Hey there! On time like promised! ^.^
Lots of thanks to Jestie Uchiha, YellowMittens and Aiko Tachibana for reviewing! You guys are awesome!
Like promised here's the next chapter, see it as some sort of Christmas present. Not that I care for Christmas but oh well, at least I don't have school.
Okay this chapter is pretty much just a filler (*shock*) so don't expect any sense in it. At least the first part is. The second part isn't completely one, depends on how one defines 'filler'...
That said, enjoy!
Sins and Sunshine
Chapter 20: Nothing to do
"Achoo!"
"Hey don't get sick before these exams end!" Nobu protested and moved few inches away from me like he was afraid that I could infect him.
I didn't feel sick at all, just a runny nose since two days ago when I sat on the roof in the cold for too long, it seems. Well, deserves me right, I guess.
We were sitting in the lounge of the tower. Ayano read a book from one of the many bookshelves in here while Nobu and I were playing some video games.
"Who would have thought that they had actually a game console in here!" I said in awe.
"And who would have thought you're this good in video games. Damn it!" Nobu cursed as I bet him in the car race game we were playing right now. (Not that anyone would know what these cars are but oh well...)
"Ha, I won!" I cheered nudging my teammate in the side. It was now 4:3 for me.
"Revenche!" he proclaimed and pushed the 'reset' button.
"Hey, what are you playing?" Kiba asked as he entered the room.
"A car race." I explained and concentrated to find a way to overtake Nobu.
"Cool, can it pl-"
"Darn!"
"Ha! In your face!" Nobu yelled and punched the air as he won.
"All or nothing?" I asked, determined to win this.
"You're so gonna lose this!" he answered grinning.
"Okay, the hardest route, 50 laps." I ordered him.
"You'll regret to have ever challenged me!"
After half an hour we were in the 45. lap and had a neck-and-neck-race. Meanwhile gathered quite some audience around us. Among them Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino and three Sound-ninjas who looked like they wanted to kill some time.
"How about a little bet?" I suggested to Nobu.
"Okay. If I win you have to give me a kiss!"
"And if I win you have to run 20 lap around the tower. In your underwear!"
Nobu gulped but still agreed to it.
All my friends were rooting for me, only Ino was on Nobu's side since she couldn't stand me. Even the Oto-nin were betting amongst themselves on who'll win.
We were driving the last lap and were practically glued to the screen when the goal came in sight. We were still head-to-head and I was almost crushing my controller from pushing the button to hard. Till the last second one couldn't tell who'd win this match. We crossed the goal at almost the same time and the winner was shown.
"Woohoooo! Take that Nobu!" I shouted and pointed a finger at him after I jumped up from the ecstasy of winning.
"NOOO!" Nobu screamed and punched the ground with a crestfallen face. My friends were cheering with me (the stoic one less then the others) while the female Oto-nin got 5$ from each of her teammates.
"What do I hear? Youthful enthusiasm?" a voice shouted from near the door. As I looked at the direction of the voice, I saw the pure horror! A human-like creature with thick eyebrows, puddin-basin haircut and a green skintight spandex suit entered the room and made a thumps up with his shining teeth showing in a silly grin.
"Kyaah! Make it go away! Make it go away!" I squealed and hid behind Shikamaru who was the nearest person standing near me and turned now into my meat shield.
"What do you mean, youthful girl?" he asked with more teeth glittering.
"A monster! A green full body condom monster!" I yelled and hid even more behind Shikamaru.
"She's afraid of you, Lee." A girl with long brown hair next to the monster said. No wait, she was actually a he, the hair and the refined face got me confused.
"Somehow I can understand her but that was definitely exaggerated." a girl – and this time really a girl – stated.
"Why does she not like my youthfulness?" the monster called Lee asked glumly and sobbing and left the room with his comrades following him.
"He's gone." Shikamaru stated lazily.
"Yay!" I cheered jumping forth from my hiding place aka Shikamaru.
"Then we can do something different now." Nobu suggested with drops of sweat gathering on his forehead.
"Nuh-uh! Didn't you forget something?" I retorted with a mean grin.
"Please, have mercy!" he begged desperately.
"Forget that! Strip and run! Now!"
"I'll get back on you!" Nobu shouted while running around the tower in bunny boxershorts with all of us watching and laughing at him.
"Less talking, more running!" I called out to him and smirked contently. Never mess with a female gamer!
Two days later...
"Naruto-kun! Sasuke-kun!" I shouted when I saw my two friends (plus Pinky) walking into the tower.
"Minari-chan!" Naruto shouted and tackle-hugged me to the ground.
"Hey." Sasuke greeted with usual Uchiha-coolness.
"Don't ignore me!" Pinky nagged.
"Hey Pinky, what happened to your hair?" I asked pointing out her lack of long hair.
"I wanted to change my hairstyle. I think this way they suit me better." I boasted with a self-contented smile.
"You're right." I agreed "it makes your baby face more outstanding like this."
"Youuuuu..."
Sakura was about to go for my throat when Iruka-sensei came in.
"Hello, Iruka-sensei." I greeted him.
"Hello, Minari-chan. Can you tell the other teams that times up and they can go home now? We'll continue with the next part of the exam tomorrow morning." he said.
"Okay~" I sang and then opened the door to the lounge.
