Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter 34

Time felt like it passed both quickly and slowly at once. Minoko was now eight and had been 'Kai' for two years. Muni was right in the fact that none of the guards noticed the change. They started to call her 'him' almost immediately after the change in hair style and form of address by the other inmates.

Minoko leaned against the stone wall of the cell and relaxed a bit. She just finished a training session and needed a break according to Koumi. The woman, while gentle, was very firm when she wanted to be.

Minoko heard voices coming from the staircase. Guess it was time for the guard shift change. She looked over to see a small figure next to the current guard. He couldn't be much older than her. To be fair, she had been a chunin at five, so it wouldn't be strange for there to be other child soldiers. It was just the first time seeing one as a guard here.

The kid was quite strange looking in her opinion. He wore a hat that looked like cat ears, a loose black body suit, and purple paint on his face. He had a grumpy expression, obviously not wanting to be there and was talking a mile a minute with the current guard.

"Seriously, why do I have to be here? I mean, I'm not exactly qualified to be a guard and have no idea what I'm doing. What was my teacher on to think this was a good idea?"

"Ugh, shut up kid. You're here. You have no choice. Suck it up and deal with it. Shinobi have to make sacrifices and this is you sacrificing your time to relieve competent shinobi to do other jobs."

"I guess…hey! Are you saying I'm not competent!?"

"You said it, not me. You were briefed already on the procedures for the floor, right?"

The kid crossed his arms petulantly and looked like he was moments away from doing something childish like stick his tongue out at the guy, "Yeah, yeah, they told me the general schedule."

"Good. Hope you brought something to keep you occupied down here. Not much happens worth noting."

With that, the older guard left and the kid huffed and sat heavily in the chair by the doorway. He sighed after a minute and uncrossed his arms, scanning the cells. When his eyes landed on her, they got huge and his mouth dropped open.

"Hey! You're about my age…wait…what are you doing in there?"

Minoko rolled her eyes and looked away from the kid, still keeping him in her peripheral sight. She could see him visibly twitch from being ignored.

"Hey kid, I'm talking to you!"

Minoko sighed and glanced in his direction, "I apologize, oh high and mighty purple kitty-chan. I didn't realize I was obliged to answer."

His face went red under the face paint with either embarrassment or anger. It was hard to tell.

"What did you call me?"

"Now it's a purple striped tomato…interesting."

The other prisoners started to snicker.

"My name is Kankuro!"

"Well, Kankuro-chan, it's a pleasure to meet my newest guard, as always. Breaks up the monotony a bit."

"-chan!? I ain't no chick and I'm certainly not a kid like you!"

"Whatever you say kitty-chan." Minoko pushed off the wall and went to sit by the three guys playing a game of poker. She heard Kankuro bang on the bars of the cell and sit down in his chair again with a huff. The men all shook their heads at her with sly smiles on their faces that matched the mischievous one on hers. It was always fun to rile up the newbies. Hotoka and Mia were such bad influences when it came to humor. They always had a sarcastic edge that Minoko picked up. Koumi wasn't too happy with the other two when she realized that Minoko was starting to copy them. That was kind of funny too honestly.

She continued to ignore the growing ball of angst in the front of the corridor and had the guys deal her in to the game. It really was entertaining.

…

Maybe not so entertaining anymore.

"Heeeeellooooooo? Kid? Come on, talk to me! What's your name? How'd you end up in here? Helloooooooooo?"

Minoko could feel her eye twitching. He'd been at this for almost an hour. She really wished she had somewhere to escape to. She tried staying in the toilet area for a few minutes and got momentary peace, but the second she stepped back around the barrier, he was at it again. It was really grating on her nerves. And apparently the others' as well.

"For fuck's sake Kai, talk to the kid before he busts my ear drums!" Hotoka hissed, "People from Kiri could probably hear his whining!"

Minoko sighed and finally turned to the idiot that had his face nearly pressed up against the bars. Seriously, how did he pass whatever competency test to get assigned down here? Who the hell gets that close to the bars with literal criminals on the other side? They could easily attack him if they wanted to.

"What kitty-chan? What could you possibly want? Can't you take a hint that I don't want to talk to you?"

"It's Kankuro! And I want to talk to you! I'm bored and forgot to bring a book or something. If you don't talk to me, I'll just keep bugging you until you do."

Minoko looked at him with a deadpan expression. Seriously? Seriously? Why her?

She felt an elbow jab her in the side and glared at Mia who gestured to the purple kid in annoyance. Apparently the others didn't like the threat either.

She sighed and walked over to where he was and plopped down on the ground, "What do you want?"

The kid grinned, "Let's start with your name."

"Kai. Next."

"Just Kai?"

"Yes, just Kai."

"Oooookay. How old are you?"

"Eight."

"I'm ten! How the hell did you end up here when you're so much younger than me?"

"I've been here two years kitty-chan. I don't feel like giving you my sob story. Next."

"Two years," he whispered, "What the hell? How come a six year old was thrown in prison? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"Weren't you warned about me during your briefing? Had one guy almost let me out of here cause he thought I was here by mistake."

Kankuro turned slightly and rubbed the back of his head mumbling.

"I didn't catch that. What?"

"I maaaaay have not been paying much attention when they were briefing me. But it's not my fault! The guy doing it was sooo boring and monotone. It was so easy to drown him out and just nod along with what he said every so often."

Minoko gave another deadpan expression, "What the hell? What kind of shinobi are you? You can't even pay attention to orders?"

Kankuro blushed and his face turned into an expression of anger that he probably thought was intimidating, "I'm not a shinobi yet, but I'll be super strong once I get on a team! I'll be the best puppeteer in Suna!"

Minoko blinked at him slowly, "You're…not a shinobi yet?"

"Of course not, I'm only ten! I'll graduate in two years."

Minoko's face blanked and she stated in a voice so dry, the desert sands would be proud, "I was a genin at five and a chunin at six. I don't know what your excuse is."

"Chunin!? How the hell did you get chunin at six!? Is that even legal?"

Minoko shrugged and leaned back on her hands, "Just that skilled I guess."

Kankuro blinked at her a few times, his mouth opening and closing with no sound escaping.

"Welp," Minoko said as she stood again and brushed off her pants in a vain attempt at getting rid of the dirt there, "It was nice chatting kitty-chan. Later."

She walked over to the pitiful book corner and flopped down, grabbing a random book that she had read countless times by now and proceeded to ignore the boy dumbstruck by the cell. He slowly went back to his chair and remained quiet for the rest of his shift.

Thank kami.

A/N: Now enters Kankuro! He'll definitely break up the monotony for a while. Let me know what you think!