"Got any threes?"
"Go fish."
Sora was playing cards with his "brothers" Ventus and Roxas along with his good friend Anne, who always comes along with them on their adventures. While they played cards, the others piloted the Gummi Ship and looked out the windows incase anything came their way.
The familiar beeping of the monitor broke the silence.
"Guys! A world's shown up on the monitor!", Riku said.
Sora, Ven, Roxas, and Anne darted up, scattering the cards all over the floor, and darted over to the monitor.
"Which world is it?", asked Sora.
"It's the Land of Fire," said Riku.
"Let's go there! It's been forever since we last saw Naruto!", Sora said with an excited tone in his voice.
"Your wish is my command. Hold on, everybody!", Donald shouted as he flew the ship towards the world of ninjas.
Meanwhile...
Kotetsu was standing by the gate with his best friend Izumo.
"Man, I feel bad for Naruto...", Kotetsu muttered. He looked up and saw a familiar group of people walking towards the village gate.
"Hey, is that...?", asked Izumo.
"Hey guys!", Sora said as they reached the gate.
"Well, look at this! It's Sora and his friends!", said Kotetsu. "Looks like you didn't land in a dogpile again this time."
"Ha ha, very funny. So how's it going here?", asked Riku.
"Pretty good," said Izumo.
"You know where Naruto is?", asked Sora.
"He's probably eating ramen or at his house. Say hi to him for us, OK?", Kotetsu asked as they walked into the village.
"Will do," said Terra.
Several minutes later...
After walking around the village for a while, the gang stopped and sat on a few benches.
"Well, no sign of Naruto," Anne said as she placed her hands behind her head.
"Usually, he'd be running around the village or eating ramen," said Sora.
"Sora?"
He looked up to find a familiar friend with red hair hidden under a blue bandana in front of them.
"Amaru!", Sora said with a smile.
"Hi guys," she said. "Never thought I'd run into you today."
"Have you seen Naruto anywhere?", asked Ventus.
"Yeah, he's at the library," said Amaru. "Library? Never thought Naruto was the book type," Vanitas said.
"Well, he's there for a reason," Amaru explained.
"Why?", asked Sora.
"He's helping decoding a code that Jiraiya wrote before he died."
"Jiraiya... wasn't he the guy that saved us after we destroyed that floating fortress?", asked Sora. Amaru nodded.
"Hold on, did you say he's dead?", asked Ven.
"Yeah... he was killed by someone called Pain. Ever since Naruto found out, he's been down in the dumps and is determined to avenge Jiraiya."
After hearing Naruto's story, Sora softly growled before he jumped off the bench.
"What're you doing?", Anne asked as Sora stepped forward.
"I'm gonna help Naruto figure out that code. Jiraiya saved me and Naruto, and I owe him," said Sora. "Now let's get to that library!"
He then started to walk away from the group.
A moment later, he turned around and asked, "Where's the library again?"
Everyone face-faulted.
...
Several minutes later, they had reached the library. They were able to find the orange wearing genin in mere seconds.
"Naruto!", Sora greeted. Naruto's head perked up at his name. The sad look on his face vanished and was replaced by his trademark grin.
"Hey Sora!", the blonde ninja said.
A familiar lazy ninja sighed.
"Naruto, quiet! We're in a library," he scolded before turning to the gang and smiled slightly. "Hey guys, never expected for you to show up today," Shikamaru said.
"That's what I said," Amaru said.
"So... what're you guys doing here?", asked Ventus.
"Well, we're trying to figure out what this means," a girl with light blonde hair with some strands sticking out said as she showed them a picture of a toad with numbers that looked like they were burned into it's back.
"Is this the code you were talking about, Amaru?", asked Riku.
The girl nodded. Naruto took the picture and looked at it closely.
"Huh? Why is there a 'ta' on this?", he asked.
"Where?", asked Shikamaru.
"Here," he said as he showed them the picture and pointed at a 9.
"That's not a 'ta', Naruto," said Shikamaru.
"Yeah it is," the blonde insisted.
"Are you sure it is?", asked Amaru.
"Yeah. You see, when I was traveling with Pervy Sage, he would make me read his rough drafts on his dumb book. While I was reading this sentence, I saw a 'ta' in it, but I thought it was the number nine," he explained.
"Jiraiya must have had a penmanship quirk," said Shikamaru.
"I've heard of those," said Riku.
Shikamaru grabbed a sheet of paper and a pencil before he drew a 'ta' on it.
"Whenever he wrote a 'ta', he must have used shorter strokes and always made a curve," he said as he erased the lines and made it look like the number nine.
"Hmm... Naruto, what was the name of the book this Jiraiya made you read?", asked Aqua.
"Uh... what was it? I know that the first part of the title is Make-Out," said Naruto.
"I believe this is what you're looking for."
They all turned around and found Kakashi Hatake standing outside the window with a blue book in it. Naruto and Shikamaru recognized it immediately.
"Make-Out Tactics!", he exclaimed. Everyone looked closer and saw the katakana on the cover.
