Scroll 15: Morning Rituals

Those chirp-happy birds that loved to poop on Yukari's windowsill were back again. Having been denied a day of sill-sitting yesterday, the five birds had resumed their chore as if nothing had torn a hole in the wall. They sang their greetings to the rising sun.

~Chiiririririp.~

The birds' song woke Yukari up. She mumbled and sat up, stretching her bones. Her brain then registered that her modest abode was full of noise. Kids playing, somebody was in the kitchen, people chatting in her living room. Her house seemed to be bustling with all sorts of happy activity. Sheena was sitting at the foot of her bed, her helmet back on. The girl was staring at her with lovely brown eyes.

Those red Akashingan orbs would slowly gaze out the open bedroom door to the ruckus and take in the scene.

"What the f – " a pair of hands would cover her mouth to keep her from cussing. A smaller-sized version of Yukari was sitting on the bed-side table. Mai Uzaruki, the tender age of 5, sat there laughing. She was a spitting image of Yukari, black hair and all. However, her eyes were a crystal blue; as she was born with her mother's – a Kushina clan woman – eyes; crystal blue.

Sheena was still staring at Yukari; but now was also staring at Mai.

"That one…" she nodded towards Mai. "Got here a little bit ago. They're making food in your kitchen. Gilligan and Wydra are just playing. I didn't wanna play so I stayed here." She blinked and kept staring. She didn't really have a normal set of manners. She was gripped onto the edge of the bed with her feet.

"Ohhh just great! My kid sister has somehow found a way into my place." Yukari smirked evilly as she pulled the small Uzaruki onto her bed and tickled her. Mai laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world and wriggled about, trying to escape.

"YUKA-ONEE-SAN! Stop it! You have bad people in your house, aren't you gonna go turn into a ninja and wrestle them out!" Mai - a first year academ student - wasn't the brightest or sharpest; but she would be a decent ninja one day. But for now she was young and naive, so she didn't know better. Mai pointed to Sheena and scowled. "Aren't you afraid they might take over your house?"

"Mai, they are kids…slightly older than you. They are not going to take over my house."

"I wouldn't wanna do that. You're a nice person, we wouldn't wanna do that." Sheena scowled right back. She was good at it; her face was full of 'stop looking at me like that or I'll #%k you up.' Sheena went back to her calm-cold eyed stare at Yukari. It was like a bit of curiosity, some loose sort of admiration. Sheena was definitely odd.

"Hurry up and get your foxy-self dressed, Yukari-chan, breakfast is ready." There was a knock on the bedroom door as Shozaku spoke up.

There was a crashing sound in the kitchen and a series of giggles as Gilligan and Wydra ran past her door in the opposite direction.

"OH HELL NO! You butter-tarts better not have screwed with my oven!" Yukari was out of bed in a blink of a red eye and was in the kitchen. Her refrigerator had been somehow knocked onto its side in the small room. Her few pans had raw eggs sitting in them and the sugar and tea packets were strewn all over the place.

"YOU ARE SO DEAD!" Yukari howled as she stormed out of the crowded kitchen and hunted for Gilligan and Wydra. The chase took place in the small apartment front room.

Mai stared up at Shozaku as soon as Yukari threw open the bedroom door to chase after the two other kids.

"You look f-ing funny." Mai had used a word her older sister, Meiko, used often. "Are you here for some pussy?"

Mai's older sister, Meiko hung around Kiba a lot, since he was her favorite; and Mai, being the youngest, was often the one to hear and repeat things she didn't understand.

Meanwhile, Yukari was in the act of trying to pin Gilligan down and tickle him when she heard her youngest sister's words. Her face turned beet red as her hands promptly dropped Gilligan; and he landed on his butt.

Skiminachi stared at the scene, wondering how his new kunoichi friend could've missed running into such a big person as she raced out of the small kitchen area. He had brought most of his own stuff, and was just using her space to cook in. He didn't mind cooking outside, but had missed using a house of any sort, even if it wasn't built in his size. He sitting at the table was Joma and the fiery-haired woman, both raising eyebrows as they watched Yukari storm after Gilligan and Wydra. Joma was already eating and the woman was just filing her nails.

