It's May 5, which means it's once again the birthday of a few Jump characters. This time around there'll be two new additions to the group since the last time.

-:-

The blonde girl looked on in disturbed fascination as she watched one Straw Hat Luffy argue with a fat balding man dressed in black robes over who could eat more meat. She turned to the others for answers.

"Please tell me they're not arguing over meat of all things," demanded the Duel Queen.

Hijikata took a drag of his cigarette before answering. "You don't know Luffy all that well, do you, Asuka-san?"

"If I did I wouldn't be asking now, would I?" replied Asuka with a raised brow and crossing her arms under her large bust. "And who exactly is the other man?"

"Oh, that's Omaeda Marechiyo," answered Gon. "He's a Soul Reaper and the fukutaicho of the Second Division. That makes him a ninja according Naruto."

"Psh, he doesn't look like much of a ninja. I should know, I'm a ninja myself, un!" replied Deidara as he looked over towards Omaeda and wondered how someone like him made it to such a high rank.

"All the meat is mine! My meat!" exclaimed Luffy as he glared at Omaeda.

"Oi! You can't hog all of the meat for yourself!" exclaimed the fukutaicho. "Besides, I bet I could eat more than you could!"

"Nuh uh!"

The two meat lovers continued to argue, which was getting on the nerves of a certain skylark. Said Skylark gave the two his nastiest glare before he decided to shut them up.

"Keep quiet or I'll bite you two to death," came the usual threat from Hibari.

Unsurprisingly, Omaeda was quivering in fear from Hibari's glare. 'He might be scarier than Taicho!'

Luffy on the other hand just pouted at Hibari. "You're no fun, Skylark."

Hibari really wanted to kill Luffy. How he hated that monkey. Before he could though, Hijikata cut in.

"Oi, Luffy. In case you haven't noticed, we have another person aside from Omaeda-san who will joining us," stated the Shinsengumi member as he thumbed towards Asuka.

With Luffy's attention now on Asuka, the blonde was surprised when Luffy appeared right in front of her with a monkey-like grin. She had to step back due to the sudden closeness.

"Hi! I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'm going to be King of the Pirates! What's your name?"

"Ano, Tenjouin Asuka…"

"Shishishishi, hi Asuka! You should join my crew!"

Asuka gave Luffy a blank look while the others had various reactions; Deidara and Hijikata let out sighs of annoyance, Hibari still looked like he wanted to kill something, Gon was trying to hold in his laughter, and Omaeda was confused.

"Wait, what?" questioned Asuka.

"Damn it, Luffy! You need to stop telling people to join your crew, un! You don't even know what she can do, un!"

Another pout was on Luffy's face as Deidara yelled at him. Of course it didn't last long as Luffy soon had a grin on his face and wanted to see some of Deidara's explosive art. This also had Gon wanting to see it as well.

As Deidara took the two over by the nearby pond to show off his art, Asuka turned to Hijikata.

"What's with that Luffy guy?"

"…He can be very friendly at times when it comes to new people. I don't even think he knows Deidara is from an evil organization because he likes the explosions Deidara can make," replied Hijikata as he glanced over at the three idiots.

"Wait, what?"

KABOOM!

Cheers came from the pond as Luffy and Gon watched as the water shot up into the air. Deidara had a cocky smirk on his face, proud that his art was appreciated like it should be. With the others, Asuka and Omaeda stared wide-eyed, unsure what to make of this.

"Are you crazy?!" exclaimed Omaeda, turning to Hijikata. "How the hell are we supposed to trust that guy if he's constantly causing explosions?!"

The Shinsengumi member gave of a shrug. "Some guy by the name of Itachi apparently made a deal with Deidara for him to be on his best behavior or something. He seemed pretty trustworthy to me."

Hijikata, Asuka, and Omaeda then watched as an enraged Hibari was chasing after a laughing Luffy, Gon, and Deidara, as the water that shot up from the explosion inadvertently landed on the skylark, soaking him from head to toe.

"What about this Hibari guy?" questioned Asuka with a wary look. "He actually looks more dangerous than Deidara, given his attitude."

"He reminds me a lot of Soifon-taicho," added Omaeda with a shudder. "She can get really scary when she gets mad…which is often."

Another drag from the cigarette was taken. "I wouldn't worry too much. Luffy is usually the target of Hibari's anger."

"And how does that help anything!?" demanded the Ice Duelist as she glared at Hijikata.

"Gum Gum Rocket!"

As if to answer Asuka's inquiry, Luffy suddenly rocketed towards them like a giant rubber band. Of course this was mainly because that's basically what he was. When he landed, he still had that monkey-like grin on his face. Asuka and Omaeda stood there wide-eyed once again.

With a smirk on his face, Hijikata explained. "He has the powers of something called the Gum Gum Fruit. More or less turns him into a rubber man."

"Shishishishi! Yup!" confirmed Luffy as he stretched out his cheek.

"Because he's made of rubber, anything Hibari does to him is pointless," said Hijikata. He then turned to the others as they came closer. "Alright you lot, enough horsing around. Let's just get this day over with."

With that the small group, with some convincing from Luffy, went to have lunch at a nearby restaurant where Luffy and Omaeda, much to Asuka's disgust and the pain of Hijikata's wallet, cleaned out the place of any barbeque they had.

Once done, they then went their separate ways and headed home.

When Hibari, Hijikata, and Deidara reached their respective homes they each went after and tried to harm Dino, Okita, and Itachi respectively. Of course Dino and Itachi were able to beat Hibari and Deidara before they could do any real damage, whereas Okita was able to outrun his superior.

Luffy and Gon celebrated their birthday even further with their respective "families" once they returned to their home worlds.

When Omaeda returned to the Soul Society, he was surprised that his fellow fukutaicho had thrown him a surprise party, all planned out by Hisagi Shuhei. He honestly didn't think they would do something like that for him, but was happy that they did.

Lastly, when Asuka returned to Duel Academy and her dorm room she found two small gifts sitting on her desk, along with a note. Opening the gifts first, the smaller gift was a special card that would work really well with her deck. The second gift was a cupcake with red and blue frosting. Reading the note that came with the gifts, she found that both gifts were from Judai and that he wished her a happy birthday. A slight blush came to her cheeks, as she was touched that he remembered.

It was a happy birthday for all…except for Hibari of course.

FIN

-:-

Happy birthday to Monkey D. Luffy, Deidara, Omaeda Marechiyo, Gon Freecs, Hibari Kyoya, Hijikata Toushirou, and Tenjouin Asuka.