A/N: Didja miss me?? I know i missed you! So, we'll see if this formatted correctly... tried to do weird things to this (such as having everything centered then not wanting to un-center it...) But, all should be well...so enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Herenu, Yoshiko, Kazura, Daiki and anything else you don't reconize from Canon Naruto!
Chapter 14 – Mature Ninja
Vacation, Daiki decided, agreed with him. His muscles were allowed to relax and he found himself free of the head ache that seemed to plague him on active duty. Training remained the same for the girls. Yet, without missions he was allowed to leave them to their own device afterwards. The thought any other time would have him popping pills for a migraine and wishing he had chosen any other professions (and away from Konoha). However, the girls had sworn to be on their best behavior and he was willing, at least temporarily, to believe them and conveniently ignore the fact that they were ninja and hardly good for their word.
Dressed in civilian attire, with the exception of his hitae-ate, Daiki went out to town in search of food. He ate at his favorite curry place (yellow chicken…yumm….) and was heading back to his apartment to read when he ran into his team…and they were holding his suitcase….not a good sign.
"Surprise Daiki-sensei!" Herenu said handing him the bag.
"We've decided that you need to go visit your family!" Kazura said, grinning.
"So we've packed everything you'll need for a month's vacation!" Yoshiko finished, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the village gate.
"But--!" Daiki started.
"No buts!" Herenu said. "We've promised to behave and to train every day and we plan on it!"
"Besides, we already informed the Hokage that you're going to go." Yoshiko said.
"You need to get out of Konoha during vacation…and your mom really wants to see you!" Kazura said, shoving a letter his way.
Daiki sighed, feeling the familiar tension in his left temple. They had read his mail—again. Didn't they get tired of raiding his house? At least they hadn't found the letters from his 'friend' yet.
They reached the gates, shoving him out, waving at him.
"Bye! Don't forget to write!" Yoshiko said.
"And remember to train every day!" Herenu added.
Daiki stared at them. They were serious. He started to wonder what they were planning when he again remembered that for this vacation he did not care if they planned to overthrow the Hokage—it became his business when they actually did it. He waved back; glad to know that if he was needed to put out any fires it would take at least a day to reach him.
He was almost out of ear-shot when Kazura yelled, "Tell Jessica we said hi!"
Daiki's heart sank and his face burned. They had found those letters.
--
Trinity Six was excited. Daiki had left without much argument, something they hadn't counted on. He must really want to see Jessica again, they decided.
They had been planning on making him go visit his parents for weeks, but they hadn't had favorable circumstances until now. They had gone to Daiki's apartment, intent on stealing his toothbrush, when they found the letter from his mom saying that she wanted him to come visit, and Jessica had sent him another steamy love note, which they spent hours red faced and squealing over and trying to figure out what she possible saw in Daiki (he was sooo old). Jessica however also wished that he would come visit her. Trinity Six decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up and promptly set about returning the two letters flawlessly in Daiki's script. Finding a letter from the Hokage telling Daiki that his team had been promoted to Jounin had also convinced the girls that Daiki needed out of Konoha, he would not rest well once he found out and miss his role as their sensei terribly. A whole month away from them should get him used to the idea.
Trinity six had been so excited at that letter they sent Arithae out to each of their homes to verify that they had all received this letter. They had.
The word 'jounin' was a magic word for Herenu, Yoshiko, and Kazura. It was a word that meant they were trusted. They could (if the Hokage felt like it) give them students, or entrust special missions to them, or any other number of things. Suddenly the team of pranksters felt inspired to prove they could be seriously trusted with such missions, and that meant their image had to go. The general populace of Konoha was safe. However, best intentions aside, the girls could not give up those people they were fond of picking on…they were never truly safe. Team Trinity Six would try to change…but not that much.
--
The ramen man braced himself as Trinity Six entered his shop. Every time they came to his shop they ate his food and left him some prank by the time they left. He never knew how they did it, they only ate and never went anywhere, yet something would happen in the back part of his shop—such as pink, green, and purple paint appearing and saying "Trinity Six wuz here 3".
