3I'm sitting, I'm sitting. Damn I'm bored. Where am I again? Oh yeah, the waiting room. I curse the day this thing was invented. Ugh!
The floor is made up of kitchen tiles that I imagine weren't made for a kitchen, but whatever. Add uninspiring white walls and I feel like I'm in the loony bin without a strait jacket. Well, hopefully they don't have one here, 'cuz with me sitting on the floor rather than the provided chairs is getting me plenty of looks- not that I didn't get any just standing outside, but that's beside the point.
A couple of conjoined chairs like the ones at a baseball stadium sit parallel to the walls except for the one facing the door because a counter is there. Nice comparison- a wacko house and a baseball stadium; I'm oozing with vibrant visuals. Other than the all-seeing eyes I shared, procrastination is something I wish was possible to share. If I were to be in school next year, senioritis would be inevitable.
Because of my procrastination, passing out, and feeling the need to cleanse myself, I don't see any familiar faces in this waiting room. I've been here for ten minutes and already feel the need to shoot myself. The best part: I was spacing out while Shikamaru brought me here; have no idea pertaining to my location, and how to return to Hokage's office. Eh, I'll just get someone to escort me. Not that I'll have to ask- all the daggerous looks tell me I won't be alone for a while.
Now Jo. An eternal question must be answered: how will you entertain yourself today? Because my attention span is that of a peanut, I've never had a too difficult time. Counting the tiles? That's unoriginal without pizazz- only a last resort.
Ok. Um… Damn my Dora-like bangs are in my face; I blow them out. Shit, they reverted. I groaned; then swiftly shook my head to a side. I smirk- much better. Oh. I shook my head so they were in my eyes again. Now Imma look like a loon, but, that's alright- I'll be too distracted to notice. Filling my lungs, I release a gust of wind aimed at my bangs. My eyes are transfixed on the object of my entertainment while I continuously blow at it.
Clear their throat- Ahem; I returned to reality and shifted my attention towards to source. With wide eyes; mouth slightly ajar, my position on the ground made me feel teeny.
"Miss, are you ready to begin?" Huh- I cocked my head. "Please follow me." The woman gestured for me to stand up; I complied. Are all the women here short as hell- she only went up to freaking my chin.
I was escorted through various hallways and the route is very uninteresting so Imma spare you the pain. Now I'm in another room equipped with various objects of whose purposes are unknown to me. All I really recognized are a treadmill and a scale- you know, like the ones at the doctor's office. The same tiles and bland walls as the waiting room, but a larger size further add disinterest into this building. Damn, these people must live very fulfilling lives.
As I entered all eyes locked onto me- the eyes of people I presume to be ninjas, that is. They all have headbands of various colors with a metal plate in the center; on said plate was a swirly mark and a triangle next to it. Why does it look so familiar? Eh, I'll figure it out later.
I turn around to see my escort has abandoned me; am I really that bad?
"Are you ready?" I swivel around to face a man with a clipboard in front of me. I nod hesitantly. "Well let's get to it then."
They ushered me onto a treadmill, and while this all happened, I noticed I was surrounded by men; all varying in size- some my height, some taller, a couple even pushed six feet; by a couple I mean like 2. They didn't bother give me clothes to change into first- they said I was fine in Ino's. I hope these blue sandals don't kill me.
I started walking slower than a turtle, and my strides were forcibly shorter to match. I made a face. After a couple minutes I lengthened my strides to adjust the track's quickening pace, but the speed at which I walked remained. Before I knew it I swung my arms like a jogger, reminding myself to keep my hands open and loose for better breathing- a technique my soccer coach told the team during our 2 mile warm-ups in the fall. Too bad it's not the fall; my school doesn't have spring soccer; I'm stupid enough not to go running.
My breathing soon turns labored as I struggled to keep up and my calves, along with feet, ached. The assholes should've let me stretch first. How much longer? Am I gonna keep going until I collapse? Sprint Jo, you're sprinting now, when was the last time you did that? Soccer season? I'm a slow sprinter, made for more long distance; my long thighs prove that. That's why archaeologists are starting to think the T-REX wasn't a predator, but a scavenger- he couldn't out run his prey so he had a mean face to scare them away; his shins matched his arms. I squinted my eyes, oh God.
And then, my feet slid from under me and my ass landed on the floor. I let my back rest on the tiles as I tried to catch my breath and allow my muscles to relax.
