"Please," Minato implored "let the girl go Sakumo-san."
Cautiously the gloved hand slipped away from my mouth, the ghostly presence pressing behind me disappearing with it. A heavy silence filled the hallway as the four of us tried to make any sense out of what had happened. The haunting silence that surrounded us was so very unnerving, yet all I could do was stare pleadingly at Minato and Jiraiya for some kind of explanation.
Why was there another stranger in my home?
From their equally stunned expressions it was clear that they didn't have the slightest idea what was going on either.
Why was it that every time I started getting used to these completely improbable, totally impossible situations something new had to turn up? Ever since Friday evening the universe seemed hell-bent on denying me any sense of normalcy in my life. I guess I just had to count my blessings that this new person wasn't hostile, at least for the moment anyway.
"Minato…? Jiraiya…?" the silver-haired man questioned in surprise. "I would not have harmed the girl."
If I didn't know any better I could have sworn I detected a hint of insult in his deep, soothing tone. Perhaps insinuating or inferring that one might intend harm to an unarmed woman was considered offensive to a ninja. Assuming this new individual was one. Then again, maybe I was just reading too much into things.
Quietly the silver-haired man moved to stand between the two magical-ninja and myself, his back to them as he stared down at me with dark, friendly eyes. "I apologise for my action young lady. I trust you are uninjured?"
He seemed genuinely concerned whether he had hurt me in any way. He obviously hadn't caused me any physical harm. I had screamed at him after all, I couldn't really blame him for his response.
"I'm fine," I softly replied. Yeah if you ignore the heart attack inducing sudden appearance of a total stranger in my apartment…I'm just peachy.
Shock was rapidly melting into annoyance. Although I had nothing personal against this new arrival, it didn't hide the fact that there was yet another stranger standing in my home. I didn't want him here, but it was too late now to start becoming selective over who I allowed to stay and who I forced to leave. I took a deep, calming breath in an effort to alleviate the rising bitterness within me. Though I may not like the situation becoming angry about it helped no one, especially me.
"Where am I? What is this place," he questioned, warily glancing around, his perplexed gaze landing on several objects that decorated my hallway. A table, a decorative bowl, a plant, framed artwork, nothing out of the ordinary.
"You're in Vancouver British Columbia, and this place is my apartment," I offered in rely, knowing full well that this answer would only bring forth more questions.
Perhaps I was being overly cynical, but did they have to act as though my apartment was some bizarre, alien spacecraft that they were abducted into every time? I know they're from a different world and all but my home wasn't that weird…was it?
"Van-coover?" he asked puzzled.
"It's a long story," Jiraiya explained, "Perhaps we'd better sit down."
With an unspoken agreement among us I was soon leading a conga line of tall men back to my living room. Their towering heights quickly reminding me that I was shorter than average. Minato and Jiraiya took up their usual positions on the couch and armchair. The new arrival guardedly surveyed the room before taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch. Although he apparently knew Jiraiya and Minato he was still remaining cautious. Once again I couldn't really blame him.
This was weird and stressful enough for me. I couldn't imagine what it must be like for them, to suddenly have everything that was familiar ripped away. At least on the surface they all seemed to be handling it pretty well. If it were me, I'd probably be putting on an irrational, panic-induced display of epic proportions. The question was had the silver-haired man been brought here the same way Minato and Jiraiya had? I didn't even want to think of the implications of there being multiple ways these ninja were ending up in my apartment.
Hopefully Jiraiya would have some success with his toad friends in figuring out how they were coming here. My apartment was starting to feel pretty crowded.
Mystical dimensional portal definitely hadn't been mentioned on the lease.
"I'll go make us some tea," I politely informed before disappearing into the kitchen.
I grabbed the electric kettle off the counter and filled it with water before plugging it in. While waiting for the water to boil I grabbed a teapot, some mugs, and a couple of teabags out of the cupboard. Since Minato and Jiraiya seemed to like it I decided to make green tea for everyone.
If silver-hair didn't like it he wasn't obligated to drink it.
