So, this chapter is not only late, but a bit shorter than normal. I've actually noticed that any time I don't have Naruto going into Lyoko, that part comes in noticeably shorter than if he went in. Still, time to get to the story.

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Naruto had a confusing last few days. There hasn't been any recent X.A.N.A. attacks, but lately he's felt something was… wrong with his room. One of the more confusing things were when he thought he had locked his door. It's been quite distracting, not to mention things seemed off in his room. He couldn't place it, but things were just… not right. It was honestly maddening to the blonde, but with nothing explicitly wrong, it's not as if he could say anything lest he be considered a crazy man. Right?

Well, right now that was the least of the blonde's worries. He thinks that, but right now he's working on math. An exam to be accurate. Now, Naruto is by no means a genius like Jeremie, but math is a subject that's just easy for him. He couldn't really explain it, it just came easier to him than other subjects. Under Ms. Meyer's watchful eye, the class were seated in pairs and quietly working on the exam. Naruto, who had been seated with Jeremie, was laying his head down with his arms crossed underneath. Supposedly, Jeremie was done with his exam, much like Naruto at this moment in time. The teacher, seeing the two blondes not working on their exams, came over to them. "Is something wrong? An issue perhaps?"

Naruto looked up at the teacher, seeming a bit tired, while Jeremie, who had been leaning back in his chair, spoke. "Oh, no. No, I'm finished, ma'am." That got nearly everyone's attention. Ms. Meyer took the boy's exam, looking over the no doubt perfect test.

To no surprise, at least to Naruto, she was pleased with the sight. "Why yes, you have. Very good job." Now, the teacher looked to the other blonde next to her favorite student. "And what about you, Naruto? Are you finished as well?" Naruto nodded as he handed his exam over to the teacher, yawning noticeably as he did. Though he didn't say anything, she took his exam as well. To her surprise, it looked excellent as well, possibly even perfect like Jeremie's exam. With that, she turned to the rest of the class. "All right, the rest of you, keep working.

Jeremie looked shocked as he remembered something. Whispering to himself, he caught Naruto's attention. "Oh, her birthday is today." Though, in the quiet room, everyone could hear the boy.

While most didn't even have a clue for what he meant, Ms. Meyer turned back to the blonde genius. "You may go, Jeremie." Pausing to look at the boy's fellow blonde, she continued. "You as well, Naruto. Try to get more sleep, okay?"

Well, that sounded a little rude, did he really look tired? Of course, Odd was upset. Apparently, he needed all the help he could get. Surprising. In fact, the boy even tried whispering to the two blondes leaving the classroom. "Oh, come on, you could have at least helped me out."

Jeremie, however, shook his head. "Aelita. I almost forgot that we met exactly a year ago today." That got both Odd and Ulrich to whisper amongst themselves. While Naruto found it odd, knowing he hadn't been a part of the group that long. But he reckoned that the others did know her longer than he did.

As the two were passing Sissi, the girl was understandably confused. "Hey Naruto, what are they talking about?" Unfortunately, Ulrich, who was still not accepting of the girl knowing their secret, shushed her.

So, Ulrich was really starting to aggravate Naruto. But, he kept it in as he responded in a hushed tone. "Later, when I know more." A quick wave between the two was all that was left to do before Naruto followed the blonde genius out.

The went out into the courtyard, sitting on a bench quietly. Well, as quietly as a yawning blonde would allow. Jeremie, turning to Naruto, really looked at him. At his fellow blonde's staring, Naruto asked, "What's got you staring?"

The blonde genius adjusted his glasses before responding. "It's just… you look more tired than usual. Any reason for that?"

Naruto had to think on that. Was it really that bad? "Stress just getting to me, I guess. I mean, I'd love a break from all these X.A.N.A. attacks, maybe a week you know? On top of that… nah, just me being paranoid." Clearly, Jeremie looked as if he was going to pry into that bit. Time to change subjects and hope the boy forgets. "So, a whole year since you met Aelita, huh?" At least that got Einstein distracted. "It wouldn't be rude of me to celebrate it with you guys, yeah?"

Well, Jeremie would be filing that away for later, but he decided to let himself be led away from that topic. "Of course not, you've risked your life way too many times to not be invited. Besides, we're all friends, right?" That got soft chuckle from the American born blonde. From there, the two settled into a peaceful quiet. Which lasted for roughly five minutes before an overly excited Odd came running out, followed by a mellow Ulrich of course. Oh, and as well as the rest of the class.

The two stood and walked over to the vending machines, to which Odd shifted his attention to. Ulrich, who was paying for his turn at the machines, voiced his thought. "Wow, it's already been a year since we met Aelita." There was a quick glance at Naruto. "For most of us, anyways."

