A/N Erm…Hey::laughs nervously:: I'm back for now today…snuck on. Anyways, I read my chapter 9, and I found so many spelling mistakes that I'm shamed—also, I even found it to be just a tad boring…Plus, I made a mistake (Kokuou no Shin'en caught me ::smiles::). The First Hokage's Mokuton abilities was a kekkei genkai, so nobody would be able to do it anyways—I fixed the problem. Anyways, a hiatus really messes up my mind…I nearly had no idea how to write this chapter…I HOPE YOU'RE STILL ALL HERE! Don't ditch me like how all my readers did in my Inuyasha fic—that was really mean—thus, the consequence of a hiatus. But then again, my Inuyasha story sucked, and…never mind…
Chapter 10: Pre-Date Worries and Convening at Kiba's
Naruto slapped himself in the face with a wet towel and fell backwards sprawled eagle-style, panting. Surprisingly enough, he found that he had nothing else to do except train by himself with a set of two hundred sit-ups and a set of a hundred push-ups on the floor of his room. He bitterly chuckled to himself as he thought of how he was probably deviating towards the Rock-Lee-Train-Like-A-Dojo Road. But what else could he do? At any rate, the daaaaayyyy waaaaaaassssss sooooooooo boooooorrrriiiinnnnggggg. The normally hyperactive kid was slipping into a fog of malaise now that he'd requested—no—forced a day off from any missions issued from Tsunade-baachan.
Okay, so he'd woken up at around 9:00, chatted with his friends for a bit at 10, ate at Ichiraku's at around 11:45, hung out with Team Konohamaru for two hours throwing rocks in a river, "bugged" the ill-feeling Shino for fifteen minutes before getting nearly killed by the shaded-glassed boy's Destroyer Mushi, and now he was back in his apartment.
Doing nothing. Just training. Which was quickly getting boooooorrrriiiinnnnggggg.
This was quite odd, as training was normally a two thumbs-up for Naruto. The thought of getting stronger to bring back his ex-teammate Sasuke any day was something to look forward to. Plus, he'd tell himself everyday that he'd beat up Yamato-taichou or Kakashi-sensei that day to boost his self confidence. Obviously, he'd come home black and blue whenever he ever tried that, but that was another story.
The blond wiped a large trickle of sweat from his forehead and glanced for the time. 2:00 P.M. There were still four hours to go until the date.
Oh man, the date. Naruto didn't even bother hitting himself. He'd regretted so much and he'd already beat himself so much that those tortures were already becoming second-nature. 'What if the girl was somebody that was really better than Sakura-chan? What if I hate her and she still likes me? What if Sakura-chan goes out with her blind date, and oh-may-kami-forbid-that-dattebayo?'
Well, whatever happened would happen. In this case, Neji would own all with his favorite "You can't change Fate" catch phrase. There was nothing Naruto could do but grit his teeth and hope for the best. Pulling himself off the ground, the blond winced at the lactic acid that had built up in his muscles. He hobbled over to the bathroom for the second time that day and took another quick shower. Afterwards, he flopped onto his bed, and gazed up at the ceiling.
In all of Konoha, Naruto's ceiling was the most…interesting. Most ceilings were blank, as owners of most rooms decide not to bother with it at all. After all, nearly nobody ever looks up at the ceiling. Naruto, however, was a completely different story. Since he'd moved into this apartment when he was five to live by himself with no parental guidance, Naruto had taken full advantage of that prospect; horrendous pockmarks and scars from shurikens were like popped acne all over the place. Several times, Naruto had stolen a ladder from construction sites, and the consequence was childish scribbles and drawings that were layered upon each other on the ceiling, thicker than double-chocolate cake.
The ceiling was a book—an old, damaged book that was only "readable" and "comprehensible" by the author. Over the years, Naruto had learned just a tad of self control and stopped drawing everywhere, and he never really bothered to whitewash the ceiling. But he hadn't really paid attention to his ceiling until now. He began to "read" what he had been thinking since age five…
HOKAGE-SAMA UZUMAKI NARUTO!! DATTE-BA-DATTE-BA-DATTEBAYO!! were words blared all over with small chibis of Naruto dressed in the distinguishing robes. I WON'T TAKE BACK MY WORD, I WON'T RUN, I WON'T GIVE UP! text-blurbs swam in schools all around the ceiling as well.
