Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to its rightful owners.

CHAPTER TEN: THE LAND OF DRAGONS

SASUKE

"I love seeing new places and meeting new people. I'm sort of addicted to traveling."
- Erin Heatherton

"THIS PLACE IS beautiful."

My gaze roamed the area around us. Bamboo shoots and high grass scattered the area; the sky was bluer compared to any other world. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky. It was only a breeze blowing the grass and bamboo to and fro. Goofy held out a hand to help me out of the Gummi Ship, which I instantly took, not wanting to fall over. He pulled me out, and I heard the crunching of dirt below my knee-high high tops. Even the ground here was rich.

Sora and Donald had been the first ones to climb out of the ship. The duck was complaining about a bruise on his elbow that he had gotten from Sora's steering. Since he was in a good mood, he figured that he might as well teach the teen how to drive, but it didn't go as planned. The brunet had managed to send the ship into loops, spirals, and flips. We were tossed around like rag dolls; Donald's elbow crashed into the side of the ship with the fifth flip. It was safe to say that Sora blew his last chance.

But, on the bright side, Goofy suggested that they teach me how to drive the ship. After this world, it was my turn, and Sora was more than irritated. Whether it was because of the fact that he failed, or that they would rather have me drive, none of us knew. He crossed his arms over his chest before he kicked a rock into the bushes. It was most likely the first reason.

Donald scanned the open area that we landed in with a nod. "Yeah, it is. I wonder where we are, though," he mused. Perhaps I was the only one who seemed to notice that he appeared a little . . . dizzy. His head was swaying side to side as if he were on a boat. We weren't. We were on a flat ground. "Let's get on to business, shall we? The faster we find the Keyhole, the better."

He was right. If the gateways led us to this world, then they Keyhole for this place must still be open. We followed behind the duck without a word. There was no arguing to it. We had to get going . . . Especially since the scent of smoke was lingering in the air. Could I have been the only one to notice it? The smell was heavy, like it was nearby. Why would there be a fire in -

Goofy froze. My face almost collided with his back; if it weren't for him moving out of the way. His dark eyes were zeroed in on something a few feet in front of us. Leaning over from behind him, I noticed that he was staring at a large rock. A shadow-like figure was displayed on the wall. What in the world was that? Goofy bent down to Donald and my height along with Sora.

"Do ya think that's a Heartless?" the duck asked quietly. He nodded his head over to the eerie shaow against the rock. There was a possibility that it could be.

Sora glanced at it one more time before looking back over at us, and said, "I don't know. We should get the jump on it, just in case it is."

"Gawrsh, maybe we should look before we leap -"

Goofy's warning fell upon deaf ears. Sora and Donald left where we were huddled together to charge at the shadow. His hand reached out to grab the hood of Sora's short sleeved jacket, but the boy had gotten too far, the dog missing by a mere inch. They jumped out of the bushes to attack the shadow . . . only for the sound of screams to surface throughout the clearing. A warrior in a suit of armour and a short, black bun flinched away from the pair, their eyes wide with fear. Sora and Donald froze. Whoever that person was, they looked more of a harm to themselves rather than anyone else.

I took a few step forwards to get a better look. The warrior was holding a frightened red . . . lizard in her hands. It's pink, forked tongue slithered out as if warning us to stay back. These guys didn't look nearly as scary as they did a few seconds ago.

Goofy followed beside me, his gloved hand reaching up to scratch his head. "Is that Mushu?" he mumbled more to himself than to anyone else. Did he know these people?

The lizard cracked a smirk. "That's right, I know you heard of me!" he shouted. His voice was deep and contrasted against his tiny body. "I'm little, lethal, and legendary! Now y'all scram before I get my dragon dander up!"

I crossed my arms under my chest. This lizard was fiesty. Nonetheless, the group of boys beside me acted like they knew exactly who this lizard was. I didn't recall ever meeting it before.

"Hey, Mushu! We missed you!" Sora grinned. So, they did know these guys?

The lizard's eyes narrowed into slits. It clearly didn't remember meeting them like they were suggesting. "Well you better hope I miss you, or else you're-"He stopped mid-sentense. His features relaxed a bit from its previous hositlity, lighting up when he scanned us over again. "Sora! Donald! Goofy!"

"Do you know them?" The warrior and I asked at the same time.

The lizard–Mushu–hopped out of her hands, and began taking a step toward us. It couldn't have been any larger than a few inches tall. The warrior eyed the creature, her almond-shaped black eyes going well with her sculpted eyebrows, short lashes, and creamy skin. She was goregous, that was for sure, but that didn't explain why she was in the middle of nowhere dressed like a man and talking to a lizard. Hell, why were any of us talking to a lizard.