Needless to say he was shocked when they entered, greeted him cordially, ate loudly celebrating something he could never catch, and left without incident.
What they had left was a note telling them of their promotion and thanking him for the food. When he talked to the other shop keepers and customers he learned that he wasn't the only one who they had been behaving to. The only ones who had any complaints were Team 7, and the Hokage herself.
--
Yoshiko carried her box of cookies in one hand, and with the other she carried her brown book, her nose firmly planted in it, heading towards Kakashi's apartment. He was currently out training with his team, and she felt it was time to give him more cookies. She thought she was making progress, she had spotted him eating the cookies she had delivered a few days ago under a tree while reading his favorite book. She smiled into the book, all was going to plan.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a male ninja heading her direction, she moved out of the way. He headed her direction again. Yoshiko pulled her thoughts and nose out of her book and looked at who kept heading her direction. When she recognized who it was she snapped the book shut and stored it in a pocket.
"Hi Yoshiko-chan!" Ebisu called, waving. "I was heading home from a mission when I saw you walking by yourself and thought you could use some company!"
Yoshiko glared at him, of all the times for her stalker to re-appear. She hopped he got sent out on a new mission soon, she didn't want him here to ruin her vacation.
Ebisu caught up with her and started walking with her, not noticing she had taken a side street that would lead them towards the forest—away from Kakashi's house. He kept chattering all the way to the edge of the forest, then he noticed the package she carried, and the scent it was producing.
"Ooh cookies, are they for me?" He asked reaching out to the box.
Yoshiko glared at him, wishing he would go away and wondering if she should poison him to get him away from her. Hm, that was a good idea.
"No, these are for Herenu, but I have some more back at my apartment." She said, shifting directions to training field six, where she found Herenu practicing her flute and some complimenting jutsu.
Yoshiko and Ebisu stopped at the edge of the field, both knowing better to interrupt or even approach as they both could feel the dangerous amounts of chakara radiating from Herenu. When the song ended and the chakara storm had died, Yoshiko came over to Herenu and offered her the box, as Ebisu had stayed at the edge of the training field (not wanting to get too close to two members of Trinity Six) she said in a low voice "These are for Kakashi-kun, but Ebisu thinks they're for him, so I'm going to get rid of him then I'll be back for the cookies." She looked Herenu in the eye. "Please don't eat them, I'll be right back, this will only take 20 minutes."
Herenu nodded and said louder, "Thanks for the cookies, Yoshiko! These will definitely get me through the rest of practice!"
Yoshiko returned to where Ebisu was and with a final wave that Herenu returned, she and Ebisu left for her home.
--
As Yoshiko and Ebisu entered her home, she was glad her parents and brother weren't home, she would get into a lot of trouble if anyone but her teammates saw what she was about to do. She took Ebisu into the kitchen and had him sit down at the table, and then she went to get everything that she needed.
Ebisu stared around her kitchen appreciatorily. It was clean with black cupboards and counters. Several had glass doors making it easy to view the contents inside, one had a hazard sign on it and a lock, another had a picture of a plant painted on it, it too was locked, on the walls hung various family portraits, and a few paintings.
Yoshiko returned with a plate of cookies and some milk and put it in front of Ebisu.
"Here you go, eat up! While you're eating I'll be right back."
She left him to eating. She went into her room and stood in there, ears listening to the sounds from the kitchen. After a minute she heard what she had been listening for—the sound of a body dropping from a chair onto the floor. She calmly went back into the kitchen and found Ebisu passed out on the floor, his skin completely drained of color.
Yoshiko grinned wickedly and cleaned up the kitchen, dropping the cookies back into their bag, which had a hazard sign on it. She then went to Ebisu, and crouched before him.
"You won't die, but next time a ninja that deals with poison invites you to their home: check for anything harmful."