There was that one picture of Sasuke with a big 'X' through his face and shuriken holes to boot…'Oh yea…Sasuke called me a loser that day…'
Further towards the left was a scribbled drawing of a blond boy and raven-haired child shaking hands…'He called me a loser, but I wanted him to still be my friend…Didn't work, obviously…'
And way, way, way far back into the corner furthest away from the bed, almost invisible, were some hearts and pink flowers drawn around a lone little boy on a swing. Naruto nearly missed the picture due to the microscopic size of the image. 'Oh, that was just when…wai-…wha?!' Naruto jumped up and balanced himself on a high chair to inspect the image a little further.
He'd drawn that picture the day he'd noticed Sakura-chan and fallen headfirst into the ground from the swing. He didn't go back to school for the rest of the day because he'd run home to draw this picture.
Naruto quickly scanned through the garbage of pictures and quickly noticed that, for some strange reason, there were no other pictures faintly related to Sakura-chan even though he still had access to a ladder for many days after seeing the girl.
'What had I been thinking…so long ago? Why is there just one, sad picture, and nothing else?'
There had to be a reason why he would just stop drawing pictures of Sakura-chan like that…He couldn't have been depressed after being indirectly "rejected" like that because, obviously, the words "I WON'T TAKE BACK MY WORD, I WON'T RUN, I WON'T GIVE UP!" proved that fact.
Why? Why? Why? Naruto scrunched his eyes up and rubbed his temples. Way too many thoughts were bombarding him today. First sheer boredom, now philosopher.
A rustle outside his window made him turn his head towards the noise. He could've sworn he'd seen a shadow disappear. Was there someone out there? Naruto paced over to the window, opened it, and peered out into the fresh air.
Just the birds, just the wind. No one.
"I'm one screwed up fifteen-year-old kid, aren't I?" Naruto voiced aloud, leaping onto the bed. He grabbed the alarm clock and set it for five o'clock. "I'll just nap before the date if I've got nothing else better to do…"
Almost right after he'd set the alarm clock down, Naruto was snoring. If only he'd been conscious enough for a few more moments to see a small flash of pink fly away from his window….
Sakura's face was as red as her hitai-ate as she jumped off the roof tiles of Naruto's apartment. Since Naruto's room was on the uppermost story of the complex, she'd been able to jump on the roof of the entire apartment.
That was close. But it wasn't the closest. The last time she'd spied on Naruto, which was about three months ago, the old roof tiles outside the window had completely given way right under her, and she'd fallen bottom-first to the ground; it took a lot of explaining and covering up to tell Naruto that she was going to tell Naruto a message from Tsunade-sama, but the front door of the apartment was locked, the landlady was sleeping, and so on and so forth.
Thankfully the blond wasn't one of the brightest buttons in the drawer like Shikamaru, Neji, or oh-goodness-the-taboo-boy Sasuke; he didn't even notice that Sakura had been sweating profusely and had quickly fled the apartment without leaving the message. Sakura also had Kami-sama to thank for her perfect chakra control. Otherwise, she would never have been able to conceal her chakra and spy on Naruto all this time.
Spying. As Sakura quickly jumped from rooftop to rooftop to make it to the Hokage's office by two-thirty, her face turned an even darker shade of red when she thought of this idea. She felt worse than Hinata when the shy Hyuuga used to stalk Naruto. Hinata used to spy on Naruto for, at the max, four days a week. Sakura? She had been stalking Naruto for all seven days of the week for the past who-knows-how-long-I've-been-spying-on-him-but-I've-been-spying-on-him-ever-since-he-got-back.
How odd she was. The rosette had her entire heart set out for this boy, but she'd not only rejected him countless of times—she'd also shown a terrible attitude towards Naruto that had been even been bitchier than Ino's (which was a record). And all for the cause of what? A simple thirteen-lettered word: embarrassment.
