Hi! Sooooo sorry for the late-ness of the update so posted 3 chapters as an apology. Been very busy, but should be back on track.
Please R&R and I hope my story continues to bring laughter.
ENJOY!
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Chapter 8
Sarutobi physically twitched and tightened his grip on his wallet in despair. Sure Naruto was right when he said he was a growing boy and needed to fuel his growth, but that had been on his 7th bowl and the bottomless pit was now on his 12th – with no sigh of stopping.
"Is anything bothering you Naruto?" the soon-to-be-broke man asked in the hope that the child was comfort eating and could be halted if cheered up.
"Nope." He replied between mouthfuls a tad too sharply.
"Yes there is. Now what is it?" please don't let him order another bowl! He pleaded to anyone who could be listening.
"It's – it's just that – well...it's my birthday and the only person who seems to want to celebrate it is you Old Man!"
"Oh?" the Third tried to sound aloof, highly doubting he had managed it, but Naruto continued his rant so he must have.
"Everyone else is either shopping, or cloud watching, or researching new bugs or taking a camera apart for the thousandth time!" he nearly yelled the last part then dove straight back into his noodles. Even after all this time he was still paranoid that people wanted to avoid him.
The Hokage grabbed the chance to cease the onslaught to his bank account. "Why don't I pay for our lunch and we can go back and see if Fumiko is finished?"
Naruto looked thoughtful, but needed more motivation.
"If she is we could ask her to join us for ice-cream?"
That sealed the deal and the birthday boy had drained his bowl and hopped off the stool faster than Sarutobi could blink.
"Hurry it up Gramps!" he called, already heading down the street.
The Hokage chuckled and started after him.
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Amongst the rush of final preparations Fumiko looked to the frog clock above the kitchen units. Shit! He's going to be here in a few minutes and will smell the cake from a mile off! I need to cover the smell! Frantic, she looked for something to solve her dilemma. Her eyes reluctantly fell on one of the kitchen cupboards. Oh well...I guess sacrifices must be made... She rushed to the cupboard and pulled out 3 cups of instant ramen and switched on the kettle. After her latest upgrade it could boil a full load of water in 10 seconds. Really handy when time was of the essence.
It finished boiling and the cups were filled. "Ino!" she caught her friend's attention. "Here! Take this and put it on the floor near Naruto's front door." She instructed.
"What-"She took the ramen, but hesitated a moment. "You're gonna prank Naruto on his birthday?"
"No!" Fumiko held up her free hand in her defence. "Just trust me that without doing this he won't be surprised that we're all here."
With doubt and confusion Ino set about her new task. She had barely re-entered the kitchen when Shino hissed in a harsh whisper, "He's coming!", and everyone dashed to their hiding places. He had thoughtfully offered to have a bug placed at the beginning of the street and have it return at the first sign of Naruto, thus warning them of his approach.
Some hushing sounds were issued and silence fell inside the apartment. Outside was a different matter, what with Naruto's approaching, constant natter.
"Do you know where sells the best mint-choc-chip? If we say we're going there she'll definitely come! It's her favourite. I ate the last of the cinnamon bagels she made and she was about to go nuts, until she spotted I had replaced it with ice-cream. It was like the memory of the bagels even being made was erased! It was awesome!"
I'll beat him senseless. A glance around the room told her all of her friends had also heard the story and were trying their best to swallow their amusement and keep their presence hidden. In fact I'll just kill him...or make him buy me ice-cream every week for the next few years. She smirked. That's a much better idea...
Naruto reached Fumiko's door and knocked. He guessed she was having lunch, he could smell instant ramen.
"Come in!" Fumiko's voice called from within. "I can't make it to the door just now."
The Hokage quirked an eyebrow at Naruto. Who just shrugged and opened the door. He took off his shoes at the door and a couple of steps inside. The blonde rounded the corner that opened up the rest of the kitchen and...
"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" the shouts were deafening.