Jeremie, who was leaning against a wall, shook his head. And I still haven't managed materialize her."

Patting his fellow blonde's shoulder, Naruto scoffed a bit. "Maybe, but how many real-life people can you say have tried doing what you have?"

Ulrich took a drink from his vended cup. "Besides, we've managed to protect her from X.A.N.A., hiccups and all." Naruto kind of felt that that was a bit of a shot at himself.

Yet, Odd had an idea. Now, at this point, it could go either way. "What do you say we use our lunch hour to prepare a little surprise. She'd like that a lot, huh? Don't you think?"

Okay, so this one was a good idea. Of course, anything involving Aelita in a positive way always got Jeremie excited. "Yeah, come on, let's go to the factory"

It was actually a bit funny to see the boy so excited. Naruto, though, had other plans. "You guys go ahead, I'll grab Yumi and meet you there." And that annoyed Ulrich, who had planned on doing just that himself.

So, the three teens left, leaving Naruto at the vending machines. It was at this time that Sissi Popped up around the corner. "Finally, I thought I was going to have to be rude and interrupt. So, what was that all about?"

The boy chuckled a bit as the girl got closer to him. "Ah, yeah, so you remember Aelita, Right? The pink-haired elf girl in Lyoko?" It took a second for the girl's eyes to shine in recognition. "So, apparently, it's been about a year since they first met the girl."

Now that had shocked the girl. She knew about the time resets, after all having been through a couple now, but she didn't think this had gone on that long. "Oh wow, and just how many times have they gone to fight for her?"

Unfortunately, the blonde didn't have an answer. He merely shrugged. "I'm not sure, I have only been around for a couple of months myself. Maybe things took longer to happen when they first started, I don't honestly know."

That earned a nod from the principal's daughter. Though she realized, somewhere down the line, the two started walking, heading towards Yumi, if what the boy said before meant anything. "You probably already know, but that worries me. What if… what if you don't come back?"

Naruto was ready to tell her how that almost happened. He really would have, had he not actually thought about what he would have said. Tell her how he didn't exist for… god, he still didn't know for how long. How would that be comforting? Shaking his head, the boy smiled at the girl. "Don't worry, as long as I have someone to come back to, I will." To punctuate that statement, he included a gentle hug.

This helped Sissi feel safer than anything she could imagine, but there was still something in her mind. "And what about Yumi?"

At that, Naruto looked at the prideful girl. "Are you still a bit jealous of her? I thought you two were becoming friends."

The raven-haired girl giggled as she shook her head. "No, I'm more worried about her killing herself because you worried her too much."

Now, the blonde would have deflected that, but someone else decided to make things worse. Yumi, coming up from behind the two, wrapped her arms around both of them, shocking them at the surprise. "Oh, come now, I'm sturdier than that. Besides, I wouldn't be the only one worrying over this reckless idiot." That got the two raven-haired girls to laugh at Naruto's expense. "Anyways, not that not glad to see you Naruto, but what brings you here?"

Taking a quick breath to get over his momentary embarrassment, Naruto responded. "Oh yeah, so, it's the anniversary of you guys meeting Aelita." That got Yumi to stop and think for a second. "Yeah, that's what the others were like too."

Nodding more to herself, Yumi smiled. "Great, so are we going to the factory?" Getting a nod from her blonde friend/love, she then turned to Sissi. "What about you? You wanna come with?"

That caught the girl of guard. "Are you sure about that? Won't the others not want me there?"

Yumi merely shrugged. "I doubt Odd or Jeremie would mind, you are kind of involved now. But if Ulrich has an issue, he can just suck it up." That got a smile from the principal's daughter, one that was quite infectious.

With Yumi now in tow, the three teens started their trek to the factory. "Oh, speaking of Ulrich, you noticed that he's been more…" He tried to be polite about it, but he just couldn't think of a polite way to say it.

Of course, Yumi knew what he meant. "A bit of a dick to you?" That wasn't quite what he was going to say. "Yeah, I don't know why, but he's way to caught on to what's going on with us."

Going into the sewers, completely with Sissi grossing out about it, a thought kind of sparked in his mind. "You know, I never thought about it till now, but since Sissi went into Lyoko, doesn't she have an avatar now?"

While Sissi herself wasn't quite sure what that was about, Yumi nodded. "Yeah, she totally does. What she looks like, that I don't know. I didn't really get to see the last time we were in together."