"Here." The same man gave me a bottle of water. "We'll begin the next test once your breathing's settled."
"What?" I gasped. He looked at me. "You. Should've told me. I was, gonna sprint." I took a deep breath. "I could've pulled something!"
"Pull something?" I wanted to spit on his indifferent face.
Daggers released from my eyes as I spoke: "Yes asshole, do you want me to pull a muscle?"
"Pull a muscle? What are you talking about?" With his furrowed eyebrows I knew his wasn't joking. Oh God, is everyone here clueless?
"I could've messed up my muscles," I explained slowly. "My calves, they sting. I should've stretched before and after running that vigorously." I closed my eyes, and cocked my head further back onto the tiles. By now my breathing was calm.
"How could you have 'messed up your muscles?'" May I please shoot him?
I sat up and locked eyes with him. He had light, sky blue eyes and they poured into me. "I don't study that kind of stuff. All I know is my legs kill, and it's gonna be a bitch to walk for a while, hell stretching is gonna hurt 'cause I didn't do it before by no fault of my own." All I got was a look- a blank one. "Is there any test where I can just sit here? At least for a couple minutes?"
Commence puppy dog face. Please, please, please, please! I widened my eyes as much as I could and I must say this guy is doing a good job at not breaking. "Please?" I whispered.
He sighed. "All right." I smirked at my success.
They brought over a small device with old- fashioned headphones attached. You know- the ones with the bar that goes over your head and they have cushion-like thingys over your ear. Yeah, I'm not good at describing things.
While they walked over, I decided to quickly stretch a smidge. I reached my hands over to my toes, and winced at the pain. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine… And I gave up, releasing early. My eyes squinted as the man regained my attention.
"You'll raise your hand when you hear a sound. Whatever ear you hear it from will be represented by the hand you lift up."
I nodded; then place the headphones over my ears. Now wait. It took a minute, but soon heard a beep from my left ear. I lifted the corresponding hand. There were multiple beeps; in various levels of loudness- some almost turned me deaf, while others were barely louder than a whispering mouse.
"All right, you're done." He reached to pull the headphones off of me, but I swatted his hand away.
"There was another beep."
He hesitated before answering, "From which side?"
"In front."
"Hm."
They had me breathing into a tube, and it reminded me of a breathalyzer; I assure you I'm not drunk- hell I've only have like a couple glasses of wine on New Year's. After that all hell started: acupuncture.
Who wouldn't freak out with freaking needles inside them? 'Course it didn't hurt, until they tested my pain tolerance. It was so low they ran out of options (more like gave up) for testing those sensitive nerves, my luck. They then checked my eyesight and my lack of sense of smell.
Lastly, they gave me a small piece of paper. "What do I do with this?"
"Just hold it out in your palm."
"Like this?" I held the small parchment in my open palm. I looked up for confirmation and saw the man nod. Returning my gaze towards the paper, I raised my eyebrows when nothing happened. Is something supposed to happen? "If something's supposed to happen, we're going to be here all day- I assure you I don't possess magic."
I flinched when I felt something stab itself into my leg. I looked down and saw an acupuncture needle protruding out of my skin and flesh. "Was that necessary?" I made a face when I was hushed and reluctantly returned my gaze to the paper. Then, the paper started to sweat; an instant later, it wrinkled- as if I crumbled it and opened it again, but I assure you I didn't- I'm just sitting here. Next, it ripped. It freaking ripped in two! One of the halves burned into char while the other crumbled into dirt.
What is this blasphemy? Did I see things? God, am I really in need of a strait jacket? I knew I was crazy, but this is ridiculous! Paper can't do whatever it just did by itself, I must've hallucinated.
"I'm sorry, I need another piece of paper; the other one disappeared." Insert sheepish smile.
"No, we're done here."
"What?"
"We're done." He walked over and pulled the needle out of my leg. "Please escort her to the Hokage along with this." He handed another man a clip board that seemed to be overflowing with paper. I hissed as I stood up, and limped after my escort.
"All right," Hokage stated, "thanks for agreeing to all this."
"Well there's nothing else for me to do. I mean-"I was interrupted with a knock on the door.
"Sorry. Come in."
"Naruto," Shikamaru didn't waste a breath, "did you really enroll all of them into the academy?!"
"Yes." Neither did Hokage.