Checking her watch, she found that she had only five minutes to get to Tsunade-shishou before the land mine blew up. 'Oh, why does Naruto's house have to be the furthest Konoha 11 house from the Hokage's office?'
The Godaime requested Sakura to be there for something, despite the Hokage's previous relief of Sakura's missions—Tsunade had apologized lavishly in a short message, but Sakura really didn't mind. The pink-haired kunoichi was actually hoping that her master would give her something to do. It would at least prove that her master was sane, unlike this morning.
Upon arriving at the doorways of the building, she inhaled and exhaled extravagantly, attempting to rid herself of all signs of running. Sakura didn't want to lose face of lack of punctuality and responsibility. While breathing hard with her head down, she saw Genma and Shizune under a tree talking.
Sakura momentarily paused her breathing exercises. Genma and Shizune talking? Didn't the two nearly kill each other on a mission three months ago? Shizune told Sakura that Genma had poked her in the face with his senbon and called her fat…or something like that…
The green-eyed girl looked at the scene out of the corner of her eye. The two were actually laughing together at some joke one of the two had cracked. Plus, they were a little closer together, almost pushing the boundaries for personal space. Shizune flirtatiously scooped a little bit of her hair and drew it behind her ears, blushing as she chatted animatedly with the senbon-sucking Genma. This time, Sakura turned her entire head towards the two.
Sakura heard Genma say, "Y-You know, Shizune. Wh-What we fought over three months ago was so stupid, and uh…y-you know how we've been on better terms and stuff this past week, so umm…I wanted to apologize and uh…"
Shizune was leaning towards Genma when the raven-haired assistant turned her head and saw Sakura staring. Shizune turned a fiery red color, and waving her hands frantically, panicked, "I-It's not wh-what you th-think Sakura! Seriously! Ano…Tsunade-sama is uh…waiting for you?"
'Riiiiight…' Sakura sarcastically thought with a sly smile on her face. She ran all the way up to Tsunade's office in order not to be late.
"What do you MEAN you were kidding?" Sakura forcefully said, glaring at her master. Tsunade stuck a tongue out at Sakura, while putting her legs up on the table once again.
"Yea, I was kidding about a mission because I wanted to talk to you, Sakura!" Tsunade cheerfully said, taking a sip of sake. "Besides, your face seems a little red. Were you running here because you were spying, or did you see something embarrassing, or…"
The Hokage realized that her student wasn't in the room anymore. From her skill as a high skill level as medical ninja, however, Tsunade could trace a quickened heart beat and nervousness even from the small chakra trail that Sakura left behind.
"Maybe she saw both…" Tsunade wondered out loud, shrugging. She looked out the window and saw Genma and Shizune continuing the "small chat" that had already gone for over an hour and a half. "I really was just tossing ideas around though…and I wanted to give her a few tips on dating…"
Looking at the clock, she realized that she needed to prepare the potion that would wipe away the Jounin's smells.
"Come on, Chouji!" Ino begged, glaring at the chubby Chuunin. "We're all coming to support this date and all the bets that are going on!"
"Is Shikamaru going?" Chouji asked, his small eyes narrowing at the blonde kunoichi.
Ino hmphed, and tossed her hair, "Of course he's coming. You know him well, right? He's your best friend, right? So you'd want to support your best friend…RIGHT?!"
Chouji opened a fresh bag of Calbee BBQ-flavored potato chips and popped a few in his mouth, munching loudly. While chewing, he mumbled, "I know him well enough that he wouldn't be doing this unless you forced him to with blackmail or your uncontrollable anger…"
Ino was stunned for a few moments. OK, if Chouji didn't come, it would be minus two people from their generation of shinobi (the other was Shino, who was ill). No, recalculate that. Minus three. Sasuke was gone.
"I know what you're thinking, Ino…" Chouji said while crumpling up the bag of potato chips he'd wolfed down. He turned a plump face towards Ino, "You think the more people the merrier. And then if I don't come, you'll find a way to blackmail me. Oh fine, I'll come."
"OH HECK YEA!!!" the platinum-haired girl screeched while pumping both of her fists in the air. "Who's the masta at party-planning? Who's da masta, who's da masta, I just invited the fa—"
Chouji turned a full hundred-eighty degrees from where he was, and dangerously asked, "Did you say something, Ino?"