For her part, however, realized what he meant now. Even more so, she refused to talk about it. "Oh, that. Yeah, I'm not talking about it." The other two were now curious, though. And now they needed to know. But they would let it be for now. Well, they'd tease her about, but that was it. Despite all the teasing, the girl seemed to take it all in stride. In fact, they were already climbing out of the sewers by the time they gave up on teasing her.

Once on the elevator, Naruto hit the button to go down. Yumi smiled as she stretched. "Well, that was nice of them to send the elevator back up." The humor was stopped, though, when the door to the elevator closed, but the elevator itself didn't move.

Pressing the button a few more times, Naruto shook his head. "Okay, that's not a good sign." Before he could say anything else, the elevator jolted, causing Sissi to hug tightly on to the blonde in fear. They only had time to look at each other before the elevator started descending, the lights flickering as they went down. Moments later, the elevator jolted again, this time before the entire elevator began to descend faster.

They could hear the emergency brakes squealing away, trying to stop them. But whether by age, or some other means, they weren't slowing to a stop. So, it came to no surprise that not even a minute after, the hit the bottom of the elevator shaft, and all of them hit the floor. Of the three, Naruto took it the worst, hitting the floor with his arm at an odd angle. It wasn't really surprising when he felt, more than heard, the bone in his upper arm crack, if not outright break. Forcing himself to sit up against the wall of the elevator, he couldn't stop the groan of pain from escaping his mouth.

Thankfully, Yumi shakily rose to her feet, a similar groan of pain coming from her. When she saw her blonde friend nursing his arm, she quickly made way to him. "Naruto, are you okay?"

He couldn't hold back the wince when she touched his shoulder, her hand hitting right where he felt the pain. "Definitely could be better. But what about Sissi, is she okay?"

At this, the two looked at the girl, who was laying on her side. While she wasn't moving, she was clearly breathing. "Great, she's alive, but unconscious." Yumi, looking to the ceiling, spotted an emergency hatch. "I think we can get out through that hatch right there, you think you're up to it?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, my arm's no-good right now. Not to mention, I doubt we'd manage to get Sissi out of here as she is." Looking at each other, Naruto blushed softly as he pulled Yumi into a quick peck on the lips. "Go on, if X.A.N.A.'s behind this, the others might need you."

Yumi nodded, smiling and blushing softly. "Alright, stay safe than." With that, she forced the hatch open and managed to climb through. From where he was, Naruto could see Yumi struggling to climb the ladder built into the wall of the elevator shaft.

It was about… a quarter of the way up? Hard to tell between the pain and only being able to see the ladder. Anyways, Sissi woke up is what happened. Sitting up, the girl looked around, scared out her mind probably. Nearly dying a few times will do that to you. Upon spotting the blonde, she immediately crawled to his side. "Oh Naruto, thank goodness you're okay." The raven-haired girl took another look around, just to confirm she was seeing correctly by not spotting Yumi. "Where's Yumi, is she okay?"

Watching the girl shake a bit hurt Naruto a bit. Nothing physical, though that pain was still present. Pulling the girl into a one-armed hug seemed to calm her a bit. "She's okay, she's going to go fix things." At this, she gave a grateful hug, though this managed bother the blonde's injured arm. Though he tried to hide it, the hiss of pain was easily caught. Before the girl could start to question, the blonde started to answer the questions no doubt boiling over in her mind. "It's fine, it's fine. Look, I think my arm is broken, or something, but it's nothing life threatening, okay?"

The stern stare she was giving him made it clear she would not take no as an answer. "Naruto, let me take a look your arm, okay?" Already, she was moving to look over his arm. His arm didn't seem to have anything pushing against the skin unnaturally. However, it didn't completely rule out a broken bone, especially when both were hesitant to really check. For now, they'd have to settle for an impromptu sling, something Sissi's skirt could do well to be. Was she glad she wore the skirt over her pants for fashion, else this would be embarrassing.

With the skirt fixed into a sling, something which took a bit of work to get right, Naruto's arm felt in less intense pain. "You know Sissi, you should probably think about becoming a nurse."

Sissi giggled at that. "Maybe, but that'd get you to try and convince me to be your nurse."

Okay, that was not what he meant, but now he was thinking about it. "Don't go giving a guy ideas, you hear." Despite trying to play it off, Sissi knew just what was going through his head. However, the mood was ruined as water began to steadily flood the elevator. Right now, cold water was spreading across the ground in a thin layer. Looking up, the two could see water getting in through the open hatch in the ceiling. "Oh, come on, not now."

Working together, the two closed the open hatch, and just in time too. Because as soon as they did, more water started to pour on top. Unfortunately, closing the hatch merely limited the flow of water, not outright stopping it. Okay, time to try getting on top of the elevator. That will be hell on his arm, but much better that in an enclosed space filling with water. Well, that would have been the plan.

