"Eheh... style..." Still not dealing.
"And it's such a stylish style, too. I'd have thought you'd try it when you were chasing that young man, ne?" Still highly amused, the older woman put a pair of fingers to her mouth and let off a piercing whistle, answered moments later by the roar of a small engine from the alley below. The next thing any of them knew, there as a bright yellow Vespa hovering just beyond the railing, faint puffs of exhaust dissipating in the clear mid day air as it idled, waiting for a a rider. "Here you go, then," she told them, before digging around in a pocket. Pulling out a padded metal cuff with a single chain link hanging from it, she snapped it around Sakura's wrist and instructed, "Take this, and get it tuned up at the station while you're there, ne? It's been a little while."
Shaking herself (with considerable effort) out of her stupor, Sakura hopped over the railing and onto the seat, then frowned down at the handlebars, considering how to do this. "I guess... Hinata, since you're smaller, you sit on my knees, and Naruto you get on behind." Narrowing her eyes at the blond, she warned, "Hold my waist and no where else, understand?"
Hinata wanted to complain that if Naruto was holding anyone it should be her, but this was for the mission, and she'd never ridden such a contraption before - never even seen anything like it, for that matter. She slipped into place with a small moue of disappointment, then brightened as a better idea came to her. She reached back as Naruto slid his arms under Sakura's elbows and grabbed his hands, pulling them further forward - and a bit higher than her waist, but that was just fine. It meant they were all sandwiched even closer together, but this far up without a tree or wall to stand on and planning to go even higher, she didn't mind that, either. She returned the saucy grin as Sakura's mother caught her eye, then the engine revved up again and they were off, riding into the sky at a steep enough angle that she was now REALLY glad they were all pressed close together.
They were still a bit too low to clear it as they approached the wall, the shinobi manning the guard posts pointing and exclaiming over their unusual vehicle, so Sakura turned and headed back toward the Hokage monument at the focus of the city. A city it obviously was from this vantage, stretching away to either side in a mottled mass of three and four storey buildings interspersed with giant trees, and in some cases built right into them. Pedestrians and carts lined the streets with the occasional, rare and expensive steam-truck belonging to some wealthy merchant making its way through the crowded thoroughfares, and ninja darted this way and that over the rooftops.
A messenger hawk, curious, flew beside them for a few seconds before swooping away to the relay station, and as she shifted up and put on more speed Sakura could just make out Tsunade-sensei on the roof of the Hokage's tower, looking out over her people. Finally finding his voice, Naruto whooped and hollered, calling out to her to go faster and faster as the horizon began to bend below them, and the pale shadow of the moon gained substance in the darkening sky.
Stars began to appear as well, and looking down one last time Hinata could only make out Konoha as a tiny smudge in a sea of green, even at the Byakugan's maximum magnification. The world was visibly round below and behind them now, the tug of gravity obviously provided by the scooter as it climbed nearly vertically away from the world they'd lived on for fourteen years. Ahead, the moon loomed larger and pale, only a quarter full with a dark inner face as they rose to meet it. Looking that way now, Hinata searched for any details visible in that slim, luminous crescent.
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(Posted Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:53)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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