A love in the past time

Chapter 3- The Festival

It has been 3 months since Naruto started her journey around Fire Country with Mokuba, Takimaru and sadly Uchiha Madara. Her relationship with Madara was anything but friendly. Though they work well together when the situation calls for it, most of their time together is spent exchanging insults. Mokuba is always trying to play the peacemaker, while Takimaru ignores their fights, tuning them out. Mokuba seemed to be the only one willing to try and be friends with the young Uchiha.

Naruto sure as the hell wasn't going to try and be friends with the arrogant prick, Sasuke's ancestor of not. She was already hurt enough by the Uchiha brothers in her time and she did not want to be hurt by another Uchiha again. Besides, Kyuubi warned her to stay away from Madara. Naruto had a weird feeling that Kyuubi was afraid of Madara for some reason, one more reason why she did not want anything to do with him. She did trust Kyuubi's instincts when it came to people.

In their journey, Naruto had met some of the other Konoha shinobi clans. In the first month they had met the Inuzuka clan. They had helped them to stop a greedy farmer on polluting their water. After this, the Inuzuka agreed with the alliance of the formation of a shinobi village. In their second month, they meet the Akimichi clan. Naruto grimaced every time she remembers on how they got their alliance: Naruto had to defeat Akimichi Chomaru (Naruto suspects he might be Chouji's great-grandfather) in an eating contest. Needless to say both the Akimichi clan and her teammates were shocked and awed on how many bowls of ramen she could eat without getting fat. Nothing gets between Naruto and her precious ramen. Naruto never would have imagined the ramen chef was the true Ichikaru's ancestor. She was happy that the chef decided to go to the Senju clan to help on the formation of the shinobi village.

Now in their 3rd month of journey, nothing special has happened and Naruto and Takimaru were getting bored. Complaining about the lack of action, Mokuba sighed as Madara just ignore them. Then they saw a caravan and Mokuba decided to ask them for directions.

"Excuse us sir," said Mokuba to a man driving a car. "Would you happen to know the directions to the next village?"

"Ah, you are lucky. We are headed to Kyoshi Village now so that we may attend the Spring Festival."

"Spring Festival?" asked Naruto.

"Ah, there's a lady between you." The old man sighed. "Too bad you are still so young, or I would ask which one of you is going to marry this lovely lady." He laughed when he saw the blushing faces of Naruto, Mokuba, and Takimaru.

"Yea right, who would want to marry a monster like her?" Madara smirked as he once again avoided one of Naruto's punches.

"Haven't you kids heard? Kyoshi's festival is famous because of their wedding ceremonies to all people, rich or poor. Why don't you all come with us? You might have fun at the festival."

With the promise of possible fun, Takimaru and Naruto soon put on their famous puppy eye Jutsu. Mokuba sweat-dropped at his brother and friend's childish behavior.

"Well… I think a little break will not hurt," said Mokuba.

"YEAH!" cheered Naruto and Takimaru.

"Morons," growled Madara while rolling his eyes.

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At Kyoshi Village everyone was doing their work for the Spring Festival for the night. Naruto was happy because it was rare for her to go to a festival without having problems with angry villagers, especially the Kyuubi festival, which she avoided every year. That was in her time though and right now she planned on enjoying this to her full extent.

"I think it will be nice to go to this festival."

"We totally agree!!" said female voices from behind them. They turned around and saw 3 girls around 16 years of age. They had a weird look in their eye eyes.

"We saw you around the caravan," said one of the girls.

"You not dressed to attend this festival," said one of the other girls.

"Don't worry though! We will fix that problem!" said the girl closest to Naruto.

The trio grabbed Naruto as they took her away from the boys. Mokuba had a horrified look on his face while Takimaru and Madara sweat-dropped. Then the same elder from the caravan came up behind them.

"Ohoho, don't worry boys. They just kidnapped her to prepare her for the festival. You will see her again before tonight," said the elder as he pulled out a bottle of Sake from nowhere. "Now who wants some sake while we wait for the girls to return?"

For some reason that made Mokuba become more worried than before, especially with this guy around trying to give sake to minors.

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"No way, you will now make me wear this thing!!" yelled Naruto

"Oh yeah, you will!" yelled one of the girls. All three were surrounding her threateningly while holding a Kimono.

"And we will make you the prettiest girl at the festival," said the one next to Naruto.

"And you even will charm your male teammates," said the last girl smiling coyly.

Naruto sweat-dropped, these girls would get along well with Sakura and Ino. They dealt best in the area of clothes, makeup and romance.

"But I don't even like dressing up," Naruto said sounding frustrated.

For some reason, they have that weird look again. Naruto rolled her eyes and prayed someone would save her. Those girls are not only weird, but also insane.

Hours later, after much protest and grumbling (from Naruto), irritated exclamations, threats, and exasperated sighs, Naruto was finally ready for the festival. The other three girls stood back to admire their handiwork with pride

"You look beautiful, Naruto!" gushed the girls in unison.

"I am not beautiful," Naruto grumbled as she looked away, a slight smile on her face and a faint pink blush on her cheeks. No one in the village had told her she was beautiful before.

"You are!" one of the girls cried out. "With our hard work you look prettier than before. If only you had long hair…."

"Our work is done; now go get your boys"

"YEAH!" cheered the girls.

Now Naruto remembered one of the big reasons why she liked to dress as a boy.

