"Oh, hey Danny. Yea, we're just waiting for him to show up." I said. He just smiled, stepping purposefully to the other side of the room, standing in the trainer area and nodding to his Katara who stepped out into the arena.
"Well, he's here, so let's get started." He laughed at my shocked expression, his Rouge just shaking her head and snorting.
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I just refrained from dropping my jaw when Danny stepped into the ring, pinching my thigh discretely for good measure. It hurt. Quite a bit. Guess it really was just a small world after all.
Before I had even got a chance to turn to my bishounen, Kakashi sauntered out into the middle of the ring, book open and right up to his nose.
"Oi, teme!" Ed hollered, rolling up his sleeves and making to follow him, that telltale vein pulsing in his forehead. I snagged his jacket on the way by, and shook my head.
"As much as that's really annoying, and rest assured we're going to have a nice long chat about waiting our turn when this is over, he's better matched for Katara. If it'd been Rouge, you'd have been my first choice, no doubt whatsoever. Just relax Ed, 'Kashi's got this." Ed shot me a vaguely hurt look as he stomped off to stand with Iruka, arms crossed over his chest and looking anywhere but at the ring. I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose and counting to ten.
"You okay over there Danny-chan?" Danny called from across the room. I raised my free hand, waving him on. This day was getting more and more crazy by the minute. I'm babysitting a bunch of men-children who wanted to fight with girls. Could my life get any weirder?
"I consent to fight for Danny until I am called back or knocked unconscious." Katara dutifully intoned, resting one hand on her water skin and striking up a beginning stance with her other arm crossed over her torso and raised just above the nozzle.
"I consent to fight for Danielle-san until I am called back or knocked unconscious." Kakashi muttered, waving one hand over top of his book and thumbing a page over. Katara's eye twitched, and her hands tensed into fists, sloshing a bit of water out onto the floor. Apparently she didn't take kindly to being brushed off like that. Couldn't blame her, I suppose. It irked me when he did that sometimes, too.
"Well, what are ya'll waitin for? Get to it!" Rouge shouted, raising her hand and dropping it like a flag at the races.
Off like a shot, Katara used her water bending to surf across the gym towards Kakashi, who didn't bother to put down his book.
"C'mon 'Kashi, at least pretend you give a rats ass about this battle!" I complained, when he stepped aside with no effort. Katara stopped short, whipping around to glare at him.
The water tribe girl did a few of those enviably graceful motions with her arms, sending a whip of water hurtling towards the scarecrow's head, but he sunk into the floor with a flick of his hand, and popped up behind Katara. I opened my mouth to warn him, but he'd already wrapped one hand around Katara's water skin. The hand was instantly covered in a thick casing of ice, that expanded and grew, climbing up his arm and over his shoulder.
"He's got this, huh? I coulda figured out not to touch the girl's water bottle." Ed snorted, stretching his arms over his head with a slight whine of gears and servos.
"Shush it, Ed. No need to be a know-it-all." I said, but my heart wasn't in the reprimand, as I chewed my thumb nail and mentally prodded Kakashi into figuring out some way out of this mess.
He tugged a few times, succeeding in jerking Katara's hip, but nothing more. With a wicked grin that could be seen even through his mask, he planted his feet, and jerked his arm, hard. Katara, attached as she was, naturally followed the motion, stumbling out of her protective ring of water and breaking the contact with his arm as she dropped to her hands and knees on the floor.
Kakashi was already going through the motions for the water dragon jutsu.
"No no no!" I shouted, waving my hands over my head and bouncing up on the balls of my feet, but it was too late. Katara shot to her feet, arms raised stiffly over her head, and the water that had been accumulating over Kakashi's head came crashing down in the form of ice needles as long as the ninja was tall, pinning into the floor all around him and leaving him trapped. "She's a water bender you dolt! Don't give her more ammo!" I shrieked. The only thing that kept me from crossing the trainers box into the ring and charging down Katara myself was the automail hand Ed wound casually into the back of my shirt.
Katara smirked, sauntering closer to the man now that he was immobilized. "Not so tough, are you? That'll teach you to underestimate the Water Tribe!" He stared at her, defiant, silent. She paused a few steps from him, tilting her head, as if something looked off about the whole thing, then shrieked when hands flew up from the ground beneath her, and tugged her down to her chin in the mud bubbling up from under the broken concrete.
The Kakashi in the ice disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the real one appeared, crouching down in front of Katara, eye still firmly locked on his Icha Icha book.
She jerked to and fro, the little bits of hair from her trademark 'hair loopies' coming undone as her composure frayed. With a few motions of his hand, the mud solidified to rock, all traces of water evaporating into the suddenly super heated air of the gym.
We all leaned forward, Danny included, as the girl continued to silently struggle. Kakashi, for his part, just turned a page, and snickered at whatever passage he was currently reading.
