Two things, my wonderful readers…
1) I hope this chapter is up to par with your expectations
and 2)… I apologize for the missing two-thousand words that should be in the body of this chapter. I just wanted to end it and get it posted ASAP, and it seemed like a good place to stop.

ON WITH THE FANFIC!!!

Chapter 2:
A Subtle Omen, and there's a pig in the ramen shop

"My lord, Orochimaru, why do you not trust me with this assignment?" the pale, sickly looking boy asked, bowing in front of the dark haired man standing at the gigantic window looking down on the streets, 50 stories below. The Oto-nin Sound Company Tower was an imposing sight, located in the busiest part of downtown Konoha.

"Because, Kimimaro, you are too weak, too old, too obsolete. You were stolen technology to begin with, and now I have something else to steal. My resources tell me that the Akatsuki have already come out with some better toys to play with, and I plan to make them mine." Orochimaru said wickedly, staring down at the crowded streets below. He was already forming plans in his head about what he would do with this new project. The mole he had slipped into the Akatsuki Corp. had reported nothing new since last month, and Orochimaru did not yet know of the escape incident.

"I am also beginning to wonder if the other four are worth keeping around too…" he trailed off, turning around towards his extensive desk. There was a symbol flashing at the bottom of his flat-screen monitor. Ignoring the boy, who was still bowing, he sat down and opened the e-mail, already knowing who the missive was from. The spy had taken too long to report!

Orochimaru sat quietly, reading his screen. Kimimaro, lifting his head a little so he could see, watched as the snake-like man's eyes flickered back and forth across the display. He could see a sudden change in the dark haired man's face as he reached the end of the message. His eyes darkened, and a frown came over his face. He stood up, and gave Kimimaro a sharp glare.

"You are to tell Kabuto to wake the other four, and wake them properly, even if it takes two weeks." He commanded, remembering what had happened the last time he had tried to wake one of his projects from stasis too quickly. The subject's name had been Dosu, and attempting to de-stabilize him in less than a day had sent him into severe convulsions, entering into a seizure as soon as he hit air. It had left him physically disfigured, and they had had to wrap him head to toe in bandages, leaving him his one good eye to see with. Orochimaru did not want that happening again, especially with these… special four.

"Whatever for, my… lord?" Kimimaro questioned politely, coughing a little at the end. He too had been pulled from stasis a little too quickly, not nearly as bad as what had happened to Dosu, but had left him somewhat sick and vulnerable. It wasn't that he was handicapped, he could still kill a man, but it had left him weaker, and growing weaker every week.

"Because my new toy has escaped, and they're soon to send a cleanup squad. It seems they're quite discombobulated for the moment, after my toy escaped… apparently he made quite an exit." He hissed, grinning a little at the thought of his rivals being in a state of confusion after their little… mishap.

Of course, the two companies weren't rivals on the outside. The Oto-nin Sound Company stood a full head and shoulders above all other music and recording companies, receiving millions, billions even, of dollars per year from their record deals. But the president, Orochimaru, believed that if they could control the world of music with an iron fist, why couldn't he control the world of reality along with it? So he entered the black market, both dealing and buying secret weapons and technologies.

And everyone, everyone, knew that the Akatsuki Weapon Corp. worked with the government, for the government, and against the government at the same time, selling some of their more… hidden experiments on the black market to shady groups and countries at war. In fact, it was common knowledge. What wasn't common knowledge, however, was the fact that due to an investigation and a plant in the Akatsuki, the government has gotten into some of these deals, dictating which countries were yes and no, and which terrorist groups they could sell to. The Akatsuki didn't always listen, of course, and feigned ignorance when caught.

"Go, make your report, and could you ask the secretary on the way out to send me some chocolate? I need something sweet and sugary right now." The snake-like man asked, making little shooing motions with his hands. After the pale boy left with another bow, he sat down, waiting for his chocolate. He was hoping for some good Swiss chocolate, that could never be bad chocolate, but any type of chocolate would do right now.