It flashed a fang-filled smile at the boys. "Know them? Man, we used to kick all kinds of bad guy butt together! Yeah, you know, I helped these guys out of a lot of tight spots. 'Cause I'm a mighty dragon! Right?" He leaned against Sora's leg for dramatic effect.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, so that's not a lizard?"

"Lizard?!" Mushu whipped his head around to glare at me. "I'm a dragon! D-R-A-G-O-N! Dragon! Who is this chick anyway . . . Callin' me a lizard . . ."

Sora sighed, moving his leg away from the creature. It caused Mushu to go barreling onto the dirt below him. Uncrossing my arms, I answered, "My name's Sasuke. And you guys are . . . ?"

"I'm Mulan." Even her voice was graceful and beautiful. The woman offered me a kind smile before her nose scrunched up. She pretended to clear her throat, pounded her chest a few times, and lowered her tone a few octaves. "Um, no, I-I mean . . ."

Mushu crawled onto his feet. "Ping!"

"Mulan Ping?" Donald quizzed. His tone was one of disbelief. It was good that he made the feeling apparent because I was feeling the same way.

The warrior pumped out her chest. "Just . . . Ping," she cleared up. Her voice was no longer light and graceful, but deep and strained. Why was she trying to lower her voice. "I am Ping, son of Fa Zhou."

Son? Why did she say that she way a boy when she clearly was a woman. You could tell by the silkiness of her onyx hair, the tiny baby hairs scattered along her hair line and swept back into her bun, the pixiness of her small nose, and the fullness of her lips. Her fingers were even long, shapely, smooth, and thin . . . just like a woman's.

"You know Mushu?" Sora asked her.

"How do you guys know Mushu?" I looked up at the brunet with raised eyebrows. Was there something that I had missed?

Goofy was the one to answer. "We met Mushu in Castle Oblivion. He sure did help us out from time to time."

I nodded my head to show that I understood. So that explains why I had no clue who he was. He was around when I had went into my coma of some sorts. He was there when I wasn't with the boys. It was no wonder why we were so confused about each other.

Seeing now as a good time, Ping—so she wanted to be called—decided to answer Sora's question. "Mushu's one of my family's guardians."

"We didn't know we were borrowin' somebody as important as a family guardian," Goofy said. He managed to make it come out as an apology. Ever the sweetheart.

Mushu pointed a finger up at us. Or, rather he pointed a claw. "Yeah, that's right! And that puts you three up to your eyeballs in debt to Ping here," he said. Did he say something about debt? "Well, guess what, kiddies? It's payback time!"

Ping shot him a look. "Mushu . . ."

"Ah, they don't mind." The dragon waved her off. "Ain't that right?"

Sora's fingers drummed along his jawline. His eyes wandered up to the sky to make it seem like he was thinking the situation over. "Hmm, sounds fair," he agreed.

"See, Ping here was just on his way to join the Imperial army. We gotta go find the other recruits over at the training camp."

Ping nodded her head. "Would you come with us? It'll be easier to fit in if I'm with guys like you."

"What do you mean "fit in?" Sora asked.

"Well, um, uh, don't—don't worry about that," Mushu stuttered.

None of this was making any sense. Why would this woman need to fit in with men? "Why do you need to fit in with guys?" I asked. "It'll be kind of hard for a girl to do, don't you think?"

Sora and Donald's gazes bounced from me, then to Ping, then back at me for about a full minute. Then, their eyes went wide. "What?!" they exclaimed in unison. I resisted the urge to slap myself on the forhead, opting to sigh instead. How could they not have noticed? "You're a . . . girl?!"

Ping's cheeks turned into a rosy colour, her eyelashes fluttering as she swayed side to side, maximizing her femininine attributes. "You didn't notice?" she squeaked. Sora and Donald looked horrifed while they shook their heads. "Mushu, I think it's working."

Mushu stared at the two before shaking his head. "I don't know . . . Those two will fall for anything."

"I'm right here!" Sora shot the tiny dragon a glare. When his eyes trailed over to me, I almost jumped. "How did you know, Sasuke? It's impossible to tell."

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's easy for a woman to spot another woman, I guess," I mused. "So, why are you pretending to be a man, again?"

"I need to get into the Imperial army," Ping explained. "They only allow men. I'm pretending to be the opposite gender so they'll let me in."