She reached down and picked him up, slinging him on her back and quickly took him to the hospital. Once there she told them that he had come over to her place for something and had unintentionally eaten something that wasn't safe. Then she went to retrieve her cookies and deliver them to Kakashi before he returned home.
When she got to the training field, Herenu was glaring at the cookies from the other side of the field. Yoshiko looked between the two of them and decided she had to ask.
"What happened?"
"They smell too good! It was destroying my concentration, so…" she trailed off.
Yoshiko laughed. "You know, I got them from Kaz, I'm sure you can get some too."
Herenu brightened. "After we deliver this to Kakashi. They should still be on training ground four; I need to talk to Sakura so we can go together!"
Yoshiko's eyes widened in surprise "but…!"
"No buts!" Herenu jumped to her feet and delivered the box of cookies back to Yoshiko. "You've got to start meeting him face to face if you want him to like you."
"But…" She said weakly in response, she knew it was useless –Herenu had that look in her eye.
Herenu grabbed Yoshiko's wrist and they headed over to Field #4. They got there just in time to see Naruto and Saskue leaving, both glaring at each other. Yoshiko's mood darkened when she saw Saskue, but didn't let it on to Herenu. Once the two boys were out of sight, Herenu shoved Yoshiko out into the open towards Kakashi, who was walking away, nose in his book already.
Yoshiko was terrified. It must have shown on her face, as Herenu gave her another push, and called "Hey Kakashi! Yoshiko has something for you!"
Both Kakashi and Sakura froze at the sound of her voice. Yoshiko blushed at the sudden attention from the man she loved.
She walked foreword until she was right in front of Kakashi. "Um…I made these for you!" She said looking very much like Hinata when she gave Naruto anything, head bowed, and the box extended.
After what felt like an eternity, she felt the box taken from her hands and a quick, soft 'thank you.' When she looked up she saw swirling dust that was all the remained behind Kakashi's quick get away.
"Oi! Yoshiko!"
She turned at the sound of her name, and saw Herenu standing next to a mildly uneasy Sakura.
"She agreed! Let's get started!"
--
Tsunade was not happy. She was supposed to be examining the hospital, yet some dumb log kept getting in her way! When she had entered early in the morning she was able to walk around normally, listening to various reports and examining rooms and equipment, but around 11 o'clock a log had started appearing in her way. She had moved it out of the main path with orders to get it removed, yet it kept reappearing, and when questioned, the janitor told them that it had been removed properly and even showed him the logs in question.
As the inspection team reached the emergency room they found another log blocking the path just as a nurse came rushing around the corner, pushing a bed with a patent on it. Tsunade opened her mouth to tell them to look out, but the log jumped out of the way, and then the moment they were past returned to its position in the middle of the hall.
The team stared.
"It just moved!" An assistant said stating the obvious.
Tsunade's brow furrowed, trying to think who would do such a thing: to block the path of the inspection team, yet allow moving beds through. Who did it and what was that log made of? She crossed to it and examined the log, the rest of the team watching. It appeared to be a log, yet when chakara was applied she discovered that it was a mix of chakara and other elements. That didn't solve the mystery of why it moved when a bed came though. In frustration, she slammed her fist into it, it rippled but held.
That didn't improve Tsunade's mood. With a tremendous shove she moved it from the isle, the quicker she got the examination done the quicker she could get away from this log…she hoped.
--
Naruto left the training ground not believing his luck. Two of three kunoichis were out and about. Now if luck was with him Kazura would be out also. Quickly he headed to her apartment.
Naruto got very, very lucky. Not two blocks from the training area he heard Kazura's voice hawking cookies for orphaned squirrels with a backing of killing intent from Ibiki. From the looks of things Kazura would be busy for a while. He grinned and launched himself onto the city roofs and headed toward his apartment complex.
Naruto congratulated himself on his forethought as he quickly dismantled the traps in Kazura's apartment. A week ago Team 6 had come together to devise the new traps in her new apartment and Naruto had listened through the window. Luck continued to be with him for Kazura had slacked in properly setting up her traps making it twice as easy to get in.
