Wow – I didn't think so many people liked my story xD I'm very honored to say the least. I'd like to thank everyone that took the time to read my story, leave a review, or add my story to their story/author alert list. You have no idea how much it made my day to look into my email and see all of those new messages 3
Anywho, I'm sorry this one took a while to come out. I sprained my ankle and got a new hamster, so I was busy to say the least.
This chapter has a bit more talking in it, and I had a lot of fun writing it! I also forgot to mention that Tsunade is the Hokage, and that Cupcakes is in Syaoran's point of view unless otherwise stated.
I was also thinking of maybe making it a bit AU and still having Sasuke here even though he had already left. Someone had suggested in the reviews of having Kurogane meet Sasuke – I can't get out of my head xD
Enjoy!

I willed time to stop. I wished for some being to come and intervene to get Mokona to safety, but of course, none came.

Naruto's hand reached Mokona, and he gingerly picked the creature up. He still thought he was picking up gum, for he held Mokona with two fingers. Wow.

"Kiba, look at this! This is one hugeass piece of gum, right?" Naruto said to Kiba, grinning for some unknown reason. Kiba looked at him disdainfully.

"You idiot. That's some kind of fat rat or mouse. It's breathing, and it has fur. Gum isn't furry."

Naruto looked confused, and his grin fell. He looked at Mokona curiously again, and sniffed it. "Do you think we could barbeque it for Akamaru or something? Akamaru would like it, right boy?!" Naruto said suddenly, waving it in front of the dog. The dog – apparently named Akamaru – had an expression that reflected his masters.

"You've got to be kidding me." Kiba said finally, lifting his eyebrows. "Why don't we put it in your ramen instead if you are so eager for Akamaru to eat it?"

"Bah! No, I only said that because- Gah, never mind! And Akamaru will eat anything, right? Believe it!"

"Just shut up. And give me that!" Kiba shot back, while snatching Mokona from Naruto's grip. He held Mokona by the skin behind its neck, like a tigress might to her cub. Mokona stayed absolutely still and seemed to be holding its breath as Kiba looked it over with his watchful eyes. Akamaru stared intently at it also, until it growled suddenly.

"GrrrGrrar owow Grraaawwwooo." Akamaru barked.

"What's that Akamaru? It smells funny?"

"Grrrrowow."

Kiba sniffed at Mokona again, at which the creature visibly stiffened. "You're right," he said thoughtfully. "It does smell odd-"

"Everything smells odd to you." Naruto muttered.

"Just because you couldn't smell shit if it was right in front of you-"

Naruto was about to reply scathingly when Mokona seemed to have enough of this treatment, and had jumped off of Kiba's hand which was flailing pointlessly as he attempted to catch it. Mokona landed with too much force on the ground, so it tumbled into a forward roll which got it close to the wall we were hiding behind, but not close enough! Kiba leapt out of his seat with Akamaru and Naruto behind him. They were about to grab Mokona again when a figure behind me stepped out of our hiding place…!

I looked at saw it was Fai who had reached down to grab Mokona, put it on his shoulder, and finally turned to see the two boys looking at Fai with interest. Akamaru had jumped onto Kiba's head.

Fai broke into his signature carefree grin to ease out of the sudden silence and gave a little wave. "Hi there," He said. "Sorry about Mokona here – it seems to have a knack for trouble."

I felt another presence appear behind me and looked to see that it was Kurogane. His gaze was focused on the Kiba instead of Mokona, for once. That didn't seem like a good sign, so I opened my mouth to ask, but Kurogane intercepted me with a curt, "I just have a bad feeling about him. From what I've seen this place is very different from ours, and we should tread cautiously from now on."

I nodded, and turned my head back to the other conversation at hand. It seemed like Fai was trying to make peace with the two other boys.

"I just don't see why you come out at such a convenient time, that's all." Kiba fired and crossed his arms, suspicious. Akamaru growled on his head.

Fai gave them a carefree smile and simply replied, "I heard voices here, so I checked it out, and I found Mokona. Why should there be more to that?"

Naruto squinted and looked up at Fai's lanky figure, as if inspecting him. "I think you're lying. And I've never seen you around before – who are you?"

Fai simply laughed and looked out to the side, as if he would find his answer there. While he looked, his eyes caught and held my gaze, and I understood – he wanted us to come out. Fai turned his gaze back to the boys, and said "Now why would I be lying? What is there to lie about?"

