A/N: 2 notes to say before you start, first, sorry this chapter is so long, and second, I'm sorry if these fight scenes aren't that great, but I did really try!

Kimo made sure to wake everyone an hour after dawn just to get an early start. It seemed to be fine to everyone else except Ikebashi who apparently can't function without a 10 hours of sleep.

"Kimo-sensei, why are we up this early... I get we're trying to get to his village but a few more hours of rest won't kill us or ruin the mission."

Kassi naturally woke up early in her clan house, and she wasn't bothered by Kimo waking her up, but the constant whining was really annoying. Though she did remember that Amika told her to leave the boy alone last night so she opted instead to just cling to her sister while they walked to distract herself. When she did that she noticed 2 things.

One; Her sister was definitely sleepwalking, or at least walking with her eyes closed, which was really dangerous.

Two; Ikebashi seemed to stop complaining just to glare at her. He probably thought she was trying to tease him but honestly she couldn't care less. She promised her sister that she wouldn't bother him and that's what she's gonna do... no matter how much she doesn't like him.
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They had just gotten about halfway up the last mountain when Kimo suddenly stopped. Everyone noticed and they stopped as well, even Kaleku stopped pulling the cart to look at him.

"Kimo-sensei?" Kassi asked quietly while slightly shaking her older sister to wake up. The other girl lightly groaned but opened her eyes just to suddenly look around them and notice how tense and quiet everyone was.

When Kimo didn't answer Kassi, Ikebashi tried to call him, "Kimo-sensei?" This time Kimo held up his hand.

"Look around us... what do you notice about where we are?" He asked slowly and everyone else looked around.

"The mountains? There's lots of rocks?" Kassi mumbled questionably. It didn't sound smart but that's all she could think of.

"It looks just like the other 2 mountains to me." Ikebashi added and Kimo turned to glare at both of them. It was surprising, of course he was a jounin who had to take missions seriously but, it was so unlike his usual behavior.

"Can you just explain sensei?" Amika asked and he turned back in front of them.

"The mountain is cut here, making two walls around us..." He stopped and recognition dawn on both Amika and Kaleku's face, the other two still seemed to be lost.

"Perfect placement for an ambush." She muttered and gripped her little sister's hand tighter. Kassi's eyes widened in surprise before she relaxed again.

"You said only bandits or thieves would be here right? That's fine." She said, though Amika could tell she was only trying to reassure herself.

"Normally, but just because they're bandits doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. You all should stay behind me and near the cart, okay?"

"Yes sensei." Was their collective response before they started to walk again. They did as they were told until they heard screams from above them.

Each of them froze and looked up, only for a girl to start stumbling down the cliff. Immediately the genin tensed up as Kimo seemed to stare.

"State your purpose!" He yelled at the woman who had landed a few feet in front of them. She slowly stood up and there were tears in her eyes as she looked beaten. It took everything inside of Kassi to not cling onto her older sister, her appearance wasn't something you want to see any day.

Suddenly she smirked creepily and Kimo's eyes widened.

"I'm the distraction." Was all she said before a man jumped down next to her and he yelled something the genin couldn't hear before slamming his hands on the ground. Immediately a hole formed right underneath everyone except Kimo, who was a few feet ahead of them, making them all fall through.

It caught them all off guard (Including Kaleku), so obviously none of them landed on their feet. The first one up was Amika who slowly stood up and then pulled up her little sister.

"Is everyone okay?" She asked looking around the hole they were trapped in. She got 3 groans in response. After the dust settled and everyone got their barrings they realized they heard yelling and fighting. That's when Ikebashi noticed that their sensei wasn't with them.

"Kimo-sensei!" He yelled and the girls repeated right after him in shock.

"They must've realized that he was going to be the biggest threat and plan to overpower him." Kaleku mumbled making all of them freeze. A bunch of bandits can't defeat their jounin level sensei right? But then again, normal bandits don't normally have large jutsu like the one they were stuck in.

"How do we get out and help Kimo-sensei?" Amika asked and Kassi looked at the ground.

"What if we only end up getting in the way of we try to help though? Maybe it's better we're in here..."

"What's wrong with you? How are we gonna prove ourselves as ninja if we just sit and hope not to get in someone's way? We're probably a bigger burden to sensei down here than we would be if we were fighting! I don't know about you but I'm climbing out of here!" And with that he tried to get a grip on a part of the dirt around him, only to realize how smooth it was, leaving little to nothing for him to grip. He immediately slouched to the ground. He could very well still hear the fight happening making him even more frustrated.