----S-t-o-r-y--B-r-e-a-k---N-e-w--S-e-c-t-i-o-n--S-t-a-r-t-i-n-g----

"Uh… hi Mom?" Sakura said sheepishly, giving a small wave as her face flushed red. God this must look awkward, She thought to her self, shuffling her feet a little.

"What are you doing with a naked boy, and what were you planning on doing?" The elder Haruno said with clenched teeth, her hands balled into fists. My daughter asks me to come and pick up her and a friend, and I come here and find her with some… some… gigolo! And Miaka's nowhere in sight!

Speaking of the little devil, she had just crossed the street a block down from where Sakura was, and began heading down the road. With the large picnic basket and the blanket piled on her arms, she couldn't see over, and could just barely see off the sides of the basket. Miaka didn't see the dark trench coat and shoes of the man in front of her until it was too late.

"Please watch where you are going, little girl." A man with funny red eyes and a rice hat-type-shade-thingy, she could never remember what Aniki said the name was. He was standing next to a big man, who was wearing clothes that looked like his, and had a large wrapped thingy strapped onto his back. He looked like he had… blue skin!

"Sorry about that, Mister Person-san!" She exclaimed happily, standing up and dusting off her legs and backside. She bent over to pick up the basket and blanket, only to find that the blanket was all splayed out on the cement, and a couple of food objects had fallen out of the basket. Miaka sighed, and began to pick them up. She was late already, and now she would be even later!

"Mind if I keep this?" The dark-haired man said, crouching down to pick up an apple. He held it up to the little girl, who stared at it questioningly for a moment. She then grinned, and nodded her head vigorously, and then continued with her work.

"We have no time to dawdle Itachi, we should get going." The blue guy whispered to the nice man with the funny eyes. Miaka was barely able to pick up what he said, but she heard the nice guy's name anyway. The nice man nodded, Watachi or something, and the two began to walk away. She spun around, and waving energetically, shouted "Good bye!"

However, it seemed that they hadn't heard her. She sighed, not liking being ignored, and turned around to finish picking up her stuff. After a few minutes, she finally got everything cleaned up, and began to waddle as fast as she could while carrying all of the picnic gear.

She finally turned the corner, and set down the stuff. She saw a tall, older brunette yelling at a pink haired girl, while a naked blonde boy just stood off to the side, staring at everything in confusion. He then noticed her standing behind everyone and smiled, giving a little wave. She waved back, and turned to face her aunt and cousin.

"Hiya Auntie Emiko! Hi Sakura-nee-chan! I brought the blanket to cover up naked person!" She shouted, still not knowing Naruto's name. The other two turned to face Miaka, and they began yelling and talking at the same time.

"Miaka, tell my mother that Naruto isn't some type of man-whore!" She shouted, blushing a little at using the word "whore".

"Don't lie to your Auntie, Miaka! I'll give you a spanking you won't forget if you lie to me!"

"She wouldn't lie in the first place, and Naruto isn't a gigolo! He's the person I wanted you to pick up with us!"

"Why? So you could take him back to the house and do… things with him?!"

They continued their spat as Miaka joined Naruto at staring at the two. It seemed they both had quite a temper when you pissed them off. Naruto and Miaka looked at each other, nodded, looked back, and walked up to the two. Miaka took hold of her aunt's leg, and began to try and pull her in the opposite direction of Sakura, while Naruto wrapped his arms around Sakura's, pulled her tightly to his chest, and picked her up, carrying her backwards. Sakura's flushed face increased tenfold as she began to struggle, feeling his groin pressed to her lower back.

"Put me down, you perv!"

"Ha, I knew it! You two are doing something!"

"No we're not, dammit!"

"Did you just swear at me, missy?"

"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"

It was going to be a long day.