Donald nodded. "So we're going to the army with you. An army that only allows guys . . ." he repeated. Ping nodded, causing the duck to jab a finger in my direction. "Well, what do we do with this one, then?"

My eyes narrowed at the way that he referred to be, but he did have a point. If I was going to be tagging along, how was I going to get by as a girl? Ping was pretending to be a boy and she was barely scrapping by. I didn't have any sort of costume, so how was I supposed to do it? Ping and Mushu exchanged looks, clearly thinking the same thing. That was, until Sora broke the silence.

"Take your clothes off."

I turned my head to stare at him in shock. My face was heating up, and my jaw went slack. Did he just tell me to get naked? "W-w-w-what?" I stuttered stupidly.

Sora ignored my red face, digging into the pocket of his shorts. "I said to take your clothes off," he repeated. Okay, so I had heard him right. He wanted me to get naked, and I couldn't think of a way this would help our situation. He pulled out a glowing orb of magic, and cleared up, "The fairies gave us these magic orbs with our old clothes in it. You still look small enough to fit into my old clothes. You can just wear that."

"Good idea, Sora!" Goofy cheered.

Donald rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but how are we going to fit those in there without it being obvious?" He pointed to my chest, causing my face to heat up even more. I shot the duck a glare, my arms shooting up to cover where he was gesturing. Why was everyone putting me on the spot? "Sorry to tell ya, Sasuke, but you don't exactly have fourteen-year-old Sora's bird chest."

"That's an easy fix," Ping said with a smile. "We bind her chest."

My eyebrows shot up. That sounded painful. "We do what?'

She reached over to the rock where she and Mushu were previously seated at, picking up a roll of gauze. It made my stomach turn. "All we have to do is wrap this around your chest," she explained. "It'll help flatten everything out. It may not be the most comfortable thing, but you'll only have to wear it for a few hours. It worked for me, so you should be fine."

"Oh, God . . ." I mumbled. Sora used the orb of magic to summon his old clothes. Once the red and blue articles of clothing were in his hands, he handed them to me. Was I really going to do this? Did I really want to pretend to be a boy. I hesitantly took them from him. "Well . . . where do I get dressed?"

"Right here."

I shot Ping a face. "What? In front of them?"

"Of course not," she said. Looking over to Mushu, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, she wiggled her finger around. "Turn around so she can change. The faster, the better."

The four boys stood in a line before facing the other direction. Once she was sure that they couldn't see, Ping turned around, too. Sighing, I began to strip out of my new clothes. I was changing out in the open. What if someone else comes along and sees me? What if one of the boys turns around. Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I slipped on Sora's red shorts. They stopped a bit below my knee, and I had to secure his blue belt around my waist to make sure they wouldn't fall off.

I stared at the gauze Ping had left me. "Um, how do I use the gauze?" The deep blush covering my face was uncomfortable. Almost as uncomfortable as the fact that I was talking about my chest in front of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Especially Sora, whom—despite the many years that we have known each other—I had never talked about this sort of thing with.

"Start at your armpits and wrap them around your torso, making your way down."

Nodding, I did as Ping instructed. It was a slight sting, but I managed to do it. The gauze made my chest flat, but there was still a slight bump to it. Luckily, Sora's top was baggy, so it covered it up. When his jacket was on, I cleared my throat. "Okay, you guys can turn around."

Donald was the first to turn around, staring at the pile of jewelry and clothes I had shedded off and left on the ground. "That was fast," he said. His black eyes wandered up to me before his breath hitched. "It worked . . . They're gone. But, there's still a few problems. Her hair is kind of long for a guy."

Ping dug into her pockets and retrieved a blue ribbon. "We can put it up in a bun." Getting my permission, she worked her fingers through my hair and put it up in a bun similar to hers. "There. Not bad."

I dug my hands into my pockets while Sora sent me a smile. "You look good," he complimented.

"You're only saying that because this is your outfit," I teased.

"Yeah . . . maybe."

It was then when it really hit me. I was in Sora's clothes. Sora. His clothes. They even smelled like him, the scent of salt water and ocean breeze intertwined within the fabric. He smelled like the islands. He smelled like home. I glanced up from where I was wrapped up in the scent to see that he was staring at me. He quickly looked away, though, finding the bamboo shoots surrounding us interesting all of the sudden. I looked at the ground. Wearing his clothes wasn't that bad.

"Now what are we going to do about shoes?"

