The three shinobi looked on as Yuki was glomped by this strange, silver haired man-woman. The rat did not seem very pleased by it either.
"Get. Off. Me." he seethed. The man-woman's glowing face pouted.
"But Yuki! Are you not happy to see your one and only older brother?" The shinobi sweatdropped.
'So it is a man!' Naruto thought.
'Thank you, Sherlock Holmes.' Kyuubi responded sarcastically.
'I'll ignore that. But who knew they were related? I mean, Yuki's so reserved, and this guy so…isn't…'
'Life's screwy that way, kit.'
Naruto was snapped out of his mental conversation when Sasuke elbowed him in the ribs. After glaring at his stoic friend, the blonde paid attention to what was happening. Yuki had managed to get his brother off of him, and the man was just now noticing the three shinobi.
"You three must be the ones that Akito let know our secret!" He cried joyously, then struck a very Gai pose. "I am Ayame Sohma, Yuki's gorgeous older brother, and the Snake of the zodiac!!!!" Suddenly, the man practically slithered over to where Sasuke was.
"You've been around a snake before. Trust me, I can tell." He said, smiling unnervingly at the boy. Onyx eyes bore into gold ones emotionlessly.
"I have a pet snake at home. His name is Manda." Sasuke stated. It took all Naruto and Sakura had not to burst out laughing. Ayame blinked, then beamed at him.
"I like you already!" he yelled, attempting to hug the boy. Yuki and Kyo held him back.
"Shigure, why'd you have to have him over?!" The orange-headed boy yelled. Shigure grinned.
"That's not all I invited."
A sudden crash was heard, and the door went flying past them. In the (now empty) space stood a girl maybe a few years older than Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. She had dark brown hair that went to her shoulders, dark brown eyes, and wore a kitty cat backpack. In no way did she look like she just took down the door.
"Is… Is Kyo here?" She asked. The cat looked horrified and began to inch away, muttering curses under his breath. Unfortunately, she spotted him first.
"Kyo? Kyo, my love!" She began a dramatic run towards him. "I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" The dramatic run soon became a high-speed chase, the new girl winning in the first five minutes. She picked up Kyo and started to violently beat the crap out of him. Naruto and Sasuke sweatdropped, both reminding themselves not to get any woman angry if they wanted to live to see their twentieth birthdays.
Kyo might have been a good martial artist, but he was no match for this girl's raw strength. Not surprisingly, Sakura was not bothered by any of the commotion around her. After seeing your teacher do it and later being able to do it yourself, it got kind of old.
"What's up with her?" She asked. Shigure sighed.
"That's Kagura Sohma, the boar of the zodiac. She's got the biggest crush on Kyo, but shows her love through violence. It usually leads to the injury of others-mainly Kyo- and the damage of property-mainly mine." He whimpered the last part. One of Sakura's eyebrows rose.
"And you invited her over here voluntarily?"
"She said she wanted to make sure that Kyo wasn't cheating on her with the new girl, and insisted on coming." Shigure smiled, and Sakura couldn't help but smile along with him as she went to go tell her friends this new bit of information.
'As if.'
Finally, Kagura stopped and stared at Kyo. She then burst into a fit of sobs.
"OH KYO! WHO COULD'VE DONE SUCH A HORRIBLE THING TO YOU?" She wailed, and everyone sweatdropped. It seemed that she had no memory of her… behavior.
---
"I'm really sorry about all the damage." Kagura apologized when she was finally calm enough to sit and talk like a civilized person. In totally, the girl had broken the front door, a lamp, two small tables and a vase that had been sitting on the kitchen counter.
"It's alright." Shigure smiled. "I'll just have to call a handyman."
"That's okay." Naruto said standing up. "I'll fix them. I'm really good at stuff like this." He started heading towards the kitchen. Yuki was about to say he didn't have to, but Sasuke stopped him.
"Let him do it." he said. "He won't take no for an answer." Yuki dropped the subject.
In fact, Sakura and Sasuke both knew that the blonde was good at fixing things because the villagers had repeatedly broken his possessions when he was younger. After doing it for so long, it was kind of like a natural instinct.
"So what are your names?" Kagura asked. Sakura laughed.
"Oh, how rude of us. I'm Haruno Sakura, this is Uchiha Sasuke, and the blonde was Uzumaki Naruto."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kagura Sohma." She turned to Kyo with stars in her eyes. "I'm also the future Mrs. Kyo Sohma!" Said boy jumped at this.
"What?! Since when?!"
"Since you asked me to marry you!" Kagura pouted.
"Only because you said you'd pummel me if I didn't!"
"It still counts!"
"IT DOES NOT!"