Making tea wasn't really necessary, but it allowed me a small reprieve from having to deal with my company for a while. I hoped that Minato and Jiraiya could explain all the mystical ninja-magic stuff to him because I certainly wasn't going to be able to. I could answer some questions about this world and tell him the rules for staying here, but that was pretty much it.
The kettle shrieked loudly as clouds of white steam exploded from the spout. I tugged the cord out of the outlet before my ears started bleeding and poured the boiled water into the waiting teapot. Adding a couple of teabags I place the teapot and the mugs on a tray and headed back into the living room.
My new guest watched me with a mix of curiosity and wariness as I placed the tray on the coffee table. I poured three cups and offered them to Jiraiya and Minato before offering one to the silver-haired man. He seemed uneasy accepting the offered mug but seemed to relax slightly when no harm came to the others. As he carefully took an experimental sip I poured tea into the remaining mug on the tray for myself.
"Thank you," he said, his deep voice oddly comforting.
"Sakumo-san this is Sarah," Minato politely introduced, calmly gesturing towards me with his hand. "She's been kind enough to open up her home to us while we are here."
Alright might as well try to make nice. Chances where this guy was going to be here a while. "Nice to meet you," I greeted offering him my hand. "Sakumo was it?"
Nodding in reply he took my offered hand, enveloping it in his larger one, and shook it briefly. "Nice to meet you as well…Sarah," he replied, rolling the foreign name experimentally on his tongue.
"It's good to see you old friend," Jiraiya happily commented, his lips stretching into one of his characteristically large grins. "Sakumo here is known as Konoha's White Fang."
Although Jiraiya seemed to beam with pride over whatever it was that title meant the silver-haired man himself seemed almost embarrassed by it. There was a hint of something else that flashed in his dark eyes, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
White Fang? I had no idea what Konoha was but I did recognise the title, White Fang. It was a novel by Jack London, based in the Yukon Territory during the Klondike Gold Rush about a mixed dog-wolf's journey to domestication, or something along those lines. I glanced over at Sakumo, he had the silver hair but he certainly didn't resemble a wolf.
"White fang…? You mean like the dog?" I questioned curiously. Perhaps he had earned the nickname because of his hair.
"Sarah!" Jiraiya replied aghast.
I had to resist the urge to face-palm. How could I forget that they were from another world? Of course they wouldn't have the same authors that are here in this world. They probably had no idea who Jack London was. I'd just compared my new guest to a fictional dog; things were off to a great start. If I kept my mouth shut hopefully I could avoid insulting anyone else for the remainder of the evening.
"White fang is a title Sakumo-san has earned through his work as a Konoha shinobi," Minato patiently explained.
At least his title wasn't Super-Kill-Machine that was a plus.
With the majority of the seating being occupied I started heading back towards the kitchen in order to grab a chair.
"There appears to be a seat available in the middle here," Sakumo informed politely, glancing at the empty seat between Minato and himself, apparently not the least bit offended by my earlier comment.
I stared at him dumbly, each passing second feeling like minutes as my mind warred between being comfortable and not being rude. Sakumo seemed nice enough so far, but I wasn't at all contented with the idea of sitting that close to him, especially after my misinterpretation of his title. However, openly ignoring his suggestion could be taken as a huge insult. I silently begged Jiraiya to trade places but apparently telepathy wasn't a skill he possessed.
Deciding it was probably best not to be rude I reluctantly took a seat on the couch, subconsciously moving slightly closer to Minato to put some distance between Sakumo and myself. Nothing noticeably obvious of course.
"You were saying something about a reanimation jutsu Jiraiya?"
"They are rare, but it seems the most likely explanation…"
I listened quietly as Jiraiya gave a similar discussion to the one the three of us had the other day. Explaining all their theories and discussing how they had reached the dimensional travel, reanimation hypothesis. It didn't make any more sense the second time around, but with magical-ninja making sense was probably a relative term.
