"Wait for me Kou-chan!" Aiko came bounding up the road with her dark hair fluttering behind her. Her pale features had exploded into a white smile. Even at a young age people could tell she was going to be beautiful. Her limbs were smoothing out, becoming slender as her baby features started growing. Her growing beauty was just one of the reasons that her father was so protective. At least he liked Kousuke.
The boy in question pouted. His features were soft and more childish than hers even though they were pratically the same age. He was sort for his age with large dark eyes. He looked like a girl with his long dark hair tied at his neck. He let out a cry of surprise when Aiko bounded up to him and shoved her fingers into his hair and violently ruffled it up. He opened his mouth to say something but instead tore out the red band and started trying to smooth down the mess she had created.
"Aiko!" he whined. "Don't call me that! If you're going to use a honorific at least use kun. Chan is for little babies and I'm three months older than you!" They were barely teenagers but he was no child. If people kept calling him Kou-chan no one was ever going to take him seriously! It was embarassing and made his stomach turn in knots. He wanted to be grown up because he had not much else to show.
She laughed, hooking her pale arm around his. "But Hikari-san calls you Kou-chan!" She pouted and whined slightly, pressing her shoulder against his. Like her mother she had the natural ability to drive boys off the wall without even realizing it. Either that or she merely acted like she didn't realize what she was doing.
"Yeah but she's my mother. She calls father Ita-chan don't forget." Kousuke frowned slightly at the mention. Though he looked exactly like his father he hadn't gained any of his talents. Kousuke was clumsy, a crybaby, and otherwise useless. He was fourteen and he still had not been able to activate his family's power.
"Hm, maybe you're right," Aiko started. As they walked through the village she still insisted on holding onto his arm. She laughed. "She calls my papa Kisame-chan sometimes too. Still I think Kou-chan suits you! Until you're taller than me I'm going to keep calling you that." She laughed loudly and he just sank deeper into his little hole. There was no winning with this girl.
"Let's take a short cut home!" she started brightly. "We might as well. I guess that mama is making something special for dinner tonight! It's some special date today I guess. I don't know what it is. It's not a holiday or a birthday. I know that much!" Aiko dropped his arm and skipped foreward, taking the forest path rather than the main road. She was rushing ahead of him before he even had a chance to open his mouth. The forest road was dangerous!
Kousuke started running after him, branches catching on his clothing and cutting up his face. He winced with each little cut and his eyes stung. "A-Aiko! Aiko wait! There could be animals!" A tree root caught around his foot and he fell onto his face letting out a cry of alarm, pain, and embarassment. "WA!" He lay for a moment on his stomach, slowly pushing his body up on his hands. He winced again as pain jolted up his leg and burned through his knees.
"Kou-chan!" Aiko's voice teased from deeper in the woods. With that taunt Kousuke scrambled to his feet and wobbled foreward before he was able to fall into his running stride. Greens and browns rushed past his eyes and he loped foreward, unable to catch his breath.
"AIKO!" Kousuke gasped in surprise when the forest broke into a small clearing. There was smoke from a dead campfire and several dirty men standing around in a half circle. He had arrived just in time to see the largest scoop Aiko up onto his shoulder, half concious and unable to move. Kousuke's knees knocked together and his already round eyes widened.
"Another kid," murmered one. He smiled. "He's certainly not as pretty as the first one. He won't bother us none. He's pretty much wetting his pants just standing there." The man threw back his head and laughed, waving a hand in the air. "Come on. Let's see if we can fetch a pretty price for a pretty girl."
"Aiko! Aiko are you okay?"
"Sorry kid, she can't answer right now." The man stepped sideways as Kousuke launched himself at him. Kousuke fell short, trying to remember everything his father had taught him about fighting. He could hardly remember anything and he rolled to the side as the man's boot connected with his ribs. Winded, Kousuke curled up on his side and coughed.
"You want to fight?" the bandit put his boot against Kousuke's forehead and nudged it. "You're gonna get messed up really fast. You should just run back home to mommy and daddy kid. I hate killing children." Like he had ever done it before. They were just low level crooks trying to scare him. That's what Kousuke was trying to think, but their tactics were working.
"I won't leave without Aiko!" Kousuke rolled to his feet and latched his arms around the first bandit's leg, sinking his small white teeth into his skin. The man screamed loudly before he kicked the boy off. "Kisame would kill me if I let anything happen to Aiko!" Kousuke rolled sideways as the man kicked out at him again. "You ambushed her! If you had attacked her fair and square Aiko could have beaten you!"
As he swept under the bandit he had started a fight with another one attacked him, pouding a large fist into his head. Kousuke stumbled onto his back, panting and gasping for air. He could hardly take out one bandit, let alone several. He was going to lose Aiko! It was all because of his stupid eyes! His stupid weakness! His stupid lack of talent! Stupid him!
Tears burned his eyes again as he rolled to his feet. He was pissed. He was angry at himself, angry at these stupid men for taking his friend, and angry that she still insisted on calling him chan! He jumped at the larger bandit first, his foot connecting with the top of his bald head. Kousuke ran in place for a second before he lept off and charged at the first bandit. Kousuke stepped to his left, dodging a kick before launching his knee into the man's diaphram.
It was at this point that Aiko came too, freeing herself from her captor. She vaulted from his shoulder, turning quickly to force her heel into his temple. Then she danced effortlessly sideways, dodging knives and hammers here and there. Soon she had gotten rid of the other three and delicately brushed her hands off. "So loud!" she complained. "If you hadn't insisted on shouting you might have actually gotten away with me." She stepped onto a particularly fat man and hopped off, giggling.
Kousuke followed slowly after her. His limbs felt heavy and he let out a tired yawn. "Y-you're okay Aiko? They didn't hurt you did they?"
"Nope, not at all. I can protect myself silly. I was only pretending." She glanced over her shoulder a moment to smile before her expression changed. "AH!?"
Kousuke turned to look behind him. "Ahwhatwhere?!"
"Kou-chan!" she exclaimed. "Your eyes turned red! You used the Sharingan! You're not so useless after all!" She squealed before she wrapped ehr arms around his neck and pecked his cheek. "You finally hit puberty!"
"THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MY SHARINGAN!" he shouted back, his face turning red. "Yuck, gross! Get off of me! Stop kissing me! UGH! You're worse than my mother!"
"I'm gonna tell! Hikari-chaaaaaannn!" Aiko started running out of the forest, shouting at the top of her lungs. "Kouuuu-channnnn is growing upppp!"
Kousuke rushed quickly after her, leaving the bandits and the clearing behind. "Wait! Aiko be quiet! If I'm so grown up stop calling me chan!"
Of course, that wasn't going to happen.
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"I will NEVER forgive you!!"