Mr Kishimoto the creator and owner of Naruto entered into the main building of his anime company; something was wrong with the episode currently being created. With a sigh Kishimoto entered, throwing the door to the main animation room wide to a scene of horror and chaos.
"What is going on here?" he asked, no one heard - their terror swelling to unknown levels. "What is going on here!" he called again, this time the frenzy stopped and a group of praying employees stopped and shuffled over to the creator.
"Sir, the characters are gone." the female hissed diving back into prayer after the fatal words had been said.
"Okay someone explain to me what exactly happened here." Kishimoto cried settling all of his workers, the artists flicked on the projector and began flicking through some of their major scenes from that days show... Empty scenes. Where a shinobi or nin was meant to be there was just another section of background.
"We got here this morning started work and well at about eight they just vanished... We haven't seen them since... They just got up and left..." screamed different designers.
"Hey, has anyone seen the Akatsuki members this morning?" asked another artist sticking his head in the doorway; everyone just shook their heads, while Kishimoto leaned back in the chair which was handed to him.
"Well this is a pickle." murmured the creator templing his fingers in thought, just as a very fearful knock came at the sliding door. Everyone threw their heads up, staring directly at one of the new Akatsuki artists - she was young and more afraid of Kishimoto than he would've liked. Slowly she stepped into the room and stopped before the genius, a sketch book clutched between the layers of her jackets.
"Mr Kishimoto..." she whispered out, he nodded in acknowledgment and raised his eyes to look at the girl. "I think there's something you should err.. see... Usually I um, draw backgrounds or put the boarders in, but um, I do a lot of onside sketching..." Everyone glanced down at the sketch book before returning their attention back to the girl. "Accidentally err, I left the book um, here overnight and... Um, well it's best if I show you..." She whispered again letting her red bangs fall over her eyes as she flipped the book open, and handed it to Kishimoto.
Everyone eagerly leaned in and stared over the creators shoulder, as he flipped through the many pages of sketches. Some showed different Akatsuki members laughing, playing, running; while there where the more intricate ones showing different scenes, forest and cities - each drawing was perfectly drawn but never finished, they just ended in black and white with ruff edges and crinkled eraser marks. Only one was completely finished, a little coffee shop/bakery with clean cream counters. Windows showed a small back alley, while the tables where dressed with checkered patterns and small daisy flowers.
"Wait I don't get it!" called out someone from the back of the now dispersing crowd. "Why is this one coloured?"
"It err... It isn't meant to be um, I never finished it... But um, that's not the point... Look behind the err, closed door..." once again everyone peered over Mr. Kishimoto's shoulder at the colorful picture bellow; and sure enough in the door way waiting for the shop to open at the respectable hour of nine in the morning was most of the missing nins.
Suddenly Kishimoto had a very devious idea - well he is the genius - taking hold of the girls arm he dragged her to a drawing bench and ripped open a pencil case.
"Draw me into the scene kid." nodding furiously the girl began to draw, sketching as well as she could under the pressure. At five minutes to nine she stopped scribbling and stepped away, letting Kishimoto took a look at the work she had done; the artist looked judgingly at the image of himself at a table, nothing was really wrong with it but no one ever said that was a great drawing, it meant that they where good artists - and that was truly impossible. Placing the picture on the projector everyone sat back and waited for something to happen... They didn't have to wait long...
Inside the Art...
The small clock on the wall struck nine, and the owner rushed out to unlock the door - completely missing the man sitting grumpily at a table watching her. The girl was only about early twenties, full of life and color; her hair was a radiating brown that had spent way too much time in the sun. She wore a plain white T-shirt with a pink mini, covering this was a white apron - smudged with ingredients and icing. Her eyes where a sky blue and her cheeks where smudged with flour, while her lips glowed powder pink - she was, undeniably, cute.