Naruto just stood there stunned, numb, as he looked at the smiling faces of all his friends. He had never had a birthday party. There had either never been the time, or the friends to celebrate with, but here he was, standing in an apartment covered in decorations and filled with edible goodies and all the people he could openly call precious to him. Whether it was the overwhelming happiness and love he felt or the effect of being an emotional child again, his eyes flooded and overflowed with tears and he gave a smile that rivalled the sun itself.
Even Kyuubi felt the boy's heart swell and was content to keep quiet and let him enjoy the emotions he had long deserved.
The silence that had descended was broken.
"Well Dope? Are you going to join your party or not?"
Everyone laughed then playfully screamed when the tearful Naruto ran and jumped at the group, pulling several into one giant hug. "Thank you so much guys!" he laughed before all hell broke loose and the party began.
It was eventful to say the least.
A few minutes after it had started Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku arrived and admitted they had been included in the planning. Games were played and fun was had.
Hinata cornered Kiba in Blind Man's Bluff and 'accidentally' kissed him on the cheek. The fact that Naruto knocked Shikamaru into the girl's back, thus knocking her forward, and sharing a thumbs up with Fumiko had nothing to do it. Hinata had whipped off the blindfold and after seeing the flushed Inuzuka promptly feinted, right on top of him.
Choji was forever being tackled to keep him away from the food table after he had consumed half of it on his own. His repeated assaults on the edible delights were brought to an end though once he found himself on the floor, on his back and a snarling Fumiko was crouched on his chest, looking positively feral, after he had made a move for her ice-cream. Naruto had sweatdropped and laughed nervously while everyone else, including the adults, made a silent vow to never come between the brunette and her cherished frozen dessert. The traumatised boy even only had two pieces of cake when it was brought out of the fridge, and ended up looking around frantically in fear whenever someone mentioned ice-cream for about 12 weeks afterwards.
Sarutobi made the mistake of having his back turned and talking to Teuchi while Ayame and the children played Pin the Tail on the Donkey. It was Shikamaru's turn. Naruto put his hand to his mouth and whispered into Sasuke's ear before they shared devilish grins and Naruto went to spin Shikamaru around before he could be given directions to the donkey. As he was doing so, Sasuke spread the plan between the rest of them, each agreeing to the idea quite happily, even Ayame. Naruto finished Shikamaru's spins and the group began calling directions.
"Forward."
"Forward."
"Left."
"Up."
"Up a bit more."
"Back to the right a little."
"The walls are rather tough, so you'll have to fire it in."
"Wait! There!"
"Yeah right there."
With as much force as his young arms could, Shikamaru rammed the pinned tail into the receiving ass. It just wasn't the right ass.
The Third howled and sprang into the air, both hands going to his new 'tail'.
Poor Shikamaru jumped back in fear and pulled the blindfold down. Realisation of what he had done hit him and terror froze his features. His 'friends' were rolling on the floor by the time the Hokage had pulled the pin out and was vigorously rubbing his abused rear. With a roar the aging ninja spun on the trembling Shikamaru and lunged. The imminent danger awoke his senses and he ran for his life screaming that the others were the ones telling him where to go. This didn't stop the chase, just increased the number of runners. Ayame took shelter behind her father, who was still choking on his drink.
In the duration of the pursuit, they had all ran through to the living room – Sarutobi had just shook his head in disbelief of what the pair had done to the place when he picked Naruto up that morning – and Naruto had laid eyes on the pile of presents heaped onto the small coffee table. His pause in movement got him caught though and he was swiftly given a lump on the head. When the other 10 lumps were dealt out, even Akamaru got one, everyone settled down in the living room to watch the Birthday Boy open his presents.
He was given 3 all-you-can-eat ramen vouchers for Ichiraku Ramen and the Hokage smirked that they would never have enough ingredients to live up to that promise, to which everyone laughed and Naruto puffed out his cheeks with a childish huff.