Pushing against the hatch, Naruto found that, at least with one usable arm, he could muster the strength to even budge the hatch. The water must have been really pouring, he reckoned even with both arms, as well as with Sissi helping, he wasn't sure if he could have gotten the hatch open. Great, just fantastic. Time to call someone who he was hoping was doing better than him.

Dialing Yumi's number, it rang twice before it was answered. "Yumi? Look, bad news. The elevator is filling with water. How bad? Eh, it's not insanely fast, but definitely start the return as soon as you can." Seeing his raven-haired friend shiver, he pulled her into hug, trying to share his body heat with the girl. The two just stood like that for several minutes, but that's how long it took for the water to reach their upper thighs. Man, that was incredibly cold. Dialing on his phone again, he put in the number that could reach Jeremie on the super computer. "Hey Einstein, sorry to rush, but the water is starting to get much too high for my liking." Looking at his phone, the boy could see that the call was still going through. "I think he just put me on hold." Despite the situation, Sissi giggled a bit. That's good.

After a quite a long time, long for having the water rise steadily, the two were floating in the elevator. Naruto had dropped his phone trying desperately to stay head above water with one arm. The two teens shared a look and took deep breaths, just as the elevator fully filled with water. Now, Naruto couldn't say he was much of a swimmer, much less a diver. So, thirty seconds having passed, the blonde was starting to panic, something that was mirrored by Sissi. Then it became a minute, a minute and a half. His lungs were starting to burn, he was about start pounding at the hatch for what little good it would do. But thankfully, the next thing the two knew, they weren't trapped in an elevator.

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So, that instance of nearly dying was actually terrifying to the blonde. So much so, that he was sure he was going to have nightmares down the line about it. Whatever, right now, it wasn't about him. It was about Aelita. The Lyoko warriors had went and got the virtual girl a cake to celebrate the anniversary. Right now, the cake was hidden behind a towel, to hide it from Aelita. Naturally she was confused, probably not knowing it was the anniversary herself. Made sense to the blonde, she probably didn't experience time like they did. "What's going on, I don't understand." That's understandable for the virtual elf to ask.

Odd responded cheerfully, "It's something from our world, you're going to love it." With that, Yumi moved to towel out the way, exposing the cake, complete with lit candle, to the girl. Now, Naruto was confused because the rest of the group cheered with "happy birthday". Was it wrong that he was confused?

Thankfully, Aelita was confused as well. "I don't get it."

Jeremie was there to the rescue. "We're celebrating cause it's exactly one year ago we met you."

Aelita seemed to be understanding things now. "Oh, I see. And, am I supposed to do something?"

Now Odd spoke, thinking with his stomach. "Yeah, save me a piece of cake." That got the group to laugh. Despite Not quite understanding things, Aelita was just happy that everyone was having a good time.

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Thankfully, Naruto, and the rest of the Lyoko warriors, have gone without another X.A.N.A. attack for nearly two weeks. What had really gotten to Naruto, though, was that he had suffered from a few nightmares related to almost drowning. It was clear the lack of sleep the boy was getting was piling up for the first week. So, he was grateful when, after that week long of sleepless nights, he started to have more relaxing sleep. By that, he meant he'd just be too tired to even dream and pass out for a straight eight hours. At least he was finally getting the sleep he needed. Surprisingly, Sissi wasn't having nightmares herself, maybe because she had locked away that memory. Probably the best for now.

Anyways, it was a Thursday, and for the last two days Yumi had been distant with all of them. Well, that would be something he'd think on, if only Ms. Hertz wasn't laughing uncontrollably. Like, it was actually a little uncomforting to see the normally stern teacher being forced to laugh so much. For this lecture, the teacher had inhaled a minor dose of laughing gas, causing her laughing fit. And Odd put it into a hushed whisper aimed at Jeremie. "Man, it's so weird seeing Ms. Hertz laugh so much."

For that, Jeremie agreed. "To be fair, I don't think we've really seen her laugh at all."

Before the guys could continue whispering back and forth, Ms. Hertz tried to give her lecture in the midst of her laughter. "The gas I've just inhaled in a small quantity is called nitrous oxide, N2O for those of you interested in chemistry. Although, it's better known as laughing gas. You can see why this gas is sometimes used in hospitals to relax patients who are going to be operated on." All through out her little lecture, the teacher laughed. For the blonde, it would have been a little bit more interesting had he not been a little off put by all the laughter. "Let's try to be serious. At it's strongest, this gas can be highly toxic, and provoking very serious modifications on perception, and even lesions in the nervous system, sometimes even fatal. So, one can, as the saying goes, literally die laughing." The laughing she had at that part was extremely disturbing to the blonde. "Only one thing can neutralize the gas." At this, the teacher picked up a large bottle of water that was sitting on the desk next to her. "Water. All you need is one drop to volatilize it." And that is when the woman took a drink of water, immediately stopping her laughter. "Okay, now enough of that, get out a piece of paper for a surprise quiz."