"Good morning." she chimed flinging the door open with a cheery smile. At the head of the crowd stood the Akatsuki, yet none of them wore the accustomed robes of black and cloud. Pain stood forward and literally threw the girl up into his arms, and for the first time that Kishimoto had ever seen he grinned from ear to ear. The blue haired Konan stepped forward and coughed lightly, indicating towards Kishimoto who was sitting at his table aghast. "Oh sorry sir, I didn't know you where waiting... Pain..." The evil little man just shook his head and held onto the girl tightly, with a sigh the brunette slipped out of the grip and clasped his hand into Konana's.
"But..."
"No, now silence... Sir what would you like?" the girl asked cheerily pulling a notepad from the pocket of her apron. Kishimoto just blinked and began laughing, a little concerned the girl backed up a bit still smiling worriedly.
"I'm so sorry but I don't know who you are." The girl just smiled once again and gave a small laugh.
"So sorry, my name is Holly... And you are sir?" she tilted her head to the side and Kishimoto just sighed, leaning back in his chair.
"Mr. Kishimoto." The entire room went dead silent, the feeling that people where watching him made Kishimoto look up. Yes people where watching him, everyone was just staring. Jiraya stood up and walked over to the man leaning heavily on the table.
"What do you mean, you're Mr. Kishimoto." The old pervert growled, a simultaneous nod swept through the pissed off nins.
"I mean I am Mr. Kishimoto, creator of the Naruto manga and director of the anime." something was definitely off in this coffee house. With a laugh Naruto stepped up next to his teacher and crossed his arms, staring down at the confused old man.
"What he means is what are YOU doing HERE?" with a shrug Kishimoto stood up and placed a hand on the blondes shoulder, leaning in just that little bit more.
"I am here, because you aren't there." everyone stared.
"You mean you want us to go back to attacking each other, screaming threats... Go back to where the good guys always win, no matter how hard we try... Where we don't get to have relationships or breaks... Where we're forced to be the evil ones, even if we don't wanna..." Itachi and Sasuke shared the statement letting it sink in.
"Oh come on! So this is why you aren't at work. You wanted a break!" the old man cried, a nod swept through the shop.
"Well you and your f***ing writers always get a f***ing break. So why do we f***ing don't. We do all the f***ing work you m*****f***er!" cried Hidan using his greatest vocabulary asset.
"Because you're all a cartoon. Just a figment of my imagination. You are nothing without the Naruto story." ground out the old man, Holly came back in her usually cheerful face a mask of struggling emotions.
"Guys he's right... This is just a drawing after all, none of us are real. This coffee shop isn't, it's just a sketch done by some girl that we took over. I'm not really here either, you guys drew me. We just have to accept the facts and go back to what you've always done. Trying to create an entertaining story for thousands of people." With a sigh and a groan the nins that had happily placed themselves into the coffee shop left in single lines.
"Thanks..." Kishimoto murmured turning to Holly, who was staring after her final customers.
"Don't thank me, I was happy to let them stay here. This place was created by the girl and she wanted them to leave, I just obeyed my orders." With a sigh Holly began clearing up all the tables, and Kishimoto returned to his job...
Back to the real world...
"Hey that was strange." murmured Kishimoto looking away from the picture. Everyone else did the same thing leaving just its creator staring sadly down at it. "I guess even cartoon characters need a break." A low hum sounded and the missing nins of Naruto finally returned to their rightful places in that days anime/mange. And things just returned to normal, everyone had a job to do - but Kishimoto was still pondering things, the main one was how his little animated characters had discovered Holly's coffee shop in the first place without leaving their areas.
After running through the days episode to check for any mistakes, Kishimoto spotted a small poster hanging on one of the telegraph poles. It read:
Holly's Coffee and Cakes - come to escape the unescapable.
He then remembered what the girl had said to him, she drew borders and backgrounds; the shop had been added to draw no ones attention, but the characters still noticed it... Hhmmnn, well at least they had returned, otherwise they'd be in a little bit of a pickle.