'Whew…I'm glad that I finally got that done…' Rick inwardly considers to himself as he slowly leans against the back of his chair.
He releases a deep sigh of relief before he contemplates, 'Ever since Natalie returned, I at least thought that the castle wouldn't be this quiet.'
The man sits straight up with his feet against the floor and remembers, 'Then there's the thing that changed between Minato and Natalie.'
'I still have yet to figure out what exactly happened between those two.'
He aimlessly drags his fingers through his black locks before his sights land on an envelope that slides from underneath the crack of his door.
'I wonder what this is?' Rick asks himself as his curiosity starts to get the better of him.
After he approaches his door, he leisurely squats down to scoop up the white envelope and tediously examines it.
'It has no return address…' The raven haired male was realizing before shaking the item but there were no sounds of jiggling or ringing.
'It's definitely not a bomb…so it's just a regular letter.' The older man concludes before he rises to his full height.
'I wonder whose it's from?' He judges.
The bespectacled male flipped the envelope so that the fold faced him. He purposely hooks his finger in the corner and slowly drags it across the fold.
Rick removes a piece of white paper with visible marks on it and permits his eyes to scan the words.
'No way…it can't be…' He regards in disbelief while he proceeds to read the contents of the letter.
0000
'Ah here it is…' Jordan senses once he travels over until he stands in front of his destination.
He quirks an eyebrow at the item in front of him while he mulls over, 'I at least thought it would be something more dramatic than a simple park bench.'
The Avatar merely shrugs his shoulders before he reaches out for a miniature sphere of green energy that materializes in front of him.
'Am I going back in time?' The golden entity ponders as a strange yet familiar sensation overcomes his body once his fingers graze the ball of light.
"You know, you're nothing without Minato by your side!" A feminine teen age voice catches his ears once he hears the blonde twit name.
His golden eyes peek to his left until he spots three girls that huddle around a young girl, who sits on a bench.
"Who really cares about what you losers think of me?" The young girl on the bench fires back at the three girls while she stands to her feet.
"Don't you dare walk away from us when we are talking to you!" One of the three girls threatens her as they speedily close in on the girl.
"Why don't you just go and play with your dolls or something? You're really getting on my last nerves!" The girl with raven hair irritably retorts to the group of girls.
"Ladies...I do believe that our precious little Natalie has some feelings for Minato." The leader of the trio broadcasts, which causes the green eyed teen girl to freeze in place.
The leader extends her right arm outward in order to block the others that were about to pass her and boastfully claims, "I'm sure that I can handle her."
Natalie merely whirls on her heels to face the girls before she shrieks, "So you think I'm weakling just because you're trying to run your pathetic excuses as insults to get under my skin?"
"You thought wrong, Misao! I have a much tougher skin than that!"
"Unlike you three, I am not obsessed with that blonde haired twit!" She boldly jaws at the ringleader of the girls.
"If you aren't interested then you shouldn't be this worked up over him, right?" The girl, name Misao, pries with her arms across her chest.
The raven haired girl simply rolls her eyes at the trio before she utters, "You three aren't worth my time nor my breath."
Golden eyes closely watche as a teen Natalie closes her eyes, faces away from the girls and treks toward the street with the vendors.
However, she was unaware that the the trio of girls were still actively hot on her trail.
"I can't believe the nerve of those girls accusing me of something like that with Minato." The raven haired teen huffs as she stares at the ground instead of what was in front of her.
"Natalie!" "Where are you?" "Natalie!" "Answer me!" "Your father is worried about you!" Minato randomly screams out in the crowd of people. He did not realize just how close he was to her proximity.
Natalie instantly freezes up in her stance before she hastily rotates her head left then right as if to find a spot to hide from him.
It was at that exact moment, her green eyes unexpectedly watched the surface of the street quickly near her as gravity easily dragged her body downward.
'Why am I falling forward?' She wonders to herself right before she collides against the cobblestone streets.
The sound of giggles immediately captures her awareness. Her green eyes peek upward only to behold Misao was the one that shoves her in the street.
The raven haired teen automatically knew it was her because she wore a satisfied grin on her face.
