Chapter six
Petitefeeme: And here is the sixth chapter! The festival is still going on…what will happen during the festivities…I wonder.
Tenten: Shouldn't you know? You're the author.
Petitefeeme: Really?...eh eh…oups? Anyway, enjoy this chapter! And big thanks to our loyal Sukki18 who sent another lovely review…thank you!
All went well at the festival until Kara lost Hanaka.
"Hanaka!' called desperately Kara, looking around.
Unfortunately, no red head appeared in the girl's line of vision.
'I hope she doesn't run into trouble.' Though worriedly Kara before biting her thumbs and doing a few hand signs.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu." She said, a summoning seal appearing on the ground.
There was a puff of smoke and an owl appeared in front of Kara. It had deep brown feathers, amethyst eyes, his wings were deep green tipped and his torso silver.
"Kara-sama." The bird said with a deep male voice before tilting his head in greeting.
"Hello Daichi." Greeted back the girl quickly "Can you find Hanaka? I lost her."
The owl nodded shortly before taking off and turning to the right after circling the area a few times.
Kara followed and soon she found Hanaka eating dango.
The surprising fact was that she was eating dango with Itachi Uchiha.
Kara blinked, startled, before distractedly thanking Daichi who disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Hanaka, upon seeing her, smiled brightly and ran to her, holding her arm out for a hug.
Kara complied and the little girl began talking excitedly:
"Aneki! Itachi-nii-san was really nice and let me eat some of his dango! He is…"
Kara let Hanaka ramble and concentrated on the stoic figure of Itachi Uchiha who was still eating calmly his dango, looking at them with a stern, unreadable gaze.
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Meanwhile, Aimi was seriously doubting Ino's logic.
Sure, they had a good time walking around the festival, and Aimi even got to eat some delicious apple mochis.
But all Ino had done was shamelessly flirting with numerous guys before directing some of them (the ugliest ones) at Aimi.
She had gently told most to get lost but some of them insisted heavily. A few of them she had to show the sharp end of a kunai before they decided that a holiday in the hospital wasn't worth the effort.
She sighed as she petted absentmindedly the dog plushie she won. She couldn't see were this was going.
She sighed again and discreetly tiptoed away into the wood, leaving Ino and her crowd of boys behind her eagerly.
She smiled, surrounded by silence and took out her hair band and clip to pass her hand through her free hairs.
She sensed a presence and turned to see a familiar brown head.
"Shino?" she barely had the time to say before his lips were on hers.
Suddenly all those hours keeping herself from beating those macho men into bloody pulps were worth the effort.
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Sakura was enjoying her time with Sasuke when another girl appeared.
From Sakura's point of view, the girl was very ugly (and she was of course very objective). She had ugly red hairs that spiked at the end (which proved they were badly taken care of) and equally red eyes. She had also very ugly clothes that clung to her form like a slut.
'Jealous.' Inner Sakura 'sing songed' in her mind.
"Sasuke-kuun!' whined pitifully the bitch before clinging to his arms "I missed you. I hope you missed me too!"
She then noticed Sakura and her flirting smile transformed into a frown.
"And who might you be?" she said with a horrible nasally voice, looking at her like she was a fly bothering her.
"My name is Sakura, Sasuke's girlfriend." The pink haired girl replied, narrowing her eyes.
"Really?" sneered the red head "I can't believe Sasuke chose you as his first wife."
'First wife?' though Sakura, bewildered, her right eye twitching.
She looked at Sasuke for explanations, but the boy sombrely looked away, refusing to turn her way.
"Yes, first wife." Smirked haughtily the red head "Don't you know that since Sasuke and his relatives are the last surviving Uchihas, they can invoke the polygamy rule. With several wives they can repopulate the clan faster. And I intend to be the first wife, the one with more powers than the others, of course."
Sakura blinked, frowned in confusion and turned once again to Sasuke, who still refused to look her way.
"Is that true Sasuke?" she whispered, unable to manage her voice to be stronger.
When he didn't answer, she felt her heart being horribly squished and managed to turn around before the tears appeared on her eyes.
"If that's so." She whispered, her voice barely audible.
She tried to keep her posture as straight as possible while walking away ('a little too straight' said inner Sakura).
But when she felt Sasuke's hand on her arm, she snapped and yelled….:
"Leave me alone!"
…Before punching him. He flew to the end of the street, crashing into a stand.
