Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto

Late Date

I should have known from the start that it was a bad idea, considering how it was Deidara's suggestion. However, I had grudgingly agreed to it in order to get away from him for the night. Sometimes, most of the times, he was really overbearing.

With the exactness it seemed I could only expect of myself I arrived right on time. Because, as it turned out, my date hadn't arrived yet. We had agreed to meet by the Shadow Inn, simply because it was a nice well-lit spot. By the bench right next to the entrance to be exact. I hadn't, despite myself, understood how crowded it would be. It was a lucky thing I had been precise regarding the location.

But as it turned out that had not made any difference.

But, I told myself, perhaps he wasn't late. I stared at the bench. After all, weren't there two benches that were closest to the entrance? One on each side?

A quick glance that way told me there wasn't.

Irritating.

I've always had a rising suspicion that people arrived late simply to tick me off. After all, no considerate human being would otherwise do so.

Deidara disagrees, of course. He claims there are reasons, as if!

As the clock ticked on, before I knew it 5 minutes had passed.

OK, I was lying. I was counting the seconds.

I'm extremely good at counting time, I can do so without even trying to. Most often it's an extremely annoying ability.

In either case I'd opted for sitting down. While I was not completely sure as to why I was waiting for this person, who I didn't know to begin with, I did.

Perchance it was because I was secretly looking forward to an actual date, though I doubted it.

10 minutes had gone by, I had reached the conclusion that I was staying in order to kill my date.

It was a conclusion, and to me a reasonable one.

I spent the next 5 minutes imagining horrifying ways to kill my date, made difficult by the fact that I did not know his face. After a few attempts at imagining a suitable face I settled for Deidara's. It was his fault I was out here to begin with, so it was only suitable.

I should have know from the start it wouldn't end well. It had been Deidara's idea, and Deidara wasn't clever. His general answer to any problem was to blow it to pieces.

In an attempt to clean my mind of it I looked up into the crowd. Everyone seemed very content, some very exhausted after a long day of shopping, some after a long day of working. Still, no matter the amount of plastic bags, which separated the workers from the shoppers, everyone besides myself seemed happy.

This might have set me off on a train of thought leading to a change of lifestyle, but I wasn't in the mood for that.

No, I was feeling like banging my head into a wall a couple of times, and then banging somebody else's head into said wall a bit harder than I'd bang my own.

Most of the times I felt like this was because of Deidara. I had no idea why I put up with the guy.

I entertained myself with more lovely fantasies, each filled with more blood than the next.

20 minutes had passed. My mind had turned into other directions. Rather than logically going over why I was still there I had begun planning for tomorrow, complete with beating up random people. Because I had an itching feeling I'd want to beat up people tomorrow, and it was best to guide that anger in directions where it wouldn't get me into trouble.

I left that subject. Because it would get me into trouble, despite the intended purpose.

I had convinced myself to stay for 5 more minutes, just to really be able to prove to Deidara that I had tried. After all, I'd been out there for 30 minutes, had I not?

Not until then did it hit me. There was no date. Nobody would keep anyone waiting this long, Deidara had been lying. It had been his idea and he had arranged everything. Only he hadn't.

I hurried to my feet, the longer I stayed the harder he would laugh at me. That idiot! Did he really think I would fall for something like that!? He had another thing coming if he deceived himself like that!

I turned on my heel, heading back to take out some recently stored anger on Deidara. I'd spent half an hour imagining it, after all.

---

An hour later, 1 hour and 30 minutes after appointed time, at the closest bench to the Shadow Inn entrance, a man arrived.

"Sorry I'm late I was…" Kakashi started saying before realising that his blind date had abandoned him. He shrugged and went to the village book shop to get the latest Icha Icha.