"Now, where is it?" Naruto muttered to himself. He stood looking at an apartment that for all intense and purposes was the copy of his own. He took a moment to note that most of her furniture was handcrafted from the famous Hiroshi Furniture, one piece cost more than he could save in a year.
He shrugged. "Whatever" he said to himself and set to work.
He checked everywhere he could think: under tables, behind chairs, inside cabinets, around pillows and plants, on top bookshelves, under papers. He stood in the middle of her bedroom looking for a place where he hadn't searched.
His eyes landed on her dresser. He felt his cheeks heat but with a gulp he took the two steps to it and slowly opened the drawer half expecting something to spring out. When nothing did he took a quick look than he slammed it shut, his face burning. He reached hastily for the next drawer but paused with his hand on the handle. He reached up again and opened the first drawer. Tucked beneath socks with no visible match, and in an array of colors that would make a rainbow jealous, was a very official looking folder. He pulled it out. Confidential was stamped across it. A date five years in the past, he flipped it open. A rather bruised picture of Kazura greeted him. In a quick glance he read that Kazura had been kidnapped by an enemy but returned after escaping. Confused Naruto put the folder back and closed the drawer. He shrugged again and made quick work in searching the drawers putting the contents of the folder in the back of his mind.
He crossed his arms in frustration. "I guess the fur ball isn't here." Naruto growled annoyed. Scowling Naruto stalked to the kitchen pulling off a sticky note from a pad next to her phone. His plan to kidnap the squirrel ruined. He quickly scribbled a note and left it on the table before resetting the traps and leaving.
--
Naruto walked into his apartment and found a big cardboard cutout of Sakura tied to a chair, tears in her eyes. Taped to it was a note.
Naruto pulled the note off and read it aloud. "If you want to see your precious Sakura-chan again: bring 12 fireworks and four bowls of ramen to the top of the First's head. 3 TT6"
Naruto stared at the note, recognizing the signature for what it was. When did they put this here? He had seen Sakura not twenty minutes ago while training. Things didn't add up.
He decided to go to Sakura's house and check. He made it there in record time, and almost ran over Sakura's mom when she came out of the house as he arrived. He asked her if she had seen Sakura, and she said no, Sakura hadn't been home since leaving to train.
Naruto thanked her and went to get the ramen and fireworks.
When he reached the monument ten minutes later, he found Sakura tied to a chair looking just like she had in the cutout. No one else was around
"Sakura-chan!" He called, quickly putting down the bowls and fireworks and racing over to untie her. A few steps away he felt his foot snag on something and suddenly his world was turned upside-down. Promptly he realized he had fallen into their trap and started struggling and cursing.
Below him Sakura vanished in a puff of smoke. Yoshiko stood in where she had been.
"Man, you suck." She said, casually looking him up and down. "You fell for my ninjutsu and genjutsu easily."
"Huh?" Naruto said pausing in his struggling.
"Look around, analyze your situation." Yoshiko said.
Naruto did as instructed, and had he not been upside down, he would've fallen over in surprise. Nothing was around his ankle. Nor was there much around him. The top of the First's head was pure stone, no places to hide, or to tie ropes for traps.
"What the--?"
"As I said, you suck at detecting dangerous situations." Yoshiko said and walked over to the bowls of ramen and firecrackers and picked them up. She turned back to Naruto. "It'll wear off…eventually." She then disappeared over the edge of the cliff, Naruto cursing her loudly.
--
Tsunade slammed her office door shut. She stood by it glaring at her desk, not wanting to go back. She had just experienced a purely frustrating day! Some stupid log had kept bothering her and her inspection team when they had gone to the hospital, and it hadn't left until she had exited the hospital—four full hours after she was scheduled to be back in the office!
She turned her glare from her desk to her filling cabinets. The only day that could compare was that day with the confetti.
