Chapter 8: Spauracchio Incombere

Characters (in order of first appearance):

Kakashi Hatake / Spauracchio Incombere

"You're late, Gelato," Rosa said, folding her arms.

Gelato didn't know what to say, and scratched the back of his neck. "I got caught up in some things, and I didn't have access to a clock, so I lost track of time."

"That's no excuse to be late, especially for a Soldier," said Tony.

"Wow, Tony, you took the words right out of my mouth!" said Rosa, blushing as she looked at Tony with dreamy eyes.

Gelato scuffed. "It doesn't take much to know that, Smarty-Pants."

Suddenly, Rosa's head turned towards Gelato and before he could react, Gelato was thrown backwards by a powerful, angry punch delivered from Rosa herself, who was breathing rapidly and angrily. He landed on the sidewalk hard, feeling a growing pain in his rear. But despite this, he got up quickly and ran up to Rosa with an angry finger pointed at her.

"What the hell was that for, you crazy broad!?" he yelled.

"You insulted Tony, and no one insults Tony while I'm here," Rosa said firmly.

"You're not the only girl who loves him, Rosa, so what makes you particularly special?"

"Well, he is right behind me."

"But he's not even looking at you!"

"Guys!"

Rosa turned back and saw Tony looking at her and Gelato with an irritated stare.

"You do realize that the Capo is standing right here, and we're not giving him a very good impression with all this meaningless bickering," Tony said, sighing with frustration.

"I'm sorry, Tony, I guess I got carried away," Rosa said apologetically.

"Yeah, you punched me into the air!" Gelato confirmed.

"Well, now that that's over, we can get down to business," the Capo said, speaking for the first time since any of them had gotten there. He got up from the fountain and looked at Gelato, Rosa, and Tony with a non-emotional stare. "You guys are the worst Soldiers I've ever met."

This took all of them by surprise.

"But you've only just met us!" Gelato exclaimed. "What gives you the right to judge us that quickly?"

"Just from observing the way you guys communicate is enough to tell me how little camaraderie you have," the Capo said casually. Then he sighed and said, "But I suppose, since that you're all here, we might as well get introductions out of the way. My name is Spauracchio Incombere, but you can call me Capo Spauracchio. As you may have noticed, I wear an eye-patch and a turtleneck collar over my mouth. Don't question into them further, and that is all you need to know."

Rosa, feeling disappointed, turned to Tony and whispered, "Don't you think it's weird that he hasn't told us much about himself, other than his name?"

Tony scuffed. "Not really. He is our Capo, so he has every right not to. Plus, if we ever get captured by a rival Mafia group and they were interrogating us, we could protect his identity better if we didn't know much about him in the first place."

"Oh, good point, Tony!" Rosa nodded.

"Hey, I could've told you that!" Gelato said, butting in on the conversation.

Spauracchio cleared his throat. "If you three are done chatting among yourselves, why don't you introduce yourselves to me? Now don't tell me much, other than your name, ambitions, hobbies, etc."

"Wait a minute, that's more information than what you told us!" Gelato exclaimed.

"We're more expendable, so it doesn't matter," Tony said blatantly.

"Fine, then I'll go first," Gelato said, and then he sighed and took a deep breath before he spoke. "My name is Gelato Vortice, and my favorite food of all time is pasta! My favorite hobbies are pulling pranks and eating pasta at fancy restaurants with Delfino, and my future ambition is to be the best Godfather this family has ever seen! That way, people will appreciate me and won't ever disapprove of me again!"

"Sounds interesting," But Spauracchio didn't seem impressed. Instead he turned to Tony, who was again looking at the sky, and asked, "And you are?"

"Tony Fuori. I was born into the famous Fuori family clan, and am the sole heir to it," There was a certain amount of pride in Tony's voice, but he didn't show it. "There are no hobbies that I'm particularly interested in, but I do have one goal: To restore my clan to its former glory and kill the man responsible for terminating my family a few years ago."

Gelato and Rosa were shocked, but Spauracchio's brow only narrowed slightly. Then he turned to Rosa and asked, "So what is your name, little lady?"

"Hi! My name is Rosa Molla, and I like boys. But there is this one boy that I really like, and I…try to show my affection for him, but he…doesn't reciprocate those feelings, at least visually. My hobbies are…training to be a good gangster, being a girl and all, and…trying to get the boy I like to notice me. However, I also have to deal with people who get in the way of my goal, namely other girls who like him, and Gelato!"

"Aww, come on!" Gelato's heart broke upon those words. "Why did you have to say that when I'm right here? That was really rude, you know!"

Again, Spauracchio didn't seem to show any emotion, except an extremely deep sigh of irritation. Then he nodded and said, "Now that introductions are out of the way, we can move onto the next order of business, which is going to be a little test."

"Test?" Gelato was surprised. "What do we need to be tested for? We passed the initiation test, didn't we?"

"Yes, you may have passed the initiation test, but that doesn't entirely prepare you for the dangers you'll be facing on your missions. Some of the other Squads are going through similar tests as we speak, in order to determine their strength as teams and how well they function together, and that's basically what this test is about. We will begin when the sun goes down, and you will meet me at this same park, but next to the lake on the other side of that bridge behind us. Until that time, you mustn't eat anything, and only bring your weapons, nothing else. See you then."

Then with that, Spauracchio vanished into thin air. The other three stared widely, and then they looked at each other. Gelato was pissed, because it would mean skipping pasta, Tony was expressionless, while Rosa sighed with irritation.

"I don't understand our Capo. He makes no sense," Rosa said finally.

"Tell me about it, I mean, what kind of a test requires us to not eat and only bring our weapons? Seriously!" agreed Gelato.

Tony sighed, "It's probably some kind of survival test, in case we were low on food during some mission where we have to kill somebody."

Rosa looked at Tony with a worried glance. "You think he might want us to kill him?"

"Of course I do, why do you think he wants us to bring our weapons?"

"I suppose you've got a point there, but I doubt he'll go down easily."

"Yeah, I get the sense that he's strong, despite his mysterious nature."

"Well I'm not gonna lose, so I'm going to go home and train!" Gelato exclaimed and ran off.

The other two looked at him, watching as Gelato made a sudden stop, and run to the nearest public restroom. Neither of them had to guess what was going on, considering all the groaning noises that came from inside. So they parted ways as well, but with Rosa being the more reluctant of the two.

End of Chapter 8