"TA!", they shouted.
"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation," Kakashi said.
"You think he hid the clue in the book?", asked Roxas.
"Maybe," said the blonde haired girl. She looked at the photo. "I think the numbers represent page numbers. Kakashi, can you flip to page 31 for us?"
"Sure, Shiho," he said as he flipped to said page. "Now, please read the first sentence out loud," Shiho said as she grabbed a pencil and a sheet of paper.
"What?", Kakashi asked with a blush before he looked down at his book. His vision started to go a little blurry.
"Well, what're you waiting for? Read it!", said Sora.
"I... uh...", the jonin stuttered as his entire face went red and started sweating bullets.
"COME ON! Spit it out already!", Naruto shouted with an annoyed look.
"'R-R-Really I... l-love you...'"
...
A few minutes later, he had finally finished and by the time he finished reading, Kakashi had steam literally coming off of him. Riku, Roxas, Anne, Amaru, Terra, Aqua, Kairi, Shikamaru, Ventus, and Lea had an 'Are you kidding me?' look on their faces while Vanitas had a nosebleed and perverted smile.
Shiho didn't seemed bothered at all as she finished writing on the paper.
"There we go!", she said cheerfully. "Now, if I circle the first words in each sentence, we should get the answer to the code."
She began circling the first words in the sentences.
"The... real... one... is... not... among... them...", she said as she read it.
"'The real one's not among them'? What does that mean?", asked Goofy. "I don't know. Lady Hokage must know about this right away," Shikamaru said as he took the paper and photo.
"Naruto, come with us," he said.
"Whoa, hold on! What about us?!", asked Sora.
"You can come if you want to," said the lazy ninja.
"Mmm... I think I'll pass," said Vanitas.
"Yeah, me too. I'm starved," said Anne.
"Well, I'm going," said Sora. Riku nodded. "Me too," he said.
Kairi, Ventus, Lea, Roxas, Goofy, Donald, Namine, Terra, and Aqua nodded in agreement.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I got a date with an awesome book!", Vanitas said as he started to climb out the window.
Kakashi chuckled. "Sorry, but the Make-Out series is only for people 18 and up," he said with an eye smile.
"DANG IT!"
Everyone snickered. Naruto then leaned over to Anne and said, "Hey, I recommend going to Ichiraku. I know a guy at that place makes the best ramen!"
Anne grinned. "OK!", she exclaimed.
"I guess I'll go with her," Xion said as she followed Anne to the window.
"We'll come and get you if Tsunade wants all of us there," said Aqua. Xion nodded. "Gotcha," the raven haired girl said as she, Vanitas, and Anne climbed out the window. Naruto's group turned around and walked out of the library.
"So, what're you gonna do now?", asked Xion.
"Well, since I can't read that Make-Out book, I think I'll just wander around," Vanitas said as he walked away from the two girls.
"Just don't get into trouble!", Anne shouted.
"Yeah, yeah," Vanitas muttered.
Later, the girls had found the ramen stand. An old man greeted them with a smile.
"Hi there! You must be Naruto's friends," he said happily.
Xion smiled. "Yeah. You must be who Naruto was telling us about." The old man grinned. "Call me Teuchi. So what'll it be?", he asked.
"I'll have chicken flavored ramen," Anne said as she sat down.
"I think I'll have miso ramen," said Xion.
"Coming right up!", said Teuchi.
Three minutes later, the two girls were happily eating their food.
"MMM! This is so good! Naruto wasn't joking when he said you made the best ramen!", Anne said. Teuchi smiled at the compliment.
Suddenly, a loud shout filled the air. Xion nearly choked on her ramen in surprise. "What the?", Anne asked as she lifted up the cloth that was the sign and looked out into the street.
Vanitas was rapidly running away from something leaving behind a huge dust cloud. When he saw the two girls, he skidded to a halt and looked at them with a panicked expression.
"You guys gotta help me!", he panted.
"What did you do now?", asked Xion.
"I was hungry, and I found this table with dango on it. I thought that they were free samples, so I took a few. Turns out, they belonged to this crazy ninja lady!", Vanitas explained.
Anne chuckled. "Well, we told you not to get into trouble," she said as she crossed her arms and smirked.
"Come on guys, help me out here!", he pleaded.
The girls smiled before they turned back to the table and kept eating their ramen. Anne said, "Sorry Vani, but you're on your own this time."
The raven haired boy gasped. "YOU TRAITORS! I HATE YOU!", Vanitas yelled as he pointed comically at them with a comical angry face.
Xion grinned. "Love ya too."
"THERE YOU ARE!"
Vanitas looked to his left and saw a woman with purple hair tied into a ponytail wearing a tan trench coat over a mesh shirt and orange skirt standing fifty feet away from him.
"Oh sh**!", Vanitas yelled as he dashed away with the woman hot on his tail.
"GET BACK HERE! YOU'LL PAY FOR EATING MY DANGO! STRIKING SHADOW SNAKE!", the woman yelled as snakes extended out of her sleeves.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"