Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto or SvtFoE franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as long as it isn't just hate or flaming. If you do not like, no one is forcing you to read and you can just leave.
Thank you and please enjoy
Curiosity Broke the Scissors
-Chapter 4-
-Last Time-
'Oh thank Kami,' Sakura thought with a silent sigh of relief, glad that she didn't have to deal with fighting this girl while she was using that big ass bludgeon. One trip to the hospital this week was good enough for her thank you very much.
"Alright then, just let us get out of the way real quick…" Kakashi started as he and Naruto backed up several feet, leaving the two girls alone in the clearing. "…and begin!"
-And Now, Two Minutes Later-
Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi sweatdropped as an unconscious Sakura was carried off on a stretcher by a pair off medic nin. The pinkette had a large fist shaped bruise covering the majority of the left side of her face and at least two teeth had been knocked out.
"Uh, I guess I went a little overboard?" Star said/asked from the middle of the training field with a mixed expression of confusion and satisfaction. The 'fight', if it could even be called that, had ended almost immediately after it started when Sakura tried to attack Star first and ended up taking an express trip to Lala Land via Air Fist-in-Face.
"Don't worry Star-san, it was an accident, it happens." Kakashi said with a wave of his hand." However, we'll have to call it a day since I need to go and explain what happened to the doctors and Sakura's parents."
With that said, the silver haired man followed after the medics, pulling an orange book out of his pocket as he went.
"Okay Kakashi-sensei, tell Sakura-chan I hope she's not too hurt when she wakes up!" Naruto yelled, getting a thumbs-up in response. "I guess that means we got some free time. Well, we could still train on our-"
"OOH! Now you can give me a tour like you promised!" Star cut him off excitedly, grabbing the boy by the collar and bolting away at high speed.
Sasuke simple stood in place with a dull look on his face, before pivoting on his heel and head in the exact opposite direction at the fastest casual looking pace he could managed.
"Whoa! Calm down Star-chan! You don't even know which way you're going!" Naruto exclaimed, getting the princess to skid to a stop.
"Oh, sorry, got a bit ahead of myself there." She said, rubbing the back of her head with a sheepish smile.
"It's fine, I did promise after all." Naruto said with a shrug as he regained his bearings and straightened out his jacket. "Now let's go, I can't wait to show you all my favorite places and we can get some shopping done along the way."
-A few Hours Later-
*Tick* … *Tick* … *Tick*
"Uh, bored, bored, sooooo freaking bored." One Ino Yamanaka groaned as she stared up at the sky through the open window of her family's flower shop, her head resting on one hand while the other fiddled with one of her ear-patches.
She'd been ecstatic earlier when her team's sensei had given her the day off because of her ear issues. However, after an hour or so, that excitement had quickly worn off when she discovered one crucial detail.
She had absolutely NOTHING to do!
'Can't go hang out with my friends cause they're all busy with school or training, daddy left on a mission, mom's off in Suna getting a rare blossom cactus, and there hasn't been a single customer for two hours.' Ino thought with a sigh, her finger tapping against her cheek as she tried to think of something to entertain herself with.
"…a clothing shop for shinobi but it's really pricey so I never go there, and over there is Yamanaka Flowers, its name kinda says it all."
'So incredibly bo… wait a second, was that Naruto?' Ino thought, snapping out of her stupor of inactivity as her brain finally registered the owner of the voice that was drifting into her partially blocked ears.
Turning her gaze towards the source of the talking, the platinum blonde blinked in surprise when she saw the whiskered blonde walking down the street, and to her even larger shock he wasn't alone. Standing next to him was an oddly dressed blonde girl with heart marks on her cheeks as she excitedly looked at everything he pointed out.
Both had big grins on their faces as they talked, occasionally stopping to lick at the ice-cream cones they were holding.
Watching the pair walk until they were out of sight, Ino shot up from her seat and bolted out the door, flipping the open sign to closed along the way. 'Goodbye boredom, hello new gossip!'
"Well that's the end of the shopping district, and thus we have reached the end of our tour." Naruto said in a faux accent as he and Star flopped down onto a bench. "Please remember to not litter and to leave a tip for your handsome guide of the day on the way out."
"Hehehe, aye-aye sir," Star said with a giggle, giving her fellow blonde a mock salute before settling into her seat with a sigh. "Joking aside though, thanks for showing me around Naruto, it was great."
"Your welcome Star-chan, I'm glad you like it." Naruto said while taking a long lick of his ice-cream.
