It was probably one of the worst missions we've ever done. Having to be bodyguards for an eight-year old brat with an attitude problem and traveling for a week was enough after having to save his ass for the second time. We were pretty much fed up. We, as in Team 11, of the Leaf Village: Rynn (or as we call her Rynny) Kuragari, Risu Yamanaka, and myself, Ryume Kazemizu. On our way to drop off the brat and his annoying collection of birds (why he had twenty-six cages of birds, we had no idea), we had to yet again, give the brat an hourly dose of his sweets. And by sweets, I mean sweets as in chocolate and candy. He claimed he got cranky if he didn't get them on an hourly bases.

"Cranky my ass!" Rynny said angrily, "His damn attitude is ticking me off! I'm just about ready to-" she flashed her kunai and I snatched it away from her before she could try anything.

"Sorry, Rynn, not today. Maybe-hopefully-another time soon." I said to her, patting her head. The reason her nickname was Rynny was for Rynny Kitty… Don't ask why.

"I agree with Rynny though," Risu said. She shook her head, her medium lengthened blonde hair swaying a bit. "This kid brings a whole new meaning to cranky and obnoxious."

I sighed because I agreed with her, and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it except walk faster to the brat's home. By home, I meant a pretty big temple where his father was top guy there. I wasn't that interested when he was explaining who he was and how important his son and himself were. And if I couldn't take it, I know Risu and (especially) Rynn couldn't take it. It just didn't work that way… Maybe that's why the old geezer stopped talking suddenly and shook his head before we left… Hehe, woops.

So we finally reached the kid's home and dropped him off to his father while we unloaded the annoying birds in their cages. They were pretty with the colors of neon yellow, green, pink, and blue. Some even looked like miniature-sized parrots or something. No matter how annoying they were, they were pretty cool looking.

Walking back and forth dropping off the birds in a windowless room with Rynn complaining the whole time, we managed to get them all inside the room without actually throwing one of the cages off of a cliff. I breathed in deeply and let out a nice long exhale through my mouth. Risu joined me in a sigh as well and we watched Rynn poke at a cage with a stick. It was highly amusing and we couldn't help but laugh.

Then the stick touched one of the pretty neon yellow and white colored birds and it let out a loud, high-pitched sound. We all covered our ears at the intensity of the sound. It was freaking loud! The rest of the birds joined in on the sound with their high-pitched squealing and we all rushed to grab the blankets to cover the cages. A headache was already occurring in my head as I kept getting closer and closer to the birds. The winged beasts were flying around everywhere in their cages, squealing and threatening to knock over their cages.

I yelled for my Risu and Rynn to help me with the biggest cage and we each took a corner and pulled it over the cage. The biggest bird in the cage saw us coming and I saw it fly towards the cage bars and hit it as hard as its little body could. The light cage staggered and fell to the floor with the birds screeching on the inside. We covered the cage with the blanket on the floor and the squealing ceased, but not the ridiculous screeching. With the blanket still on the cage, we put the cage upright with Rynn cursing the birds to hell under her breath and myself frowning and muttering under my breath. See, I'm a mature little girl.

Once the cage was up, we all sighed at the same exact time and hung our heads. Our little moments of exact sync; happens a lot.

I glanced at the cage and bit my lip. "Maybe we should check on them. The kid's dad did say something about the birds here being fragile and ancient or something."

Risu sighed again and Rynn groaned. "Do we have to?" Risu moaned.

"It's their fault they fell over!" Rynn said.

"Yeah, but they're birds and they don't understand that." I replied smartly.

"Exactly! So how is it our problem?" Rynn replied just as smartly…only a bit smarter. She was pretty good at that.

I looked over at Risu for help but she just shrugged. Great. "Fine. Just at least check on them to clear my conscious, alright?"

"Oh boy, we all know how yer conscious is." Rynn said. I couldn't help but smile at that one. It was sadly too true.

With the three of us side by side with me in the middle, I lifted up the blanket for all of us to see inside and we peered in. It was like a horror movie:

All the birds in the cage suddenly went silent and they all turned their heads towards us, staring. I felt everyone's jaw drop, including mine and we gaped dumbly at the birds that continued to stare at us, not blinking.