"Dang it!" He yelled and punched the 'wall'. Amika sighed before walking over to him and placing her hand on his shoulder.

"We'll figure out what to do, after we get out of here." She told him and the boy nodded before sliding down to sit on the floor. Everyone else soon repeating his action since all they could do is wait.
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It took a little over 10 more minutes for all the action above them to calm down. They all looked at each other, right before they were lifted from the ground, only to face a very bad looking scene.

Kimo was knocked unconscious and tied up in a big tough looking mans arms, and they were completely surrounded by at least 20 guys. There were a large amount that was in the back that Kimo probably dealt with but none of them could focus on that.

"Kimo-sensei." Kassi mumbled while staring at him. This wasn't anything she could prepare herself for, she froze again and just stood there.

"I expected more from this guy, he started off pretty good, took down half our men in record timing, but then it was obvious he started to get distracted and that was when we got him. It seems your sensei was too worried about you brats to pay attention to his own fight." The man holding their sensei chuckled before throwing his unconscious body into the ground.

Kassi just kept staring as her eyes slowly started to water. This wasn't what she wanted to happen... why couldn't she bring herself to just... move? Everything felt so distant, and she could slowly feel her eyes getting heavy. It felt like she was gonna pass out, she probably was.

"Look, I think the little girl's gonna pass out!" One of the men mocked her, but what could she do about it? If they took out her sensei then she wouldn't even be able to fight them. One of the men started to approach her when a kunai landed right at his foot.

That seemed to startle the small girl enough to look at who threw it. She had assumed it was Amika, but was surprised to see it was Ikebashi with a bright red face glaring at the man.

"Stay away from her! Do you hear me! We're ninja, I won't let you patronize us!" He yelled making that man scowl, but the big man who was holding Kimo started to laugh.

"The boys right, let's show him how we treat ninja guys!" He yelled and suddenly there were laughs and cheers all around.

Ikebashi tensed before looking at his teammates. "I know this is scary but we need to fight, at least until we can wake up Kimo-sensei, okay?" He mumbled quickly to the girls. They didn't get a chance to respond but it seemed they all understood.

The group of men all seemed to charge at once making the 3 genin back up so they were surrounding both Mister Kaleku and the artifact.

It had seemed as though more of the men decided to target Kassi, probably for both her small size, and her moment of weakness earlier. She took a quick breath to focus before she made her hand signs to target the man right in front of her.

"Wind Release; Small wind blast!" She called and a strike of air came out from the thrust of her hand which immediately threw the man back into another right behind him. Though both of them got back up, Kassi quickly realized that these men were not ninja and they should not have had the ability to beat Kimo-Sensei, which made her glance back to the large man who was just watching them fight, he had to be the one who did it. Just as she thought that she pulled out her kunai in time to block a sword attack that was targeted right for her shoulder.

Ikebashi also had an amount of men coming at him. He thought he should've been afraid, but all he could feel was his adrenaline, he's been waiting for his chance and he finally got one. He didn't even wait for the first man to get to him he ran forward and immediately used one of his back up kunai to slice the first man in his side before he could even react. He didn't think anything of it until he was able to use the same method on 4 more guys making him quickly realize that these guys couldn't have taken down their Sensei. So that meant it had to be that other man. He then narrowly avoided another kunai making him glance at the adult who threw it and they were smirking.

"Don't get cocky and distracted kid! We'll take you down!" He yelled and threw another which Ikebashi blocked with his making the man look slightly confused. The boy shook his head before charging at that man faster than he could react and slicing through him.

Amika was lucky that only 5 men came to her, since the others were more occupied with her teammates. She was lucky because she kept thinking back to her little sister. She knew she was fine, but after what had happened earlier, she couldn't help but worry. She couldn't let that distract her though, (although it really did), she quickly and smoothly used her Taijutsu to handle the men in front of her. They were honestly easy to knock down, the only problem was that they kept getting back up and she really wasn't trying to kill them.

It seemed Ikebashi was almost done with only 2 guys left for him and he glanced at Amika only to notice that the same 5 she had been fighting kept coming for her while being bruised and beaten. He could tell that they realized she wasn't trying to kill them so they were trying to use that to their advantage to probably tire her out. He quickly called to her.