"How could I not, this place is amazing! You have a mountain with faces on it, lovely forests, and most importantly ice-cream!" The otherworldly princess exclaimed before ravaging the icy dessert in her grasp.
As this was going on, neither of them noticed that a certain gossip queen was spying on them with a pair of binoculars from inside a conveniently place bush.
"Sheesh, hasn't that girl ever heard of manners before? She's acting just like Naruto." Ino whispered to herself, a frown crossing her lips as she watched the 'mystery' girl splatter ice-cream all over herself while Naruto laughed. "Hmm, they also look a lot alike, so maybe they're relatives."
Setting her binoculars down and holding up a notebook she got from seemingly nowhere that had 'Gossip Theories' written across the front, the hidden blonde flipped it open to a blank page. Pulling a pen out from the ringed spine, she pulled the cap off with her teeth and quickly started jotting things down.
"A visiting cousin perhaps, that would explain why she needed a tour and her odd clothing." Ino muttered as she wrote. "But then Aunt Mai would have told me about her after she was admitted into the village." Her aunt ran the immigration and visitation station at the gates, so anyone who wanted to enter Konoha had to go past her. "But she can't be from here, I would have definitely have heard of her before if that was the case."
Before she could dwell on this thought further, Ino was snapped back to the real world when she noticed her 'targets' starting to move.
"Alright, that's enough wasting time. We should get home and get all this stuff put away." Naruto said as he stood up, pulling a scroll out of his pocket for a second.
"Ooh, then when we're done we could play a game, or have a movie night, or both." Star suggested, dancing in place excitedly.
"That sounds great to me." Naruto said with a grin.
"Then what are we waiting for, let's g-Whoa!" Star started to exclaim, before yelping in surprise when Naruto suddenly scooped her up into a bridal carry. That yelp then turned into a cheer as the whiskered blonde leapt high into the air and began roof jumping towards his… their apartment.
"Crap! They're getting away!" Ino whisper-yelled, stashing her book away as she abandoned her cover to chase after the pair.
It only took a few minutes for the two blondes (plus their unknown extra) to cross the village and reach Naruto's apartment building. Not bothering with the door, Naruto hopped straight into the living room through the window.
Setting Star back on her feet, Naruto then pulled out the scroll again and unfurled it across the floor, revealing an odd squiggly drawing. This was a basic storage seal, used to hold a variety of different things for easy transport.
"According to the clerk I place my hand here, then just channel a little chakra into it… and voila." Naruto said happily as the scroll glowed briefly before a large box, a matress, and a few shopping bags appeared in a puff of smoke. "I wish I knew of these things before, just imagine all the ramen I could carry with me."
"Or candy." Star added idly as both blondes zoned out, drooling as their active imaginations conjured images of such a sight.
Meanwhile, across the street on a rooftop, Ino was once again spying on her fellow blondes, holding up her binoculars with one hand while the other was writing away in her notebook.
"Okay, whoever this Star girl is, she is so not just visiting," Ino muttered as she focused in on the box Naruto had just unsealed, her eyes narrowing at the picture of a bed drawn on the side. "This definitely supports my theory that they're family though. I mean, why else would anyone willingly live with Naruto of all people?"
…
"Wow, that sounded a lot less bitchy in my head." Ino said with a frown, before shaking her head as she focused back on her 'targets'.
Snapping out of his ramen fantasy, Naruto moved the bags and mattress to the side before holding up his hands out in front of himself in a cross shape. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Then, to the surprise of both Star and Ino, two copies of the whiskered blonde appeared on either side of the box in a puff of smoke.
"Holy Stump! There are three of you!" Star exclaimed with widened eyes, jabbing her finger at the clones as they lifted the box up and started carrying it towards the bedroom. However, before they got more than a few feet, the two doppelgangers suddenly found themselves under assault by the excited princess.
"Pretty neat huh?" The original asked rhetorically, chuckling a bit as he watched Star poking and prodding the poor clones with sparkling eyes.
"I thought only Lady Hekapoo could copy herself like this. How long do they last? Can they do everything you can? How many can you make?" Star asked rapidly while still continuing her 'examination'.
"Naruto can make solid clones?! Since when?!" Ino yelled in confusion. Last she checked, Naruto couldn't even do the utmost basic Bunshin no Jutsu, which created illusionary copies of the user to fool enemies, yet here he was casually doing a clearly more advanced version like it was nothing.