The food idea was continued by Choji who gave 7 pots of Naruto's favourite brand of instant ramen, one of every flavour.
Shikamaru gave him some blank scrolls and a couple bottles of ink, "To help study and fill that empty head of yours."
Ino and Sakura had pitched in together and bought him a new bag for his academy supplies. Luckily he liked it as, unknown to him, the four girls had already raided his room and thrown away the old one.
Shino, Kiba, Sasuke and Hinata hadn't had many ideas so they too had gone in together to buy Naruto some practise shurinkin and kunai as they were all going to be starting to learn those skills shortly.
Sarutobi reached into his robe and pulled out a brightly wrapped cylinder. He handed over his present.
"But Lord Hokage, there is a box labelled from you right here." Sakura spoke up and held out the orange pouch.
"This is just a little extra something." He quickly told her, sounding like he was trying to cover something up.
Naruto gave him an enquiring look, but the Third just smiled blankly back.
Taking the pouch carefully from Sakura, the blonde pulled the drawstring and revealed its contents – just over a month and a halves worth of allowance. He shot a surprised look to Sarutobi.
"The allowance isn't very much so I thought I would give you a little extra so you could buy something you wanted rather than needed."
"Thanks Gramps!" Naruto turned his attention back to the cylinder and tore it open with relish. It was a scroll. He opened it out a little and found it was a storage scroll filled with information resources on sealing and advance jutsus. When others leaned over to see what it was he casually rolled it back up and said it was an I OWE U for lunch sometime.
The Hokage put his hand to his face and coughed to hide his smile at the boy's flawless acting.
All that was left was Fumiko's gift. He opened the small cardboard box and reached inside. His eyes went wide and he smiled when he took out a pair of goggles that looked exactly like the ones he had worn before becoming a genin. There was also a very small camera with a small fox etched onto the back. He grinned at her, already imagining several situations where the device would come in handy.
The candles of the cake were lit and 'Happy Birthday' was sung. The candles were blown out and Naruto was covered in Silly String from the cans everyone had hidden behind their backs, one in each hand in the Hokage's case wanting some payback.
When all that was left of the cake was some icing on a huge plate it was getting late and parents were arriving at the door in search of their overdue children. They were all surprised to see the Hokage there and after giving their gratitude to their leader for 'supervising' their young they lead, or carried in some cases, the worn out visitors home. Sarutobi was the last to leave. When the door shut he went to the roof to speak to Kakashi, who was sitting reading his favourite book.
"Sounded like one hell of a party."
"Indeed." The Third chuckled.
"Although, with luck, you will be able to be present for the next one?" the older man mused.
"Yip and be able to start giving Naruto my presents myself."
"As long as your successful, that day will come." He nodded. "Now I have a mountain of paperwork waiting for me." He said and left in a swirl of wind and leaves.
"Happy Birthday Naruto." Kakashi said softly and followed the Hokage's example.
Inside sat two pairs of perked fox ears.
"So which present was from Gramps?" Fumiko pondered.
"Dunno."
"Oh!" his companion squeaked. "I couldn't say so in front of everyone just in case they thought I was weird, but I kind of upgraded those goggles to switch between night vision and binoculars. I hope they're the right ones."
"Really? They can do that?"
She nodded.
"COOL!" he ran back through to the living room and grabbed the goggles, putting them on and looking out the window. "How do you switch it?"
"Twist the lenses." She told him as she started to clean up.
He did so and yelped in delight. "This is great!"
"You didn't say if they were same ones."
"Yeah they are." He took them off, turned to her and with a heartfelt tone said, "Thank you Fumi."
She giggled at the new nickname. "You're welcome. Now come help me clean this place up."
"Can't we just do it tomorrow?" he whined.
"No!" she laughed and launched a dish-towel at him. "Now get started with the dishes. I'll get the rubbish."
She so owns your ass! Kyuubi mocked.
Leave me alone... Naruto fake-sniffled in his head and Kyuubi chuckled.