---S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k---

"Alright, were going to stop at home, give him some of your father's clothes, and then run to the bank." Her mother said, turning the steering wheel so she could pull out of the Mitsurugi's driveway. They had just dropped off Miaka at her home to a very relieved Tetsu. Her parent's never worried about her, both because they trusted Sakura, and they had a mother hen for a son, who did all of the worrying for them. When they had arrived at the small two-story house on the outskirts of town, Tetsu had come rushing out, his tall blonde hair blowing behind him. He had whipped open the door, and grabbed Miaka in a crushing hug.

"Miaka are you okay? Everything's all right? How'd you get that bump on your head? What were you guys doing? You were an hour late!" He babbled on and on about Miaka's safety and how that they should be more responsible. Sakura sighed, having to go through this every time she babysat Miaka. Tetsu was so anal retentive about his sister that Sakura wouldn't have been surprised if she had found out that he followed her to school, held her hand as she walked down stairs, and made her wear every piece of safety gear known to mankind when she played sports. Fortunately, he didn't. Tetsu suddenly noticed the large moving bundle of cloth in the back.

"Hey!" He stated, pointing at the bundle, "What's that?"

Naruto's head popped out of the mess, most of his hair still inside the blanket. A hand managed to snake it's way out from beneath the folds, giving a small wave before being engulfed by another avalanche of fabric falling on top of it.

"Hello!" Naruto said happily, giving a grin. He tried not to laugh at Tetsu's gravity defying hair. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto!"

Tetsu stared for a moment, his large blue eyes glaring at a piece of exposed flesh from Naruto's thigh. He suddenly entered a defensive pose, grabbing his sister around the waist with one arm, and holding out the other as if to say, "Halt!"

"You aren't wearing any clothing, you fiend! You are trying to corrupt my sister so she can become your sex slave! I shall protect her, for…" Tetsu was nailed in the face with a frying pan. Where Sakura got the frying pan, nobody knows, but she had one with her anyway.

"That's not it you dolt! I've already had a long and bloody battle with my mother, and I'm not going to start one with you. Now listen up!" She then proceeded to explain how they had found Naruto, leaving out the bit about her being nearly raped, so that it seemed more like Squeaky and Willie had just tried to mug them, and Naruto had saved them from the two idiots. She also left out her private thoughts about Naruto's body, but nobody had to know that.

Tetsu had stared at her for a moment, blinking occasionally. He took a deep breath, and had returned to his rant about endangering his sister's life with her silly ideas, and that she should know better than to go into the ghettos. Sakura just sighed, and screamed at him to get his ass inside before she smacked him again with the frying pan. Sakura's mother smacked her on the back of her head for swearing, and Sakura glowered, her 'rope of patience' was becoming shorter by the second. Tetsu huffed, snorting at the threat, and threw his sister over his shoulder, carrying her like a sack. As they pulled out, they could see Miaka giggling and pounding on her big brother's back in an attempt to free herself.

They drove off, leaving a small cloud of dust behind them. Tetsu walked inside, and dropped his sister on the floor, much to her displeasure at losing her fun. Tetsu then hurried to his room so he could get his uniform.

"Happy days as an employ-ee of the A-kat-suki!" He said in singsong, picking up his long katana. He hated dragging the thing around, but he loved the sword itself. The sword, which was nearly two feet longer than him (making it about 7 feet long), was so finely crafted that it weighed about the same as a regular katana. And his sheer amount of skill with the sword made him a formidable opponent, for he knew the exact weight and balance of it, being able to calculate the amount of power and the angle needed for a particular swing at a moment's notice.

An Akatsuki member, one with funny red eyes that seemed to spin, had been walking by the kenjutsu dojo he had been training in. Noticing the sheer skill that the blonde kid with the ridiculous hair wielded, the man would return day after day, watching him, inspecting him, observing him. The first day that the man had seen Tetsu pick up the long daitachi, the man walked in and offered him a position in the Akatsuki as a special-forces guard. Tetsu gladly accepted, needing a job at the time.