Slowly a light flickered on. It had to be a ninja! No one else could pull such pranks on someone! Now who would it be? Her mind started turning, and she went over to the cabinet and pulled out the lists of ninja from other villages. Surely one of them had a grudge against the Hokage of Konoha.
It would have to be a weird grudge or something if it was just simply pranks, she amended to herself. She then got to work researching ninja.
--
Herenu patted her stomach appreciatively. In Naruto's haste to rescue Sakura he had gotten some decent ramen, nothing too expensive, but it was still tasty. She, Yoshiko, and Sakura had enjoyed three of the bowls, and had given the last one to Yoshiko to give to her special someone.
She had just dropped by Kaz's cookie stand and bought some cookies from her. She got a dozen for Iruka, and four for herself—they smelled too good to pass up—and was heading over to Iruka's apartment to give him his cookies. It was right after dinner, so he should be home reading. Herenu decided that if Yoshiko could give cookies to Kakashi, she could do the same for Iruka. This had the great possibility of turning out to be a ding-dong ditch drop-off, but it was a step towards confessing her feelings.
She was almost there when her ninja senses tingled, but before she could act on them, a strong arm dropped itself onto her shoulder, trapping her by its owner's side.
"Mmm, cookies! Are these for me, sweetie?" A strong bass voice said, and another hand reached into Herenu's bag and stole a cookie.
She glanced up, it was Jiraiya. "No." She tried to pull away, but his arm was too tight, she couldn't get away.
He ignored the 'no' and moved onto his next question, "who made these, you?"
"Kazura made them. You know—my teammate?" She said hoping he would leave the rest alone if he knew the truth.
Her hopes were shattered when he said, "these are good, but I bet ones you made would be better."
He smiled down at her. She glared back.
"Are you hungry? I'm starving." He said looking around at the stores and restaurants around them. "I know! Let's go get something to eat!" He steered Herenu over to a restaurant she and her friends had visited before.
"A table for two." He told the host above Herenu's complaints.
The host gave them a questioning look but lead them to a table anyway. Jiraiya took over at this point. As they looked over the menu deciding what they wanted to eat, Herenu's mind sought a way out of her situation. By the time they were ordering, an idea came to her…now, how to enact it…?
A girl came out of the kitchen carrying food and started walking their general direction. Herenu knew that this was not their waiter, as theirs was male, but what she did know was that Jiraiya's eyes followed her: she had a very attractive figure that wasn't disguised by the uniform she wore. She walked to the table next to them and began giving the occupants their food. Jiraiya took this opportunity to start flirting with her. Had Herenu gone on this date willingly she would've been offended, but she took the chance to wave down her waiter and give him some instructions, he promised to follow them soon.
Herenu sat back content to enjoy some free food (even if she wasn't that hungry) and waited for her chance to escape.
Her chance came towards the end of the meal, and she couldn't be happier, Jiraiya's conversation was becoming grosser by the minute. Their server came out of the kitchen holding a slice of cake that had a single sparking candle, by the time he reached their table he was joined by five others, including the girl Jiraiya was hitting on earlier. Once they reached the table Jiraiya was surprised, but not concerned, his eyes were focused on the girl. The moment they started singing "happy birthday," Herenu began to executed her smokeless teleportation, however the toad summoner's expression stopped her. His face had gone unexplainably pale as his the employees coursed off key congratulations of another year over. A tick developed over his left eye. His lips were moving and his expression was fairly panicked. As she finished the seals for her teleportation's jutsu Herenu realized what Jiraiya was muttering and laughed once she was safely in the Tairoru compound. Who new Jiraiya was a Gerascophobic? (a fear of growing old)
She almost felt bad leaving Jiraiya there alone, but those thoughts were quickly put down with memories of what he was talking about and the fact that he had kidnapped her and stolen her cookies.
She looked at the sun for the time. Kazura was sure to be done with her cookie sale (all proceeds to orphaned squirrels!) so she had no choice but to go inside and bake some herself.