From there, the class went from weird to boring immediately. The quiz wasn't hard at all, and in no time the class was over, letting everyone out of class for the afternoon. The four boys were now out in the courtyard, looking over to Yumi who was alone on a bench. Ulrich shook his head as he spoke. "She's be sulking like that for two days, nothing seems to cheer her up."

Odd naturally resorted to his strength, humor. "I could try some of my jokes on her, that might do the trick."

Naruto shook his head. "You know Odd, maybe that would work sometimes, but I really doubt it will help this time. But look, I got a plan."

As Naruto was about to make his way to Yumi, Ulrich stopped by rather harshly grabbing the blonde's shoulder. Now, this was rather surprising to the three blondes, never having experienced such aggression from the brown-haired boy. "You think you got a plan?" Whatever was getting at Ulrich had him nearly yelling. "For all I know, you could be the cause of Yumi's mood. What with you spending half your time with Sissi. You know, you're probably as bad as Odd, probably dating other girls behind Yumi's back." Okay, that felt like a backhand to even Odd, who wasn't the target.

Just when Odd and Jeremie were prepared to stop the two from coming to blows, Naruto just held up his hands. "You really think that? Not just that I'd go around dating any girl, but that Odd is bad for doing that?" Clearly, Ulrich wasn't backing down, nor trying to fix what he said. Naruto had just skipped getting pissed, a cold fury settled in his stomach. "Whatever, I don't have to deal with your crap right now. Not to mention, I know it's going to bite you in your ass." With that, the blonde assassin started walking away, not caring for what trouble the boy would be getting himself into.

With his mind clouded by his rage, he nearly bumped into Sissi. "Naruto, hi there." Looking at the boy, she could instantly tell that he was angry. "Are you okay? Did something happen?"

The blonde took a deep breath, calming down a bit. "Yeah… yeah I'm okay. Just Ulrich being an idiot." At Sissi's questioning look, he explained further. "Can you believe that he thinks I'm dating other girls behind Yumi's back? Especially since I haven't even gone out on a date?"

Sissi shook her head. "No, I can't believe it. However, you should definitely fix that last bit. With me, or Yumi, doesn't matter, I'm sure we'd both agree to a date with you." It was almost too easy to get the blonde to focus on that over what Ulrich said. "Speaking of Yumi, what's been eating her up? I've never seen her like that. Not that I've really interacted with her before having met you, of course."

For Naruto, the most he could do was shrug. "I'm not sure, none of us are. So, I think going on a date with her might be on hold for now."

A thought popped in Sissi's head, one she immediately shared. "Well, how about for now, you come to the rehearsal. We're going to be doing Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. Odd will be there, since he agreed to provide the appropriate music. And who knows, maybe you could be the Romeo to my Juliet."

Unfortunately, Naruto shook his head. "Look, I'll be there, but I can guarantee that I can't act to save my life." The face of shame the boy had was slightly comical.

So, shaking her head with a giggle, she allowed the boy that concession. "Fine, I'll just be happy to have you there. Now, let's go, classes are over for the day and I need to have everything down for the play tomorrow." That was a bit of news for Naruto. Though, it wasn't really surprising when he considered that he was kind of out of it for the last few weeks.

Watching the rehearsal grew mixed feelings in the boy. For one, Odd was playing the acoustic guitar wonderfully. On another, Herb, reciting Romeo's lines in a flat tone, was horrendous. And it was something Sissi was quite harsh about. "That's awful Herb, you're as flat as a pancake." Okay, so it seemed that Sissi was a bit of a diva involving plays and the like still.

Herb didn't like being told he was doing wrong, especially by his crush. However, he would never come out and be mad at her, so he shifted his anger as he held out the script. "It's not me, it's the lines."

And at that, Nicholas took offense. "What's wrong with the lines?"

Well now, Herb just put his foot in his mouth, but he refused to be wrong still. "Well, you can't even say them."

Now, Nicholas was starting to get defensive about the script. "There's nothing wrong with them, it's you. You know how long I spent on the text?" Okay, so that explained the boy's defensiveness.

And yet still, Herb continued to push it. "Well, my guess would be about thirty seconds."