Tetsu walked out of the door of his home, waving good-bye to Miaka, telling her to be safe, not talk to strange men (like Naruto!), look both ways when crossing the street, etcetera, and leaving a note on the door for his parent's return. He began to walk down the street, towards the Akatsuki Corp. Headquarters, located within the Special Weapons Facility. He pondered a thought as he walked down the street.

Uzumaki… Naruto… Where have I heard that name before? … Ah well, if it was important, I wouldn't have forgotten.

---S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k---

Sakura's mother waited for the red light to change. She hated red lights, hated them. They were God's curse on drivers, making it so that they had to wait an extra three minutes every time they came to one of the accursed things. Emiko sighed, shaking her head. Whining about it would change nothing. She looked up into the rear-view mirror, watching the cars that were stacking up behind them. Most of the other driver's either looked irritated, or were too busy talking on their cell-phones to notice. She suddenly noticed movement at the bottom of the mirror, and switched her attention to that.

Emiko stifled a giggle as she watched Naruto battle the blanket he was wrapped in. Twisting, turning, scratching, batting, rolling, and falling, he ended up tangling himself worse than when he had started. All she could see now were some of his golden tresses, and an angry cobalt eye peeking out from under the folds. She couldn't hold it back, and finally let lose a giggle.

"Mom, light's changed!" Sakura said, prodding her mother, removing her from her reverie. Her mother blinked, staring at Sakura blankly, letting the information sink in.

Suddenly it hit her. "Oh! The light has changed!" She said, putting pressure on the gas. The car jerked forward, then finally settled into a steady speed. Naruto was pressed tightly against the back of the seat, his blanket wrapped into an even more complex knot.

They soon reached the Haruno's apartment building, pulling into the small parking garage located just across the road. Fortunately, there was a catwalk that stretched over the road, so that people in the garage could get to their apartments without waiting for the traffic to stop.

The two females were stifling giggles the entire time as they watched Naruto hop along behind them, being too tied up in the blankets to be able to get out of them without help or ripping it. All that they were able to see of Naruto through his wrappings were his blue eyes, all of his hair finally being sucked into the blanket.

When they reached the end of the skywalk, Sakura had to help Naruto down the stairs so that he didn't hurt himself by falling off.

At the bottom of the stairs, Sakura was about to let go of the corner of cloth she had a hold of, when she tripped. It wasn't far, and the landing was cushioned by nice soft grass. She felt something tug as she fell, and after she hit the ground, something landed on top of her. Something heavy. She looked down, and saw a mass of gold, a few of the yellow strands falling gently onto her face. An orange-and-blue shadow fell over them.

Once again, it seemed that God liked to poke fun at her. Not only was she caught in another embarrassing situation with Naruto, it turned out that that little edge, that little square of fabric, was the key to the entire puzzle knot that was Naruto's blanket, which was now gently floating down and covering them.

"Sakura? Sakura, honey, you alright? Naruto?" Emiko said worriedly, hurrying down the last few stairs to the bottom. Bending down to pick up the edge of the blanket, she saw sudden struggling from beneath the blanket. Worried someone was injured, she ripped off the blanket. What she saw was not someone injured, but… Naruto was in the process of getting injured as Sakura attempted to crush his trachea with her hands as they wrapped around his neck.

"You pervert! You did that on purpose! I'm gonna strangle you!" She said, already in the process of her threat.

Emiko blushed as she tried to pry the naked boy from Sakura's deadly grasp, hoping that no one would stumble across them and their rather embarrassing situation.

---S-e-c-t-i-o-n--B-r-e-a-k---

The trip to the mall was uneventful after they had gotten Naruto a pair of her father's old jeans and an old shirt, both of which were too baggy for the slender, but well-built lad. They had to cut an extra three notches in one of her father's belts before they could get a hole that would actually keep his pants up and snug around his waist.