"Amika, you're a ninja, you can't let that drag on forever! You need to either kill them or knock them out! They're not gonna stop!" He yelled and the last 2 men charged at the same time.

"Keep your eyes on us!" One of them yelled and Ikebashi rolled his eyes before grabbing one of the guys fists (like Kimo had done to both Kassi and Amika during training) and with a grunt he flipped that man over, which had momentarily stopped the other who was shocked, which gave the boy time to stab that man while he was distracted, and he quickly kicked the guy on the ground in the neck, specifically on a pressure point to knock him out.

At her teammates yell Kassi has turned to her sister and saw the same thing Ikebashi did making her sigh, but she had to keep her attention on the men in front of her. As much as she hates to agree with the annoying boy he was right. But it also didn't feel right to kill these guys, who knows why they're actually robbing people, so she opted on knocking them all out. She could hear the cries of the men that Ikebashi was fighting but she preferred to block that out and focus on herself as best she could.

"Nature style; Pollen block!" She called after making her hand signs, she did it 3 times consistently which made 3 out of the remaining 5 men blind, and also made her quickly loose her breath. She backed away a few feet while panting to watch as two of the now blind men had swords and were swinging them which in turn made them injure the two other men with them, but they didn't look like deathly injures. Kassi made quick work to knock out the blind ones by punching each of them in the head, significantly harder than she had Ikebashi earlier. They crumpled down and the other 2 men were trying to stand against her while holding their injuries. She shook her head before kicking directly on top of the cuts and both men immediately went down as well and she could tell they weren't getting back up making her sigh in relief.

Amika knew that Ikebashi was right and sighed. It didn't feel right, especially since they weren't ninja, but this was their mission and they needed to protect Mister Kaleku and the artifact, no matter what. She let the men charge at her again and this time she pulled out her kunai, and immediately she could see all five men hesitate, but she took that to her advantage. The ran at two them and cut them in their sides, which wouldn't kill them, long as they treated it.

The other three tried to catch her from behind but she assumed they didn't realize how slow they were since she had already beaten them. She quickly turned and punched the first man within reach as hard as she could, quickly ignoring both the crunch she heard and her sudden queazy stomach, before she then delivered a hard kick to one of the other guys and she uppercut him after, which only left one man left who had stepped back but she didn't give him a chance to run away as she punched him just as hard as the others and watched his body fall to the ground.

Each of the genin turned around to face each other and was relieved to see they were all finished. Kassi and Amika both really wanted to run to each other and hug, but they knew they still had to deal with the man that took down their sensei.

The man stepped forward with a cocky grin making each of the kids scowl.

"I didn't actually expect you 3 brats to take them down, but I suppose you are 'ninja' and they weren't." He chuckled while walking towards them even more.

"So it was you, right? You're the one who took down Kimo-sensei?" Ikebashi stepped towards him once as well and he stopped but didn't stop his grin.

"So what if I was?"

"We're taking you down no matter what!" He yelled while pointing an accusatory finger at him. The man just started to laugh but Ikebashi didn't look afraid.

"You're a ninja, why would you join a bunch of lowly thieves?" Amika asked and the man shrugged.

"There's more to life than just following a stupid system and then dying for it. Out here, I'm in control, and I can get anything I want just by taking it. What could be better!" Amika bit her lip to stop herself from yelling. If he didn't like the system then why become a ninja in the first place?

"Enough talk, are you guys going to avenge your sensei or not?" He asked and Ikebashi scowled before suddenly charging. The man laughed and jumped to avoid it.

"Get back here you coward!" Ikebashi yelled with a tight grip on his kunai.

"I'm not the coward! Look at your teammates they aren't even backing you up!" The man continued to laugh and the boy looked back to notice neither of the girls had moved. He turned to call out, especially since they were just staring at him, but he could tell they were trying to say something with their eyes, he just didn't know what. Suddenly Amika was coming at him really fast, but her eyes were focused behind him, making him turn just in time to avoid the blow the man was aiming for his head.

"Don't get distracted!" Both girls yelled at him and luckily, Amika had caught the man off guard as she practically plowed into his side with her shoulder, which knocked all the air out of him. As he was trying to recover Amika ran back over to Ikebashi.