"…You know, I actually don't know." Naruto admitted after thinking those questions over after a moment. He'd only known this jutsu for a few weeks now and whenever he did use it he generally just spammed it like crazy, with the clones he created getting destroyed or dispelled shortly afterwards. "I'm actually kinda curious now that I think about *Poof* *Thunk* …it."
A dull look crossed the whiskered boy's face as Star gave him a sheepish grin while waving the smoke out of her face from the clone she'd accidentally popped. "Hehehe, whoops."
Shaking his head with a smile, Naruto walked over to where the clone used to be and picked up the now unoccupied side of the box. "Come on, we still need to set this thing up in the bedroom. It'll be a bit of a tight fit but we'll mana- What are you doing?" He cut himself off when he saw Star rush towards the bedroom with her glowing wand raised.
Instead of answering him, the princess kicked the door open and pointed her wand inside with a wide grin. "Glitter Sparkle Bomb Expand!" She yelled before the magic stick a bright array of sparkling colors blinded everyone.
When it cleared, Naruto's jaw hit the floor and he lost his grip on the boxed bed frame, causing it to squish his unfortunately equally stunned clone out of existence. What had once been his somewhat small but cozy bedroom was now a large castle-like three story room with Naruto's bed now turned into a four poster and all sorts of weapons, plushies, and other such stuff littered everywhere (Search Star's room for better description).
"What... the… fuck?" He swore quietly, his eyes threatening to pop out of his head as he tried to comprehend what just happened.
Meanwhile, Ino accidentally crushed her binoculars and pen in shock as a castle tower suddenly erupted from the side of Naruto's apartment.
Giggling at his reaction, Star skipped into the room and flopped onto Naruto's transformed bed before looking back at him with a smirk. "Pretty neat, huh?"
These words managed to snap Naruto out of his stupor and he stepped into the room. "Neat? Neat doesn't even come close. This is amazing!" He exclaimed while swiveling his head around, taking in every inch of the room he could. "There's so much room in here! And look at all this cool stuff!"
"I know right!" Star said as she bounced on the bed like a little kid on a sugar high. "I knew you were going to love-"
*Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang*
Both blondes stopped cold as their heads snapped towards the living room, where they could hear something furiously banging against the front door.
"Who could that be?" Naruto asked as he and Star stuck their heads out the bedroom.
"Only one way to find out." Star said with a shrug before they walked up to the shaking slab of wood.
*Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang*
"Hold your horses! I'm coming!" Naruto yelled in irritation. Seriously, what is with people constantly bashing on his door, didn't anyone know how to knock normally.
Pulling the door open, Naruto opened his mouth to give whoever was on the other side a piece of his mind, only to be caught flat-footed when Ino of all people came barging in with a crazed look in her eyes. Before he could recover from his surprise, she grabbed his collar and pulled him right up to her face.
"You! Clones! New girl! Castle outside! What the fuck!" Ino screamed at the top of her lungs, sounding like she was seconds away from a panic attack thanks to her ragged breathing and shaking form.
"Uh, what?" Naruto asked in a confused and slightly frightened tone, sweat pouring off of his forehead as the gossip queen stared at him intensely with narrowed eyes.
"Don't play dumb with me! There's part of a freaking castle sticking- hey!" Ino exclaimed midsentence when Naruto was pulled out of her grasp by Star. Said princess then raised her once again glowing wand towards the crazed gossiper, a spell on the edge of her tongue.
"Whoa! Easy there, Star!" Naruto exclaimed, shoving Star's hands down before getting between the two girls with his arms held out. "Would both of you calm down please, somebody's gonna get hurt if you keep this up."
At first he thought his plea had been in vain as the pair continued to glare at each-other, and him in Ino's case, but after a few more moments they both thankfully backed off.
Taking a few deep breaths to help herself calm down, Ino shook her head before offering Naruto and Star an awkward smile. "Ehem, wow, sorry about that. I kinda went a little nuts there, didn't i?"
"Just a little bit," Naruto said with a roll of his eyes. "Now mind explaining the sudden visit? Or better yet, how do you know where I live?"
"Oh come on Naruto, it's me, I know everything that's going on in this village, you know that." Ino said with a scoff.
"No, the only things I know about you is your family runs a flower shop and that you like to punch me in the face while calling me an idiot." Naruto said dully, causing the gossip queen to blink in surprise. "In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the only time we've ever actually talked to each-other."
"What? No, what about when…" Ino started to say as she tried to recall any interaction she'd had with her fellow blonde, only to end up trailing off as she ended up draw one big fat blank.