"Umm…no?"
'Whew! Close catch at the word "fatty"…'
"Oh, what the heck am I gonna wear!?" Sakura frantically pulled through a dozen training outfits in her closet. Since coming back angry that Tsunade-sama had wasted time with her, Sakura decided that she would spend the rest of the afternoon looking in her closet for clothing to wear.
Contrary to common belief, Sakura did not wear the exact same tank-top or the exact same shorts every single day. That would be gross. But the problem was that even though she'd gone shopping a lot with Ino, Tenten, and Hinata in the past, she discovered that none of the casual clothes she'd bought fit anymore. She'd worn her training outfits so much that she never really got the chance to wear something casual.
Sakura really wished she'd bought something yesterday on that shopping trip. But oh nooo…she was thinking too much about Naruto to pay a lot of attention to the insanely cute pink-and-white polka-dotted circle skirt or the matching white jacket that went with it. What really pissed the girl off was that the entire set had been only twenty-dollars.
'Great…twenty dollars. That's the money I'm betting today.'
She struck gold when she pulled out a high-collared sleeveless shirt out of the closet. Midnight-purple with a silver star that functioned as the button to the high collar, Sakura could do nothing for five minutes except stare at the shirt.
'I actually bought this shirt???'
She looked at the tag for the brand name, but then groaned. "Property of Yamanka Ino" was neatly stitched into the tag. Oh, right…she'd invited Ino over for a sleep over some time ago on a spare day that they didn't have a mission…the florist must've left this behind. And of course…the color of the shirt was purple.
'Like heck she would care…she probably doesn't even remember that she left this behind. I'll give it back when I'm done…' Sakura thought. She wrote a big reminder on a large Post-it note and stuck it on her mirror.
Sakura went on her computer and checked the profile of this "Mr. Charm". She couldn't really remember the specs of the man, and it would be a wise idea to read over his profile and make sure he wasn't a perv or anything.
She read:
Chat Name: Mr.Charm
Age: 15
Status/Occupation: Jounin
My Type: Well…I kinda have to see through a few dates
Appearance: Tall…
The rosette stopped. There was something…changed about this person's profile. The age seemed somewhat lower than what she'd read before, and…
An involuntary shudder ran through her entire body. 'Yup…could be a perv.'
The kunoichi looked in her closet for long pants, but only found black capris. "Well, it's better than nothing…" Sakura sighed aloud. "I'll just have to bring a few extra kunais to protect myself…"
She examined herself in the mirror, and nodded in satisfaction. OK, she was a tad flatter than most girls, but at least it was better than to…ahem…develop very fast like Hinata. Ignoring that minor detail, Sakura felt good about how she looked. Her pink hair matched well with the purple shirt and capris. The last touch-up she could probably do was lipgloss…
The clock read 5:30. The girl mildly cursed. Her house was closest to the Hokage's office, but because of that, the furthest away from the Konoha Entrance Gates. She'd have to walk because dust would form an ugly coat all over her dark clothing.
Fastening on black sandals, Sakura fixed the hitai-ate on her head and briskly paced over to her destination.
"My first date…my very first real date in my life…may it go well…please…"
Akamaru barked merrily as the Konoha 11 began to trickle into Kiba's yard. Naturally, Ino was the first person coming in, dragging along Chouji and Shikamaru by the wrists. They were dressed in casual clothing with jeans and regular shirts other than their training clothing. Kiba could see that the latter two had a look on their face which obviously meant that they were forced by Ino to come. Kiba noticed the pack on Ino's back.
"Hey, Ino?" Kiba started, eyeing the bag. "We're. Not. Going. Camping."
"Oh, I know that!" Ino sweetly smiled, her pearly whites reflecting the setting sun. Kiba decided that he wouldn't pursue the issue further. She was, after all, a mastermind plotter, where everything she brought to any occassion had a purpose. How good that would be if only she would use her big brain sometimes and help out Shikamaru for battle strategies…
Akamaru gave another bark as an alert that more people had arrived. From a far distance away, Kiba could see Lee speeding towards them with clouds of dust rising behind him. Tenten was far behind him, and she was hacking very loudly from all the debris.