"We should wake Kimo-sensei, so he can handle this." She said while waving her hand making both Kassi and Kaleku run over to Kimo's body. Ikebashi looked insulted.

"Why should we? We can do this on our own!"

"That's not what this is about! We have a mission to complete and we can't put your pride over it, understand!" She yelled at the boy who nodded after realizing she was right.

"Oh I see." The man coughed as he slowly stood back up. He chuckled as he saw Kassi and Kaleku approach Kimo's body. He quickly made some handsigns that weren't familiar to the genin and slammed his hands on the ground. Before any of them could blink, Kimo's body was at the bottom of a hole that looked the same as the one they were in.

"Good luck getting him now." The man started laughing and each of them glared at him. He didn't get a second to catch himself as Ikebashi charged at him again. Ikebashi slashed at his side and had expected him to go down, but to his surprise the man gripped at the injury and wasted no time grabbing and throwing the boy. He crashed into the ground and let out a loud groan.

"Ikebashi!" Both girls called out to him but he only took a few seconds to move again.

"Oh, the little runt still can move. I must not've thrown him hard enough. Let me try again."

"Don't touch him!" Amika charged with a quick punch while aiming for his face, but the man quickly caught it and twisted it, making her let out a sudden scream.

Ikebashi yelled out at him, "Leave her alone! Focus on me!" He slowly got back up and the man laughed while still holding her fist. He twisted it even more, and Amika grit her teeth so she wouldn't make anymore noise.

"Oh you're a tough one aye? How about this?" He asked while twisting it even more, there was a very audible pop and she screamed as tears started running down her face. Ikebashi's eyes were wide as he felt his chest freeze up. He couldn't just charge at them, the way he was holding Amika blocked him and used her as a shield, he couldn't risk hurting her. What was he supposed to do? He could feel tears coming in his own eyes as he watched the scene before him.

"Ike! D-don't!" She yelled at him through squinted and teary eyes, he was confused. Where was Kassi? Why was she just letting this happen? Was she frozen in fear again? He looked over only to see she nor Kaleku were still there, the only thing there was the cart. It seemed the man also looked and started to laugh again.

"It seems they left! At least they know to save their own skin!" He finally threw Amika to the ground in front of him and stepped on her back. "It's pretty sad. You know, if you didn't kill most of my men, I might've let you live but now I'm going to enjoy every second of this." He pressed down and Ikebashi gripped his sword even tighter. Maybe he could just... charge him again? What was the point? The slash he gave him last time was still bleeding and yet the big man barely seemed affected by it. The man pressed down on her a bit harder but not enough to break anything yet.

"Well boy? What are you gonna do?"

"Get off of her!" Both Ikebashi and the man looked over to see Kassi looking livid with Kaeku next to her, holding her back from charging but it seemed to get harder the more she stared at her big sister.

"Let me go! Now! I said!" She was yelling and it was obvious that he was having a hard time.

"Where'd you go? Your friends here were missing you-" he was suddenly cut off by two shuriken hitting him in the shoulder. He and Ikebashi quickly looked to the other side to see Kimo standing there with a glare on his face.

"I would appreciate it if you left my students alone and came to face me." His voice was dipping with venom that none of them were familiar with. The man glared back while pulling out the weapons from his shoulder.

"I don't know, i've been enjoying myself while playing with these runts." As he said that he finally stepped off of Amika's back and started walking towards Kimo. Amika quickly rolled over and took deep breaths while looking up at the sky a bit panicked. She rationally knew that the man was off of her, but her brain was still rushing and thinking she was still in danger.

Kassi didn't waste another second before she ripped herself away from Kaleku and ran over to her sister. Her heart beating loudly was the only thing she could hear. She looked over her body after sitting next to her and sighed. There were a few scratches, probably from her fight with the non ninjas, but the biggest thing was her arm, the placement of it looked wrong and Kassi wasn't sure of what she could do about it.

"I..." she wasn't even sure of what to say, but as soon as Amika heard her voice she turned to her and almost instantly relief flooded into her teary eyes.

"Oh, you're still okay." Her voice was hoarse from all her previous screams. Kassi almost choked when she realized Amika wasn't even acknowledging her arm.

"Yea, but you... you..." Before she could say anything she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Kaleku with Ikebashi next to him. The younger boy looked tired and he was leaning onto the other and Kassi felt a bit bad for not worrying about him as much as she did her sister.