"Hey, guys! We can go home now! We'll continue tomorrow!" I shouted as loud as I could so that I was heard in every last part of the tower. As I turned around I was confronted with team 7 and Iruka holding their hands to their ears.
"Err... Oops?"
"And, how did you do?" I asked my old team when we were together at Ichiraku's ramen shop.
"Well, we had quite some trouble. There was this snake guy, who..." Naruto narrated while gulping down his ramen with soup spilling all over his face, which didn't look much appetizing, as you can imagine.
Sakura cast a concerned glance at Sasuke who in return ignored her and stubbornly glared at the counter. Something had happened, but what?
I leaned forward and looked at him, but when ours eyes met he quickly averted his gaze. This wasn't good. He was an Uchiha, he'd never avert his gaze. Return yeah, ignore okay, but never avert!
I leaned backwards again and gave him a soft smile.
"You don't have to tell me." I whispered so only he could hear. Pinky, who sat on his other side, noticed me saying something to him and instantly shot daggers with her eyes at me but I shrugged it off. Instead I listened to the blonde who happily narrated his heroic deeds back in the forest of death not paying attention if we were even listening.
Movement in the corner of my eye made me turn around. Sasuke slid off the stool and was now facing the empty and dimly lit street.
"Minari, follow me." he said in his typical cold tone. I nodded and got off the stool to stand beside him. Sakura who had watched us wanted to protest but Sasuke cut her off.
"You wait here. If the dope asks, we're back in a few minutes."
She opened her mouth but closed it again and nodded with uneasiness clearly written all over her face.
I wondered what all this meant but put it aside as I hurried after Sasuke who started to wander along the street.
For some time we were walking next to each other without one word spoken. Normally I'd enjoy the silence but here and there I darted a concerned gaze at him, his silence making me anxious.
Finally he came to a halt. We went quite some distance and were now standing under a street lamp of a crossroad that that radiated a soft yellow light. He still didn't say a word but kept starring at the light above us. Since I had nothing better to do I followed his gaze and noticed a little moth dancing around the bright light, flying against it again and again.
"Isn't it funny how moths get attracted to the light?" I said absent-mindedly. "Why aren't they happy with just staying in the light but try so hard to reach the centre?"
"Hn..."
"Like I already said, you don't to force yourself to tell me." I said with a serious face now directed to him. A hint of a smile crossed his lips but disappeared just as fast again before he turned his gaze at me. We looked in each others eyes, his dark orbs seemed to look right into my soul.
"You know of Orochimaru?" he suddenly began breaking the silence.
"Err huh? Oh yeah, he's one of the Sannin, right?" I answered trying to come to my senses again.
"We met him in the forest. He said, he can make me stronger."
"And what does he want from you?" I asked with a frown. I mean, why would someone who betrayed the village come and graciously offer his help without anything in return.
"I don't know." he answered honestly. Then he pulled on the collar of his shirt and leaned his head back. First I wondered why he would do this, then I noticed something on his neck. There were three little marks that reminded me of his Sharingan.
"What's that?"
"A curse mark he gave me." Sasuke explained and put his collar back in place to hide it once again.
"Sounds bad." I pondered.
"It can give me power."
"Then it sounds good."
"But when I use it it feels like it wants to take over my body."
"Well, that's bad."
Sasuke started to look at me again as if waiting for something. I cocked my head and thought about it.
"Do you really need him to get stronger?" I then asked. Seriously, it's not like he couldn't became stronger on his own or with the help of Kakashi-sensei or other Jonin.
"I don't know." he answered again. Seems like he also already thought about it this way.
"Then just wait what'll happen. It's a waste to bother about things one can't tell for sure. Wait until after the exams and I'm sure you'll get an answer." I suggested with a bright smile.
"Hn..."
"We should head back for now." I said and then we started to walk the same path back we came from.
On the way back it was now Sasuke's turn to constantly gaze at me. After some time I felt too uneasy and turned to ask him.
"Do I have something on my face?"
"...There's something on your mind." he stated and I looked at him in surprise before quickly averting my eyes. Suddenly that pebble on the road seemed interesting.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Hn."
Sighting I gazed to the night sky and watched the stars.
"How should I put it." I mumbled.
"I once told you a bit of my past, right?"
"About your parents." he answered.
"Yeah. Well, seems like I have to confront this part of my past and it'll probably take some time to sort things out." I explained with a bitter smile. The boy furrowed his brows.
"Those three from Suna." he deadpanned. I lowered my head again.
"Mhhmm... Oh look, we're back." I quickly added when I saw the ramen shop in front of us.
With a broad smile I hurried to Naruto and Pinky, Sasuke behind me.
"Sorry, we're late. Did you wait long?" I apologized as Naruto almost jumped to my neck.
"Minari-chan, where were you? You weren't even listening to my great stories!"
"There, there." I hummed patting the boy's back as I felt someone glaring daggers at me again.
"That was longer than just a few minutes." Pinky muttered impatiently stomping her foot on the ground.
"Don't you have anything to say?"
"Except for I don't have those perverted intentions you do, not really."
"W-What? I never-" she stuttered with a huge blush and lost for words. My grin just grew wider.
Bullseye!
Finished. Like I said just a filler. Well, next chapter will be more interesting since Gaara will be in there again. Somehow I really have the feeling that Minari turned out to be too much like a Mary-Sue... Have to change that when I rewrite it...
Aaaaanyway, please review and make this poor author happy! Review Please!