Well except for…
-Mini-flashbacks-
-Classroom-
"Naruto-Baka!" Ino yelled as she punched Naruto out of his seat. She then proceeded to take said seat and get into an argument with Sakura who was in the seat right next to her.
-Outside Ninja Academy-
Naruto was happily eating his lunch underneath a tree when Ino's fist suddenly collided against his face, sending him tumbling away. "Move it Baka!" She yelled before plonking down where he had been, which happened to be a few feet away from Sasuke.
-Yamanaka Flowers-
Naruto walked up to the counter with a bonsai Sakura, something he was planning to give Sakura for her birthday tomorrow. However, the moment he got close Ino punched him straight out of the shop without looking up from her fashion magazine while muttering, "Baka." under her breath.
-End flashbacks-
"Okay, you have a good point," Ino admitted with a sheepish grin. "Anyway, I heard that there was a girl living with you now and I came over to meet her. Then I saw a castle tower grow out the side of your apartment and everything is a blur after that."
"Yeah, that through me for a loop too." Naruto said while nodding his head in understanding. "Well, since you're already here I'll explain the whole story. Do you mind helping us set up a bed while we talk?"
"Sure." Ino said with a shrug, not seeing a problem with it.
And so, once again Naruto and Star went through the series of events that had transpired which resulted with the latter living with the former. Naturally, Ino was stunned by the new bedroom when she saw it herself, spending a good long while gawking over every inch of it.
She was also just a bit peeved when she put two and two together and realized that it was the princess that had caused the explosion at the hotspring, though she was quick to forgive once it was pointed out to be an accident.
However, this ended up causing another thing that Ino was curious about to pop into the front of her mind.
"How the hell are both of you perfectly fine? I have to wear these things for at least two more days, and I was on the other side of the hotspring. You guys were literally in the middle of the explosion." Ino said, pointing at the patches in her ears as she held a pink headrest with a butterfly hole carved in the middle in place while Naruto and Star lined up the frame and foot of the bed.
"Dimensional scissors have an enchantment that prevents the user from being harmed mid transport." Star said as she clicked her side into place, that being one of the many facts she learned while studying how the scissors worked.
"And I just heal fast, I was all better before we reached the hospital." Naruto said while doing the same, before frowning when Ino gave him a disbelieving look. "What?"
"You honestly expect me to believe that you simply healed from an explosion, in your face, all by yourself, in just a few minutes?" The gossip queen asked incredulously. "Stop trying to act cool Naruto and just tell me- what the hell are you doing?!"
"Naruto!?" Star yelled as said whiskered blonde pulled out a kunai from his weapon pouch and used it to make a small cut on his palm before holding it out towards Ino. Both girls then watched in shock as the injury stitched itself back, and in less then a minute was completely gone.
"Believe me now?" Naruto asked rhetorically as he wiped the blood off on his pantleg, getting a weak nod in response. "Good, now let's get the mattress in here, otherwise we won't be able to do movie night."
"Oh right, I almost forgot about that." Star said excitedly, grabbing Naruto as she ran to the living room, seeming to have forgotten that her new friend had just sliced open his hand to prove a point.
Ino wasn't so lucky, but thanks to her clan training in mental fortitude, which she totally didn't forget earlier, she was able to shake it off quickly. 'Sheesh, first he can make solid clones and now he can heal ridiculously fast, what else do I not know about you Naruto.'
If there was one thing Ino really hated, it was not knowing something about someone she knew, it spoke badly of her status as Konoha's queen of gossip. Sure, she respected other peoples right to have secrets, most of the time, the fact Naruto had been so open with such facts meant that they weren't exactly secrets to begin with.
'Dad was right, I really do tend to judge and dismiss books by their covers.' She thought with a sigh as she watched Naruto and Star waddle through the door with the mattress in hand before going over to help them.
It only took a few minutes to finish up the bed and get the bags, which had food and new clothes for Star, put away. During that time, Ino and Star chatted more and to the former's surprise ended up hitting it off rather well.
So well in fact, that the gossip queen even ended up agreeing to stay for the impromptu movie night. It's not like her parents would mind since they were both out of the village.
Now here she was, sitting back in a fluffy pink recliner with a table full of different snack, and ramen, munching on a few chips as she waited for Naruto, who was in the bathroom, and Star, who was fiddling around with the large mirror in the bedroom for some reason.
'Maybe she's actually trying to get it to reflect something properly.' She thought with a giggle. When she'd tried to check herself out in it earlier, her reflection had been extremely blurry and the words 'No Service' blinking in the corner.