"You know what? You're probably just Kakashi testing us, aren't you?" Naruto said boldly.

"Pardon me?" Fai asked politely.

"You heard me-"

As the boy got angrier and surer of his side of the story, I looked at Kurogane and he nodded. We were going in. And we did. But as I look back at this situation later, I think we could have waited instead of charging in so abruptly. Maybe. Who knows?

"Uh, hey there." I said awkwardly, interrupting whatever Naruto was going to say. Kurogane sighed behind me. "We were just, umm, err, just going to.." I faltered. What was our story?! I began to panic.

"We're just travelers here." Kurogane said behind me, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. "All five of us."

So Kurogane was trying to ease out of the tension by not spazzing out. Smart. Even the two boys liked this answer.

"Sooooo, you're not from around here?" Naruto drawled.

"Nope. We only just got here and ah- are very wary of others, as you can imagine." Fai cut in. Naruto only stared.

"You're weird." He finally said, but put his arms behind his head and smiled his signature, sheepish grin. Kiba still gave another glance at Mokona.

"Akamaru and I have never seen a creature like that; what is it?" He asked, almost barked, actually. Akamaru nodded his curiosity – strange.

Fai held out his hand to his head, and let the fluffy creature jump onto it. "This is Mokona," He said, holding it in front of his face. "We don't exactly know what it is – nor what gender. But it can talk."

"Eh? It can talk? Seriously! That's so awesome, believe it!" Naruto said. He then suddenly squinted at Mokona. "Oi! Mokona – that's your name, right? What gender are you? Girl? Boy?"

"Mokona is Mokona! Kyaa~" Mokona squealed, and jumped suddenly onto Naruto's shoulder. Naruto stepped back in surprise, and slipped on a stray wrapper that had been on the ground which resulted in him falling onto his butt in a comical fashion. Kiba burst into laughter beside him while Mokona giggled.

"You fell! You fell! This is one of Mokona's secret 300 techniques – not falling! Hehe!" Mokona said happily, still on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto just lay on the ground for a moment, and then slowly started to get up.

"You know," he said. "I take back anything I said about you. You are a little demon from hell."

Mokona just cocked its head. All was silent for a moment as once again the two parties observed each other not with dislike, but more with a newfound light.

"So, we didn't exactly get your nam-" Kiba started, but he was cut off by a demanding yet squeaky voice.

"Mokona hungry! Is there food for Mokona? Mokona wants food~"

Naruto laughed, his buoyant mood back. "You're hungry, eh? I'm sure all of you are! Here, come to Ichiraku Ramen with us – this place is the best!" He pointed to the little shop that had caught our interest when we first arrived here. As he returned our attention to it, the smell came back and only succeeded in reminding me how hungry I actually was. But the problem was, we didn't have this world's currency. Actually, I'm not sure we even had any money.

"Err, Fai, do we have any… money?" I asked hesitantly. Fai was apparently thinking the same thing for he was digging in one of our bags.

"I don't know, Syaoran." He said, not skipping a beat. "We didn't exactly have much from last time, but it should still be here." He looked around in his bag for a couple of more seconds, before giving up. "Nope, I guess it's lost." Fai said cheerily. He then called out to Kurogane, "Hey! Does Kuro-chi have any?"

Apparently, Kurogane had been spacing out for the last few minutes, but the sound of his name with yet another ridiculous nickname of Fai's seemed to have snapped him back to reality. "GOD DAMMIT," he fumed. "Stop calling me that! ARG."

"But it's so much fun, Kuro-pi! You're reactions are especially amusing!"

Naruto and Kiba had been looking on in confused amusement the whole time; each of them were both debating whether or not to say anything. It seems they had decided on the latter.

Kurogane sighed and leaned against the wall again. "Would someone please make him stop it?"

I laughed at the outspoken thought. I really doubt that someone would be able to make him… Not that I'd want him to. The way Kurogane overreacted every time was what made it never get old.

Naruto and Kiba had stood there awkwardly during our usual exchange until Kiba cleared his throat and said, "So, are you guys coming with us or not?"

"Hell yeah," Kurogane said, suddenly alert. "This is food we're talking about. We are not passing up food."

"Food food! Mokona wants food~"

"Shut up manjuu bun."

"Kurogane is mad because Fai made fun of him. Silly Kuro-chan!" Mokona giggled out again.