And that left… Hyuuga Neji and Hinata.
Kiba sourly looked up into the reddish-tinted sky, remembering the afternoon's ordeal. Hana-neechan was thankfully out when he got home late, so he had been saved from a lecture. But Hiashi-san still really scared the crap out of him…
Chouji asked, "Where's Hinata anyways? I thought she'd already be here clinging onto your arm or something…" The chubby kid opened yet another bag of potato chips.
Kiba voiced, "Oh...that was just…bad."
"You dumped her already?" Shikamaru raised an eyebrow to this news, and leaned against a tree. The Inuzuka family had a strong affinity to dogs (obviously), and it was very unnatural for dogs to let go of anything once in their possession. "How…troublesome…"
"No, you Pineapple Freak!" Kiba hollered at Shikamaru, "Her dad…was…well …'troublesome' under your standards…"
What other words could there have been to describe Hiashi-san? According to Kiba's cursing dictionary, "teme", "bastard", "blind-looking freak", and other extremely dirty terms had already been used up.
He was interrupted by Ino, who was gazing at the architecture and layout of the Inuzuka household. She voiced, "Dude...Kiba...you're rich... You've got something to compare to the Hyuugas, man!"
The boy's eye twitched at Ino's out-front words about wealth. He hollowly said, "Umm…thanks?"
He suddenly saw Tenten inspecting the light above the front door from about forty feet away. He heard her call out, "Hey, what's this yellow disco ball thing? I could throw a coupla shurikens and kunais at it for practice!"
"That's a LIGHT, and hell, don't throw anything at it! If it breaks, my mom will feed me to the dogs when she comes back from her mission!" Kiba frantically yelled, running to stop Tenten, who'd already taken out two kunai.
"HAHA! TO THE DOGS!" Lee laughed out loud, doubling over. "HAHAHAHA! THAT'S EVEN BETTER THAN SHINO 'BUGGING' US! HAHAHA!! HA!!!!"
Kiba snarled, "Alright, Lee. Well, for some reason, you're wearing a casual yellow shirt instead of a green one today, and you're officially the Yellow Banana of Konoha you freakin' little—Hinata!"
Everyone turned to see the Hyuuga cousins dragging their feet slowly along the road. Both of them physically looked completely and totally normal—if it wasn't for the fact that Neji's face looked a little more stone cold than usual, or if Hinata's eyes weren't a tad more troubled than they usually looked.
"OH YEA! EVERYONE'S HERE!" Ino yelled, clenching her fists. "WA-HOO! LET THE PARTY BE-GIN!"
Lee chanted along with Ino, "BE-GIN! BE-GIN! BE-GIN!"
Neji looked from Lee to Ino, and finally to Kiba. With a monotone, he said, "It looks like leadership of this entire thing kind of changed over a few hours…"
Kiba bit his lip, while Akamaru whined. It was awkward having to face Neji after the complications that had happened a little while ago…not even discussing Hinata. The Inuzuka hazarded a small smile towards his almost-ex girlfriend. He was relieved to see her smile back and hug him.
"NEJJIIIIIIIII MYYYY HOMIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!" Tenten yelled, throwing herself on him and scruffing up his hair like she used to always do to him when they were seven. Well, minus the "my homie" part…
The calm Hyuuga sweatdropped, and looked into shining amber eyes that glowed with happiness. He resisted the urge not to think about what his uncle had told him that afternoon.
"Didja bring your twenty bucks?" Tenten hyperly asked, bouncing around Neji. "Hope ya did, 'cause I know I'm gonna win, Neji! Well, at least I can get that new shuriken Limited Edition set that's on sale!"
"Tenten, how many weapons do you own?" Neji replied with one simple question.
The bunned girl blushed, and rambled, "28,572 katanas, 84,923,645,752 weapon scrolls, which are further subcategorized into combinations of weapons that are within each scroll, 10,478 shuriken sets, which have about forty different shurikens within each, 3,032,612 kunais, which I have to end up using as decoration around the house, and—"
"You can stop now, Tenten. We get the picture…" Neji slowly worded, his eye twitching. The past few days were so hectic that his eyes were twitching so much; he was going to need glasses at this rate. Then again, a Hyuuga Neji plus glasses was a hot combination—not to mention an awesome secret weapon against Tenten.
