Icha Icha Paradise

~~~~ Icha Icha Paradise ~ Chapter 2 ~~~~

Raido couldn’t believe what he had been witnessing. Kotatsu, one of the guards that were supposed to scout the land for any problems as he himself was, was being… kind… to this tenshi. One thing that was not known of Kotatsu. On any normal day, Kotatsu would have been one of the first to take the guy to the ground, give him a good crack across the face, tie him down and be done with it.

But what he had seen back in the jail cell had screamed a whole different story. Almost as if his personality had done a complete 180. Kotatsu had, at first wanted to the same thing he normally did. But the second he had laid eyes on the boy, his temper seemed to be set in a bucket of ice water, and the hatred in his aura seemed to calm to a smooth mellow state. Though he could hardly blame the man.

The kid had blue eyes that, in all honesty shouldn’t be so blue. They were calm and carried a certain twinkle to them that just seemed to scream innocence. Then there was the blond hair. It was bright and stood out in an almost crude way, but yet, it seemed to suit him well. Then, opposite to his bright eyes and hair, was his darker sun kissed golden skin. The depth of the color simply stated that he worked outside, or traveled a lot, being exposed to the sun fair amounts of time before finally finding shade.

But another thing struck Raido as odd. The six scars on his cheeks. They almost reminded him of whiskers. His hand unconsciously came up to trace his own scars, much unlike the boys. His lead across his face, and were jagged and rough looking. A harsh reminder to him of what the tenshi were capable of.

He couldn’t quite figure out what it was that had made his partner cool off, but whatever it was, he had felt it as well, his slightly bubbling irritation and hatred calming to the same soothing aura that surrounded Kotatsu.

Naruto on the other hand, was spilling nervousness like there was nothing else in the world. His hands continuously fidgeted, and his feet couldn’t seem to hold still. He changed positions several times in a minute and could be seen biting his lip from time to time, trying to seemingly take in every bit of his surroundings as possible.

~~~~

The gates to the castle opened slowly, and the wagon pulled up to the court, stopping roughly to let the men out. The creaking gates closed with a loud clash behind them, making Naruto feel like he had just been sentenced to some horrible fait. Though it couldn’t be as bad as he thought it was, could it? He hadn’t done anything wrong and had no intentions to do anything wrong, and surly the lords would see this. They were good rulers, and worked well together.

That’s what Naruto thought at least.

Being led in by a loose grip, Naruto simply kept his eyes ahead of him, hoping that all would be alright. Being exiled wouldn’t be as bad as the alternative. But the fact of the mater was that he had become accustomed to the country and quite enjoyed traveling in it, not minding sleeping outside most of the time and not really caring when he went for a day or so without food. The spoils of a hard days work were only the more sweeter that way.

He was jerked to a stop by the hand on his arm, and it brought him back out of the world he had trapped himself in. Looking ahead, he almost gasped at the man who stood in front of him. The reddest hair that he had ever seen topped the boys head in a short spiky manner, his bangs framing a red tattoo above his left eye. His pale skin complimented his aquamarine eyes in a way that he never thought to be possible. Then again, he had never seen aquamarine eyes either.

Though, when Naruto looked at the whole, and not simply the single features, he could see that the guy seemed to mean serious business. He stood tall and proud, his arms crossed over his chest and his face seemed to be made out of granite. Unwavering and emotionless eyes scanned over him. Without even a word being spoken, he seemed to demand respect of what would be considered powerful.

Naruto was so lost in his own thoughts, that he had almost missed the question that was asked of him.

“You are?” his voice was deep and seemed cold, hard like steel with nothing to try and hide it, letting whoever herd it feel the harsh surface.

Naruto stumbled in his answer for a few moments before regaining his ground and coughing lightly to try and hide his absentness. “Naruto.” He felt pride in the steadiness of his voice and secretly cheered himself on. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as he had been anticipating.