"That's what you get for trying to confront me." Misao calmly counters to the teen. The trio promptly left Natalie to fend for herself in the middle of the street.
'At least that's the end of Misao and her little gang.' She inwardly broods.
The young girl then exhales a sigh of relief not fully aware of the danger that steadily approaches her.
"Move out of the way!" "The horse has gone rogue!" "Get out of the way!" A man piercingly shouts out verbal warnings while he desperately clutches at the reins of a horse.
The horse was clearly livid and displayed no visible signs to heed the owner's requests to slow down.
The raven haired girl merely watches as frantic people race around her as if they were in extreme distress.
'I wonder why everyone is in such a hurry?' She curiously ponders about the reason behind their actions
The sound of hooves rapidly stomps against the cobble road ensnares her concentration.
Her green eyes cut her sights to the right and beholds a horse on a rampage that heads directly in her direction.
'I need to move out the way…' Natalie orders herself. Yet as she tries to avoid the horse, a sharp intense pain emits from her feet.
The raven haired girl was hastily glancing down at her feet only to realize that her ankle was indeed sprain. Any kind of moving was definitely out of the plan now.
'Why? Why does this happen to me everytime they mention his name? I always get the bad end of the stick whenever he's around.' The teen contemplates in disbelief at her current situation.
'Even still I don't want to die because of a horse…I just hope he hears me.' Natalie mentally resolves.
Her head somberely hangs low with her eyes shut while one of her hands clenches tightly in a fist against her chest.
"Minato!" The raven haired girl fretfully clamours at the top of her lungs after the horse enters within a five-yard radius from her.
'I'm going to die…' The teen ultimately presumes while she physically braces her body for head on impact.
Jordan was suddenly catching a yellow hue speedily launching from the opposite side of the sidewalk and snagging Natalie right before the horse could even reach her.
Her eyes leisurely flutters open as her pupils properly dilate from the bright sunrays that blinds her vision, "Am I dead?"
"Nope, you're far from dead Natalie." A familiar masculine voice assures her before she peeps over at the source of the voice.
The raven haired girl registers bright yellow hair while her mind easily connects it to a face and their identity. "Minato…"
"You don't have to explain how you sprain your ankle. I saw and heard everything." He explains while his face over hers when he speaks to her.
'He heard…everything?' The teen thinks in disbelief as she feels heat pool around her cheeks.
The obisidian eyed boy casually plops down in front of her with his legs cross in front of him and remarks, "I'm just glad you threw your pride aside for a minute to call out for me."
Natalie senses that he was actually serious about his statement before he verbalizes "As long as you are alright, I'm sure you won't have a problem with those girls anymore."
"Minato…" She was quietly muttering his name before seeing him smile at her with his eyes close and head tilting to the right.
"You don't have to thank me, you know. Just make sure your ankle heals in time for our spar, 'kay?" The blonde politely cuts her off in the middle of her sentence.
"After all, I don't want to hear any excuses from you once I finally beat you." The boy includes, which causes a small smile to stretch across her face.
The raven haired girl slightly nods her head in agreement at the deal before she responses with a, "You got it".
"Good. Now we have to return back home."
"I definitely don't want Master Rick or Master Namikaze having my head for being so late." Minato hastily mentions to her while he helps her up on to his back.
"Yeah, you're right." Natalie softly mutters after she gently wraps her arms around his neck so she would not fall off of his back.
A similar smile surfaces on her face once she finally secures herself on his back. The raven haired girl whispers, "Thank you, Minato."
'So that's where it all started for those two...' The Avatar conceives after he spectates the incident with his very own eyes.
'I never thought that Natalie would be the one who was bullied. I guess life is full of surprises.' The golden entity considers.
Jordan closes his eyes when the sound of birds captures his attention.
'It seems as if I have returned to the present time then…' He assumes before he glances at that spot one last time.
'I have somewhere I need to be…' The Avatar reminds himself before he departs from the park bench.
0000
'Who's going to strike first?' Canaan, Kieran, Kiera, and the other students currently wonder as they serve as spectators to the spar of the two Royal guards.
Minato and Natalie simultaneously reflect their opponent steps as they circle around the pin. It was as if they patiently waited in anticipation to see who would be the first to strike the other.