"Don't make any sudden movements…" Risu muttered from the corner of her mouth.

And on cue, the birds all pointed their behinds at us and farted in our faces.

We all staggered back and coughed, trying to get air. We went on our knees and hacked up whatever we breathed in and the birds acted as if nothing happened. The headaches came back and I swore at the birds before I walked out of the room with my teammates following suit. The three of us slammed the door together in unison and we all stomped off to go report to the brat's father.

--

It took a while, but the guy finally shut up and we got a move on back to the Leaf village. We were offered to stay the night because of the long travel distance, but we wanted awaaaay from there. No more brats, no more over-confident, bragging fathers, and definitely no more farting birds! Team 11 was ready to head back home, even if it meant sleeping outside for the night.

So a few hours later, when the moon was up high in the sky and it was pitch black, we decided to make camp and settle down for the night. I leaned my back against a tree trunk and got myself comfortable while watching my best friends do the same. Risu lied down on her back, using her traveling bag as a pillow, and Rynn curled up in a ball next to me, doing the same for a pillow. It didn't take long for us to fall asleep…

--

We never thought the mission would get worse, but it did. Risu was usually the early bird and the clumsiest whenever she woke up. I heard her mumble and stumble around trying to go through her bag. Then I heard a yelp. Uhh… Risu didn't yelp. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the ground in front of me. Was I sleeping on my stomach? I jumped up and sat up straighter. Strange. I seemed to still be much to close to the ground. Looking around to find Risu, I spotted, instead, a light colored dog of some sort stumbling around her traveling bag, trying to get inside, without any progress. I tried to lift my eyebrows at the sight but found I didn't have much control of them.

The strange dog shook itself off and turned its head towards me. A shocked expression came over its face and it started to growl at me. What did I do? I tried to tell it to calm down but it ended up being a strange growling noise. The dog stopped growling and looked at me better…

"What the crap is going on?" The dog suddenly said. I yipped slightly and looked down at myself. I was a dog! I had brown fur with black paws, underbelly, and tail, and big ears. Good god.

"I'm guessing that's you, Risu?" I asked, and sat down on my behind with my tail swishing behind me.

The dog Risu sighed and nodded. "This is probably exactly what happened to Hikuro, Itazura, and Kinaga, huh?"

I nodded and looked over at the black cat beside me, aka, Rynn. She squirmed in her sleep and I went over to her. I let out a loud bark in her ear and she squeaked, jumping a couple feet into the air. A little overboard on the wake-up call, but it was effective.

"Rynn… Rynn, listen! Stop running around; it's us! We got turned into-"I sighed and watched Rynn curse and run and panic. Great. Best friend doesn't know what's going on.

I motioned to Risu and she immediately understood. We stood in front of Rynn and at the same time tackled her to the ground with her meowing in protest. "Rynn! Rynny! Come on, buddy, it's us!" Risu said.

The kitty Rynny looked up at us and shook its head. "It happened to us too, didn't it? And I'm a cat…" She sighed and we all joined in unison.

Panic just wasn't worth with what was going on (wow, lots of 'w's). Before, our other best friends, (which consisted of Itazura Yagami, Kinaga Kensei, and Hikuro Atsukai) from Team 12, had returned home from a mission as animals. A fennec fox, a panda fox(?), and a mutt, respectively. Apparently they had gotten attacked by unknown ninja and came to us with puppy eyes and wagging tails. They got the attention and cuddles they wanted, but thanks to Kinaga's quick thinking, we found out who they really were and sent them to Tsunade. The scene was… awkward once the smoke was beginning to clear from the transformation… I mean, I know animals don't wear clothes, but really now?

So the only thought that went through our heads as we continued our walk towards the Leaf Village was 'great'.

It took us just a bit longer but we made it to the village. Risu, Rynny, and I stopped to the side and we again all sighed at the same time. It was Rynn who came up with the oh-so-brilliant idea.