"Here, wrap her arm with this." Kaleku offered a long piece of cloth that obviously came from the cover on the cart. She almost took it before she shook her head and looked back at Amika who was just looking at her. She really wanted to know what she was thinking about right then, but obviously she couldn't.

"I don't have any experience with anything like that. I'd much rather let an adult do it." She moved over to give him some room and both Ikebashi and Kaleku sat down, and the older man got to work.
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"Look at them, isn't it cute?" The big man laughed and Kimo kept glaring. "Aww, you're no fun."

Kimo didn't bother saying anything as he watched his students and their client help Amika. He then centered his attention back on the ninja in front of him.

"Last time I was worried you had sent men down in that hole to fight my students, and all I could think about was how they weren't ready. I let myself get distracted in battle and you took advantage of that."

"Of course I did."

"Not only did it seem I was worried for nothing, but that my students are smarter than I gave them credit for, so thanks."

"Oh really? What did they do that was so 'smart'?"

Kimo rolled his eyes. Explaining everything to someone who can't pay attention gets annoying. Did he not realize that they were only able to wake him up because the other's distracted him?

"I'm not going to sit here and go over it. It just shows how pathetic of a ninja you really are." Kimo waved his hand as he spoke and watched as the other seemed to turn red and get angry.

"Fine then!" He yelled before making the proper hand signs and slamming them to the ground. Kimo took note of the them and quickly started jumping around to avoid the spikes that were constantly popping from below him. He also rolled his eyes as he noticed how confident the man looked while keeping his hands on the ground.

Maybe it was because he was still young but he never understood why any ninja would so obviously leave themselves open in such a way. Maybe it was a trap? But this ninja didn't seem smart enough, he only seemed to know a limited amount of ninjutsu and seemed to underestimate his opponent.

Kimo quickly landed on a spot where there wasn't a spike and he could tell the man was going to try and impale him but before he could Kimo quickly made the familiar hand signs, "Wind Style: Violent Whirlwind!" He yelled and blew from his mouth. Immediately giant gusts of winds were directed towards the other man who almost flew but he planted his feet to the ground, digging in his heels to stay in his spot, while also using his arms to block his face. When the wind finally stopped he slowly lowered his arms only to find Kimo gone.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around quickly and threw a punch, only for Kimo to dodge and quickly chop at his neck where his pressure point was. The man leaned forward a bit, before he suddenly grabbed Kimo and threw him to the ground, making him groan in surprise before him quickly moved away. He should've known a man his size wouldn't fall that easy.

"Alright then." He mumbled to himself before charging back at the man, not giving him a chance to make any hand signs and just going at him with taijutsu. As he expected, it wasn't his enemy's strongest suit, but Kimo quickly noticed something else while attacking. The man was pretty protective of his left side. He didn't know why until he caught a glimpse and notice a slash there. It wasn't too deep, but it did look painful. Kimo smirked before aiming a hard kick directly on the injury.

"Oh it seems Ikebashi got you didn't he? He's pretty good with that sword of his." Kimo mocked when the man suddenly buckled a bit but he put his hand on his injury and glared.

"Don't give him that much credit, it's barely a scratch."

"And yet, you're losing blood." Kimo chuckled and dodged another punch. He had noticed the blood before but had assumed it was someone elses, but he assumed wrong obviously. He then charged, aiming all his attacks to the left, and although the man tried to block, he couldn't from the constant barrage of kicks and punches. Eventually he fell to the ground panting and battered. He glared at Kimo.

"Maybe you shouldn't keep all your focus on me," he started, his breathing getting harder but his eyes narrowed too, "you have some students over there don't you?" He asked and Kimo's eyes widened as he quickly looked behind him only to see everyone in the same spot, just with Amika sitting up and some cloth around her arm. His eyes widened as he looked back to the man just to see a hole where he was. The man was battered and probably slow. Kimo could've went after him, but Kimo was also tired and extremely worried about his team. He then jogged over to the others and offered a sad smile to them while sitting down next to Ikebashi.

"I'm sorry that you all had to fight so early on, and to see how brutal our lives can be." Everyone was looking at him except Kassi.

"It's fine Kimo-sensei. We knew what we were getting into at the beginning. Being a ninja isn't just a game, I've always known that, but at least now I won't forget." Amika lightly chuckled but no one else laughed with her.