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It was a really nice Festival in Madara's opinion. The music was good, the food was fantastic, and everybody seemed to be having fun. But there only one problem: the Uchiha's are not into festivals, much less having fun. The only worthy company had to stay with his stupid younger brother because he is afraid that said foolish little brother would be stupid enough to drink sake with that insane elder. Mokuba stayed with him to make sure Takimaru didn't do anything stupid

"Foolish Takimaru," muttered Madara darkly.

"Hello Teme, where's Mokuba and Takimaru?"

Madara recognized the voice as Naruto's. Turning around to face the blonde girl, he felt a jolt of shock and surprise.

Naruto was dressing in an orange kimono with golden flowers on it. She had a small amount of make- up on her face to bring out her eyes and lips and atop her head was a crown of sakura flowers. Madara blushed before he could stop himself. Whatever those girls did to Naruto, they pulled a miracle on her. She looked like a beautiful Geisha to him.

"Yeah, I know. I look a little odd in this Kimono," Naruto sighed while looking down at herself. "Those girls are insane if you ask me."

"Even if they are insane, those girls are miracle workers. You even look like a lady," Madara said not able to hide his shock.

"Gee, I don't know if that was a compliment, or sarcasm," Said Naruto narrowing her eyes at the Uchiha who was dressed in a plain black kimono. "You could have dressed in something more cheerful for the festival….. Opps, I'm sorry. Now I remember, Uchiha's are not cheerful, and much less interested into going to parties."

"How come you know so much about my clan anyway? You act like you know how the Uchiha clan acts," said Madara looking distrustfully at Naruto.

"Staying three months with you is more then enough to know how your clan acts," Naruto replied.

Well that wasn't exactly a lie per say. After watching Madara, Naruto could tell how the Uchiha's would act if there had been no psycho man killing off his own clan and making his young brother an insane avenger who lusted for power. Of course that wasn't enough to convince Madara, quite the opposite. But he decided he would find out later about Naruto (she still was a mysterious in Madara's point of view).

Both of them called a temporary truce for the festival, neither one of them wanting to make a scene. Deciding she wanted to try out one of the game booths, Naruto paid and focused on hitting the targets. After hitting all of the bulls-eyes with some Senbon she picked a teddy bear as a prize. She loved the teddy bear and held onto it tightly. It was her first teddy bears since she was a little girl back in Konoha. She never had any toys, not even a doll except for the teddy bear that old man Hokage gave her for her third birthday. Madara bought some Dango for them to eat. Naruto was surprised on how much Madara enjoyed eating Dango. He would eat it as much she would eat ramen. Neither Naruto, nor Madara wanted to admit it but they were enjoying each others company.

In the center of the festival there was a field for dancing. Madara was about to ask Naruto if she would like to dance with him but someone already beat him to it.

"Would the lovely lady like a dance?" It was Mokuba dressed in a white and red kimono. He smiled as he saw Naruto's Kimono. No doubt in his eyes she was beautiful.

"Sure," she answered while smiling shyly.

Mokuba grabbed Naruto's hand and lead her out into the field and pulled her close and started to dance. Madara didn't do anything but if you looked into his eyes they were showing his jealously.

"Hey Mada-kun, I finally found you two," said Takimaru who walked up to Madara while carrying a box of Dango. "It's a miracle to find you two not trying to rip each others throats out. Something happen while we were out?"

"Don't call me that! You know I hate that nickname" hissed Madara "Nothing happened because Naruto-san and I agreed on a truce for only tonight."

"Since when do you call her Naruto-san?" asked Takimaru raising one brow inquisitively.

"None of your business," said Madara before leaving.

Takimaru was confused. Was it his impression that Madara sounded a little jealous? If he really is jealous, then that means that the almighty Uchiha has feelings after all. Takimaru smirked. There's still hope for him. He looked at Naruto and Mokuba still dancing and it made him a little jealous too.

"I think I will look for my pair too,"

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"I cannot believe this! This is… fun!" Naruto laughed as she and Mokuba left the dance area.

"Yeah, and you know, I think your laughing like that makes you even prettier." Winked Mokuba as Naruto's face blushed a deep red.

"S-stop that," muttered Naruto feeling very shy. "I am not that pretty."

"Yes, you are. And I like you because you are so different from any other girl I have met."

Naruto's heart started beating fast. This is not happening. Mokuba- the future Shodai Hokage and Tsunade's grandfather is not flirting with her. Not that way! It would be just weird! Too weird! Before Mokuba would have a chance to do anything a voice interrupted them.

"AH! WHAT A CUTE CPOUPLE! I AM HAPPY YOU TWO ARE ENJOYING THE FLAMES OF YOUR YOUTH TONIGHT!" Both Naruto and Mokuba jumped further apart upon the sudden outburst directed towards them from behind.

Turning around, the young couple came face to face with a weird guy with an odd haircut and big brows. He was wearing a red body suit and leg warmers. Naruto eyes widened in pure horror! Except for the color in the body suit and without the Jounin vest, this guy was Maito Gai's clone!

"AAHHHH!!" Naruto screamed while pointing her index finger at the stranger, who was also not so much a stranger to Naruto. "THICK-BROWS-SENSEI?!"

To be continued

Yay! Finally chapter 3 is done!

You know, I was going to add some action in this chapter, but I decided to add the action in the next chapter instead.

I hope the festival chapter and the starting of Madara's feeling were good. Please, give me your sincere opinion about this chapter.

Next chapter, Naruto will see a familiar face but an insane stranger. A lot of odd things will be happening in the next chapter.

I want to thank once more shadowphoenix143 for beta writing for me. You rule!

See you all in the next chapter!