Ignoring Kyo and Kagura's squabble, Sakura and Sasuke turned to Yuki and Ayame. It seemed the latter was trying to convince the former to let him do something.
"Please Yuki?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Absolutely not."
"Pretty please with sugar and sprinkles and cheese on top?"
"…no."
"But YUKI…" The older man whined.
"What's the problem?" Sakura asked. Ayame beamed at her.
"I'm glad you asked, Sakura-chan! Yuki-kun here won't let you come to my shop on Wednesday."
"Why not?" Sasuke asked Yuki, who sighed.
"Because it's a ridiculous place that doesn't even deserve to be called a shop."
"That's not true!" Ayame protested dramatically. "My shop is man's greatest creation! I take men's fantasies and make them reality!" Sakura and Sasuke just looked at each other in slight confusion. Yuki rubbed his temples.
"He sells maid and nurse outfits." both shinobi sweatdropped, but Ayame jumped up.
"That's not all! Recently I have expanded my inventory to darker selections! I call it Princess Gothica." He announced. "And it's all of my own creation." He began to sparkle.
"So you design clothing?" Sasuke asked. "For men or women?"
"BOTH!" Yuki sighed again.
"The last time I went in there, he practically attacked me while wearing a wedding dress."
"I had to make sure it fit!"
"Then wouldn't you need a woman to try it on?" Sakura asked.
"Well if I did that, then it wouldn't fit the man that ordered it, now would it?" Ayame said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. And for him, it was.
Sasuke and Sakura looked and each other, and made a mental decision. If it would get them closer to the family, then they would have to brave this "Fantasy Shop" as Ayame had called it. For the sake of the mission.
"We'll go." Sakura announced. Yuki just stared at her.
"It's your funeral." Ayame ran over and hugged Sasuke.
"HUZZAH! I MUST TELL MINE THAT WE HAVE POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS!" He yelled in the glacial boy's ear. Sasuke tried not to wince. "Your darkest fantasies will be revealed, then brought to life right before your eyes! If not, you can refer to our motto, "Guaranteed a nosebleed or your money back!" One of Yuki's eyebrows rose.
"Since when is that your motto?"
"Since I thought of it five minutes ago!"
Tuning out of this now pointless conversation, Sakura switched over to Kyo and Kagura's argument to see if they had made any progress.
"I'll love you until the ends of time, and even beyond then!" The girl declared, clinging to Kyo's arm as the boy tried to pull away. "I'll even love you when you're in your true form-" Suddenly, Kagura squealed in pain as Kyo pinched her leg hard. He scampered away angrily and ran outside, most likely to seek refuge on the roof.
Sakura thought over her new information. True form? She decided to look into it later. Naruto walked back into the room with two newly fixed tables, the vase, the lamp, and half of the door. He had used chakra to make the lines on the vase and lamp less visible to the naked eye.
"Wow Naruto-kun! These are just like new!" Tohru raved. Naruto smiled lazily at the group as he sat down.
"What can I say? I'm a natural at arts and crafts. I'll have your door done by tomorrow."
"Thank you, Naruto-kun." Shigure said. "These are perfect."
---
After dinner Kagura and Ayame said their goodbyes (Kyo refused to come down from the roof, so the boar left teary-eyed). When the shinobi finally decided that it was time to go as well, Sakura got an idea.
"We've eaten here so many times, I feel guilty for never having you all over." she said. "So why don't you four come for dinner on Friday night?" The Sohmas and Tohru didn't see why not, and agreed.
---
That night while lying in bed, Naruto remembered the conversation he and Hinata had after the ceremony.
"Now are you sure this is what you want?" He asked. She just laughed.
"For the last time, yes! And even if it wasn't, I'm not about to go and take it away from him. Look at how happy he is." Her gaze traveled to where her cousin stood smiling, Tenten hanging off his left arm. Happy family members who wanted to shake the new clan head's hand and congratulate the happy couple surrounded them. Naruto followed her gaze and smiled fondly.
"Yeah…" He trailed off, then turned to his girlfriend. "I know what you mean."
"So, Hokage-sama," Hinata said teasingly. "What would you like to do now?" Naruto pretended to think for a moment, then gathered the girl in his arms with a foxy smile.
"I think I may just have to kiss this pretty little girl right here." Hinata pretended to narrow her eyes.
"Hanabi is too young for you." Naruto laughed and leaned in closer.
"Did I say pretty little girl? I meant gorgeous young woman."
"Is that an order, Hokage-sama?" The violet-eyed girl whispered with a smile, as they got even closer. When they were just an inch away from each other her blonde boyfriend shot her another foxy smirk.
"Might be." he breathed, and their lips connected.
Oh yeah. His teammates definitely didn't need to know about that.