As I silently followed the conversation my eyelids started to feel heavy, drooping down until my vision was nearly blocked completely. I snapped them open, blinking rapidly in a futile effort to rejuvenate myself only to have them droop shortly after once again.
Hopefully explaining what we had figured out so far wasn't going to take much longer.
My pillow was pleasantly warm but felt oddly lumpy, the slightly rough material scratching at my cheek. I was definitely going to have to put a different pillowcase on it later. I didn't remember making it to my bed but perhaps I had just been too tired. Had the sudden appearance of that silver-haired man been a dream? Sleepily I opened my eyes and nearly vomited up my own heart.
Not only was the silver-haired man, Sakumo, very real, I was currently sleeping with my head in his lap. I was mortified beyond belief. Why hadn't someone woken me, or at least moved me? I was seriously thanking my luck that I hadn't been drooling in my sleep as well. I don't think I would have been able to recover from that embarrassment.
"Uhh…sorry," I sheepishly mutter quickly sitting up. I momentarily felt dizzy as the blood rapidly drained from my head at the sudden movement.
"You were not causing any harm," Sakumo calmly replied.
His deep, soothing baritone did little to ease my embarrassment. Thankfully however, he didn't seem at all bothered by my unconscious action.
"It's getting late," commented Minato, "Perhaps we should turn in for the night."
That sounded like an excellent plan, but where was everyone going to sleep? I did have some extra bedding and sleeping bags but I wasn't really equipped for multiple guests. Hopefully they would be okay with sleeping on the floor until we could work something else out.
I glanced around at the disorganized state of my apartment, finding room on the floor might be a little difficult. Some things were going to have to be moved around first. As if reading my mind Minato collected to mugs and brought the tray back into the kitchen while Jiraiya and Sakumo moved the coffee table and armchair back.
Now you can read my mind? I bitterly thought, shooting Jiraiya an angry glare.
While they cleared space in the living room I went to my linen closet to retrieve an extra pillow and sleeping bag for Sakumo. I hadn't been expecting any additional guests so I didn't have any clothes for him to change into unfortunately. Would I end up having to take the three of them shopping? Although it hadn't been entirely unpleasant, it had been hard enough taking Minato and Jiraiya shopping. I couldn't imagine what it was going to be like with a third person. That was a problem that was going to have to wait until another time.
As I made my way back to the living room I felt a little guilty for making two of them sleep on the hard floor. Perhaps I should take a trip to Wal-Mart and see if they had any camping mats, or anything that could help make the ground a little more comfortable.
"Here's some extra bedding," I announced, placing the pillow and the rolled up sleeping bag on the couch. "Sorry that this isn't the most comfortable arrangement. I guess you'll have to fight over who gets the couch."
"Fighting for that seems…unnecessary," Sakumo commented, uncertainty lacing his deep voice.
From the tone of his voice it sounded almost as if he had thought I had meant seriously fight. They wouldn't actually start beating on each other would they? "Uhh…I didn't mean literally of course," I replied laughing nervously.
"If you want more of us to be comfortable there's still room on your bed for one more," Jiraiya happily commented with a lecherous grin while playfully wiggling his eyebrows.
I crossed my arms over my chest and glowered at him. "Not happening…and even if it did what makes you think I'd pick you?" I scoffed.
"Jiraiya-sensai is Jiraiya-sensai no matter what world he's in," Minato nervously muttered, setting up two sleeping spots on the floor.
For the most part Jiraiya's teasing, though typically highly sexual in nature, was pretty harmless. That however didn't mean that I couldn't be annoyed by it, or do a little teasing of my own in return. If I had any more unexpected guests randomly appearing out of the blue I might very well end up having to share my bed with someone. That was an entirely uncomfortable thought. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
"I have to leave early for work tomorrow. Would you mind showing Sakumo how things work around here and explaining some of the ground rules while I'm gone? I should be back by 5pm."
"Of course," Minato calmly replied.
"Thank you. I'll leave my cell and work number on the fridge in case you need to contact me."
Hopefully they wouldn't but at least they would have some numbers where they could contact me if there was an emergency or something.