Her green eyes closely study his feet for the slightest twitch or movement, which means he plans to engage first in the showdown.
The blonde's sights solely concentrate on the raven haired woman's waist. He was taught that a fighter was not able to easily alter the position of their waist whenever they would attack, thus it is easier to read their moves.
'Someone's about to make a move…' MasterCanaan predicts after the pair shuffle with each other step by step and almost covers the entire area of the circle.
Minato shifts his right foot so it points toward her before he launches toward Natalie with no signs of hesitation. She prepares herself for his charge, drops her sword to her side, and dashes in his direction.
'They are both doing a frontal attack...this early? They must be really serious about this practice match.' Canaan concludes to himself as he continues to observe both of the fighters' movement.
"Not bad Minato, it seems as if you're still reckless than ever." The soldier comments after she connects against the young man's blade.
"That's my style." The knight reminds her before he forces her backward with the use of his sword, which results in her balance being thrown off.
The young woman swiftly recovers her balance before she returns to her original height and considers, 'So if he's taking this serious then I should at least be serious about it too.'
His obsidian eyes observe her momentarily pause to herself as if she was deep in thought while he ponders, '...is she going to take me seriously now?'
The blonde launches at her once again, except this time he dashes to her left hand side, leaps in the air with his sword over his head.
'Move Natalie…' Kiera considers once she recognizes the move that the knight was about to execute on her.
Just a mere seconds later, the raven haired woman lifts her sword to meet his and halts his attack in midair. The taller of two purposely leans his weight toward her.
Canaan overhears the "wows" emit from his students once they witness a woman easily block a man, who was twice her size, in the air.
"I guess you're done babying me, aren't you?" He teasingly challenges before he catches a glimpse of a leg enters his peripheral vision.
The blonde nimbly tosses his sword in the other hand while his free hand blocks the kick but the force of her strike pushes him a little ways to his right.
The woman promptly follows up her attack with a slash while she speedily rotates her whole body to face him.
"Are you plotting something?" The young man questions her with a smirk present on his face.
The green eyed solider brings her left hand to the hilt of the sword and lifts it in an upward-diagonal fashion.
'She's really strong.' Canaan analyzes her strength after he views the rapid succession of her offense with the sword.
Minato firmly guards his body from Natalie's onslaught of multiple slashes, who appears to be intensively focus on their spar.
He then soon feels the natural force of gravity easily works against his body as he suddenly lands back on ground.
Her green eyes only watch as the blonde falls off to his side after she delivers a floor kick that catches him completely off guard.
She swiftly draws near him, halts in front of his face, lifts her sword, points the tip directly at his face, and asserts, "If you were going to slack off and not concentrate then consider this spar over."
The make casually raises to his feet all while he dusts the dirt off of his shirt and gives his back a good stretch.
"Let's try this again." The young man suggests to himself before he swiftly lounges at her again.
The obsidian eyed knight tightly clutches his sword, swiftly dashes toward her, and directly aims his blade at her stomach region.
The raven haired woman hastily ducks in order to escape the swing with only a few strands of hair being slice from her head.
'He's open now.' The captain instantly deems as she remains in her squat position, lifts her sword, and aims at his hips.
The sound of metal clashes against metal echoes loudly throughout the mute environment of Master Canaan and his students.
Minato lifts his left leg, which prompts Natalie to back off in order to avoid a potential hit. She then drove forward from her seated position with her sword straight behind her.
He recovers from their close encounter, takes a couple of steps backwards and dodges the head on attack.
The raven haired woman firmly plants her right foot against the surface of the ground and channels her momentum to the stroke of her blade as her ponytail sways to the other side of her head.
The blonde could only block her attack at the moment once he realizes that her swing was not successful.
The green eyed soldier steathily tosses the hilt in her opposite hand and swings upward.
'What a move!' Kieran inwardly judged after he witnessed the manuever that Natalie just executed on Minato.
'I wonder who will win in the end?' Canann imagined as he watched from his seated location.
2222
Author's Note:
12.11.16 Major editing revision
06.26.17 Major cleaning edits