The sound of Mushu's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. Right now, my feet were barefoot. Sora scratched the back of his head, chuckling sheepishly. He didn't change one bit. "Well, I might have ditched the shoes somewhere else because they were too small," he murmured. "My bad . . ."

Donald frowned. "Well, what are we going to do? She can't wear her own shoes because they're girly-boot-things."

"We can get her a pair of shoes at the army," Mushu suggested. We nodded. "She isn't the manliest man out there, but, if those guys are anything like Sora and Donald, they'll be fooled enough for us to get away with it."

Sora glared at the dragon. "Hey!"

WE ARRIVED AT the Imperial army after the boys went over a few finishing touches to my look. They hid my necklace beneath my shirt, wiped off the lip gloss the fairies had applied, and adjusted my clothes to make it look like a male had thrown it on. This included loosening up the belt. I had tried to tell them that I needed it, but they didn't listen, saying that men don't wear fastened belts. Thankfully, my waist was more shapely than Sora's, and kept the shorts from falling to my ankles.

The army was nothing more than a camp site. An endless amount of white and red tints littered the area. That was it. Other than that, the area was empty. It made sense if the army was trying to stay incogneto. If not, then it was kind of a shame.

I walked in beside Ping. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were far ahead, glancing around the area with fascination. No one was around. We were the only ones walking around, which made me even more nervous. What if I couldn't pass off as a fourteen-year-old Sora? Hell, what if I couldn't just pass off as a very feminine guy?

Mushu peeked out from his spot hidden on Ping's shoulder. "Remember, ladies—manly!"

Ping and I nodded. Manly. We had to be manly. We puffed out our chests and gave our best macho walk, flexing our huge (nonexistent) biceps. Our eyebrows scrunched up in attempt to make our faces look more chisled. Hopefully, it was working rather than making us look stupid.

As we walked further into the camp ground, I could just about make out a few people standing around. They were all wearing armour similar to Ping's. Most importantly, they looked to be gathered in a line. Were we supposed to go over there? Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked over there, confirming my thoughts. Though, just when they were about to stand in the line of warriors, Sora was shoved out of the way.

The man that pushed him couldn't have been more than three feet tall. His black beard went from his mustache all the way up to where his hair was pulled into a bun similar to ours. Only, he looked a lot meaner than we did. "'Bout time we get some grub," he mused. His voice sounded mean much like his appearance looked.

Sora didn't care about his looks. He clenched his fist, glaring down at the small man with narrowed eyes. "Hey, no cutting," he snapped. I almost flinched by how pissed off he sounded. Perhaps it was because his voice was murdered by puberty. Either way, it definitely didn't sound like something one should mess with. "Get out!"

I stepped forward to step between them. To tell the two that this was nothing to fight about. This is, until the small man turned around, and gave Sora a clean punch to the jaw. The teenager stumbled backwards from the impact. Did . . . he just punch Sora in the face? My mouth went slack, a strange noise surfacing from the back of my throat.

He just punched Sora.

I charged at the guy, going straight for the face since it was the only part of him that was not guarded off. The first punch connected with his cheek. There, that should teach him a lesson.

"Back off, runt!" The man growled out. His rough hands went for my hair, swinging me around like a rag doll from the dark strands. How did I get myself into this? "You shoud learn how to mind your own business!"

"Let me go!" Being dragged by my hair hurt a lot more than I thought it would.

"I should kick your little ass, kid!"

There was no time for me to react. The man suddenly let go of his hold on me. My hair—now pulled out of its bun—fell around me in messy clumps. I stumbled out of the way, only to find the man in a full blown brawl . . . with Sora. Punch after punch, we watched in shock as the two continued to hammer away at each other. But, their fight was cut short by two other guys pushing them out of the way.

"Hey, a space in line!" The lanky warrior exclaimed. Where had these guys come from? He was patting the armour over his stomach like he hadn't eaten in days.

The warrior beside him, an eight foot tall bald man—nodded in agreement. "I wonder what they're serving for lunch today."

"Knuckle sandwiches!"

The short warrior ditched Sora and launched at the lanky warrior. Sora and Donald jumped into the fight, too. The four of them were growling bloody murder as they stood in a circle throwing punches at each other. The large warrior, however, looked very confused with the situation.

When the short warrior made a break to snatch me into the fight, Sora pulled him back and punched him in the nose. I winced. That had to hurt. How could boys fight each other like this for no reason? Half of the people fighting haven't even spoken to the others.

Ping frowned, obviously getting upset with the fighting boys. "Please, stop fighting!" she pleaded. Her voice was that of a woman. It was so girly that it made the boys stop.