"Thank you for your hospitality," Sakumo politely commented, offering me a small bow.
I could feel a slight blush burning at my cheeks. I appreciated the gratitude but the bowing had been too much. It seemed reminiscent of something out of Japanese culture but I couldn't recall a signal time when someone had actually bowed to me personally. It seemed too…formal.
"You're welcome," I politely responded.
Before an awkward silence could completely saturate the room I turned and headed towards the bathroom to completely my own nightly rituals before turning in for the night.
The buzzing noise coming from my alarm clock at 6:30 in the morning was a most unwelcome noise. In my sleepy state I had to resist the urge to throw the annoying device across the room and switch the darn thing off before it woke up the rest of the apartment. I wasn't even going to bother with the futile wish that the arrival of a third magical-ninja had been a dream.
Throwing off the covers I shivered at the sudden assault of cold desperately wanting to crawl back into the warmth of my bed. Unfortunately I had to go to work so going back to bed wasn't an option. As quietly as I could I slipped out of bed and made my way to the bathroom to shower.
I showered quickly so the running water wouldn't disturb my guests. Drying off with a towel I pulled on my housecoat and silently made my way back to my bedroom, clicking the door shut behind me so I could change. It was going to be another rainy day according to the weather forecast on my cellphone, so I decided to wear a pair of black dress pants, a white blouse and a green knitted sweater. I would have to remember to bring my rain boots for walking to and from the car. After getting dressed I went back to the bathroom to put on some eye-shadow and mascara so I didn't look like a tired zombie and ran a comb through my hair.
Checking the time it was now 7:10. I would have to eat breakfast quickly if I was going to make it to the lab on times. Thank goodness for cold cereal I thought as I hastily choked down a bowl. Putting the empty bowl in the sink I promptly gathered what I would need to bring, such as an umbrella, my purse rain boots and a change of dress shoes, slipped on my winter rain coat and headed out the door.
The underground parking garage was eerily silent this early in the morning. Thankfully I was well into my practiced routine to bother coming up with horrifying scenarios of being mugged with my over active imagination.
Although traffic had been frustrating at times the drive to work had been uneventful as usual. Before I knew it I was sitting at my desk, starting up my computer for the day. Long weekends usually created a backlog so today was going to be busy.
"Hey there skinny bitch," Pam playful greeted, "how was your long weekend?"
If she was calling me bitch it meant the lab manager wasn't in yet. He frowned heavily on swearing in the lab, friendly or otherwise.
"Fine," I replied giving a non-committal shrug. I wasn't about to tell her that I had spent the majority of my weekend with two men who had suddenly shown up in my apartment, or that a third one had appeared just last night. Pam may be open-minded but I didn't need her jumping to ridiculous conclusions of me having a four-way with them. "How was New York?"
"Fantastic, the shopping there is amazing…and the food, so good. I think I gained 10 pounds."
If she had it wasn't immediately noticeable.
"We ran into this really cute single guy while we were there. I think the two of you would really hit it off…"
I had to bite back a groan. It was too early in the morning to have to deal with Pam trying to set me up with people. "Uhh…you do know we're in different countries right?" I questioned sarcastically.
"Of course I know that," she snapped. "Although it would have been nice if you two could have at least gotten together for a drink."
"I'll just have to live with the disappointment," I groaned.
I know she meant well, but this constantly trying to set me up with any single person she happened to come across was getting tiresome. Beside I was in no desperate rush to be in another relationship anyway. Thankfully she left it at that and didn't bring up the lecture on how I needed to get over Richard and get back into dating again.
As I went about my job of preparing and screening specimens I wondered how things were back at the apartment. Hopefully there would be no huge disasters when I got home. If I wasn't too worn out by the end of the day maybe I would take them all on a quick trip to Wal-Mart.
If Minato's pervious reaction was any indication, having them in the car was going to be…interesting.
Thank you for reading.
Also thank you for the reviews and the suggestions, I will take them in to consideration.
Until next time…