Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stared after the two running girls in shock. They turned to stare at the four remaining girls, who were staring at Sasuke nervously.
"What was that about?!" Sakura asked, looking at them in confusion.
Aneko gazed at them emotionlessly while Ayako spoke. "Aren't you going to punish us?" Ayako whispered, staring at Sasuke. Her purple eyes, like Aneko's gray ones, held no emotion. The same was true for Suzume and Tierra.
"Punish you for what?" Sakura asked, looking even more confused now.
"For doing something wrong. That's the reason that you got mad, right? Because we did something wrong." Suzume said quietly in a flat voice, as though she was just stating a fact.
Naruto looked at them weirdly. "We wouldn't hurt you because you did something wrong. And you didn't really do anything wrong! Sasuke's always mad. It would be scary if he wasn't mad!"
Aneko jerked her head up sharply. "You mean you're not going to hit us?" she whispered, looking amazed that not being hit was even a possibility.
Naruto frowned. "Of course not. Have you ever been hit for doing something wrong?"
All four of them nodded. "Daichi hits us. All the time." Suzume said, looking them in the eye. "He got really mad with a boy who was traveling with us on the way here." her voice trembled as she said it. "He… he died from his injuries about halfway here."
Naruto, Sakura, and even Sasuke looked horrified. "You… you mean… that Daichi killed him?" Sakura whispered in a shocked voice.
All of them nodded again. "That's why Yuki ran. She was really good friends with that boy. Daichi pretty much killed him right in front of her." Aneko murmured, and Tierra shuddered from the memory.
"But Daichi seemed ok when we met him at the stadium. He even agreed to be at peace with us and to stand with us against our enemies. How can he be that bad?!" Sakura asked them, hoping that they were just playing a cruel joke or something.
Ayako gave her a scathing look, and the other three stared at Sakura in disbelief. "For someone who's so smart, that's a pretty stupid thing to say." Ayako snapped. "Think about all of the times in history that something like this happens, where one village agrees to train another. And what ends up happening every single time?"
Sakura just looked at them, bewildered. "What are you talking about?"
Suddenly their eyes didn't look like seven-year old's eyes anymore. They looked like the eyes of ancient people, who had seen too much of the world. They gazed at them in sympathy, sadness flooding their eyes.
"When you have earned the right to know, and earned our trust, you will learn about us and some of our secrets. Until that day comes, try working with what we've already told you." They all said together in the exact same tone, eyes almost glowing.
Just as quickly their eyes returned to normal. "Can we go and find Yuki and Hikari now?" Suzume asked, voice perky.
Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke nodded, unable to speak. Aneko, Suzume, Ayako, and Tierra all grinned and flashed them thumbs up before beginning to walk down the road. They all stopped when they reached the town and looked around in confusion. "Which way now?" Suzume asked, scanning the crowd.
"I think that we should all split up. We'll meet at the ramen shop in an hour." Naruto said, nearly drooling at the thought of ramen.
The others agreed, and Sasuke went to the right, Sakura with Suzume, Ayako, Aneko, and Tierra, went to the left, and Naruto continued on straight.
Naruto jogged down the street until he came to what he thought might be a clue. There was a now cracked telephone pole in front of him with a face print in it. 'Hm, I think that they went this way.' He kept on walking until he came to a road block. The ramen shop! He inched past it, fighting his stomach, which was telling him to go into the shop and gorge on ramen. He was just about to turn around and sprint into the ramen shop when he saw a familiar red head. Looking over, he recognized Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro.
A brilliant idea came to his mind. (A/N Hey, it could happen! ….. well, ok, maybe not, but it does here! So says the authoress!) Why not get Gaara to help him search? He ran over to him, yelling his name at the top of his lungs. Gaara turned around slowly to look at him and started to speak before he was cut off.
"Hey Gaara, have you seen two girls running around here?" he said loudly, glancing repeatedly at the ramen shop. Hikari's head suddenly popped up over Temari's shoulder, looking around. Yuki looked over Kankuro's head from where she was sitting on his shoulders, small hands gripping the ears of his hood.
"Naruto-sama!!!" they both yelled and launched themselves at him in a tackle hug. Naruto, who was too busy looking at the ramen shop, wasn't prepared for impact, and fell backwards, landing flat on his back.