There was so many bruises. I noticed the purple dotting along Sora's jaw and cheeks. His bottom lip was busted, too, specks of blood trickling down the swollen flesh. Donald was fine other than the fact that a feather or two had been yanked out. The lanky one had a few cuts and scraps scattered along his face. The short warrior had it the worst, though. Blood streamed down his nose from where Sora had clocked him one. His lip was busted in two places, making me realize that I should be thankful that I stayed out of it this time.

Lanky scrunched his nose at Ping. "Please?" he repeated as if the word was dripped in acid.

Shorty wiped some of the blood off of his face with the back of his hand. "What a girl."

"Uh . . . knock it off!" Ping made sure to correct her voice this time. But, I was sure that the damage had already been done. Reaching my hands up to redo my bun, I watched as she gave them her most masculine expression.

"Knock what off?" Short shrugged.

Sora shot him a look of disbelief. "Really?" he hissed. "You punched me and bust my lip!"

"Cutting in line!" Donald added.

"I think you broke my nose!" Shorty argued back. The looks he was giving Sora was pure nastiness.

Lanky rolled his eyes. He didn't seem the least bit phased by his beat up face. "What a shrimp . . ."

"Who you callin' a shrimp, panda lips? I'm a bona fide guardian dragon!"

My gaze shot up to Ping's shoulder. She was struggling to keep Mushu hidden. Not that him shouting out insults was helping. Was this all that boys did? They they just fight and argue all day? "L-Let's just get back in line, okay?" Ping suggested.

Sora narrowed his eyes at her. "Whose side are you on? I just got slugged!"

Shorty attempted to square the brunet up, but it wasn't doing much since he was an entire two or three feet taller than him. "Want some more?" he teased. "I should break your nose, too!"

Sora got his fists ready to attack. Those things were lethal, I realized, and it made me take a step back. No way was I going to get caught up in the next fight. "I didn't even break your nose," Sora snapped. "But since you keep saying I did, maybe I should this time -"

"Soldiers! Get back in line!"

Their argument was cut short by a stern voice. We watched as a tall man in fancier armour approached us. Judging by how solid his arms looked, he was the only one here who could break up this fight. And he did, his mere appearance making everyone stand straight in line. Donald let out a huff when he noticed that Shorty, Lanky, and Baldy were in front of him, but didn't do anything. None of us did. Not while this guy was here.

I stared at the back of Goofy's head in line while the man walked around us to make sure that we weren't up to anymore trouble. Though, there was something in the corner of my eye. Turning my head, the image of spawning Heartless broke my concentration. Right now? They were going to attack right now? Donald summoned his staff. He had seen them as well. It was only a matter of seconds until Sora, Goofy, and I summoned our weapons.

Ping watched the creatures in shock. A part of her looked almost scared even. "What are those?" she asked.

Goofy's hand tightened around his shield. "Heartless!"

Donald ran in first, bonking several of them on the head. It was surprisingly effective. The Heartless that he attacked disappeared into a black mist. I charged in, too, going for the ones that were in the back. Goofy was right at my heels, clobbering the ones who decided to get in his way. The fight must have given the boys an adrenaline boost because they were fighting a lot rougher than usual. There was zero strategy. Only 'lock on target and destroy.'

Ping pulled out her sword from her belt. She didn't seem to mind that her weapon wasn't doing too much damage to them. As long as she was helping. And helping she was, announcing that there was a Heartless behind me when it got too close. I turned around, shoving my Keyblade right between its eyes.

When they were taken care of, Sora spit onto the ground. It was gross. However, I was paying attention to the fact that his spit was red. Blood. Was he okay? I wanted to ask if he was all right, if he needed anything, but it would look weird seeing as how I was supposed to be playing the role of a boy. I'll just have to ask him later.

"You four." We turned around to see that the tall man who had broken up the fight was staring at us. Did we do something wrong? His onyx eyebrows pulled low in a serious manner. "What are your names?"

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat before they spoke, "Sora."

"Donald."

"Sasuke, sir." It was a good thing my real name was masculine.

"Goofy."

The man nodded his head. His head that a neat bun was stationed on top of. Maybe it was customary for the males around here to wear this hairstyle. "You're welcome into my troop," he said. "Your battle skills are encouraging."

Ping raised a finger. "I am the son of Fa Zhou -"

"You should return home." The man cut her off before she could finish. My breath hitched. What? Had she already been discovered?

She frowned. "B-but . . . That would dishonour my family!"

"You'd rather dishonour my troops?"