Gilligan tackled Yukari to the ground, while Wydra rushed on up and tickled the hell out of her. Both of them were laughing. Gilligan latched onto her in a hug while Wydra tried her best to make a red-faced Yukari wet her pants.

"Well, I could be, but your sister is busy and you're too young. Do you even know what that means?" The gambler-nin's face turned red as blinked in afterthought. He'd be alarmed if she did. He was shocked enough that one little girl under the age of eight did, and that was one too many.

"Yea, Inuzuka-kun says a pussy is the opposite of a doggie! Yukari-onee-san has a pussy, see!" Mai pointed to the corner chair in which slept a brown-furred Meko. It was the cat that had opened the door that morning to allow the shinobi inside the newly fixed apartment. The feline was currently snoozing as Yukari was getting a tickling.

Poor Yukari, was torn between keeping the kids tickling hands off certain, selective parts of her body and trying to get to her youngest sister shut up. Yukari's face was already red as her morning-slow brain kicked in the fact that her kitchen was indeed, a hot spot to one large nin and a few other adults. The Akashingan-heiress was in one hell of a predicament. Shozaku had seen her in nothing but her white sleep shirt and her short. It was a bit of a turn on for both of them.

"Uhh; good morning, Shozaku-san, minna-san." Yukari finally said as she made her two shadow clones to deal, individually with Sheena, Gilligan and Wydra. She sounded pretty robotic as she clamped a hand down on Mai's black-haired head.

Sheena backed into a corner and just sort of growled at the clone. If it came any closer than a foot, she would proceed to rip it to shreds until it vanished into non-existence. Gilligan calmed down, but Wydra was still a little hyper so she just hid between Skiminachi's legs, much to his amusement. Shozaku laughed at Mai's explanation and Yukari's embarrassment. The last clone vanished into the air as Yukari dispelled her.

"Yes…indeed. That's not the kind of pussy I'm here for darling. But I'm glad you know what you're talking about. Good morning, Yukari-chan. I hope we didn't give you too much of a rude-awakening. I was just gonna bring you some breakfast, but Skim-kun got the bright idea of making it here. Then Joma wanted to come along and hang out because he's bored, and Yamira said she'd kill me if I left her out again. So – here we are." He laughed and smiled; shrugging, hoping the kunoichi wouldn't explode with anger or an orgasm.

"Peeshhaaa, why don't we send tea-invites to the Akatsuki!" Yukari was not one for such extravagant mornings, but she was covering up her embarrassment with her good humor. Thankfully Mai didn't kill her with any more sex-talk. Yukari would have to escort Mai home and have a talk with father. But for now, it seemed, Yukari had a full house and had no intention of kicking them out.

"Well, knowing you nin, I'm guessing that Gilligan-san has put that refrigerator back in its PROPER place." If he didn't, Yukari hoped her words might spur him to do so. "And WYDRA-SAN…had so KINDLY fixed me some tea." Again with the hint-dropping. Mai giggled and clapped her hands, marching into the kitchen and tugging on the flaming red hair in good humor.

"Skimmy's doing all that already. He likes cooking and fixing things. All he's good at really." Shozaku caught an egg that got thrown at him, and laughed as he returned it full-force. Gilligan just crawled up Yukari's back and purred; much like a cat would. He also had a few other Meko-like features. Shozaku gestured Yukari over to the kitchen where Skiminachi would hold out a plate of breakfast and some tea. Her fridge was back in place and in perfect working order.

The woman laughed and picked up Mai with one hand, plopping her into her lap. "Hello, little one. My name is Yamira, what's your name?" she smiled. She was a very pretty woman - pretty in the same way a rose was. Good looking and radiant one moment, but could quickly go into 'KILL YOU' mode.

"My name is Raikomai Uzaruki! My friends call me Mai for short. I don't have Akashingan like Onee-san, but I want to be a ninja too!" Mai's crystal blue eyes were shining brightly as she spoke. Mai was what Yukari would have looked like had she not inherited the Akashingan.