He sat up, with Hikari and Yuki still attached to him, to see Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro already walking away. "Bye!!!" Hikari and Yuki called, waving at their retreating backs. Temari and Kankuro turned around and waved back while Gaara just kept on walking.
Naruto stared at Hikari and Yuki in shock. "How did you end up with them?" he asked curiously, staring at them.
Yuki looked up in surprise. "Oh, well…
Flashback
Both she and Yuki sat up, groaning, to see a wall of sand in front of them. "Sorry!" they both chorused, staring at the sand in confusion. The sand suddenly shifted to reveal an older redhead boy with a weird gourd thing on his back staring at them coldly.
A freaked out look appeared on their faces as they noticed that the sand swirling around him now encircled them and was rising higher into the air. The redhead glared at them, holding out his hand. He began to make a fist, and the sand tightened around them as he did.
"Gaara, wait! They're just little kids!" a girls voice shouted. The sand stopped moving towards them as Hikari and Yuki sat, rigid in fear.
They blinked as two more people came up behind the redhead. The girl, who Hikari saw had a giant fan on her back, leaned forward to get a better look at the two girls. "What are you two doing, running around on your own like that?" the girl asked them, leaning on a nearby telephone pole.
Both Yuki and Hikari stumbled to their feet. "We're really sorry for running into you!" Hikari said as they both bowed respectfully to the three.
"Yeah, we were looking for our new teachers." Yuki said, then a bright look came to her face. "Do you know where they are? Their names are Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi. Do you know where we can find them?"
"My name is Hikari, and this is Yuki." Hikari added.
The other boy nodded, who was also carrying something on his back and was wearing weird face paint. "Yeah, we know them. Knowing Naruto, he'll be at the ramen shop stuffing as much down his throat as possible. My name is Kankuro, the girl is my sister Temari, and the redhead is my little brother Gaara."
"We'll take you to the ramen shop to see if Naruto is there. It's not too far away from here, and we have to go by there anyway." Temari said, looking around the street, then glanced nervously at Gaara to see if he would say anything. Instead the sand just slithered away from Yuki and Hikari, and both of them sighed quietly in relief.
"Thank you!!!" Hikari and Yuki said happily, walking towards them. Kankuro picked up Yuki, who instantly spotted the ears on his hood. She gave a squeal of delight at the sight of them and climbed up until she was sitting on his shoulders with her hands firmly attached to the ears. While Kankuro tried (unsuccessfully) to pry Yuki's hands off the hood, Gaara picked up Hikari by the scruff of the neck, who stared directly into his eyes, and passed her to Temari. Hikari scooted around until she was riding piggyback on Temari and poked her head over Temari's shoulder, still staring at Gaara.
"You're sorta like Naruto…" she said slowly, brow wrinkled. "Your not exactly the same, but you have something like what Naruto has that makes him a bit different from Sasuke and Sakura." She shook her head in annoyance. "I don't know what it is, or how to describe it differently, but it's there."
Gaara, stiffened as Yuki leaned over to look at him more closely. Yuki nodded in agreement.
"Ok, now which way to the ramen shop?" Hikari asked, looking around and having lost all interest in the conversation.
"This way." Temari said, glancing nervously at Gaara and beginning to walk. They got there in about 10 minutes and heard Naruto's voice asking if Gaara had seen them.
End Flashback
Yuki and Hikari finished telling Naruto what had happened, although they left out what they had said to Gaara about noticing something different. They didn't know why, but they didn't think that it would be a good idea at all to bring it up.
They all heard their names being called, and turned around to see Sakura, Suzume, Ayako, Aneko, and Tierra running towards them with looks of relief on their faces while Sasuke walked slowly behind them. They all ran towards each other, but before they could have any type of reunion, Naruto butted in.
"Right, now that we're all back together, let's get some ramen!" he yelled.
"Ok but just one question first." Hikari said.
All six girls took a deep breath. "WHAT'S RAMEN?!" they all shouted, looking curious.
Naruto gasped in pure horror at the question and staggered around for a moment before fainting on the ground from shock, twitching.
"Um, are you ok Naruto-sama?" Suzume asked, poking the unconscious twitching boy.