Kiko Maris Hatake

I don't wanna...

                  

"I don't wanna..." I whined at Otou-sensei as we stood outside of Kumogakure, looking at it from the top of one of the surrounding cliffs.

"It's over quickly, I promise. Just go down to the gate and tell them that you're here to see the Raikage, then you'll just give him the scroll and we'll be on our way." Otou-sensei told me encouraging and nodded towards the gate.

"Not through the gate, then he'll think that he won, or worse; that he have my respect or something equally crazy. Iie, no gate going. Absolutely not, nope, non, nada, njet." I commented and grinned when he rolled his eye.

"Then go ahead and do like last time. Just break in and piss him off." He said with a voice heavy with sarcasm, which made me smirk.

"Hai!" I giggled, knowing full well that I wasn't supposed to take it literally, and jumped off before he had a chance to realize what I had just said.

"Matte! Kiko! I was sarcastic! I didn't mean it! Stop!"

I ignored him and continued running, zigzagging in between the guards and buildings, hiding in the shadows so that they wouldn't see me. Bending over and jumping into the air to avoid being spotted. I made my way all the way to same place where I last 'met' the Raikage; surprisingly he wasn't far away, only like two or three steps away. And once again he was mauling his brother. Isn't this abuse or something? Should I call the cops on him? Can I call the cops on him? Are there actually cops here?

I blinked twice, before proceeding to do exactly like last time, just like Otou-sensei had 'told' me to. What better way to piss him off, than to repeat the same as last time? It pissed him off quite a lot last time, so why not? With a completely straight face I stepped all the way up to him, ignoring all the people around us, and stuck the scroll down the back of his shirt/jacket/robe-thingy. He froze like a statue and growled into the sudden silence without looking towards me.

"You... What do you think, you're doing?!" He growled, making me smirk satisfied under the mask.

"My job." I answered just like last time, though unlike last time I hadn't stepped away and unlike last time he didn't take the time to glare at me, instead he instantly charged at me, lighting crackling along his body as he swung at me.

Instinctively I reacted just like last time; I swung myself over him and used my hands to set off from his neck, landing safely of the ground with my face turned towards the Raikage, who once again froze. He didn't look like he was going to attack again though, so I let myself be distracted by Otou-sensei, who landed behind me with only one word on his lips.

"Sarcasm." Was the word he said as he landed on the ground behind me, letting the dust settle before he continued. "Sarcasm does not mean go ahead and do it, it means not to do it."

"I know." I told him lightly and send him an amused look, though I tried not to show my amusement too much since The Bird was supposed to be somewhat serious.

The look he sends back at me was a weird mixture of exhaustion, fondness and pride, so not exactly a 'do-not-do-it-again'-look. I really wanted to send him a grin, but I refrained and turned back to look at the Raikage, when said Kage began speaking after turning towards me and Otou-sensei.

"The Bird?" He asked slowly, eyes trained on me.

"Sadly." I responded, deliberately pushing at the boundaries, just because.

He laughed. Loudly, might I add. I had assumed that he'd be pissed, but instead he laughs. I can't really figure out whether I feel cheated or not...

"This small shinobi seems hard to control." He told Otou-sensei, who straightened up and looked just a little pissed. "If the leaf ever struggles we'll be more than happy to take this little one in."

Even I could hear the grinding of teeth behind me, was I Otou-sensei's soft spot? I kinda like that.

"The scroll have been given, now give us a note or dismiss us." I ordered with as cold a voice as possible.

"Of course, I knew that you'd come sooner or later, since it was my only requirement for starting this whole thing." He stated and lifted the scroll to show that whatever the scroll was about was what he was talking about. "I've prepared to answer right away, should you show up."

I could see Otou-sensei clench his hands as he stepped up beside me, was he being protective? I shook it off of me and waited for the note that the Raikage was in the middle of writing, after he read the scroll that is. Then he handed the new scroll to me and I handed it to Otou-sensei, who handed it to one of his dogs.

The Raikage raised a mocking eyebrow, as if to as 'is that all you're here for, to be a carrier pigeon?'. I took a step back, deliberately bumping into Otou-sensei's chest in comfort, before we both took off. Behind me I could hear the Raikage yell at his shinobi about tightening the security since two outside ninjas managed to break in, but honestly I was more focused on what was in front of me; in this case anything that wasn't Kumogakure.

"If I ever have to go there again, can I then bring Ibiki? He's big and scary." I asked when we were finally far enough away from the village.

"Are you saying that I'm not big and scary?" He asked, finally relaxing after leaving Kumogakure.

"You're stronger than me, bigger than me, scarier than me and I love you the best, but you aren't 'big and scary'." I told him with a grin and wordlessly challenged him to a game of tag, which was how we spend the trip all the way to Iwagakure.