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Chapter 4: Plan A, Part 3
Naruto stood back and admired his work. He had just placed lights on a tree in a certain formation that was similar to the image of Tsunade. This one was a masterpiece.
Suddenly, a green blur zoomed past before Naruto could even blink. And after swaying slightly, all the lights fell to the ground.
"WHAAAAA?" Naruto's jaw dropped. "BUSHY BROWS!"
He looked around and saw Akamaru tugging at some of the other lights Naruto had spent sweat and tears putting up. The others were ruining his work! He flung his fist around angrily. "Just what do you guys think you're DOING?!" he shouted, his breath forming large, misty clouds.
"Taking down the competition," Kiba snickered. "LITERALLY."
Naruto glared back at them both. "Well, two can play at that game." He turned to his shadow clones and commanded, "Commence Operation TAKE DOWN THE COMPETITION, YEAH!"
"HAI," all 112 shadow clones saluted Naruto. In a blur of orange and black, Christmas lights dimmed and fell one by one, as if there was a sudden replay of the last Shinobi War. All at once, it was now a mad rush in bringing down others' lights while putting up one's own.
Rock Lee was in the midst of hanging some Christmas lights on the edge of a roof when he looked all around, realizing something. "Where's Choji?"
Kiba and all the Narutos also stopped mid-action. "Choji…?" Kiba asked. He sniffed the air.
"I don't see him around," Rock Lee explained. He looked at the ground, but it was full of slushy snow made from their rapid running around, no distinct footprints to be seen.
"CHOJI!" Kiba called loudly. They all stopped and listened. There was no response, not even the faintest of a chomp which would've betrayed Choji's eating.
Kiba was calling Choji's name again.
"He was here awhile ago," Rock Lee said. "Maybe he just went somewhere nearby? He's prone to wander off, in search of food, most times."
Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought. He mentally consulted his shadow clones, had any of them seen Choji?
"We should find him," Naruto said finally. "Who knows what could happen in these dark, dark times," Naruto looked around suspiciously. "With the very people you trust, TURNING ON YOU, TAKING DOWN YOUR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS." He huffed. But memories of the attack on the village not too long ago resurfaced in Naruto's mind... No, it would not do to be careless.
"Yeah, well, I want that barbeque," Kiba said.
"I must fight for my team!" Rock Lee exclaimed tearfully.
"Okay, we should call off decorating for now, and we should look for Choji," Naruto suggested. He hoped Choji was only nearby.
"No one better touch anything," Rock Lee added.
"I've got my eyes on you," Kiba squinted at the other two. Akamaru barked in agreement.
"Hypocrites," Naruto muttered, whilst rolling eyes.
They all went off in different directions.
Tsunade held her head in her hands, frustrated. From what Katsuyu had been telling her, all the teams were not getting the point.
"I almost regret making this into a competition," Tsunade said aloud.
"At least it got them going," Shizune pointed out.
"True…But still. They're too competitive, almost to a fault. We need to teach them the true meaning of Christmas!" She glanced out the Hokage office at the still-dark village, with only a few sections lit with Christmas lights. There was not much time left.
"Should I remind them all?" Katsuyu offered.
"No, they still wouldn't learn anything," the Hokage said. Sometimes they were too stubborn and thick-headed, she thought, with a certain blond haired, blue-eyed whiskered shinobi coming to mind. Neither the villagers nor the shinobi were getting the point of Christmas.
"Um…" Shizune faltered. "Pardon me, but…. what IS the true meaning of Christmas…?"
Tsunade turned swiftly to face the trembling Shizune, who was already preparing herself for one of Tsunade's temper flares. "It is obviously… not very obvious," Tsunade sighed.
Crossing her arms, she turned towards her window as she so often did to help herself think. "Hold on…." She stared through the falling snow, out to the working construction in the parts of the village that were destroyed during Pain's invasion.
She mulled over her thoughts, with Shizune and Katsuyu waiting in the reflection of the window.
"I'VE GOT IT!" she finally exclaimed.
"You found the meaning of Christmas?" Shizune asked.
"No, the meaning of Christmas is being kind, generous, giving, all that jazz," Tsunade flapped her hands, and she turned around to face them. "But now I know how to make the teams understand!"
"Don't just stand there grinning like an idiot," Katsuyu prompted. "Tell us! We're running out of time!"
"Right right," Tsunade began to pace the length of her room in excitement. "Here's how we'll go about doing this…"
Sasuke paused mid-delivery, as he was placing a Tobirama with particularly uneven eyes on a doorstep. Without thinking, his eyes shifted blood-red with black tomoes. Someone was watching him. He could feel it.
Turning towards his hawk, he decided to find Neji and the others. The relentless stare gave him a very bad feeling.
Within a few seconds, he descended on Neji, who, thankfully, wasn't too far from Shikamaru and Shino.
"Uchiha," Neji acknowledged. "What are you doing here?"
Shikamaru and Shino joined them.
"What's up?" Shikamaru asked.
"Someone's watching us," Sasuke said. "And it doesn't seem friendly."
Neji nodded. "I feel it too."
"Should we go investigate?" Shino asked.
"Maybe we should meet up with the others," Shikamaru said. "Neji, can you see who is around?"
Neji replied by activating his Byakugan. "I don't see anyone… They left quickly."
"They must be very skilled, with speed like that," Shino pondered out loud. "We'd better regroup and find him or her."
"Well, there are five at Ichiraku Ramen," Neji said, his Byakugan still at work. "And three more are headed in that direction."
"So we'll head there as well," Sasuke concluded.
Sharing a universal nod all around, they all disappeared in a poof of clouds.
"Choji was headed towards this direction," Kiba said, sniffing the area with Akamaru.
"Hey," Naruto squinted. "This place is familiar… it's the way to Ichiraku!"
"I knew it," Rock Lee said. "He's always eating and trying to find things to eat."
"Hold on," Kiba called out. "These decorations…. they've been torn down."
"I KNEW YOU GUYS WERE SHADY," Naruto accused the others, jumping back and pointing a finger at their faces.
"I didn't do it!" Rock Lee jumped back and put his hands up.
"Neither did I," Kiba said, with a confirmatory bark from Akamaru. He looked at Naruto suspiciously. "Did you?"
"I kept my word," Naruto said honestly.
"Wait," Kiba sniffed the lights. "None of us did this. This is a different scent."
"What… Are you implying… sabotage?!" Lee cried incredulously.
"As if we weren't sabotaging each other before now," Naruto once again muttered to himself, noting the hypocrisy of them all.
"Well, this is an interesting turn of events," Rock Lee rubbed his chin. "Is it any of the other team members?"
"Nope," Kiba said, sniffing the lights. "But it does seem familiar…"
"Shall we find Choji first, and then hunt this guy down?" Naruto asked.
"Let's find Choji first since we're probably near him anyway, with the rate his trail is going," Kiba said.
Naruto and Lee nodded in agreement.
With a group consensus, they headed off to Ichiraku Ramen more united than ever before.
Min: hmmmm wonder what's gonna happen next *_*
Mango: keep your eyes peeled…..like bananas
Min: *drools over thought of ramen*
Mango: *takes a chomp out of a banana*
JK. Bananas and ramen, sadly, will not be making a cameo in the next chapter.