Honestly, Naruto wasn't surprised that the two were close to throwing blows. What stopped them was Sissi. "Look, I'd rather you repeated your lines, Herb, and with feeling. Nicholas, there's no reason for you to be on stage. And Odd, you're playing much too fast." The way Sissi went through all of them made Naruto stop and think. Maybe Sissi had a more promising career in something involving leadership, rather than acting.

Though, Odd wasn't one to just accept complaints. "Sure. If I play a little slower to give me more than enough time to take a little nap."

Of course, Sissi still had to come out on top. "Hey, keep all your bad jokes to yourself. Okay, now let's take it again from the top and try to concentrate." With that, she stormed off back into the tower prop that had been constructed. A few moments after Odd started playing, and Herb started to recite his lines, the blonde-and-purple-haired boy erupted into a fit of laughter. So uncontrollable was the boy's laughter that he dropped the guitar and began rolling on the floor as he laughed. Sissi, seething in rage, rushed down with a bottle of water in hand. Naruto, who was moving to check on his blonde friend, couldn't stop the girl when she emptied the bottle on Odd. Quite literally immediately, the boy stopped laughing, instead coughing up some of the water he accidentally inhaled. Still angry, Sissi glared down at the boy. "Don't bother coming tomorrow, Odd. We're performing a tragedy, not a musical comedy." And that was all she had for the boy, choosing to storm off once more.

For Odd, he sat up. "Hey, wait… uh." However, Sissi wasn't listening.

Naruto helped his friend up, guiding him out of the gym which would be used to house the play. "Come on Odd, I think you may have over stayed your welcome."

The other blonde nodded, still a little woozy from what happened. "Yeah, sure. Do you think we can stop by Jeremie's room though? I think something's up." Though he nodded, Naruto had a feeling this had a virtual A.I.'s involvement.

Now in Jeremie's room, Odd and Jeremie were huddled over the computer, completely blocking Naruto off. Oh well, that allowed him to play with Kiwi, who was laying on Jeremie's bed. Having dried up on the walk over, Odd was recounting what happened to him. "It was crazy, I really didn't feel like laughing at all, but it was impossible to stop. As soon as Sissi poured water on me, that was it, I stopped immediately."

That clicked in Jeremie's mind. "N2O, laughing gas." Naruto looked to the glasses wearing boy, still scratching the dog's ears. "Ms. Hertz said that the only thing that could volatilize it was water."

The three blondes nodded at that. However, one thing was sticking out for Naruto. "Maybe X.A.N.A.'s behind it?" The look the other two sent him had the blonde assassin continue. "I mean, it's been… what, almost two weeks since the last attack? I would love it if we could get a longer break from it, but that's not the X.A.N.A. we know. Besides, weaponizing laughing gas? That's not the craziest thing that was turned into a weapon."

The other two blondes thought that was a fair point. Jeremie, turning back to his computer, spoke to Aelita. "Aelita, continue to check for activated towers, we'll try to confirm if X.A.N.A. is awake again on our end."

Though she nodded, the pink-haired elf wasn't so sure. "Okay, but no pulsations for now." With that, she logged off to continue her search.

Standing up to leave, Naruto hesitantly spoke. "Hey… so, mind if we stop by my room on the way? I need to pick up… something." While the way he spoke was certainly suspicious, the other blondes agreed nonetheless.

After acquiring what he wanted, though it was still kept secret from the other two, the three blondes made it into the building housing all the classrooms. Getting to the science classroom was easy in and of itself, what wasn't easy was the fact that the door was locked. Of course, that's when note opened the leather case he had brought with him, revealing a lock pick set as he kneeled to be eye level with the lock. Odd and Jeremie were naturally confused, the blonde-and-purple-haired boy questioning first. "Naruto, why do you have a lock pick set?"

At first, Naruto focused on trying to open the door as it would not do them any favors to be caught now. Except, Odd was persistent, poking his shoulder as he waited for an answer. "Odd, stop. These were my dad's, okay? He kind of taught me how to use them… after I stole them for a prank." The amused grin his friend had annoyed the blonde.

But as Naruto returned to his task, Jeremie started to wonder. "Aelita and me, we never fight. You think that's normal?" The blonde American teen would have stared at the boy for bringing up such an out of place topic, had he not needed to keep his attention on the lock.

Odd, however, had no need to hold back. "Huh? Yeah, no, how do I know?" The oddly named boy was looking down the hall, keeping a lookout, while also turning to look and the glasses wearing boy.

Unfortunately, Jeremie continued. "You think we'd fight if she lived here in our world?"

Shaking his head at the absurdity of the question, Odd was getting fed up. "What I do think is that we're going to get caught if we don't get this door open." No sooner then that moment did the lock click, signifying it being unlocked. Opening the door, the three quickly entered the room.