Yukari smirked as she entered her kitchen once again and nodded to the second man on her so called 'hit-list.' She had no idea why or how she had a Wheel-Nin hit list, but it was probably formed in the order of whom she met; Shozaku first, then Skiminachi secondly. Ok maybe friend-list. Hell, the last time she got out of bed this razzled was the week before Naruto-chan left with Jiraiya to go train in the world. Thinking of that only made Yukari smile stronger still as she sat on the floor looking at the plate of…pink colored eggs and purple tea.

"Wow, I like this stuff…its colored!" Yukari laughed to herself as Mai tried to ninja-art pick-pocket one of Skiminachi's pockets.

Yamira laughed and smiled, her hair seeming to bounce naturally. "I'm pretty sure you'll be a great ninja, Mai." she smiled and nodded her thanks to Skiminachi as he handed her a plate of food. She reached around and tightened her dress so her bust wouldn't get in the way, as well as tie her hair.

Joma was already eating his second plate of food and laughed to himself as Mai tried pick-pocketing something off the ninja-super chef. It would be impossible because all of the plates on Skiminachi's armor were extremely heavy, heavier than most children Mai's age could lift without a decent amount of straining. Skiminachi laughed and reached into a pocket, handing her some multi-flavored gum and a bag of candy.

"There you go little one. If you want something you should just ask. And yes, I color my food sometimes because it makes it fun not only to eat but to look at! Given more time, I could make pictures out of it!" He laughed to himself and started making his own food, which looked to be a mighty feast itself.

Shozaku and Joma had their left hands on the table and were making a series of tapping signals, talking to each other. "So Yukari, we didn't bother you too much did we?" Shozaku asked. Yukari laughed heartily in-between bites as she watched her youngest sister make fast friends.

"Oi, no way! If Mai-chan is here then no doubt I would have been woken up with surprises!" She smiled at Mai as Mai forced a fake frown and accepted the bag of candy.

"Yukari-san is just being nice because I'm here." Mai did her best to look haughtily at Shozaku. Good thing was it wasn't a facial set that came easy to Mai. "If I wasn't here, onee-san would beat you up and kick your butts!"

"Oy, Mai-chan, I would not! I know these people. I would not kick their butts." the red-eyes Uzaruki pointed a fork at her blue-eyed kin. "Besides, I wouldn't have anything to do if I kicked their butts out."

In the corner chair, Meko slid one eye open and watched the whole scene with disinterest. He yawned once and sidled off the chair to stretch. The humans were making too much noise for his tastes. He proceeded to disappear into the bedroom and hid under the bed.

"Oy, oy, what are you guys going to do today, eh?" Yukari finished her food.

"Other than share stories now that we've got some downtime; first thing we're gonna do is I'm gonna go talk to Tsunade about a large number of things. The rest are going to hang out in the village, be friendly, and learn what they can. Depending on how the meeting goes, good I expect, we'll have a few plans to make and then whatever. Did you have any plans Yukari?"

Yamira and Joma laughed at the thought of Yukari kicking their butts. They'd leave if asked, but they could put up a fight. Skiminachi was now eating a MOUNTAIN OF FOOD. The man's appetite could very well be a bottomless pit.

"Say, Mai-chan, don't you have class today?" Yukari put her plate in the sink and turned around to face the crowd with a smile. "I have to train today; again, I want to see how far I can go with my earth-styles…"

"Huh? Oh, ok, onee-san! I wanna be Earth-style too!" Mai had cheered and lifted her arms in the process. "If I am going to do that, I better go to class!" the younger girl slid out of the woman's lap and raced to Yukari's front door. "Arigatou, onee-san!" And with a bow, the energetic kid was gone.

"Cha, I swear that kid is going to be one high-energy ninja one day." Yukari chuckled to herself before turning back to Shozaku. "Catch up to me, she will. Speaking of which, just what happened last night?"