"We knew we had to fight. That was our only option." Ikebashi added and Kimo nodded at him. He then looked at Kassi, who was still not looking at him.

"And you?"

"I'd really rather not talk to you right now." She mumbled and Kimo stiffened before lowering his head.

"I understand."

"Kassi it's-" Amika started but she cut her off.

"Ikebashi I'd like to speak with you." Kassi stood up and started walking over to where the artifact was, not even waiting for his response. The boy looked at everyone else but obviously no one knew what she would say. He slowly got up and followed her.

As soon as he was close Kassi sighed and closed her eyes tightly. "You didn't protect my sister." She started and Ikebashi took a step back, already feeling guilty but she continued, "but neither did I..." she kept her eyes closed and took a deep breath.

"We didn't have time to explain to you our plan, but now I regret it all! I left my sister and she got hurt! I left her to fight that, that, monster with you and he tried to break her arm-" Her face took on a scowl as she spat out everything she was feeling until he interrupted her.

"No, he was trying to kill her."

She suddenly stopped at his statement, "What?"

"Being a ninja isn't about just completing missions, you put your life on the line every day. The lives of the people you care about are on the line too. It's not a game. You shouldn't have become a ninja if you can't handle that." He spoke calmly and watched as Kassi's eyes practically lit up in flames.

"You think I want to be a ninja? You think I don't know that mine and Amy's lives are on the line! I'm here because I don't have another choice! I'm here because this is the price I have to pay for being my clans 'prodigy'. There's a lot of things that I... I know I'm not prepared for, things that your parents have probably prepared you for. I don't have parents to fall back on, or to ask for help, or to hold me when I'm scared. All I have is Amika. Seeing her like this puts a fear in me that I didn't know existed until now. Seeing her like this, makes me hate the fact that we're ninja... but it also makes me want to work even harder so it won't happen again, so I can prove that I'll protect her."

He stared at her and couldn't help but feel guilty again. She was right, his father had explained to him multiple times about how being a ninja isn't a joke. He constantly spoke about his lost comrades and times he feared for his own life. Ikebashi knew what he was getting into, that's why he wasn't afraid to fight earlier. But Kassi was, she was scared to death and looked ready to pass out. Didn't she get training to learn all those jutsu? She had to be taught about what it's really like to be a ninja at some point right?

"Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be talking to Amika?"

"Because... I don't like you, and you don't like me either, but you still helped me... and you still tried your best to protect my big sister. I just, thought I should tell you that I don't exactly blame you."

"But you blame Kimo-sensei?" He asked and Kassi froze and then glared at him.

"He was supposed to protect us."

"It was because he was so worried about us that he got knocked out."

"I don't care."

"Amika wouldn't want you to be mad at him." He added, wondering if that would change her mind. Instead she only straightened her posture and looked him in the eye.

"I know."

He sighed before turning around, assuming the conversation was over.

"Wait! I..." he stopped and stared at her, she looked really embarrassed and it made him a lot more interested. She took a deep breath before starting.

"I need to thank you. For saving me, and trying to protect my big sister. And I'm sorry for earlier, I shouldn't have hit you in the head like that."

Ikebashi stared at her for a few moments, and she only seemed to turn redder and redder under his gaze. After about 10 seconds of no reply she closed her eyes and folded her arms.

"This doesn't change anything between us, you understand! I won't let you steal my big sister from me!" She then started stomping away to get back to the others while he stood there.

"Change anything?" He repeated quietly as he still was trying to process everything, especially the apology. Were they supposed to be friends now? No way. How could he be friends with someone who constantly looked down on him. It didn't matter if she had a hard past, that doesn't affect them now and he was gonna prove it.

"I can do what I want!" He yelled right after her and she stopped and turned around to face his direction with a still red face and puffed out cheeks.

"No you can't! Cause she's my big sister!" She yelled back and he knew that the others could definitely hear them yelling.

"I don't care!"

"Ah! Shut up!"

He felt satisfied as she turned back and he followed behind her. That was more than enough reassurance that they were still the same. It's not like he wanted things to become awkward all of a sudden. Even the way she looked down on him... it just made him want to show her up, prove to her that he'll be better than her one day.

This is just the way they were, and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. And if Kassi just happens to freeze up again in the future... well it wouldn't be a completely terrible thing if he helped her out a bit. At the very least it would definitely impress Amika.