Once inside, they made their way to the canisters for the laughing gas. Jeremie, first one to them, turned one of the knobs to release the gas inside. What was not a good sign was that there wasn't even a high-pitched rush of air to sound any escape of gas. Jeremie shook his head. "We're out of gas, pardon the expression."

Even Odd groaned at that. Still, he had an idea. "Okay, listen. Tomorrow, we'll go to the factory instead of the play and check things out." At this, they all nodded in agreement. Leaving with the door locked once more, they headed back towards the dorms.

On the way back, Naruto had a question. "Hey Jeremie," getting the boy's attention, he continued. "So, what was that about? The whole thing about you and Aelita not fighting, where did that come from?"

This confused both Odd and Jeremie, the latter answering the question with another question. "You don't know? Did Ulrich not tell you?"

Naruto, for his part, shook his head. "I think it's a little obvious that we're not really up to talking right now."

It was Odd who spoke now. "Yeah, I see your point. Anyways, so apparently Yumi's parents have been fighting lately, or so Ulrich says." Well, that would explain her sour mood. "In any case, we need to get sleep for tomorrow, can't save the day if we can barely do anything." That was easily agreed to, the three separating to get to their dorms.

The very next day, the three blondes were in the factory, huddle around the super computer. "Aelita. Aelita, are you there?" Unfortunately, there was no response. Just the computer repeating communication error.

Naruto pat Odd's shoulder as he looked at Jeremie. "Okay, that's not good. Time for us to drop into Lyoko." Getting a nod from both blondes, Naruto and Odd descended into the scanner room.

Naruto went inside the closest scanner, just as Odd witnessed something. "Naruto! Watch out!" But it was too late, the scanner door closed just as some intelligent gas entered as well. For Odd, he was forced to retreat from the room, the gas hot on his heels.

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Dropping in, Naruto immediately felt something wrong. Though he couldn't exactly put the right words to explain it, he felt weakened. After landing in a crouch, it took much longer than normal for him to muster the energy to stand, and when he did, he almost stumbled. This wasn't good, he had to reach Jeremie. Calling out to the blonde genius, Naruto hoped for a response. "Hey Jeremie, I'm not feeling too good." He then took a quick look around. "Not to mention, I don't think Odd made it in." The lack of a response was unsettling. "Jeremie? Oh, great."

Turning to the only path available in this section of the mountain region, the blonde assassin met with an issue that would have been easily dealt with under normal circumstances. A pair of bloks walked up, charging their laser blasts. Rolling under, Naruto tossed a smoke bomb that rolled just before the pair. Thankfully, the smoke completely blocked both bloks' sight. They fired wildly through the smoke as Naruto got into a crouch and ran into the smoke.

With the bloks firing at where he was last spotted, the blonde was able to easily move through the smoke unimpeded. Flicking his wrists, blades sprung out from the bracers hidden inside his coat's sleeves. Naruto jumped out of the smoke, hidden blades held out to the sides, and landed with a sloppy roll that his body could manage. The blades had been aimed at both bloks' side eyes, but only managed to cut one. The other turned to the blonde, even as its partner blew up.

Cursing himself, Naruto rolled out of the blok's fire, rolling on to wobbly legs. He ran towards the deactivated tower the two bloks, now one, had been watching, figuring that Aelita had to be there. He was thankful, if only this one time, for feeling so weak. The reason being that he stumbled, lost his balance, and threw himself forward into a roll, narrowly dodging a laser flying over him. After that bit of horrible acrobatics, the blonde assassin found himself colliding with the tower, hard enough to elicit a pained groan. "Aelita, you there?" He managed to knock on the tower, hoping he could get the girl's attention, but had to turn when he heard the blok coming. As the blok charge another laser, he was already moving to the side to dodge.

Except, that's when Aelita came out of the tower. The blok turned to the higher priority, forcing the blonde to throw not just himself in front of Aelita, but to throw one of his throwing knives at the monster as it was firing. Good news, he got the blok in its eye, getting it to blow up. Better news, Aelita was safe from the laser. The bad news, Naruto took the shot meant for her, blasting him back into Aelita's arms. The two fell back against the tower, the boy groaning in pain once more. The pink elven girl smiled, glad to see that the boy was alright. "Oh my, do you fall into every girl's arms?"

