I got up really early this morning, and did nothing but right until now, which is almost nine o'clock. Be grateful I'm such an addict. The poll is fixed now, so please go take it. I don't own either series... I own the squirrel, if anybody is curious.

Review plz!!


A Little Bit Squirrelly

The 'track' as Jerry had called it, was a path around the Black Order HQ that was rarely used anymore. It used to lead back into five secluded warehouses, but at the age of Komui, they were all destroyed in one way or another by the Kumorins. So, it was now a circular path that led nowhere. It cut through the trees and was incredibly narrow in some spots and confusing too. How could it be circular and confusing? Their ex-gardener had been very mischievous. He'd turned it into a maze, some branch paths making shortcuts, some going to dead ends, and one might have led to the wall outside of the girl's fitting room, but as it had been a rumor from Lavi, nobody believed it.

Not that they never searched, of course.

Kimimaro assessed the round-about course. It couldn't possibly be worse than carrying a lit bomb through the woods with just two rules; one, don't drop the bomb, and two get it ten miles away within the next twenty-five minutes, or you're dead. Come to think of it, there wasn't much that came to mind that would be worse than that situation. No, when set next to the bomb situation of two years back, a simple foot race was nothing to worry about.

Little did the ninja know that Kanda had been the Order Track Champion for the last three years. He was unbeaten at every turn, no matter who he was up against or what sort of dirty tricks they tried. Allen had attempted a fair-and-square run, and failed miserable finishing almost five minutes later. Lavi, being underhanded in the matter as he knew he was too slow, had glued Kanda's shoes to the ground. Kanda ran it barefoot, and still had enough time to stamina to pelt the boy in the back of his head as he was passed.

Allen and Lavi, needless to say, dropped out of the coming race before it even started.

The battle was between ninja and samurai. It seemed that subconsciously, at the back of their heads, the blood feud was reawakened.

Or it could be that they were just in the wrong mood at the wrong time.

Either way, the Head Chef was holding up the flag in front of the starting line.

Kanda looked over at his opponent, cockiness glittering in his eyes. "Stay out of my way, newbie."

"I'd suggest you do the same."

The flag dropped, and they both launched forward. A cloud of dust blinded the hundred-or-so curious onlookers, the contestants out of sight before anything could be done.

At first, the two were equally matched. Not a centimeter separated them. Their legs moved simultaneously, the same fiery desire to win showing on their faces. Though Kimimaro didn't know the terrain nearly as well, he compensated by watching Kanda's movements, predicting where he would turn. Kanda knew he had that advantage, however. So his confidence rose. No Moyashi-boy of any kind, new old or otherwise was going to beat him. There was no chance the newbie could keep up for long at Kanda's full speed.

It did, however, take the samurai exorcist a second or two to realize he was falling behind.

No, he wasn't falling behind at all. He was at the same pace he'd been going the whole time. Kimimaro had sped up. He'd sped up a lot. And then, his white hair, strong arms and legs, those annoying red marks on his face, they were all gone.

Kanda arrived a few short minutes later at the finish line, out of breath and energy, and therefore out of temper.

Kimimaro was leaning against a tree, totally fine, not a drop of sweat on him, being stared down by the crowd like he was either a god or some kind of alien freak. His green eyes showed disappointment. The rush he'd expected must not have been nearly enough.

Kanda had lost.

Kanda had lost badly.

Kanda's ego was in some deep shit.

But, the man kept cool. He stood, straightened out and forced his body to take in oxygen like a civilized being, and approached Kimimaro.

"I owe you an apology Newbie. You don't suck nearly as bad as I thought you would." It was about as far as Kanda could sink in the range of apology. He reached out a hand, the offer of a truce.

Kimimaro looked at Kanda's hand, and then back at the eyes of the beaten opponent.

"I don't shake hands with trash." He walked up the stairs, followed by cheering Finders, grateful Allen, and relieved Lavi (who'd had enough does of Kanda for one day). Kanda stood there, steaming. Who was this guy? Who did he think he was that gave him the right to refuse shaking hands with the best of the best? Not only was he embarrassed, insulted, and thoroughly tired for nothing, but now he'd made an enemy in his own order.*

The Noah were bad.

Tiedoll's incompetent visits were bad.

The Earl was really bad.

The Moyashi was bad.

But the Newbie, Kimimaro, he was the ultimate downfall of any good mood he expected he might have ever had. Kanda convinced his self that unless he did something, that Kimimaro guy was going to "win"; was going to kill his very essence.

If he didn't beat the guy, collect a good handshake, and be done with it, it would haunt him FOREVER.

Because Kanda was just a bit too macho for his own good.

--

"Dude! You are my HERO!!"

"Can you teach me to run like that?!"

"Is this guy the epitome of 'awesome' or what?!"

"I love you, man!!"

Kimimaro had gained a fan base, and he really hated it. He hated it passionately. It had been half of an hour since the small victory, and he'd not heard a millisecond of silence since.

"Can I get your autograph or something?"

"Whoot!! Hooray for the new guy!!"

"Dude, he TOTALLY owned Kanda out there! SERIOUSLY!!"

The ninja who was trained to be perfect, to keep his cool in battle, to keep his cool in public, to keep his cool in leadership, in following, in loneliness, in and off of duty, and in every aspect of his life, was losing his cool. His fingers dug into the wood of the table, threatening to break a good portion right off. Not only had that vexing twitch under his right eye returned, but now the corners of his mouth were mimicking it.