*Creak*
"Huh?" Ino's head jerked to the side instinctually when she heard the sound of groaning wood but didn't see anything. After a few more seconds of nothing, she shrugged it off as just one of the other residents and settled back into her seat, shivering a bit as a breeze grazed her side. "Sheesh, I really need to chill before I start to jump at my own shadow."
"What about your shadow?" Naruto asked as he and Star walked into the room.
"Nothing, just thinking aloud." The gossip queen said with a wave of her hand. "So what are we gonna watch?"
"Nightmare in Erumu no Tochi 3: Dream Warriors." Naruto said, turning the TV and putting a tape in the VCR before grabbing two bowls of ramen and handing one to Star as he flopped down next to her.
"Oh, good choice." Ino said with a nod as she stuffed a few more chips into her mouth. "Not as good as the first one, but definitely better than the second."
"Yeah, they really cheaped out on Return to Erumu no Tochi." Naruto agreed with a shake of his head while taking a bite of his ramen as the movie started. As soon as the noodles touched his taste-buds though, the whiskered blonde paused with a confused look. "What the heck? This ramen is sweet."
"Really?" Star asked before taking a bite of her own. "Huh weird, maybe I accidentally used sugar instead of salt."
"Yeah, that's probably it." Naruto said with a shrug, eating a few more bites before putting the bowl down. Ramen lover he may be, but he wasn't really a fan of the sweetness in this one, unlike Star who quickly wolfed down her bowl then Naruto's in just a few seconds.
After that the trio fell into a comfortable silence as they enjoyed the movie, only broken by the occasional scream of fright from Star during particularly scary moments. However, as the night drew late, the princess became increasingly uncomfortable, and it had nothing to do with the film.
Her stomach was starting to ache, she kept feeling an odd crawling sensation under her skin that she couldn't help but scratch at, and there was this odd pressure-like sensation in the back of her throat that was vaguely familiar to her.
It hadn't been too bad when it had first started, just a minor annoyance that she could easily ignore. But over time it had become increasingly worse, to the point that when they were near the end of the movie it was almost unbearable.
She did her best to hide this however as she didn't want to ruin the night for them by complaining. Such a task wasn't too hard as both Ino and Naruto were too engrossed with the movie to notice her discomfort much, and when they did easily bought her excuse that it was just the film itself putting her on edge.
Just as the main protagonist was about to finally defeat the ghostly monster Kreddy Fruger once and for all (Or at least until the next sequel) though, she ended up figuring out what that feeling in her throat was the hard way.
"Oh Stump, I think I'm gonna-" *Bleugh* Star groaned as she tried to stand up, only to end up collapsing as she started vomiting all over the floor.
"Star-chan!" "Star-san!" Naruto and Ino yelled in alarm and confusion while rushing to their feet to help the poor girl. Before Naruto could take more than a single step however, he stopped as a strong sensation of vertigo flooded through his senses, blurring his vision, knocking the wind out of him, and destroying his sense of balance.
"What the… what's going…on?" He demanded groggily, shaking his head as he tried to go over to Star and Ino, which only resulted with him stumbling around in a drunken-like manner.
"What are you doing Naruto?! This is no time to goof around!" Ino yelled angrily, rubbing the princess's back as she dry-heaved.
"I'm not goof… goofing around… somethings wroOONG!" *Crash* Naruto screamed as he lost his footing altogether and fell onto the snack table, causing Ino to flinch.
Before she could go over to check if he was alright though, her attention was drawn back to Star when said girl gasped in shock.
"No… this is impossible… this can't be happening… not again." Star muttered between breaths, her eyes wide with confusion, shock, denial, and fear as she stared at her arms.
"What's wrong Star? Are you sick? Did you eat something you're allergic to?" Ino asked worriedly, only to be ignored as the princess continued to mutter to herself. Looking down to see what was causing her to freak out so much, Ino blinked in surprise as she saw…
"Purple hearts?"
-End Chapter-
AN: I'll be honest, I don't think I did very good this chapter. If you disagree then that's nice but personally I feel like I could have done better, I just don't know how, so any advice or tips would be wonderful. Internet cookies to whoever can guess what is happening to Star and Naruto, and why it is happening. I wasn't dissing Ino this chapter, but I did exaggerate her gossiper tendencies for comedy's sake.
As for Star one-shotting Sakura, that's simple. Sakura barely takes her training seriously at this point while Star regularly fights monsters several times her size with and without her wand easily and was in canon stated to have learned how to snap a neck when she was just a toddler. What do you think would happen? Thank you for reading and please review.