Lee nudged Kiba hard in the shoulders to show the scene between the two Team Guy students. The latter just rolled his eyes.
"OK…OK…Are we done counting weapons and telling people how rich they are?" Kiba loudly asked, tapping his foot.
"Osu!!" Ino and Lee saluted, shutting up right afterwards.
"I don't even know you guys anymore…" Kiba muttered. He then cleared his throat, and said, "I see all of you guys changed into casual clothes for this occasion, which is a good thing because we can't be instantly spotted. I especially have to thank Lee for not wearing spandex, 'cause that's spotted about thirty miles away."
Lee threw out his nice guy pose, and the shine of his teeth blinded everyone.
"O-Okay…Let's go…" Kiba stuttered. He caught sight of Chouji frantically waving his arms in front of his face and slapping his arms. "Umm…problem, Chouji?"
"Yea, there are these little flies or bugs that keep annoying me…" Chouji frowned, missing another one of the bugs, which buzzed angrily.
Ino glanced over at her struggling teammate, and gasped, "Oh, Chouji, stop! Those are Shino's!"
Hinata whispered timidly, "W-Wait…Sh-Shino-kun's sick, r-right?"
The platinum-haired girl dragged Chouji away from the bugs, and explained, "Yea, I forgot to tell you guys about him not coming. He's really sick and all because of something with the bugs eating a little too much of his chakra. Anyways, it's really complicated. He sent those bugs to spy for him and see how the date would go."
"So why can't we just kill, like, one of them?" Shikamaru yawned, slumping further down the tree he was leaning against. "Mendokusei…it's just one, right?"
Ino's face twisted into a little bit of grimace as she said, "Yea, well…he's in a really touchy mood right now. Naruto apparently visited Shino before me, and really pissed the hell out of Shino. So umm…he said that if we kill or hurt any of the exact twenty bugs he said, umm…he'd kill us."
Kiba sighed, and complained, "Oh, let me guess. He said that sending the bugs and not killing them is all a 'teamwork' thing, and blah blah blah...I swear, instead of saying 'Good Morning' to his parents and family, he probably starts off reciting the one hundred plus Ninja Way and Rules...Shino gets on my nerves…"
The bugs that Shino sent began to dance frenetically in the air, swooping up and down, flying in front of Kiba's face, and buzzing like mad.
Neji said without blinking, "Kiba, you're screwed. Shino's gonna kill you later."
Akamaru barked loudly, which interrupted Kiba's comeback. Hinata interpreted what Akamaru had meant, and said, "M-minna-san…we have to go…we're going to be late…"
"FULL SPEED AHEAD TO THE YOUTH OF LOOOOOVVVEEE!!!" Lee screamed, and charged away, ironically, towards a setting sun, even though the date was supposed to be on the EAST Konoha Entrance Gates. He left everybody to inhale the dust that he left behind.
"I'm going to die from second-hand smoke…" Tenten growled, coughing once again.
In the trees around the Inuzuka household, a voice said, "Targets moving. Head out."
Behind the voice, somebody whined, "Tsunade-sama, do we really have to do this with radio?"
The Hokage turned around and shot a dirty look at her assistant, who instantly shut up. All the Jounin she'd called that morning were all assembled in their groups. She with Shizune and Tonton, Jiraiya with Asuma and Kurenai, Gai with Kakashi, and Genma with Hiashi. Tsunade had fixed them all up with radio connection for communication later on. Everything was perfect…she just kind of wished the Jounin would treat this as a serious mission…
Gai was managing two things at once: he was getting mad at Kurenai for Kiba's comment on Lee's clothing, and he was losing at Rock, Paper, Scissors to Kakashi (it was quite sad, as the latter was reading a book). Asuma was attempting to block Jiraiya's view of Kurenai's figures…and Hiashi had his head held in his hands, wishing that he was somewhere else.