Despite the pain he felt, Naruto still had enough in him to fire back. "Only the pretty ones." The small squeak of embarrassment the girl let out was adorably funny to the boy. But right now, there was a job to do. With the help of Aelita, the two managed to rise to their feet. "Let's get going before X.A.N.A. sends us more friends." Aelita nodded at that, wrapping an arm around the blonde who started to find himself breathing harder. Just fantastic, it was getting worse, and fast. At least he had Aelita to help him walk. Yeah, this was bad, he couldn't even run anymore.

The two walked along the single path they could, thankful that X.A.N.A. didn't have the foresight to send hornets after them, or even have a single megatank just blocking the path. However, this single path lead straight to an obstacle that had the boy wanting to fight said monsters. A maze. A maze that had the activated tower poking over on the far side. Both blonde assassin and pink elf groaned at this. It would no doubt eat up valuable time, time that was more precious due to Naruto's lack of energy.

And yet, they marched on, they couldn't just stop. To Naruto, what was probably only a few minutes felt like an hour, more so because the two were walking through the same spots they had before. Aelita tried to talk to the boy, to keep him focused. Maybe he did answer, throw some jokes around, but it all just started to blur together as he felt more and more drained. Except, it was odd. As his surroundings blurred and muted, he saw a hint of red energy through one of the many twists and turns of the maze.

It took all of his remaining might, which wasn't much, to pull Aelita in the direction he saw the red energy. The girl was relatively easy to convince, considering there wasn't many ways that she thought to go now. Following the hobbling blonde was a good idea though, for after several turns, they were facing the activated tower. Naruto nodded, lightly pushing the girl forward. Though worried, she ran forward towards the tower to do her thing, missing Naruto collapsing as she melded into the tower. Moments later, the return program had been launched, over taking the blonde.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

This time around the whole group was talking to Yumi, with Sissi there as well. While Ulrich did seem too pleased, it was Yumi who was the most upset, sulking on the bench just like before. "You gotta be kidding, I won't ever be part of that dumb play again."

It was Odd who was looking at the silver lining. "Well, at least we know how to get your folks together."

At this, Yumi snapped at the boy. "I'm never gonna wear that stupid costume again."

Jeremie had another idea. "I agree." That got the other teens to look at the boy with baited breath. "I've got a better idea." Now, he turned to Ulrich. "As for you, Ulrich, I'm really sorry, but you're going to have to sacrifice yourself one more time."

Except Sissi refused. "No, I will not suffer through that again. Seriously Ulrich, you made Herb seem better." While the others chuckled at that, the targeted boy was too shaken to form a response to that. "However, I propose Naruto be Romeo."

As the blonde tried to refuse, his pleas were immediately crushed by the others, none more so than Ulrich, who was happy to see the blonde embarrass himself. With a groan, the boy relented. "Fine, fine. But I'm not enjoying this." The cheeky smirks they shared told him that it was noted.

Later, as the play had begun, Naruto was dressed for his, forced, role of Romeo. The others admitted that it was nice to get the boy out of his normally loose clothing and into something more form fitting. What wasn't good for the blonde was that he had barely any time to read his lines, though that was part of the plan. For behind a cardboard bush being used as a prop was Yumi, crouched and whispering him his lines.

With fist to his chest, side towards the crowd as he stood on the right side of the stage, looking towards the tower window, the blonde started his line. "I don't know if she'll appear tonight on her balcony, but I'm certain she loves me." A quick glance towards Yumi had her delivering his next line. "And I know I love her very much." Looking stage left, the blonde delivered with certainty. "Oh no, a guard." With that, he scrambled behind the fake bush besides Yumi.

The girl smiled, giving the boy a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks again for doing this for me, and you're doing much better than Ulrich did." Just as she said that, the cardboard prop they were using as a cover was lifted. This too was part of the plan. While embarrassing, the crowd was laughing at the perceived accident. And looking into the crowd, specifically at Yumi's parents, it was clear they were enjoying it. Even seemed to be closer together.

Sissi was still a bit miffed, not liking having her play disrupted, but she was willing to let it go. After all, she knew better than anyone just how horrible it was to see her parents fight. Looking down at Yumi and Naruto, she was glad she could help the girl on this matter.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

I'm terribly sorry for how late this chapter is. Right now, I have final projects due this week, and then actual final exams next week. So, for this week and next, the story will go on break. I thought I could manage both school and the story easily, but I couldn't. I know you guys like the story, but my personal life comes first to me, as I'm sure it does for any of you. Still, I won't be going on break and return as if nothing happened. Be prepared for some serious pay back. Also, another thing that I've thought on. I think I'd like to take Naruto's skills and design in Lyoko in a far more cyberpunk direction, to be more fitting to the whole cyberpunk inspiration for the show. This won't change Naruto's design for the first season, but do expect a massive change later, as well as an event to kick it off.

Zepheros, out.