Naruto was staring around in amazement. Never had he seen so many people before! Nor so many vibrant colors all shoved into one space! As Sakura led him through the mall doors, her mother trailed behind them, looking slightly disinterested in the surroundings, if not annoyed. Then again, if Naruto knew that Emiko had a deep dislike for loud, crowded spaces, he would probably have understood better.

Suddenly, he was accosted by an insane level of sensations flooding his systems, sights, smells, sounds, even the vibrations of the tile floor, all amplified by his inhuman sensory system. He could hear a couple ten feet away discussing marriage, could see a man down on the opposite end of the atrium holding up hotdogs for sale. He could feel people walking through the tiles, able to tell who was going where and which direction just by the vibrations of the floor.

But out of all of these sensations… only one thing stood out. This heavenly scent wafted around him, practically tugging him towards its source. He could almost see the scent, he could feel the scent, he could taste the scent… and each and every tug pulled him away from the two Haruno women. Sakura almost missed him as she turned around to find he was gone. She quickly spotted the gold-covered head moving through the crowd. Grabbing her mother's wrist, they quickly made their way towards Naruto's location, which was quickly approaching a small restaurant. The sign above the open doors read Ichiraku Ramen Bar.

When Naruto stepped into the tiny place, he felt as if he were in heaven. The wonderful scent berated him, surrounded him, begging him to find its source. He looked around, trying to find where it was coming from. He could see a large, but not fat, kid with reddish-brown hair talking to a pretty blonde in a booth, and a bored looking guy with a ponytail that made his head resemble a pineapple stood off to the side, occasionally commenting on the conversation. There was also a couple of older kids there too, two were guys and one girl were sitting down at a table off to the side, and there were a couple of other people hanging around near the wide picture windows that viewed the outside.

His interest was drawn to the two guys and the girl. One of them was wearing what looked to be a tight green spandex shirt, and green jogging pants. He also had a funny bowl-cut and the hugest eyebrows Naruto had ever seen. He was talking animatedly to the man across from him, who looked to be twenty-ish. The man had long, dark brown hair, and he appeared to have… silvery-violet eyes. Odd. He looked as if he was barely tolerating the green-man's presence. The girl with them was the only one who ever responded to super-eyebrow's prodding, which consisted of "…eternal rival…" and "someday you'll understand the meaning of hard work!". What, was the long-haired guy lazy or something?

Naruto suddenly felt a presence flying towards him. He tensed, preparing for some sort of attack or gun-shot or something… but nothing happened but a loud squeal of "FOREHEAD GIRL!".

Naruto heard a grunt of surprise as something hit the floor loudly behind him. Naruto whipped around to see the pretty blonde sitting on top of Sakura, who (to him) had appeared out of nowhere. He looked up to see Haruno Emiko stifling giggles at the two girl's adolescent behavior, even though they should have well grown out of their… "friendly" rivalry. Sakura, however, was not nearly as amused.

"Get your hooves off of me, Piggy!" She screamed, pushing the smug blonde off of her. With an "eep!" the blonde fell to the floor. Sakura stood up angrily, and dodged to the side as the blonde lunged forward in an attempt to tackle the pinkette again. Things went quickly down hill as Sakura whacked the blonde on top of her head, which was countered by a sweep-kick, which in turn was countered by a quick roll to a flying tackle.

The two that had been with the blonde, and the three that had been over near the door, Fuzzy-eyebrows, his eternal rival, and the girl with the two buns on the sides of her head, were standing off to the side. The pineapple headed kid sighed, muttering "Troublesome" underneath his breath, while the stocky kid shook his head while munching down on a bag of cookies that had been in his pocket. Super-eyebrows looked as if he was excited, his eyes looking as if they were burning as he said something about "youthful beauties in youthful combat".

Naruto turned back to the escalating catfight, and sighed, wanting to end it so he could find the source of that wonderful scent. The two were battling tooth and claw with each other, almost literally.