"Don't make me -"

This time, it was Sora who cut her off. He took a step forward to get the man's attention. "If Ping trains hard and does his best, he'll get stronger in no time," he pointed out. Here he goes again. He was always thinking about the sake of others. Even after he had just gotten his face brusied and his lip busted. I crossed my arms over my now-flat chest; I hope he never changes. "Just give us an assignment! We'll show you how well we can work together."

The man looked as if he was thinking everything over. "So . . . you want to be tested?" he asked. Sora nodded instantly. "Our orders are to ambush Shan-Yu's army on their way here. They should be coming through the mountain pass."

"We'll smash them!" Donald screamed.

The man shook his head. "I doubt that. You five will be the advance party," he explained. It sounded a lot better than the plan that Donald had. "Scout the mountain for my troops."

A smirk snuck onto Sora's face as he crossed his arms behind his head. "That's it?" he teased with a smile. Though I knew it was strange, I found myself inspecting his mouth for any signs of injury. There was none. All of his pearly whites were still in place. "No problem. Right?"

He looked over at Ping, who slowly nodded. "R-right."

"I'll brief you on the details later," the man said. "Return when you're ready to depart. Remember, the smallest mission may have the greatest purpose. Stay alert."

"Sir!" we all shouted in unison.

With that, we were dismissed. We wandered back over to the line to get lunch. The boys must have been hungry judging by how their eyes lit up when they seen the rice they were handing out. I got in line behind Sora with Ping right behind me. Once everyone was settled and minding their own business, I tapped his shoulder.

He turned his head a bit. Not enough to look at me, but enough to let me know that he was listening. "Hmm?" he hummed.

"Nice thinking there," I whispered. "We go on an assignment and cover Ping. Should be pretty easy."

He nodded and face forward again. "Exactly. We just have to make sure that we're careful."

I found myself staring at the space between his shoulder blades. "Speaking of careful . . . Hey, Sora . . ." At the sound of me saying his name, he turned around. He had to tilt his head to look down at me. His lip looked worse up close. A small section of the flesh was torn apart. Purple and blue veins surrounded the area around the cut. It was out of them that the blood had poured out of. Without meaning to, I flinched at the sight. "God . . ."

"Are you okay?" he asked. I looked up at him in confusion. He was the one who was hurt. Why was he asking me if I was okay? Seeing my confusion, he added, "That guy pulled you hair and tried to hit you. Are you okay?"

I blinked. "What? Sora, I'm fine. You're the one who got hit in the face five times. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm all right," he reassured. The fact that his bottom lip was almost twice its size wasn't very convincing.

"Why'd you start fighting like that?"

"Hmm?"

"You heard me." I chuckled at his attempting of being innocent. "That's not like you. You usually don't break noses. I was kind of nervous."

He sheepishly scratched his head, moving forward in the line. "Really?" he mumbled. "I was just really angry."

"Because he hit you?"

"Because he tried to hit you."

He got in that huge fight . . . because of me? It was normal for Sora to stand up for me seeing as how we've known each other for so long, but he's never beat people up for me. Hell, Sora was more of a lover than a fighter. I could feel my face heating up at the thought of him getting upset because someone tried to hurt me. He was protecting me?

It was still hard to wrap my head around it. Maybe I was looking into it too much.

"Hey, lover boy!" We turned around, watching with wide eyes as Mushu shot us looks. "Save the flirting for later! I'm tryin' to get some rice!"

Sora glared at the creature. "I wasn't flirting!" he defended. I couldn't help but notice that the tips of his ears were turning read. It made me chuckle, not that it was helping anything.

"Yeah, and I'm not a dragon." Mushu rolled his eyes.

"Well, to be fair, I did think you were a lizard."

"Shut up, Sasuke!"

Hello, everyone! I'm not dead! I'm alive! Unfortunately, right after my birthday (which was on February 3rd) my laptop's screen broke and I had to get it replaced. It took me a while to save up the money for it, but now it's back on! It's a good thing, too, because I was starting to go crazy from not updating my stories. To make it up to you, here's the longest chapter in this story yet!

Also, you get some Sasuke x Sora in this chapter. That should make up for my absence, right?

P.S. Someone PMed me asking how to pronounce Sasuke's name and the reason why I picked it. Each one of the gang from Destiny Islands has a theme for their name, so Sasuke does, too. It's just not far enough in the story for me to explain it to you yet. But, for now, her name is pronounced Sss-ah-sss-ooo-kay :)

Sorry for the wait!

~ Insane