And then, amidst the shouting and the cheers and the excitement, he just stopped. He stopped fidgeting and trying to ignore everybody. He stopped twitching every time somebody tried to pat him on the back. He just stopped.

And then, he slowly turned around and glared at all of them. The room dropped into a cold, dead silence. It crept along the walls, nearly forming icicles on the door frames. The chill of the quiet grabbed at even the most obnoxious person's throat, cutting them off.

"Leave me alone."

And then he turned back around and recommenced staring into a scribble of paper he'd been totting around in his pocket since Komui.

Everybody returned to their seats in a heartbeat, pretending they weren't admirably eyeing the boy from afar, each wishing it had been his self to beat their "bully". In their groups, the new guy was the topic of focus. Nobody wanted to hear anything otherwise. Not even the bets on how many servings worth of dango Allen was going to finish off next meal played upon their flicking tongues. But, it was certainly calm enough for the last Kaguya to think properly.

The first thing that came to mind was of his shoes. He didn't really know if he liked them. He was used to nice, loose sandals where each toe had enough room. Now they were all crammed together in one place, cramped and uncomfortable. Socks were another issue of the same kind. They were itchy, foreign things that annoyed his ankles. He would be happy for the day to end so he could just take the damned things off and be free of the sweaty leather things.

The rest of his clothes, however, he could not complain of. The undershirt and pants fit him, which was a first. He'd grown accustomed to just wearing large clothes at that point, and the lack of worry about getting his hands stuck in his own sleeves was a plus. The jacket though, the jacket he liked. The boy that made the uniforms, Johnny Gill, if he remembered right, had taken into consideration his fighting style, making it very different from all of the other uniforms. It barely fit into the Black Order style group, but surely it wasn't in another. It didn't run as long as the other uniforms, stopping a little below the waist line. It didn't have the complicated buttons and medals pinned on it either, just the official symbol of the Order, and nothing more. It was also comfortable like nothing else. Kimimaro swore that he was never, ever, going to ruin the jacket. It was that nice.

Somebody interrupted his thought process by pulling his hair. As a gut reaction, Kimimaro reached back and violently swatted the annoyance.

"Yow! Hey man, that was my eye! I only have one of those now!"

'Ugh, that guy again,' the boy thought. He turned around and got a good look at Lavi. The redhead had taken the bead right out of his hair, using the once-held strands to make a braid. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm braiding! See! Doesn't this look nice?"

Kimimaro gritted his teeth. It was clear enough that Lavi didn't understand the concept of "leave me alone". When he told the Sound Four to leave him alone, they left him the hell alone. When he told any lower-ranking ninja, and even higher ranking ninja, in Otogakure to leave him alone, they ran with their tails between their legs. But, when he told Lavi to leave him alone, the boy came up and braided his hair.

It was definitely a very different world.

"Go away Lavi."

"Maw! But this is fun!"

"... Lavi, I'm not kidding."

"Neither am I! You look really good with braids! See?!" However, when he tied to look Kimimaro in the face again, he found the boy was holding an ivory-white knife right next to his face. The fact that it just appeared out of nowhere made it just as much a symbol of "okay, that's enough now" as Mugen.

"If I were you, I'd reconsider my last answer."

"Um... Here you go..." Lavi returned the bead, and slowly walked away backwards. There had been plenty of sharp objects near his face for a day, and he feared it was only a matter before one got suck there.

Besides, he knew if he just took the bead and ran, he would be caught. Kimimaro had some freaking serious speed. And the guy had managed to slap him in the face (eye) without even looking or looking like he was going to, so he obviously knew something about fighting. Though, if he was willing to go against Kanda in anything, that was sort of a given.

--

Allen made his way back outside after the seething Kanda finally returned to his Soba, delighted to find Kimimaro had gone, as had most everybody in the cafeteria. The samurai was now a personal joke to anybody who glanced his way.

That needed to be fixed.

Meanwhile, Allen decided he needed some more fresh air. It was nice out. The sun hung in the sky, warm and luminous. All of the trees and grass were a perfect green, all alive and well. Birds were cheeping somewhere over the...

No, that wasn't happy cheeping at all! They were angry about, or scared of something. Allen's guard went up. He scanned the leaves of the branches above for anything. It was probably another Akuma attack, something he wasn't too happy about.

A horrible screech lashed into Allen's ears from above. As soon as he looked up to find what it was, however, something crashed down and fell right on his face. Allen toppled to the ground, staring in confusion at the little, angry, chirping squirrel that was dashing around his head. But, it really didn't look at that much like a squirrel. Its ears were long and so were its four legs and it seemed to have a mane as well. But, the tail was unmistakable. It had to be a squirrel.

The little creature made a weird hissing noise, glaring at him with two beady, black eyes. And then it scampered off to another tree, nearer to the Order's entrance.

"... What... the... heck?!"

* Because Karma is a bitch like that.

I hope you liked it!! I had a lot of people who messaged me about the squirrels, so I guess that was a win.

The poll is fixed! TAKE IT!!!

And review. It's not hard. Look, see? The button is right down there! 'PUSH ME!! PUSH ME!!'