Prompt: Describe a group of children with a pinata. Is the pinata really filled with candy?
It was Naruto's sixth birthday and Kakashi found himself sitting in the grass devoid of his favorite novel, Minato and Kushina on his left and Itachi Uchiha on his right. In front of them, nine young children were running around the training field, causing a ruckus.
I hate children...
Glancing over at the Uchiha, he let out a small grunt. "What are you doing here?"
A sour look came over the Uchiha heir's face. "Mother sent me to watch Sasuke," he muttered, sounding every bit as petulant as any broody teenager.
Knowing that he wasn't going to get anything more interesting out of the stoic boy, he looked past the Uchiha. Rin was currently looking flustered, staring up at Jiraiya, who appeared to be flirting with the much younger woman. Kakashi couldn't help the scowl that came across his face as he watched those broad hands get a little too close to Rin for comfort.
"And why is he here?"
This time it was Minato who spoke, grinning widely. "Would a godfather miss his godson's birthday?" the infamous Yellow Flash replied. "Besides, he brought a surprise for the kids."
This in itself made Kakashi nervous. Jiraiya's surprises were usually not fit for children to see.
"Oh really..."
For once, though, Kushina didn't look disapproving of the mere mention of Jiraiya's name. After the "first-words incident" the two of them had never quite reconciled.
"It's quite cute actually," she told him brightly, pointing across the field at a vague colored thing hanging from a tree. "See?"
Kakashi stared at the unidentified object for a few long moments. "What is that?"
"A game Jiraiya picked up somewhere in his travels," Minato told him, shaking his head. "I was a bit sceptical at first, but apparently it's called a... pinata. Supposedly, you use a blunt object to beat it until it breaks open and there are gifts of some sort inside. At least, that's how Jiraiya explained it... I wasn't exactly... listening at the time..."
The poor man had probably been too busy placating his wife after being caught letting Jiraiya into the house in the first place.
"Sounds... interesting..." Okay, that was a lie, but what else was he supposed to say.
"Maybe we should give it a try!" Kushina stood, brushing off her clothes and flicking back her long, deep red hair.
"Alright everyone!" She clapped loudly, gaining the attention of the nine children in attendence. "Everyone come over to the pinata. We're going to be playing a fun new game!" At this, the kids cheered, obviously excited, barring the pouty Uchiha brat and the quiet Aburame kid.
Kakashi watched in boredom as Kushina explained the rules and handed her six-year-old son what appeared to be a wooden sword of some sort, directing him to hit the pinata with it as hard as he could. Without blinking, the copy-nin watched the yellow-haired child viciously slam the end of the sword into the fox-shaped thing three times before Kushina stopped him and forced the whining kid to pass the sword on to the next eager participant.
This went on for several long minutes. Being only six-year-olds or younger, the children didn't have much strength behind their swings. Ten long minutes of beating that poor pinata had done nothing but dent its skull.
"What is that thing made of, steel?" Minato muttered.
It was clear that the children, too, were getting fed up with waiting for their imminent rewards. Naruto, ever the impatient one, approached the adults, huge blue eyes wide and pleading. With great surprise, Kakashi felt the kid plop down in his lap.
"'Kashi-ojisan," the boy whined, "break the pinata."
Huh?
"But that's your job," he replied flatly. "It's not my pinata."
"But 'Kashi..."
A tap against his shoulder alerted him to Minato leaning close. "Just do it, Kakashi-kun (1)."
"But I--"
"That's an order, Hatake."
And, of course, no one disobeyed orders from the Honorable Fourth Hokage (2).
"Fine," he grouched, standing up and stretching his arms lazily overhead. "I'll break the stupid pinata then..."
"Yay!" Naruto jumped up and down, obviously excited by the prospect of "gifts" Jiraiya had promised.
Groaning softly under his breath, Kakashi grabbed his left arm in a strong grip. "Chidori..." A rush of chakra (3) flowed up his arm, coalescing in his palm in the form of what appeared to be blue lightning, crackling loudly as it branched out from his hand. The small children standing about him gasped in awe, their disproportionate eyes widening to a comical size.
"So cool..."
"Did you see that?"
Not wanting to be the circus freak-show for longer than necessary, Kakashi took one good look at the abused fox-like creature he was meant to obliterate, and pounced. The sound of cardboard being singed and one explosion of blue lightning later and there came a soft pitter-patter of items hitting the ground. The children screamed in delight, and Kakashi just stood there, staring.
All over the ground were colorful... things. They looked like shuriken (4), but there was no way those things were real shuriken. Kakashi blinked... once... twice... There was a soft thunk of something landing in his hair, followed by another.
Slowly, his hand reached up to grasp the "something" caught in his gravity-defying locks. It came loose, but at a cost, and the copy-nin winced when a small chunk of white hair was also pulled loose along with it.
"What," he asked, "Is this?"
Obviously oblivious to his displeasure at having sticky candy shuriken caught in his hair, Jiraiya spoke up. "Aren't they just adorable? They're rock-candy shuriken. The kids'll love 'em!"
Sacrilege... that's all he could think.
What was the world coming to?
"Look on the bright side," Minato said as the children finished scavenging the last few candies from the grass, "At least you didn't have to crawl around on the ground to catch your reward." The adults, still sitting under the tree far from the mess of excited children, shared some giggles and chuckles between them. At least the Uchiha heir remained silent, though even he was smirking in sadistic amusement.
Suddenly, Kakashi had the very childish urge to throw the pale green candy shuriken at his old sensei's (5) head.
I want a raise. Minato isn't paying me enough for this.
Note: more Naruto. My sister requested it.
(1) -kun - honorific usually used to address a younger male whom you have affection for
(2) Hokage - leader of the village
(3) chakra - the magical force that ninjas from Naruto use to perform their awesome ninja tricks
(4) shuriken - the four-pointed ninja stars, aka throwing-stars
(5) sensei - roughtly "teacher"
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