Sakura was just about to lunge back at the blonde, who was making infuriating comments about the color of her hair, claiming that it was "lame" and "fake-looking". She was damn near ready to slaughter the yellow-haired bitch when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her torso, dragging her back and pinning her arms to her body. She felt herself being held against a solid chest, the heat from the body emanating through the old brown shirt the man wore. She knew it was a man/guy/boy because of the lack of… soft protrusion against her back. Strands of gold floated into her vision as she began to realize whom it was that was holding her. Her face flushed crimson; both in embarrassment and anger, making her resemble a ripe tomato.

"Sakura-chan, calm down." Naruto's voice sounded oddly seductive as he whispered in her ear, making her blush even more, and replacing the rest of her anger with just embarrassment.

"Ooooh! Who's the hottie, Forehead?" The blonde exclaimed, standing up from her sitting position on the floor, her attitude changing suddenly at the sight of the luscious blonde god holding onto Sakura.

Sakura began to struggle within Naruto's embrace, hoping to escape from the increasingly embarrassing situation. Naruto, however, took it as an attempt to resume the attack on the blonde Sakura called "Piggy", and only held on tighter.

During all of this, Emiko was having serious trouble trying not to bust a gut at the sight of the three. The two had been fighting and competing ever since they were ten, which is coincidentally when they both started to really pay attention to boys… one in particular. Uchiha Sasuke, youngest of the two Uchiha brothers. She never understood what they saw in that angsty, secluded boy who would rather dream about surpassing his brother than look at you, and would give the "glare of death" if you so much as uttered a syllable in his presence. But then again, that seemed to be how "love" and attraction worked these days. You find the most depressing looking, yet handsome-ish, and angst filled and angry person available, and then you pine after them without them even acknowledging your existence.

But then again, so is life. She was beginning to hope that Naruto might be able change Sakura's attentions away from little Mr. Depression, contrary to her first thoughts of the blonde. It was undeniable that the long-haired young man had a nice body, and that was putting lightly, and coming from an older woman… so therefore her opinions mattered.

"Alright, break it up!" A loud voice shouted from behind the counter. Everyone looked over to see an older man pointing a frying pan at them menacingly. They all glared at him, as if to say "What took you so long?"

"Uhh… please?" The old man added sheepishly, scratching the back of his head with the pan. With a shared sigh, most of the group surrounding the now-ended scuffle separated, heading back to their own tables and getting back to chatting about whatever they had been. However, five people remained, "Piggy", Mega-brow, Naruto, Sakura, and Emiko. Naruto, still with his death grip on Sakura, was staring at Piggy with confusion, wonder why (A) her name was Piggy, and (B) why she was staring at him that way… It was rather creepy.

Captain Uber-brow's motives though, were clear… especially with the way he would look at Sakura, blush, look again, open his mouth, blush again, and avert his gaze. He would then repeat the process several times, making a slightly different sound each attempt. Naruto wasn't sure he was going to do anything… that was until Bun-head came and grabbed him by the shoulders; tearing him away from the small group rather roughly and dragging him back to their table.

Sakura was beginning relax, realizing that the boy wasn't going to let go of his iron grip until she stopped struggling… God this must look so embarrassing! Being "hugged" by a beautiful man, all the while in an attempt to force herself out of his embrace… wait. Did she just refer to Naruto as beautiful?

"Ino, come on. Quit being troublesome and let's get going! Your dad doesn't like you being out late, remember." The pineapple-head said, walking up behind the female of the longhaired blondes. Naruto looked confused, wondering who this "Ino" was.

"But Pineapple-chan! He's so hot!" the blonde said whiningly, turning around and pouting, her eyes tearing up and expanding, pointing a finger at Naruto.

