A Dash of Chili Powder

19

[Yes. The ginger cookie ruined Gaara's chances xD]

Once she received the okay, Amaya quickly joined Rage and the others, taking up a spot right next to the tall, dark-haired older boy. She reached into her satchel and into her stash of sweet candies, pulling out a heavenly piece of lychee flavored hard candy. She twiste it's wrappings and popped the small candy into her mouth, enjoying the sweet taste.

She loved candy~

"So, in other words, you're my uncle," Yuki concluded, her hopes of a brother now ruined. "I was kinda hoping you were a player at age ten and somehow got-" She stopped herself and pulled her mask off once the medication was all out. And so began the awkward 'what the fuck' silence, she was great for those.

Silence.

More silence.

"So I think about having a brother. Sue me," she finally said, glaring at nothing in particular. "Bite me, actually. I can sue YOU for that." She muttered on and on, not bothering to listen to Kakashi and Vell's renewed bickering. She didn't really know what she was saying either.

Maybe it was the amount of stress her body was previously under? Maybe, maybe. Who knows? But she sounds like a complete idiot.

Gracie

[Poor Gaara-sama. XD And Scythe's adeptness to decipher a specific number from Rage is just admirable. O__o'']

Outside of the hospital Scythe stopped the little group to discuss plans. Awaji was picking the last of his rice out of the second box while Rage sucked on his candy, focused on the wily man before him.

"So, when it comes down to it, our choices of housing'll be narrowed down to how much money we've got. Since we don't have Vell here we'll have less than usual. So before we go falling in love with any apartments, let's pool in our dough and see what we can aim for." He turned to the tan boy. "How much do you have on you, Awaji-kun?"

"Uh...about fifty dollars," Awaji mused as he licked sauce from his fingers.

"I have around three-fifty on hand, but I can scrounge up about four hundred. And what about you?" Rage slowly blinked his eyes, and Scythe's brown ones grew round. "What? How'd you get that much?"

"..."

Awaji marveled up at the mute teen. "Lucky! You get all the high-paying jobs."

"He IS technically jonin..." Scythe shrugged it off and folded his arms. "That brings us to about thirteen hundred-fifty, give or take. We can get a really nice apartment to rent for a few months with money left over for food and other stuff. Cool!" he grinned.

"...," Rage didn't say.

"Now? Don't you wanna come with us to look for apartments?"

Rage shook his head and handed the remaining two bentos from to Awaji, who gratefully accepted them. Then he bowed to the three of them and started walking off.

Scythe saw Amaya's confused frown and smiled a little. "Rage-kun wants to go shopping - apparently he saw some sales while he was out buying our lunch. He's got a good eye for bargains." He paused, then smiled wider. "We're just gonna check some places out. If you feel like helping out you could probably carry some grocery bags with Rage-kun."

Vell wondered why Yuki had wanted a brother so bad until he remembered: she'd just killed her real one earlier today. He scratched the back of his head and looked at the wall.

"Meh, 'uncle' makes me sound old. Besides, Onii-san was technically my dad since I never knew the lecherous bastard in the first place," he mused, shrugging it off. "As it stands I'm more like a brother, I guess."

"Just don't make him your role model," Kakashi whispered, only to tease his younger brother. It worked.

"You should talk, dickhead!" Vell snapped.

"Oh, dear. Now I've got two kids calling me profane things," the jonin sighed forlornly.

Vell glared at him. "Don't be all wishy-washy, ya shameless cyclops," he muttered.