"See Kuro-pipi? Someone appreciates my name for you~"

"ARG. Dammit, just shut the hell up and let's eat!" Kurogane said loudly, looking too hungry to care.

"Best idea you've had all day." Naruto muttered. "So come ON, let's just go!"

Everyone agreed at that point and went to each sit on one of the handy stools in Ichiraku Ramen – the order went Fai, Kurogane, me, Kiba (with Mokona between us) and finally Naruto.

The owner came up to us to take our orders – he was an old man with a jolly face. His hair was on the short and balding side, but he was pleasant nonetheless. A pretty brown-haired girl appeared at his side.

"Hey there guys! What can I getcha?" She asked cheerfully.

"The usual, please." Naruto said instantly, grabbing some chopsticks while he was at it. Kiba grumbled next to him.

The girl laughed. "My gosh, it seems you never stop eating! But I'm guessing our ramen can't keep you away, eh?" Naruto laughed himself and nodded his agreement.

"And you?" She asked Kiba. He simply shook his head, and Akamaru whined along with his master. If that dog could talk, they would defiantly finishing each others sentances and annoying everyone around them to death, so I guess we should be thankful that things are the way they are.

The brown-haired waitress nodded and turned to us. "What about you guys?" She asked.

I looked uncertainly at Fai and Kurogane. Fai gave me a look, so I assumed he would take care of it. "Well, we're travelers from a place far away, so we don't exactly have much with us right now. Nor do we have any of your currency." He said sheepishly to the waitress.

"That's alright," A deep, voice suddenly boomed behind our waitress. It was the jolly old-man, who was the owner. "It's actually almost our best and busiest season for selling ramen, so we could always use some extra hands! You'll do especially well, considering you are such unique foreigners!"

I was stunned, to say the least. Fai smiled and Kurogane looked perplexed with his eyebrows raised.

"You can pay off for your meal and more by working at this ramen shop, and making deliveries will let you see the rest of our city. So, what do you say?"

We could only nod.

He laughed at our solemn faces, his voice booming and echoing throughout the alleyways. "Excellent," He said after laughing, rubbing his hands together. "So you're meal is on the house tonight. Please, take whatever you'd like! We can provide you shelter, so no need to worry about that. Oh, and I am Teuchi, and this is my daughter, Ayame. We are the owners, if you haven't noticed yet." Ayame gave a little wave next to him.

"It's very nice to meet you, and we are very grateful for your extreme generosity I managed to get out. "My name is Syaoran, the blonde one is Fai, the one with the black hair is Kurogane, and-"

"And I am Mokona!" Mokona cut it, waving chopsticks in its hand. Fai laughed.

Teuchi took the creatures other hand and shook it. "Never seen anything like you, but it's very nice to meet you all!" He stood up and straightened out. "So, what would you guys like to eat?"

"Ramen. We want ramen. Any kind, you choose. Just hurry. Please." Kurogane said before any of us could open our mouths. Which was good, considering none of us could read their language, except possibly Fai. The smell that came wafting through made my stomach growl.

"You guys will love the food here," Naruto said before diving into his bowl again. He was almost done within a matter of minutes. Kiba sighed, and put his head on the counter. "Yeah, the food is pretty good, I must say. Except right now."

"Becoo syoo pein fo me?" Naruto said with his mouth full.

"The hell? What did you say?"

Naruto swallowed, and repeated, "Because you're paying for me? Hah!"

Akamaru growled. "Ugg, just stop it and finish so we can go home," Kiba mumbled. "It's getting pretty dark.

And it was true, it was. The sun was setting and filling the sky around it with a beautiful light of golden, pink, and orange light. Up above the sky was a deep indigo, and a few clouds were still left, hanging lazily. It was peaceful, with the crickets chirping and the owls hooting. We could really get use to this…

"You know," Fai said suddenly."I have a bad feeling that we forgot something. A really bad feeling."

I frowned. He wasn't the only one, that feeling had been bothering me also; but if I could only put my finger on it. Even Kurogane seemed to be troubled. We were silent, and then…

"Princess Sakura!"

We had left her behind in the alleyway.

Syaoran is evil! Did anyone notice how he completely just left and forgot about Sakura? :(
Hehe! Anyways, rate and review! Look for the next chapter within the next week or two – but I think the next one might be later, for I need to organize my thoughts on this story. Sorry it's a little slow right now, but believe me, you'll love where Sakura's feather will be. ;D
Thank you!
-Kaliu