"Let me out." She finally demanded, stilling and slumping as much as she could encased in the rock as she was.
"Nope." Kakashi's response was infuriatingly cheerful, and a flush rose high up on Katara's cheeks.
"I'm not giving up." She declared, twisting and turning. Danny watched for a moment, before shaking his head and pulling out a bishi-ball.
"C'mon back, Katara, you did all you could do." He said with a sigh, and Katara disappeared in a flash of light and a final oath.
"We won?" I asked, turning to look at Ed. He rolled his eyes and nodded. "We won? We won! You did it 'Kashi-kun! We won!" I whooped, rushing out into the ring and crashing headlong into the ninja. He took the attack good naturedly and didn't substitute himself, wrapping the hand not clinging to his paperback around my shoulders to steady me on my feet.
"You doubted me?" He asked, mock hurt in his voice.
"A little…giving her all that water from that jutsu seemed a bit boneheaded to me." I admitted, grinning up at him.
"Mah, gotta let her feel like she accomplished something." Kakashi shrugged, reaching around me to turn another page. Deftly, I reached behind my back, snatching the paperback and tearing off to Danny's end of the gym with my prize held aloft.
"I win I win I win! S-U-C-C-E-S-S that's the way you spell success!" I sing-songed, adding a little hip wiggle and a stuck out tongue to the routine for good measure.
"Um…Danny-chan?" Danny coughed, and pointed a finger sheepishly at the book I held aloft. Looking up, I stared into the eyes of a cross looking little pug dressed in a blue vest with a Konoha leaf headband tied around his head.
"Pakkun!" I shrieked, hugging the little dog close with as girly a squeal as I could manage.
Kakashi sidled up next to me, and smoothly rescued his summon from my grasp, setting the little guy down on all four paws and patting his head for good measure. The book was nowhere to be seen, safely tucked away for another day.
"Ahh..hehe, congratulations, Danny-chan." Other Danny offered with a weak smile, holding out his Dex.
"Huh? Oh, thanks!" I laughed, pulling out my own and holding it up within IR port distance. A beep and a flashing light next to the camera lens indicated the transfer was complete. Opening the lid, the screen showed 'Funds Received' with the number of gold in my account having gone way up. My eyebrows climbed right up into my hairline at the sight of the number, and I shook my head, shoving my Dex back in his direction. "Oh no, no no no, that's way too much, I can't take that!" I argued, but he waved me off with a smile.
"I'm a gym leader, Danny-chan! It's standard, don't worry about it. It would have been more if we'd done a three on three battle, but you only had your Ed and Kakashi." Iruka protested over this, but Ed held him back, rolling his eyes and pinning the kid to his side with his flesh arm. I had noticed he was careful to handle the chibi on his left side, the side with the non-automail hand, as much as possible.
"If you're sure…" I sighed, tapping the accept button on my Dex and finalizing the transfer. A new screen popped up, titled 'Gym Badges'. Under it sat the image of a lone winners badge, in the shape of a leaf. Tapping the image brought up information about the fight, listing the trainers and the participants.
"So, are you going to stay in town for a while?" The other trainer asked, stepping just a bit closer. Stepping back in a mirror of his movements, I shook my head and jerked a thumb in the direction of Ed and Iruka.
"Naw, just stopped in town to pick up a wrench we needed for Ed-kun. We're heading back out as soon as I finish stocking up." I explained. Kakashi had all but plastered himself to my side the moment I became uncomfortable with the other trainer, but I subtly pushed him away. I didn't want to insult the poor guy. I just didn't want him in my personal bubble was all.
"That's too bad. It would have been nice to get some decent training in. the challenges have been slow lately." Danny complained.
"I'm real sorry. This was sort of an unscheduled detour. But thanks for the battle, I needed the badge!" I smiled, trying to cheer him up a bit.
"It's not your fault. The competitive nature of this place comes and goes as tournaments occur around the world. Say, can I take a rain check on our lunch though? I'm going to take Katara back to our place so she can get a potion and rest up. I don't think she'd like being around your Kakashi all that much right now."
"Sure, I'll hit you up when I'm back in town!" I promised, already edging for the door. He waved goodbye, and I rushed Ed and Iruka out in front of me, Kakashi following close behind. "Let's get that wrench I totally forgot about, and get the heck outta here!" I mumbled, pushing Ed between the shoulder blades to prod him into a faster pace.
"I'm goin, I'm goin. Keep your pants on, lady." He complained, opening the doors to the gym and holding them open for me.
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A.N. Well….I feel like a massive failure. A marriage and a divorce, that's all it took to kick me back into gear this time…I am so so so so so so so sorry for letting this languish like it has. I've already got the next chapter started, and I'm optimistic to have it out in the next few days! I've missed these guys, and it's refreshing to get back into this plot with a clear head, so watch out!