didn't point it out, and as an obi that had probably once accompanied the outfit was long gone, it really wasn't the most helpful thing to wear. His pants had holes in the knees, and his shoes were worn down to the point where he might have been better off with bare feet. A fair amount of dirt had accumulated all over the boy's face, though he didn't really take notice of it.

What Allen couldn't see was that Kimimaro was busy having a sensory overload. Of the three or four times he'd ever been to any town, and small ones at that, he'd never talked to any people in it. It was strictly always him and somebody else from his own village, and both were on important tasks no doubt. He'd never so much as sat in a restaurant before, let alone one as friendly as this with a person he'd only met an hour ago. It was difficult to think about such small matters when every instinct in his body was telling Kimimaro that one of the people laughing and smiling at the other end of the room was sure to leap out and try to slit his throat. He knew it was a stupid thing to assume, but he couldn't really help it. The best he could do was try not to appear like he was so paranoid and focus on what Allen as trying to say.

And conversations weren't exactly one of his well-practiced skills either.

"What are you doing here, exactly? I mean, I don't mean to be rude or anything! I'm just curious so… um…" Allen knew he was walking himself right into a tongue tie.

"I don't know." His eyes shifted towards the window, trying to find a safer distraction.

It seemed to the exorcist that Kimimaro was fond of the short-answer to questions. "So, you're lost then? Is there somewhere in particular you were trying to get to?"

"… It doesn't matter anymore."

An answer like that, filled with regret and sorrow, was what spawned Allen's interest. "Come again?"

Kimimaro, realizing too late he'd let the thought slip, turned back to his company. "It's too late to fix things now. It wouldn't matter if I got back home or not."

"What happened?"

Kimimaro didn't answer, and turned back to the window. The glass was clean and well-washed. He'd never seen any glass object shine other than an occasional syringe tube Kabuto would take use of. Everything pleasant he looked at seemed to bring unpleasant memories.

"I… I see…" The waitress arrived. Her long somewhat-blond hair was held back in a pony tail and she smiled sweetly at both of the boys.

"Hello again Mister Allen!"

"Oh, hi Jen." He was a bit relieved to find she was the one working that night. He never had to explain the need for large portions when she served at the tavern.

"You want the usual, right?"

Allen grinned. "Yeah. You know it pretty well by now, right?"

"That's right." She looked at the Kaguya inquisitively, still just as sweet as a moment before. "Hello there. I'm Jen. I'll be the waitress for both of you tonight. What can I get for you?"

"Um… Just some water thanks."

"No problem. It should b-" She never got the chance to finish. Behind her, one man was thrown behind the bar violently. The one who'd tossed him was cussing and breaking things in drunken rage. Jen released a heavy sigh as some of the customers fled to the other end of the building, and some even left. She held her hand up to stop Allen from rising to stop the man himself. "No, no… It's my bar, I'll fix the problem."

Kimimaro and Allen couldn't really do much but blink and obey. After all, in the one second it took Ms. Jen to make her self look and sound like a homicidal maniac, making her mad seemed unwise. Jen grabbed the man by the back of his collar, threw him to the ground, and stood on him in one of the cleanest and scariest movements Allen had ever seen, next to the occasional "Kanda tantrum". Kimimaro, of course, had seen attacks far worse, but this was frightening as Jen managed to be even louder than Tayuya in her "Bitchy Mode", and she looked more ornery than Jirobo after he'd gone two days without eating.

"YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME MORON?!"

"N-no ma'am!" The poor drunk was weeping and trying fruitlessly to crawl away.

Jen scoffed at the man, and threw him into the nearest closet. "You can come out when you're sober!" And then, the rather aggressive girl slammed the door shut and wiped her hands of the matter. Of course, a minute later she looked around to see she'd managed to empty out the entire building, excluding Kimimaro and Allen. She grumbled inwardly. "Damn! I've done it again!" Jen, now in a huff that was completely her fault but unaccepted as such, stormed into the kitchen.

Kimimaro cleared his throat. It was unfortunate he didn't know his company very well, as there were many remarks about Ms. Jen he would have liked to make. He folded his arms and looked back outside. Everything was blanketed in a velvety darkness. There was a hint of light streaming out of a few buildings nearby, but the moon's presence was otherwise lonely.

"Hey, Kimimaro," Allen began.

The pale teen looked over, but barely changed his position. "Hm?"

"Back with those Akuma… Where did you learn to fight like that?" This query was enough to get the Kaguya boy to turn back into the conversation. "I've never seen anything like it. Who taught you?"

"My master, mostly. He was a very powerful warrior."

"He was?"

A sadness crept into Kimimaro's eyes, which lowered to the table in a shameful way. "He was very unwell, when I last saw him… And that was almost a year ago now."

Allen was starting to regret asking any questions at all. He'd prefer not to make the already lost and confused companion depressed as well. "I'm sorry to hear that." It was silent for a while.

"What about you? Who taught you to fight?"

"Me? I don't know. I mostly had to teach myself. My master was no help at all! He's a pain…"

"A 'pain'?"

"You have no idea."

"How is he a 'pain'?"

"Uh… um… ugh… You know what; I'm just going to say this! He's an alcoholic, womanizing bastard!" As soon as it escaped him, Allen threw his hands over his mouth as if they would be vacuumed back in by the action. Of course, they were not, and for a minute, Allen Walker was very worried he'd offended Kimimaro.

But, Kimimaro just smiled, thoroughly entertained by the first topic they'd been on that didn't involve the circumstances that even he didn't fully understand. "He sounds like a handful, but I'm not sure 'pain' would be appropriate."

"… He dumped all of his… his debts on me."

"…Wow…" Kimimaro was instantly swayed to Allen's opinion. The debt his own master had gained before he attacked the Leaf Village was probably enough to make anybody but Kabuto-sensei's brain burst. Judging on Allen's reaction, his master's probably wasn't too far off.

"Ugh… no kidding." Kimimaro was surprised to find that now the Walker boy had taken his turn in being depressed. "I'm doomed."

Kimimaro, at first, really couldn't think of an argument. It was all true. When it came to cash, Allen was clearly screwed. "Have you talked to your master about it?"

"He disappeared in India."

"I see." Kimimaro had no idea what "India" was, but he understood "disappear" quite well. He looked over to see a now far more civil Jen making her way over. "It looks like the food is done."

It was like Kimimaro had said the magic words. Allen popped up and grinned stupidly, drooling inside of his mouth. Jen set an absolutely, unmatched portion of dumplings on the table in front of Allen-one hundred and fifty-six as she had said-and got Kimimaro his glass of water, leaving behind a glass pitcher in case he wanted more. Kimimaro stared at the dumplings for a minute, and then looked away. He took a sip of the water. It was unusual to him. It tasted pure and clean, whereas all the water he'd ever remembered having before was fouled by some kind of dirt or perhaps just the stench of the place he'd drank it in.

When the taller boy looked up from his glass, every single one of the dumplings was gone. It took as very quick reaction to keep from spitting the water across the table and into the exorcist's face. He felt his right eye twitch under the pressure. He'd seen Jirobo take much larger portions, but he'd never seen ANYBODY eat ANYTHING that fast. Come to think of it, he'd never seen Allen eat any of it. He made a mental note to look around for strange, unending vortexes to nothing the next time Allen ate.

And also, he'd be sure not to be drinking anything, as drowning in a glass of water didn't appeal to him much.

Reviews? PLEASE? Ideas? Questions? Some random blurb that has nothing to do with anything you just read? ANYTHING? I'm getting desperate over here! T_T