"GET. SERIOUS!" the Hokage barked at everyone. She kind of regretted it, however—her loud voice had almost deafened everyone who was wearing a radio piece in their ear—including Tonton.
Seeing that everyone was finally paying attention, she continued in a strict voice, "Before we begin, I'm going to be making a few group changes. Hiashi is now to be in my group, and Shizune and Tonton are to be with Genma. Everyone is staying the same."
Hiashi, Shizune, and Genma all had relieved faces, while the rest were disappointed—Jiraiya, especially.
'The Hokage's just doing this to have her bet turn in her favor…' Jiraiya mentally grumbled, and frowned when he saw his old teammate just smile with a wide grin.
"And now, I will also distribute the potion that I made to wipe out the smells. Take them ONLY at six o'clock because they only last four hours exactly to the second."
She distributed small clear vials around to every person around, and then said, "When we reach the ground, disperse, and henge into someone that doesn't look like yourself, OK? GO!"
They shot out of the trees, taking different paths to the Konoha Entrance Gates. As Tsunade briskly paced along with Hiashi, she henged into a young brunette with blue eyes, and asked, "So, have you completed the little 'homework' I assigned you?"
The Hyuuga who had originally been Hiashi, was now a blond, amber-eyed middle-aged man who replied, "Hai, Hokage-sama. I'm afraid it didn't turn out so well…"
After hearing Hiashi's story, the 'brunette-ed' Tsunade-sama slapped her forhead, leaving a beautiful shiny red mark. She resisted the urge to scream at Hiashi—he was the Head Hyuuga after all…With slight enmity in her voice, she said, "Hiashi, you idiot...You got the answer—Neji likes someone, and you didn't do any big mental torture with the Byakugan, BUT you didn't do the part of the assignment where I told you to BOND with Kiba!"
The Hyuuga-turned-blond winced. Oh yea…she had said that…but he was too distressed about meeting Kiba for the first time to think about it at the time. He opened his mouth to reply when…
"Hey, Chichi-ue! Why are you blond? Hyuugas aren't blond. You look funny like that."
Tsunade and Hiashi whipped around with kunais in their hand, only to see a grinning dark-haired ten-year-old standing behind them. Tsunade gaped, and her mouth opened and closed like a fish.
Hanabi chatted animatedly, "See, Chichi-ue, I couldn't find you throughout the house or anything so I tried using the Byakugan, which OMG finally works, and then I saw you and Hokage-sama and other people in the trees so I followed you here and next thing I know you're blond!"
Hiashi turned to Tsunade and apologized frantically, "Sumimasen…I-I really had no i-idea th-that she could use the Bya-Byakugan because sh-she couldn't use it yesterday, and—"
Tsunade dropped her head and sighed. First, Hiashi failed in his mission, and now Hanabi shows up. Attempting to collect as much of her cooled-down self possible, she calmly said, "Hiashi, we don't have time to take Hanabi back so we have to bring her along with us. I made an extra vial of the potion by accident, which turned out to be a good thing. Tell her to henge, and make sure she's well behaved."
Hiashi grasped onto to Hanabi's hand (who had instantly changed into a feminine copy of her father) and raced with Tsunade through the streets all the way to the entrance gates.
This Date Showdown was gonna begin…
A/N THE STARTING OF THE DATE IS NEXT CHAPTER!! I was going to make the content in this chapter split into two chapters, but I figured that would make everyone mad. I didn't include Naruto's preparation for the date like Sakura's frantic searching for clothes was because I had NO IDEA what he could wear. I was thinking definitely something closer to his normal training outfit, so I don't want it to be a "dressy" orange shirt and slacks or anything. But…something that's more casual, but a little "proper" like Sakura's. IDEAS PLEASE!!
Now all you have to do is move your mouse (a peripheral) across your Graphical User Interface (GUI) on your monitor (which I'm sure has an awesome graphics card), click the pretty purple button, and REVIEW.
Thanks to these 11!: Gnosismaster, butaneng, jere7782, ANDREA1114, FakeCompassion, rickp2006, Majestic Aria, Kokuou no Shin'en, Softly Sleeping, gottaluvtwilight, Ambs1516