"Why? Why would you do that? Did you forget about the alliance?" An alliance, I wonder which countries. I really need to see a map of this place.
"No." Such an indifferent face; a raised eyebrow makes me believe Hokage wants Shikamaru to humor him.
"You do realize the council wants to speak to you about this. Now." There's a council?
Hokage groaned. "Don't remind me. I scheduled a meeting for an hour from now."
"You scheduled a meeting?"
"You act so surprised." Hokage rested a palm against his head.
"Because I am."
"Shikamaru, I'm not the kid I was when I first got this position- I'm aware of my responsibilities." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I know, I'm beginning to scare myself. " He cleared his throat. "Is there anything else?"
Shikamaru finally noticed me sitting in the chair across from Hokage. "It can be dealt with later."
Hokage nodded, Shikamaru nodded- acknowledging my presence, and left the room, closing the door behind him.
"You invited everyone else too?" I asked. He nodded. "Is that why this council is pissed off?"
Another nod. "Yeah, after the last shinobi war all the five great nations united into an alliance and in order to keep said alliance every nation has a representative in every respective village."
"Oh. And they want to discuss us because it's not fair unless you share?"
"I'll discuss that with them. Now I'll have someone escort you to you temporary residence"
"Temporary?"
"I don't know what'll happen at the meeting."
"Ah."
"Here you are."
I nod my appreciation, wrap my hand around the knob, and push it open. A shriek of what sounded like my name startled me from moving out of the door frame. Soon I was engulfed with loss of breath as Kim's limbs squeezed the daylights out of me. "Nice to see you too."
Kim rested her head under mine for a moment. "Jo, why is it you're always so warm?"
I chuckled, well attempted to chuckle. "Kim, I can't breathe."
She released and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."
I produced another chuckle. "So how're things going? You staying here too?"
"Yep, and Issac and Mou."
"Issac and Mou?"
"Yep, they apparently don't understand what could possibly go wrong with this, what's the word, arrangement."
A chuckle. "You yelled at them?"
"She did," Mou popped up from behind me; his deep voice loud. He chuckled as I took a deep breath. "Never gets old."
"Ass."
"Yes, I have one, and so do you, as well as Kim and Issac, and, well, all of mankind."
I put on a sour face and finally walked out of the doorframe; then threw myself onto a couch. Groaning, I stretched my back; then sat up and began messaging my aching calves- wait, did anyone else get hurt? Nothing- everyone was acting like normal- why the hell is everyone so chill?
"Kim, did they make you run, I mean did you sprint on a treadmill?" I coked my head as I looked up at her back while she was, what I presumed to be, making food.
"Well, I was on a treadmill, but um…" she paused, and I barely heard her mumble the following words: "I lost my footing and tripped."
I took a moment to process; then burst out into a fit of laughter. "You tripped? But, you're Kim."
"I know."
"You're the most coordinated person I know!" I gasped for air; my smirk evident.
"Yeah, yeah, are you done?"
"No." I giggled a little more only to flinch, produce a "nyahh"-like sound and convulse into the fetal position.
"She's done." I could sense Issac smirking.
"I hate you."
"Don't care." When I looked up and locked eyes with him, his smirk irritated me to no end.
"Yes you do."
"You can't prove that."
"Not yet I can't."
At that, Issac then burst into his own five minutes of laughter. I looked back at Kim and saw Mou now standing next to her, one hand on a paper; the other on his chin. Damn, he had to be at least a foot taller than her. I released a small giggle.
Their brown eyes gazed upon our- Issac and me- laughing forms. "Are they ok?" Mou asked.
"Who knows?"
One deep breath, I forced myself to stop laughing- my cheeks hurt like hell. "What're we gonna eat Kimmy?"
"Um."
"We're not sure- we need to go out and buy ingredients," Mou interjected.
"'Kay, but do we have money?" I asked.
"The guy outside could give us some." I twirled and saw Issac standing at the windowsill.
My eyes widened. "What?"
"There's some dude standing at the door to the apartment- the one who walked you here."
"Do they not trust us?!" I felt the vein in my neck throb.
"I guess not," Kim wiped her hands on her shorts and sighed.
I groaned. Kim walked over, extended her arms, I took them; she pulled me up. "Do I have to go?" I almost pulled something."
Issac sighed, "Jo, it's a good excuse to explore the village."