"I say we do exactly what the guys did with us! Let's trick 'em into thinking we're just another pet wanting attention and warm milk." She grinned evilly and the kitten face helped quite well. I managed to blink a bit worriedly as I watched her eyes grow sinister and her claws stick out. Damn. She was liking her idea.

"Well," I interrupted their thoughts, "Wouldn't they know it's us since they've done it to us before?"

The three of us thought for a moment. "Will they either remember and take action? Or will they just be as clueless as we were and take us in?"

"Well… We're gonna have to go to someone. Right? We can't exactly do anything right now except dig out of the trashcans for food."

"Oh, hell no!" Rynn exclaimed. "No way am I getting my paws dirty! Have you seen this beautiful coat? It's so shiny!"

Risu and I rolled eyes as best we can. "Why not just go back to Tsunade? She did it before with the guys." Risu suggested.

"Yeah, sure. I just wasn't some food, I'm starving!" Rynn said and lied down on her side, stretching her legs.

"Uhm." I said in a mellow voice.

"Uh-oh." Risu said. She knew. "'Uhm' doesn't sound good."

"It better be good news, Ryume-Chan." Rynny Kitty said, licking her paws.

"Tsunade isn't here… Kasaigaru said she took him and Taiyou with her somewhere. Mission or meeting or something…"
"Oh, right." Risu said, remembering. "What about Raijuu?"

Me and Rynn looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same time. "Raijuu, really?? No, no, no, no." I laughed and kept shaking my head at the thought.

"Dude, she'd probably eat us before listening to us." Rynn said. Raijuu was Rynny's summoning. She was a fox, ferret, cat, demon…thing. No one knew what she was exactly but she's black and purple, loves to eat, and gets annoyed pretty easily. She's not exactly easy to get along with either… oh well.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Risu sat down sadly and her doggy ears went down.

"I guess the only thing we have left is to go to the boys…" I muttered.

A small silence fell between the three of us with ourselves in our own thoughts. Did I say they were our best friends? Silly me, I meant they were our best friends and crushes. Kinaga was Naruto's enemy and they both fought for Risu. Kinaga was more of a 'gentle giant', if you will. He's a pretty peaceful guy, just don't fucking mess with him. For Rynny, Itazura is the total opposite for her. He's the silent type, but when he says something, it's for a reason and it's either smart, or hilarious. Itazura's trying to make a peace treaty with Kiba (for the Leaf Village) to worry about crushing on Rynn. That also excludes Kabuto, who Rynn also has a major crush on. Not a very pretty scene… Okay, I take that back, it's hilarious. Rynny's not the type to get embarrassed easily, but we've found a couple ways to make her turn red. And as for myself, I had Hikuro. Another opposite, the trouble making kid who you do not want to piss off. Actually, you don't want to tick off any one of these guys. They each do something different. Kinaga would beat you to a bloody pulp; Itazura would probably do slow torture on you and walk away while it was happening; and Hikuro would just flat-out kill you with anything in sight.

Our thoughts were interrupted as we heard the oh-so familiar voices of, who else? Our little lover boys.

"They were supposed to be here this morning, they're never late." Hikuro said with his hands behind his head, relaxed. His long dark brown stringy bangs in his face, and his long tan jacket moved whenever he did.

"Yeah, but if something happened, they can handle it. They're tough girls." This from the positive, peace making, Kinaga. His light brown hair was always neat and tidy, and his brown eyes always sparkling with life.

"I agree." Itazura said. His boring green eyes lazily, yet accurately, scanned the village, looking for us. His black and red-streaked hair was the weakness for any girl to go after him.

Hikuro sighed but gave in. He obviously didn't want to keep arguing with his buds.

I looked back at my pals and we all tried our best to grin, almost successfully. We all scampered out of our little hideout and into the scorching sun. God it was friggin hot! I ran after the guys with Risu and Rynn beside me. We reached them and calmly followed behind them at their pace.

Looking over at Rynny and Risu, I asked, "Should we go to them now, or later? Surprise or possible automatic notice?"

We walked out of a shadow and the sun hit us, making us pant. We all said at the same time "Now."

