Y'all when I said prepare your asses I didn't mean in the sexual sort of way some real fuck shit gonna happen--

Third person pov

"Ethelia!" Minato cried out in something akin to relief. It made the girl frown. She had never been one for confrontation. Not before, and not now. Even Obito looked slightly uncomfortable as Minato's eyes fell upon him, and something clicked in his head. "You were with Obito the whole time?"

"Sorry, sensei." Obito immediately apologized.

"I can't believe this." Kakashi scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I knew you were hiding her. It's pretty clear you like her. You need to keep your love life out of your ninja one." The Hatake snarled.

Obito turned red with anger and embarrassment. "I was just helping a friend out! She told you she didn't want to be there, and you guys made her go anyway! I wasn't about to make her go back just because of some mission that isn't even that important!" The Uchiha shouted back.

"But Obito, you lied to Minato-sensei..." Rin trailed off.

"How about we all calm the fuck down?" Ethelia piped up. She looked immensely tired, which honestly wasn't new for her. "I chose to walk out. It isn't Obito's fault. I made him cover for me. I would have chopped off his balls if he hadn't." 

Obito frowned, because she hadn't made him do anything. He'd chosen to shelter her. He easily could have dragged her back to Ryuki's house, and she wouldn't have fought it. She may have complained a hell of a lot, but she saved the dick ripping off for situations that involved food, and people stealing it. 

"I agree with Ethelia. We should all calm down. What happened, happened, and the client wasn't upset about it. I'm sure Ethelia had her reasons." Minato smiled. Ethelia suddenly felt glad he was such a creepy, nice asshat. It meant he was more tolerable of all this teenage bullshit. Ethelia knew she was just being petty. She sighed. 

"Can we just train, now?" Rin asked. "I mean, it happened. Minato-sensei is right. Ethelia doesn't do anything without a good reason."

"That... is completely incorrect." Ethelia blinked.

"Can we just train now?" Kakashi scoffed. They'd already lost enough time as it was, and it was clearly all thanks to Ethelia and Obito. Having one irresponsible individual on the team was already bad enough, but two? If only Ethelia wasn't the "chosen one" or whatever the hell they were calling her these days. 

"I think that's a good idea." Minato smiled.

They started out with jogging. They took the same route they always did. Rin and Kakashi passed Ethelia with ease, and Obito hung back behind them. Minato was behind them a ways. Close enough to see, but far enough that he wouldn't be able to overhear them.

"Do you think Ryuki will try anything else? He wasn't happy when you left." Obito said lowly as they jogged along. "Minato-sensei was just saying that to make you feel better."

Ethelia sighed. "I thought so." She grumbled. "I don't know if he'll try anything. I don't even know why he's bothering me, honestly. He hasn't given a good reason."

"Maybe he likes you or something and just has a bad way of showing it." Obito suggested quietly. He didn't like the idea of that, but he suggested it anyway. Ethelia raised an eyebrow at him, looking up at him with a look of absolute, utter disbelief. Obito shrugged vaguely.

Minato watched from behind as Obito and Ethelia whispered back and forth. From here, he couldn't hear them, but any closer would make it obvious that he was watching them. He did often run behind his students rather than in front, but he didn't want to give any hints that he had other motives.

They came to the clearing in the trees where you could see Ryuki's house, or more specifically, his balcony. Ethelia and Obito seemed to tense, and their whispers became more hushed. Minato was surprised to see Obito put an arm on her back, urging her faster. He was saying something to her that he couldn't make out, but the look on his face was grim.

Minato's eyes wandered to where Ethelia was glaring. Ryuki was on his balcony, watching, and for some reason, that sent a shiver right down the blonde's spine.

~

Training went fairly fast, but that may have been due to the fact that Obito and Ethelia were both two hours late. Ethelia was sweating buckets by the time she was done, and Obito was slightly winded. Either way, both were glad it was over. Ethelia was sure her father was worried sick by now. After all, she hadn't contacted him since the day prior. She and Obito hadn't wanted to risk stopping by her house.

"Thanks for walking me home." Ethelia yawned. 

"Are you sure you'll be okay here?" Obito knew she would be, but he'd enjoyed her company so much the night before that he couldn't help but hope that maybe she'd prefer to crash on his couch again. He highly doubted it, though. There really was no place like home. He was sure it was important to Ethelia that she had her own space.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Mark probably stole all my damn pudding again, but I really wasn't here to guard it, so I guess that's my fault." She sighed heavily. He grinned at her. It was interesting how she was always thinking about food. He wasn't sure why she had such an obsession with it. Maybe she just liked that it was good?

"I'll come get you tomorrow." Obito proclaimed to her with unwavering confidence. 

"Yeah, don't do that. I'll be fine. Besides, I'm betting you'd be late getting here anyway." Ethelia opened the front door. "Have a shitty night."

"Gee, thanks."

Ethelia just gave a bland thumbs up, closing the door as Obito began to walk away.