The redhead nodded, then nodded to Kotatsu and Raido, turning and continuing on his way. Naruto sighed a slight breath of relief. Wondering who the guy was, he started walking again, following Kotatsu and Raido again down the halls and down deeper into the castle.

~~~~

The door slammed open, creating a resonating bang that echoed through the halls and the room that the redhead had just entered. Several sets of eyes looked up from their current activities, curious as to what had him in such a state.

The cold stare traveled over everybody in the room, affecting nobody, and nobody really expecting it to. Not even the boy himself. But he took a seat, his arms still crossed and leaned back, staying silent. As always, he was never the first to speak.

“What’s got your panties in a knot?” A raven haired from the large elegant table off to the side of the room spoke, setting down the playing cards he was holding. Leaning back in the chair, he placed his feet on the table, the man across from him sighing in defeat and throwing his cards down on the table, standing to leave.

“You win Sasuke-sama. But next time you wont be so lucky.” He bowed politely, taking the senbon out of his mouth, but replacing it the second he stood strait again to walk out of the room. He passed the redhead giving a bow of respect before closing the door behind him and taking off down the hall.

Gaara glared at the rooms occupants… which seemed to be all of them. It looked like he was the last to arrive, having gotten the message last. He sighed internally and leaned back in his seat. “Has anybody seen the tenshi we’re supposed to judge today?” He was rewarded with looks tossed between the others and the shaking of four other heads. A snore simply answering him from the couch beside his chair.

He sighed and used his foot to kick the cushions harshly, effectively stopping the snoring as a lazy eye opened, taking in they way the redhead was looking at him. He sighed out loud, but didn’t bother sitting up. “If you people weren’t so troublesome, maybe I could get some decent sleep and would have to sleep at times like this.” He rolled towards the edge of the sofa, letting him face the others in the room. “Besides Gaara.” He looked to the redhead with a pointent look. “Who would want to wake up to a face like that?”

Gaara simply stared. Sasuke sighed from the corner and looked to the lazy boy on the couch. “Don’t piss him off Shikamaru. He seems in a bad mood as it is.”

Shikamaru shrugged, sitting slightly and propping himself on the couch, wanting to go back to sleep. “Well, from what we know, it’s a tenshi. Why don’t we just execute it and get this over with so I can go back to sleep? They’re almost always executed anyway. And the ones who are banished are always found at the boarder and only there because they got lost. This kid was found 4 hours from here. Pretty damned close to the castle.” He yawned widely and didn’t bother to look around, instead letting his head fall back onto the cushions.

“Well, we could do that. But what if he’s innocent?” The voice seemed to come from behind a book, the silver haired man crouched on his haunches over by the table not even looking up. “Besides, he only sprouted wings today. And from what we herd, it seemed painful. Genma said that the shop keeper and the farmer both said he didn’t seem as if he had anything to do with the tenshi. The shop keeper said that it had been one of the most painful things he had witnessed. Don’t you think that if the kid knew it was going to happen, he would have gone somewhere he wouldn’t have been found to let it happen? After all, there’s nobody that doesn’t know that tenshi are banned from this country.”

“Kakashi has a point.” Another voice filled the room, this time from a chair on the opposite side of the room from Sasuke. “Besides that, he would have sprouted his wings during birth if he were a full blood. Which means, he’s only a half blood. He must have come of age today.” A few eyes went to the raven in the corner. He threw his hair over his shoulder and sighed. “But, even so. The question of why he did not know he was part tenshi still remains.”

There were a few acknowledging gazes and the room went silent again.

“Why don’t we just ask him?” The last voice in the room finally spoke. All eyes were on him now. “Well, if he really didn’t know, then he should be able to give a reason why he didn’t. And besides, who the fuck in our country vouches for a tenshi?” It was blunt but to the point. And a strong one at that. Nobody had ever vouched for one of them before and now, he had at least two on his side. And from the reports they had received, they were two well respected working men. Not girlies who saw a pretty boy and don’t want him dead or gone cause he’s good eye candy.

The silence was almost defining. It lasted for several minutes as each man went over the facts and what they knew so far.

“None of you answered my question.” Gaara finally spoke, breaking the silence with a katana. “Have you seen him yet?” The thought of Gaara entering the room in a rage enough to slam the door open renewed in their minds and they suddenly wondered what had happened. They all shook their heads and Gaara continued. “Well, he looks more like a 5 year old in a grown body. Like a kid that saw the biggest cake in his life, yet muscled and good looking. He was like a friggin kid in a candy shop. Big eyes, curious yet scared, awed.” His voice stayed even. “And when I asked him who he was, he seemed to caught up in his own world to answer at first. Took Kotatsu a good shake to snap him out of it.”

So that’s why Gaara had been so angry. “So basically he ignored you for all of a few minutes while he got over his fear. That’s why you were so pissed?” the raven at the table smirked at how easy the boy seemed to get angry.

“Shove it king duck butt. I don’t need to hear any of your quacked inputs.” Gaara smirked at the glare he received. Good. “Anyway. That’s not why I was pissed. What pissed me off is he looked like he knew he didn’t disserve anything. Like he knew he wouldn’t get a punishment and walk out of here scot free, yet at the same time, it wasn’t in a cocky way.”

Shikamaru cocked his eyebrow. “It sounds like a face that cant be made Gaara. He’d have to be guilty to have the ‘I’m off the hook’ look and if he’s guilty then its execution. But if he looks innocent at the same time, then he cant have the ‘off scot free’ look. It just isn’t plausible.”

Gaara shook his head. He had known it would come to this. Standing up, he opened the door and stuck his head out, ordering one of the guards to find Kotatsu and to have Kotatsu bring Naruto to them. Closing the door, he sat down silently and simply waited. They would see what he meant.

