A Dash of Chili Powder

69

Kazuki blinked a little at the nervousness behind Scythe's chuckling words but shrugged it off, only vaguely wondering what he was nervouse about. He had his own problems to deal with. Like his fear. 

"Sure!" Rukia chimed, taking their hands and skipping inside the barbecue shop. She smiled warmly at her two original companions, who hadn't really talked since they came in. She led them back to the booth and slid into the seat, pulling Kazuki and Scythe down next to her. Took all of two seconds to do.

Fear was a problem. A big one. Kazuki adjusted his sitting position and leaned on his hands, staring off into nothing as he thought. He was afraid. Afraid of everything, really. He never thought about it till now and it made him frown just slightly. He was, in all intents and purposes, a big pussy of a man.

A big whimp, he thought bitterly. 

He may be blind, but that was no reason to be afraid. He couldn't see to save his life. Well, he could if he was using his Wind Element like he usually does... But he didn't want to. It could give an even worse impression than being a mouthy teen. He mentally smacked himself.

Whimp...

"So, Rukia-san, whatcha doing here in Konoha?" he asked out of the blue. Conversation starter. Anything to make things less awkward.

Gracie

"To collect the bijuu. There's just a whole pile sitting in this village we couldn't miss it!" PLEASE don't say that, Scythe inwardly thought behind his calm smile.

These two men were extremely shady compared to the red headed girl, Scythe noticed. And both had crazy amounts of chakra. If Scythe had to tangle with them, he wasn't sure he'd come out with all of his body intact.

The meat came to the table, just then. Nobody really made a grab for any. Feeling awkward, Scythe grabbed two thinner strips of beef for himself and set them on the round grill. That was all he was going to eat anyway.