"We can ignore the watchdog, but it'd be more fun to ditch him." Mou smirked, at which I raised an eyebrow.
"You that bored Mou?"
He snorted; his big nostrils somehow grew momentarily. "It'll add a nice kick."
"Hah." I leaned my head back; it's a popcorn ceiling. "Fine, but if I can't walk tomorrow, I expect one of you to carry me." I pointed my index at all of them.
Issac chuckled. "No promises."
I pouted as Kim dragged me through the threshold, Issac and Mou not far behind. We went down a couple of flights of stairs and when I stopped Issac bumped into me; then Mou into him. Basically we all landed at the bottom of the staircase on top of each other: Kim on the bottom, me on her, Issac sat on me, and of course the biggest oaf on top.
"What the hell Jo?" Issac hissed when Mou got off of him.
"No my fault you weren't holding onto the railing!"
"No, why the hell did you stop in the middle of the staircase?!"
"Oh that." I sighed as I rolled off of Kim. "Sorry, I just thought of something."
"And you had to stop in the middle of walking?" Mou rubbed his head.
"Habit." I looked up at him. "Sorry. But I thought you wanted to lose the warden. How do you propose we do that?"
Mou thought for a moment, a hand held his chin. "Not sure." I gaped at him. Seriously? "How 'bout we go on the roof?"
"You expect me to go roof hopping?" I eyed him- there's no way he's serious, either that or he doesn't know me that well; it's probably the latter.
"Oh come on, it's only 2 houses."
"And how do you suggest we get down? I don't know about you, but I don't want to kill myself!"
"Please, nothing'll happen; it'll all go smooth."
I gaped at this giant. "You don't know me at all."
"Jo, don't be such a wuss." Mou raised his eyebrows and lowered his head.
"Mou, I'll sit this one out."
"Pussy," he teased.
"Uh, Mou, I think she's right," God bless Issac's soul.
Mou gasped, "She's corrupted you man!"
"No, actually, she's the most accident prone being alive."
"And I thought you'd have caught on by now," Kim nodded. "Do you not know how many times she's been in a hospital in the past forty-eight hours?"
"One for each day," I inserted. "And that's not healthy at all." I shook my head and smiled sheepishly as Mou processed this information.
"But dude, I'm fine with it, hell it sounds awesome, but Jo might kill herself in the process."
"Oh that reminds me!" All eyes switched to me. "They want me to train for their military."
Issac groaned. "Jo, don't tell me you accepted." I said nothing; at which he groaned again. "You dumbass, you could get yourself killed!"
"Oh and you're ok with your soul leaving your body?" He gave me a blank look. "Hokage told me everyone accepted his request. And Kim," I turned to face her, "I never would've thought you'd agree!"
"Jo," she sighed.
Mou chuckled, and I looked at him with utter shock. "Well since we're all stuck here in this predicament, why don't we go and see what we got ourselves into?" I cocked my head and raised an eyebrow. "If we can escape without anyone hurting themselves and not get caught, we're set for this training."
"You really want to do this?" I asked him.
"Hell yeah."
I let out a breath. "Well how do you propose we do this, and get money from Hokage? I'm not a strategist, so you guys can have fun with it." I smirked.
"Jo, you're not serious," Kim frowned.
"Well, look at it this way, I'm bored, and hungry. It'll kill two birds with a stone."
"Alright," Issac conceded. Mou lit up, then pouted his big lip in hopes of convincing Kim.
"Oh fine."
"Oh, and Jo, you'd be a fine strategist," Mou started, "You did a good job figuring out what we should do and helped us when we ran into the guys from the port village."
"I'm a selfless camper," I shrug.
Mou chuckled, and pulled us into a huddle. "Alright, here's the plain."
"And break!"
"Go Patriots!" I yell.
"Jo, focus," Kim hissed. Right. Focus.
Kim went downstairs, while Mou jogged back up; Issac and I stayed put.
"Jo," he started. I locked eyes with him; the color reminded me of caramel. "You're a dumbass."
I feigned a look of hurt, and I know he didn't buy it. "Thanks for hurting my feelings."
"Jo, what the hell convinced you it'd be ok, that you could possibly benefit from, joining the military in a foreign place?!"
I groaned. This again? "Issac, tell me, why did you agree?"
"Because I was going to join the army after graduation, and I thought 'what difference does it make if I start now?'" He didn't miss a beat.
