A Little More Than This (Discontinued)

Chapter 22

Mei was sitting on a boulder watching her teammates talk happily with their own friends. She was soon joined by Kabuto, who wrapped his arms around her waist.

"It's nice to see you too Kabuto-Nii" Mei whispered, barely able to hold back tears. "We went to visit you. On your 12th birthday. Guess what was waiting for us?" Kabuto responded. "A grave?" Mei asked, smiling slightly.

Kabuto sighed. "Don't ever do that to me again. You gave me a goddamned heart attack" Kabuto replied, rubbing his temples. Mei turned around and hugged him, now completely ignoring those around them.

"I missed you so much"

"Alright maggots!! Listen up!!" Anko cried causing both to jump down and go to their separate teams and mingle within the crowd. Mei hardly listened to Anko as she explained what they needed to do. She already knew all about it as she had spent the previous afternoon talking to said proctor all about it.

Suddenly Anko threw a Kunai at Naruto, just slicing open his cheek. Mei gasped lightly, as she hadn't been expecting it, as she watched the next scene unfold. There was a young woman, Anko and Naruto all stood there in a line, the young woman had her tongue wrapped around the thrown Kunai and was handing it back to Anko. Anko was standing between the woman and Naruto, another Kunai ready to cut off her tongue.

And Naruto? Gawking at the woman and trying to mirror her tongue movements.

The three slowly went back to their original positions and a consent sheet was handed out. Mei grabbed her own and made her way to a solid place to sign. She bumped into Shino who glared at her for a second.

"Hey Shino. How are you?" Mei asked. "Fine. Watch where you're going" he replied, leaving her standing there. Mei smiled softly after him. He had always been slightly cold but he eventually warmed up to her, but even she had realised that this was a competition and was not the time for cuddly happiness.

Mei continued her walk and found a small flat rock to sign her paper on and walked it back to Anko.

"Yo Anko-Nee. How are you on this death-riddled day?" Mei asked. "Just fine. How are you? And how is our little secret going?" Anko asked.

Now, before you freak out. This is roughly what happened.

Anko was still in Orochimaru's care while he was in the Akatsuki, so naturally met Mei when she was still quiet young, although Mei didn't recognise her Anko recognised Mei and promised to keep her lips sealed.

"Pretty good Anko-Nee" Mei lied back, smiling innocently. Anko, who had never been too good at telling lies from the truth anyway just shrugged off the lie. Patting Mei's tangerine head, Anko accepted her teammates forms and told them to scatter.

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"Why us?" Zetsu asked their leader. "Because, we need to see if The Five Nations are raising anyone too powerful. You are to simply observe and gather information. That and rumour is that Orochimaru is planning to attack" Pein replied.

Zetsu sighed and bowed, leaving the room all while having a mental conversation.

'Did you hear?? We're gonna see Mei-Chan again!!'
'Aye I heard. Now let's go. I miss the Brat already'
'Ok Black Zetsu'

They almost bumped into Kisame in their haste to leave and see the Tangerine-head. "Eh? Dude! Watch it!" Kisame grunted, clearly in a bad mood. "What's your problem?" They asked. "Go check The Clearing" Kisame hissed before stalking off.

Zetsu swallowed a lump in his throat. What had happened to their little monument? They sunk into the ground and reemerged at the clearing that held the not-dead, tangerine's grave. Or lack of grave.

It was shattered, pieces all over the little clearing they had found for her. The only think that remained was the small pile of tiger-lilies that they had dropped off the day before.

Zetsu felt anger rise in them. They were about to turn around and demand to abort their mission and, instead, go looking for the vandals, but was caught off by Pein.

"Never mind the mission, go looking for them. I'll just fix the grave" the leader replied, raising his arm and fixing the grave. Zetsu nodded and sunk back into the ground looking for traces of the vandals.

______________________________

Mei was sitting up in a tree as her teammates fought off their enemy. She was instructed to say out of the way and after watching them fight she figured out why. They both had field-clearing Jutsu but poor aim. She jumped down after they collected the heaven scroll and hugged them.

"You guys go ahead. I'll meet you at the temple after a while, try and minimise the numbers" Mei said, releasing them from the hug and running off. Both boys turned and slowly made their way to the middle of the forest, bonding together.

Mei rushed around looking for her friends and found Shikamaru and his team hiding behind a bush. They seemed to be discussing strategies for the test.

Mei dropped down from her tree and slowly made her way over to them, successfully jumping over the bush and scaring the crap out of them.

"BOOOO!!!!!" Mei screamed. "QUIT IT!!!" Ino screamed, attempting to punch the Orange-head. Mei giggled lightly and smiled at the trio. "So, any idea how to pass this thing?" She asked. "Collect the scroll and go to the tower?" Shikamaru asked.

"Weren't you listening? There is bugs and giant tigers and poisonous plants! Your gonna need to fight tooth and nail to through this" Mei scoffed. Ino gulped and stuck out her tongue.

"You're just tryin' ta scare us! And it won't work!" Ino replied, grabbing Shikamaru and Chōji's hands and pulling them away from the bush. Mei watched them go, waving goodbye happily as both boys sent apologetic looks back at her.

Mei stood up after she saw a cloud of dust raising in the distance, she followed it to a large tunnel and followed the tunnel down the track. She knew that something bad was gonna happen.