"Troublesome woman!" Pineapple muttered under his breath, frowning at the now puppy-eyed female blonde. " Your father's exact words were, and I quote: 'If a man looks at her, touches her, winks at her, flirts with her, talks to her, or even breaths at her, you are to rip of his testicles and feed them to him. If you fail… I will kill you.' End quote."

"But Shika!!! Please…" She was interrupted by a quick jerk on her hand. The pony-tailed boy began to drag her towards the door that led to the parking lot instead of back out to the mall.

"No 'buts' Ino. We have to go, and I'm not going to try and call a bluff that I'm pretty sure isn't." He said, making the red-headed man with them hold the door open for him so he could drag the reluctant blonde through it and to the outside.

Naruto still had his arms around Sakura as they watched the trio leave, his arms had loosened a little as they had watched the two argue. Sakura, remembering her embarrassing predicament, freed herself from Naruto's loose grasp. Brushing her clothes off and straightening the wrinkles of her shirt, she turned around to give Naruto a small smile.

"Well, that was fun," she said, acting as if it was nothing… though deep inside she was burning with rage that that stupid blonde pig had dared attack her in such a public place, and insult her naturally beautiful pink hair at the same time.

And also, when Naruto had held her tight to his body to restrain her, she could feel his chiseled chest through her dad's former old brown shirt.

Her face slightly flushed, she glanced up at Naruto… who seemed to be distracted by something. Following his deep blue gaze, she turned her body until she faced the chef-person. Glancing back, she followed it again until she realized his gaze was fixed upon a half-finished bowl of ramen, lying on the bar-counter. She watched as the chef reached out to pick up the wasted soup, and turned to pour it into one of several sinks.

Quizzically, she turned back to Naruto to ask him what he was staring at, only to realize that… he was crying? She rubbed her eyes, and then focused them back upon the handsome blonde's face. Yes! He was indeed crying! He seemed so forlorn, that she was about to ask him why he was crying… was it something she said at sometime today? Maybe something offensive? She opened her mouth, but she stopped when she realized that he was mouthing something.

"Such waste…" Naruto kept repeating, barely able to be heard. He took a step forward with his hand stretched out, almost as if he was trying to grab the bowl from the chef as it was rinsed so that the dish would be useable again to service a later customer. From behind Naruto, Emiko's voice popped up.

"Naruto, Sakura, dear? Are you guy's hungry? I'll buy a couple of bowls of ramen if you want." She said, glancing between her confused daughter and the lost looking blonde. A sudden change came over the strange boy, who suddenly looked as if he had seen God. Naruto pivoted slowly to face the elder Haruno, getting down on his knees as he turned.

"Oh, beautiful and kind woman! Thank you for revealing to me the name of this ambrosiac substance. I humbly accept your offer, oh wonderful one!" the awe-struck blonde said to the equally awe-struck older woman. Looking up, a slight flush on her face, she glanced at her daughter, hoping for an explanation of some sort. The younger girl was as confused as she was, staring at the prostrate blonde.

"Ummm… no problem?"

Once again, I apologize for the length of the chapter! I had every intention of making it 7,000 words+! But I really wanted to get it posted, so I could end ShadowedShikyo's incessant nagging!

Anyway, just to let you guys know, I am accepting ideas for the powers of the JINCHUURIKI subjects… and also to let you know that if you submit any ideas, I probably won't accept them. I just want something to base my people off of, and I already have Gaara and the "Eight-Tailed" project already set up.

And also, could someone give me a list of the tailed beasts, you know… sorta like this:
Shibi
Nibi
Kyuubi

Except with the other six in between "Nibi" and "Kyuubi".

And ha! Everyone gets to see 'Tachi and Kisame! Tetsunouske thickens the plot a bit, and it can only get better!

Slight summary of next chapter:
The true damage involving ramen that only Naruto can be a part of, and fun in the mall!
Angst and chaos may be involved too…

Please forgive me for the shortness, I love you all!
ChickenDeNoodleyNoodle the Third, most youthful of all chickens!

PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!