~~~~

Naruto shifted again. The bench in this dungeon was better than the jail bench, but it was colder and damper down here. And after sleeping on a hard bench, ridding in a wooden wagon and now sitting on another bench, his ass needed some serious attention. Some good ‘ol TLC. But that wasn’t what it was going to get at the moment. And that was unfortunate.

He sighed, sliding himself to the stone floor, and lay down looking at the ceiling. It was dark in here, barley lit by a few torches, and there weren’t any guards around at the moment, so it wasn’t like he could talk to anybody. Not that they would want to talk back or anything, but it was better than talking to yourself as Naruto had been doing for the past 40 minutes.

“As if they couldn’t put a cushion or something in here for whoever is in here. Its not like I’m an escaped felon or anything. And not even an old one! And no shirt or blanket. And they left the ropes on! God these things hurt.” He shifted again, trying to get comfortable with his hands tied behind his back, but gave up after about the tenth attempt.

He sighed loudly to himself, but when he herd a door open, he looked around, hoping that maybe it was Kotatsu come to tell him he was free to go. It was indeed Kotatsu, and the guy smiled at him, but it was meek, making Naruto feel all the more nervous.

“Cummon kid. They wanna see you.” He unlocked the door and it swung out with a loud squeak that signaled rusty doors.

Naruto stood and walked towards Kotatsu, who took a hold of his arm and lead him out through the complex maze that they had come down through. He didn’t think that even with years and years, he would be able to remember what way was which down here. There were so many turns and other roads to follow, like a labyrinth.

Eventually, they emerged back to the natural light, the tall windows letting the sun come through and the heat of the main part of the castle soon getting rid of the chill that the dungeon had brought about. The red carpet and tiles on either side highly contrasted each other, but nicely at the same time. The gleaming white tiles against the gold trim of the red carpet. The walls were also red, but a deeper darker shade. The golden high hanging chandeliers swung slightly in the strong breeze that was coming through the open windows and gave a nice fresh feeling to the halls.

Lost in his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed they had stopped at a large door. Looking up, he snapped back into it when he realized there were voices on the other side of the door.

~~~~

The door opened and Genma stepped in, looking around. “My lords. He’s arrived.”

Gaara nodded and signaled to let him in. Genma bowed lightly and stepped back out. Only a minute later, the door opened again and Kotatsu stepped through, almost dragging the boy. His head was down and he took light small steps, like a child that was embarrassed about something.

Everybody’s breath caught in their throat.