Rynny went first and jumped up onto Itazura's shoulder. He jumped slightly and looked at Rynny with her whiskers tickling his nose. He grabbed her and held her out in front of him. He raised one eyebrow. "Cute." He said… then he blushed! Oh the humor! Oh the jokes and torture for him in the future!

While that was happening, Risu bounded up in front of Kinaga and sat down in front of him. He didn't seem to notice and kept walking… then he tripped over poor Risu. I mentally face palmed. He groaned quietly and looked behind him over his shoulder at a doggy Risu who was trapped under his legs. "Oops… Sorry there, little guy."
Little guy? Hah! Oh wow! Now it was my turn. I stopped next to Hikuro who was looking at his friends, eyebrow raised, and head tilted to the left a bit. His expression when he was confused. I went on my hind legs and put my front paws on his hip. He looked down at me and just stared. Will he notice me?

He bent down in front of me and patted my head. "Hey there, dude. Need something."
He doesn't know. Moron. And he called me a dude. I tried to look as annoyed as I could with my new enlarged nose. It didn't work, so instead, I did what the first thing that came to my mind, I licked his face. Startled, he fell backwards on his behind and wiped his face with his sleeve. "What was that for?"

Ugh. My best friend who was in love with me, didn't have a clue how a dog shows its emotions. I'll remember that next time Sasuke calls him an idiot. Oh geez, don't get me started on Sasuke and our little love triangle. Simply put, Sasuke and Hikuro liked me, I liked Sasuke and Hikuro, and Sasuke and Hikuro hated each other. They've tried killing each other a couple times, actually. Luckily I keep getting in the way. Go me.

I watched Hikuro look behind him and watch Itazura and Kinaga examine their new pets. Itazura, of course, noticed first. "Ironic how Rynny is a kitty."

Hikuro made a sound of trying not to laugh. "Did you just say Rynny?"

"Yeah, why?" Itazura said calmly, but his death glare at Hikuro stopped Hikuro short and slink away. Itazura was quite good at scaring people with his glare. But he was also great at keeping calm at the most outrageous situations. He was good.

"Oh no." Kinaga said and looked back at doggy Risu. "Don't tell me…"

"What?" Hikuro said, obviously not getting it. I couldn't stand it. I growled at him and bit his arm.

Everyone stared at Hikuro and me. Hikuro looked down at me, then at Itazura and Kinaga, then back at me. His amazing brown eyes that I always fell for stared at my green eyes and it clicked somewhere in that small brain of his. He exploded and jumped in the air, holding me, forcing me to let go of his arm and yelp in surprise. "Holy shit is this Rynn, Risu and Rynn!?"

Itazura and Kinaga face palmed and shook their heads. Well at least the whole team wasn't a complete failure… Just one person. Hikuro grinned my favorite grin and rubbed his nose with mine. I felt bubby inside and waited for my face to get hot like it usually did. But instead of blushing, my tail started to wag and I tried to stop. It didn't work… Blushing and tail wagging equals something you cannot control not doing. Bummer.

Hikuro laughed and held me against him. "Wonder what happened to them. Same thing?"

Risu's dog head shook left and right, obviously saying no. "No, guess not." Kinaga said. "Wonder what did happen."

"And Tsunade-Sama isn't here to bring them back. She won't be back until a couple days." Itazura said.

I felt my ears go down and my tail wagging stop. Hikuro noticed and cuddled me closer, wrapping all of his arms around me. Crap, he's done it again. My tail wagged again. He grinned at my reaction and Kinaga shook his head, chuckling, Itazura just smiled and shook his head. "Only you, Hikuro."

Risu barked and whined, looking up at Kinaga.

"We're friggin roasting out here! Give me a bath or some water!" She barked. Unfortunately, they didn't understand a bark we said…or… meow. Sorry Rynn.

"I think they're hot. It's in the nineties today and we don't have fur." Itazura pointed out. Sheesh, Rynny's lucky she has someone smart to take care of her. Okay that was a bit mean…

"Yeah, looks that way." Kinaga agreed.

"Well," Hikuro said, "See ya guys later. I'm taking Ryume home with me." He walked away and waved over his shoulder.

I heard the snickering of Kinaga and Itazura as we walked away… Oh boy.