Sakura didn't see the dark look he sent to a fussing red head, too busy she was running away.
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Kara was with Hanaka and Itachi in the open fields, waiting for the fireworks to begin.
It was Hanaka who asked for the man to stay with them. As it didn't seem to bother Itachi a lot (though with his everlasting stoic mask, no one could tell), Kara had hesitantly accepted at first, but now was glad.
She just loved the conversations the two could have. The man was posed and highly sharp minded. It was refreshing compared to the conversations she could have with Sasuke, Naruto or Shisui. The three didn't even seem to listen to her fully when she spoke.
But with Itachi, it was different. The man actually listened to her and answered back with intelligent remarks (not that her boys were not intelligent, but most of the times their reply were too short like 'hn' or something with no ties to what she was saying). She was enjoying the moment fully.
However, they were distracted when Sakura stumbled in the clearing, in tears.
"Sakura-chan?" asked Kara, surprised.
She got up just in time to receive a sobbing pink haired girl in her arms.
"Hey, hey calm down." Kara said, trying to dry her friend's green eyes.
The slightly hysterical girl tried to speak, but her phrases were cut each couple of seconds by hiccups and wails, so her speech in the end was quite mashed up.
But Kara was able to make out the words 'Sasuke' and' polygamy rights'.
'The polygamy law?' though Kara, surprised 'How can that apply to…'
She suddenly wanted to smack herself. Of course, the Uchiha clan needed to be repopulated!
She had a worried though for Hana, but was sure that Shisui could be more responsible than that (at least she hoped).
"Okay Sakura-chan, you have to calm down" Kara said soothingly, taking out her handkerchief to help dry her friend's tears "I'm going to take you home."
But Sakura shaked her head vigorously, apparently not wanting to go back to her parents'.
"Okay, okay, take it easy." Said quickly Kara "You can sleep in my house tonight."
Sakura finally nodded and Kara helped her straighten up.
"I'm sorry but I have to go." She threw apologetically to Itachi who wordlessly nodded before walking away.
"Sorry to interrupt your romantic moment." Hiccupped quietly Sakura.
"Don't worry, it wasn't a romantic moment." Replied Kara, trying to hide the pink dusting her cheek.
She called Hanaka back and together they walked back to Kara's home.
On the way, Kara noticed Sasuke trying to follow them. The freezing look she shot him was so dark and reproachful that he backed down, knowing with her when a battle was lost.
Kara sat Sakura on the couch in the ima before helping Hanaka out of her yukata and into her sleeping garments.
She told the little girl a story and sang a little lullaby before kissing the sleepy little girl's forehead.
She walked back in the ima and prepared Sakura some tea for her.
"You can stay here as long as you want." The brown haired girl said soothingly, helping remove Sakura's makeup and hair ornament.
After drinking her tea, Kara offered the pink haired girl a sleeping yukata and a guest room.
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The Haimaru brothers were Hana's dogs, partners during missions, and friends outside them.
But they also loved to prank people, particularly males that were close to their master.
Actually, there was only one male, beside Kiba, that was close to her.
This was why the three dog nins were hiding behind a corner, spying on the male who was nervously fingering a little velvet box in front of Hana's door.
The three looked at each other and grinned (doggish style) before taking action.
One of them jumped on Shisui who narrowly avoided, missing the one who crept just behind his feet.
He tripped and the last dog leaped over him to catch the box in his jaws before the three brothers bolted away.
Shisui let out a string of curses before sprinting after them.
Meanwhile Hana was quietly finishing her set of exercises when her dogs busted in the clearing, one of them holding a little box.
"What are you do.." she tried to say, stopping short when she saw her boyfriend leaping after them, tackling the one with the box.
The dog let go and the velvet square innocently stumbled to her feet.
Out of curiosity she took it and opened it.
"No!" exclaimed Shisui, trying to prevent her from pushing open the lid.
Unfortunately, he couldn't and Hana discovered a beautiful ring snuggled inside the box's inner cushion.
The band was made of pale gold with a warm yellow citrine gem surrounded by two more little lightly blue topazes.
Hana blinked in surprise, looking at him in mild amazement.
Shisui sighed and scratched embarassingly the back of his head.
"I didn't mean it to happen like that." He said, looking away from her "But."
Hana's eyes widened as her boyfriend kneeled in front of her, taking the blue box from her to present it to her properly.