"Trydna helped us figure it out over night. Your sister, Meiko, was lured out of the city by a Twisted-nin, James. We don't know what exactly he said, but he didn't force her out. I wouldn't put too much blame on her though. Then you arrived on scene with your curse mark running…" he said this as though he had already known before. "And James proposed a trade of Kakashi for…Wydra, I was told. I'm still trying to figure out why all this happened. Then James interrupted by his mother. We don't know her name, but all of her jutsus revolve around sex. She affected you and tried to persuade you to do stuff to Kakashi. It's a good thing she's arrogant or she could have killed you both or worse. Well…" He reached over and pulled a folder out from under one of Skiminachi's bigger plates. "I've got a meeting to go to, anything else you can find out from them or others back at camp. I just wanted to say hi and eat breakfast with you." The illicit Gambler hopped up and started heading out the door.

"I see, well, I suppose I have talk to Meiko-san…or not…it's up to Hibachi-dono to deal with her. I'm not going to make things worse by showing my face in that problem." Yukari frowned slightly and looked at the clock. "Geez, it's so late! I gotta get to practice!" Yukari scrambled into the bathroom with her clothes. After a few minutes and fully dressed in her nin uniform, Yukari rushed out her front door.

Yamira, Joma and Skiminachi blinked as Yukari left them in her house. She was either in a really big hurry, or she trusted them. The three adult Wheel-nin shrugged to each other and decided to leave as well. The kids, however, decided to stay and since Yukari deemed it fair, Skiminachi left them behind; knowing they'd be safe.

After Sheena waved a farewell to the three departing adults, she walked into the bedroom to find Meko.

Gilligan was curled up under the bed, rolling back and forth slowly holding his sides. His body was twitching a bit, like there was something crawling around under the skin and bumping about. Occasionally, as he turned about, a face could be seen with either a smile or a snarl plastered on. Gilligan's teeth were clenched and he was trying to make as little noise as possible. He didn't want to attract attention and blow his self-made image of being just a kid.

"Hey Teddy-chan, are you ok?" Meko had seen what was under the bed and was now wondering what the heck was going on.

"Fine…" And after a seizure-like convulsion, he lay on his back gasping for air as he spoke. "Ate Randy; he isn't dead yet. He waits until I'm trying to sleep to get out…" He took a deep breath and sighed. "It's been too long since I ate somebody…" Something about this rang horribly odd and wrong.

"Hm, are you going to try and eat me?" Meko asked rhetorically as his tail curled around his feet. He glanced back as someone poked their head under the bed.

Sheena poked her head over the bed and looked at Meko and Gilligan. "Your brother is acting up again? And is the kitty talking?" She looked at Meko curiously. These two seemed to have an odd relationship.

"No, I can't deal with two people at once. Besides, you're a nice kitty…" He reached a shaky hand over and gave Meko a pet on the head.

He crawled out from under the bed and nodded to Sheena. A few of her chains reached out and jabbed him on his head, his back, and his side. Whatever the effect, he was wide awake and full of energy now. They poked their heads over the side of the bed and looked at Meko, speaking in unison. "You won't tell anyone right?"

"Eh, you don't want me to tell anyone?" Meko's tail twitched in mirth. "I will not, as long as you don't tell Yukari that the Great Neko Meko talks…" the cat smiled largely as he knew he would never tell Teddy-Nin's odd secrets.

Both Sheena and Gilligan just shrugged at the 'great' comment. They turned around and started talking to Wydra as they walked out of the room. A small bump appeared on Gilligan's shoulder, but he just flexed and it went away. They all waved at Meko as they too, left Yukari's place, locking the door on their way out.

Meko grunted as the kids walked out of the bedroom and exited the apartment. He just jumped onto the bed and began snoozing again; thinking. The trio of kids was much more entertaining than that red-eyed bird-scented girl, Yukari. Yes, he would go with them when the kids left. They knew he talked and was a Ningen anyway. Meko surprised himself for staying as long as he did in Konoha, but it was time to move along. A ninja that summoned birds was a real temptation for a cat like him. It was only strong will-power that he hadn't eaten any of her birds so far. Maybe if he got lucky, the children would allow him to eat teddy bears.