I sighed. "Well, how do you expect we'll get back if you're the only one doing anything? How," I stumbled into English, "could we make money when the people here are terrified of me- us? Do you expect me to just sit here, in this house, and die of boredom? At least this way I'll get something accomplished, at least if I die, I can say 'oh well, I tried.' But do you seriously think I'd die that easily?
"Do you want me to die quickly? I'm not the little girl who cried in fucking elementary school anymore! I've grown; I've learned life sucks; I've actually managed to say 'well shit happens!' You don't know everything about me, we've grown apart- high school separated our friendship, maybe puberty played a part in it. But damn, I understand that lots of shit's happened recently, along with everyone dying, but life moves on! Shit happens; we have to build a bridge and get over it." I took a deep breath and continued to yell at him.
"I've never gotten pissed at you for saying you wanted to go into the military. What would you do if I got drafted? Would you know? Would we even still talk after high school? I don't know; we barely talk now as it is. But tell me, how would I support myself if we never managed to get back? Do you really expect me to believe some little store will hire me? There's no way to become successful- there's no way I can get used to this place until I know about it! This training, what'd Hokage call it? The academy? The academy is supposed to train people to be in the military. Doesn't that include maps? Shouldn't history be involved? You know how much I hate history, but I'm willing to push that aside to figure out how not to die!" I took deep breaths to calm myself.
Standing up, I spared him a look- the stairs were more interesting- and mumbled a "sorry" the proceeded to walk to our room so I can steady my heartbeat.
"Jo," Issac called. I ignored him; I gotta. I just blew up- I vented- and need to go to my own little world to figure things out for a moment. I need to calm down.
Why did I flip out? I don't do that- my temper is pretty high. But still, he should be able to accept my choices. I'm not stupid; I know what could happen- I know the probability of dying here just skyrocketed, but that's my problem. I can't let him talk me out of it- I know he'll try. For once in your life Jo, you can't back down on a decision- you've got to follow through. I need, what do I need? I need to just ignore everyone, no matter how hard. I need…
After finishing the last flight of stairs, I found a nice corner, one free of cobwebs, and situated myself into it. I hugged my knees to my chest and snuggled my head so it rested on them. I grabbed as much hair as I could into my hands and just breathed. I breathed slow, full, emotionless, thoughtless breaths.
Damn, I hate blowing up like that. All this, this… I need to get out- to leave, but to do that I'd go down stairs, past Issac, and loose myself in a sea of people who give me looks and whisper. That'd be worse. But I want to feel the grass; to lay on it- I want to just look up into the sky and reassure myself this place is real- that the clouds make individual shapes and their background remains blue. I want to reassure myself I can get home and see my ungrateful sister and my mother who cares more for her than me. I want to be somewhere I know; this change scares me. I'm pathetic.
"Jo?" Kim's voice. I heard her walk towards me. Why didn't I hear her walking up the stairs? "Jojo? You ok?" I heard the floor creak when she squatted down in front of me. "You know he didn't mean to offend you." So he sent you to check if things were ok. "Issac, he, you know you're one of his bestest buddies. You gotta know he's worried about you; we all are." Classic line- nice originality Kim. "Come on, let's get some food, it doesn't matter if we're being stalked or not."
I sighed and looked at her. "Fine."
She pulled me up, and I looked at the staircase to see Mou standing at its foot. "We're being called."
I furrowed my brows. "Where?"
"To meet with um, the guy in charge."
I nodded. "Come on Jo, Mr. Hokage is calling for us." Kim linked arms with me, and pulled me towards the stairs.
"Kay."
"How are you all?" Hokage asked. Silence. I'm amazed at how many people have managed to fit inside this room. He cleared his throat. "I see, well I've returned from a meeting with the council." He paused. "You're all… Going to.." He groaned.
"You'll be split up," Shikamaru broke the ice.
I processed this, but Jenny broke me to it. "What?"
Shikamaru sighed. "You're all aware the five great nations are in an alliance, and as an alliance, we are equal in military power. It wouldn't be fair if we got all of you- if you're the best we've had, or even if you're handicaps. Each ambassador voted for splitting you up, and how it'll be done." He paused to take a breath.
Hokage resumed the speech, "Because there's an indivisible about of you, you'll either be in groups of three of four. These are your groups…"
Well shit.
another new chapter! thanks for reading :)