"Inuzuka Hana." He said, looking dead into her eyes, his gaze sincere "Will you be my wife?"
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"Oh my god it's beautiful!" exclaimed Ino, looking at Hana's ring.
"We're happy for you." Smiled Kara, hugging her sister/friend.
"Congratulation!" added Hinata.
"Girls, please." Asked Tsunade, a bit exhasperated "As surprising as it is that Shisui is getting hooked up, we have a mission to prepare."
The Hokage pointed to the hot spring, tea, rice, river and water countries.
"These five countries are where we will investigate." Said the blonde woman "Since Hana is engaged, she will stay here."
"Why?" protested the brown head "I'm engaged, not disabled! I'm perfectly capable of taking this mission!"
"I know that." Snapped back irritatedly the Hokage "But since you're engaged to an Uchiha, the council stepped in. That reminds me, you can't do any more than B ranked missions until you're married and have a child on the way."
"What!" yelled Hana, outraged "I can't abandon my team like that just because some old craps want to bring back a cursed clan!"
"Shut up brat!" yelled back the Hokage "Be thankful you aren't just stuck home with Shisui with the order to begin procreating!"
That shut up the brown haired woman who looked away, defeated.
"You can still work as a vet Hana-san." Helped Shizune "And I'm sure that if you ask you can have a temporary guenin team."
Hana grunted, appreciating Shizune's attempt but still not liking abandoning her team. Call it strong pack instinct from her inu side.
Kara put her hand on her forearm and offered a reassuring smile.
"Hinata I want you to go to hot spring country. Tenten, tea country. Kara, rice country. Aimi, river country and Ino wave country. This will be your first solo mission, you have three months to prepare and I have to approve your infiltration plan before anything. Is that understood?"
"Hai!" they all said, mock saluting.
"Dismissed." Finished shortly the blond kage, re-sitting herself in her seat and rolling her eyes, wishing for some sake.
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In the end Hana refused to take care of a guenin team, preferring to work as a vet full time (though she still demanded B-ranked missions as often as possible). She once or twice accompanied a guenin team on a C-ranked mission, but the experiment wasn't a success as the woman almost hurt a boy because he had annoyed her too much (for her credit, the child was arrogant and extremely annoying).
Even if she was disgruntled to not go, the woman still helped the girls put an infiltration plan together. Usually people like Shikamaru would think of plan, but the team liked to think for themselves.
Hinata decided that she would enter an onsen after travelling to the capital for rumours, while her wolf summons would scout the country.
Tenten's plan was practically found for her. Jirocho, a friend of Tsunade, requested one of his nieces escorted to him to a far town at the farthest point from the borders. Tenten would disguise herself into a servant to stay near, in plus of the official escort.
Kara's was a bit trickier, because rice country was grovelling with bandits. After a lot of thinking she decided to disguise herself as a travelling miko.
Aimi decided to travel around the country, mostly staying hidden. Shino proposed to accompany her, and the strawberry blond girl was considering his offer (his insects could come in handy).
With Naruto's help, Tazuna the bridge builder accepted to house Ino as his daughter's cousin.
Like that the blond had the perfect cover to look around without being bothered.
The girls helped each other and eventually they were ready to go.
"Be careful." Ordered Hana while hugging them tightly.
"Don't worry." Smiled Ino before adding excitedly "And when we come back we're organising your bachelorette party!"
Hana smiled back at her and waved at them as they disappeared in the trees surrounding Konoha.
Petitefeeme:…wow. A lot of things happened!
Hinata:…did she really write this chapter?
Ino: Did she really write this story?
Petitefeeme: If you both want your happy ending I suggest you to shut up. Anyway, Big thanks to Blue-chan who always helps me for romantic moments! I hope they were good enough, marriage proposals aren't my cup of tea but I really hope it was alright…
Ino: (sniggers) For sure…you don't even have a boyfriend…
Petitefeeme:…Me think Ino will really end up old alone, surrounded by cats…or perhaps by carnivorous pirhanas…or blondes eating monsters…but they would have horrible stomach aches later….poor monsters.
Ino: T-T…You're cruel!
Petitefeeme : ^-^ Thanks ! Dear readers, don't forget to leave me some reviews ! They're like rays of sun in my grey day!
Hinata:…You know you begin to sound like Lee.
Petitefeeme: -_-!...that I could do without.