Disclaimer: Inuyasha and Naruto do not belong to me!

a/n: so I lied. I said that this chapter would have some serious Naruto/Kagome bonding. Not the case. I meant next chapter. :D

If Kagome thought it was strange that Naruto was leading her into a mainly civilian populated area, she didn't say anything about it.

Actually, she wasn't saying much at all. And it was freaking him out. The Kagome he and everyone else knew excelled in the fine art of speaking. Yet, the Kagome walking behind him was as silent as a mouse. She made no effort to talk to him, which was strange, considering she'd seemed just fine a mere ten minutes ago. So what had changed?

Naruto found that he didn't like the possible answers to that question.

What if Kagome was already beginning to figure things out? No, what if she already knew that Inuyasha had asked him to keep her busy so that she wouldn't think of Bonkutsa or whatever his name was? Or, what if she was planning on ditching him because she was so mad at him that she couldn't stand being in his presence?

Things wouldn't end well if any of those possibilities were the case. For him, anyway. Knowing his luck though, things were bound to end badly regardless of what he did.

'Not today though!' Naruto attempted to reassure himself. 'Because this is something I can't fail at! I have to keep Kagome safe and away from that guy!'

But how exactly did a guy keep a teenage girl's mind pre-occupied so that she wouldn't think of her creepystalkernon-boyfriendperson's return to the village?

He wished he knew! At the least, he had figured that if he brought her to a place where not many shinobi ventured, he could keep her from thinking anything ninja related. After that though, he was at a loss.

A touch on the shoulder ceased his thoughts and nearly caused him a heart attack. "Naruto-kun?"

The blond boy yelped and practically jumped 20 feet in the air. His already spiky hair stood straight up, and he looked as if someone had just given him the shock of his life.

"Ah, sorry," Kagome apologized while trying not to laugh, "but you look so worried. Is everything okay?"

Naruto attempted to laugh her observation off, but it just came out as an awkward chuckle. "Me? Worried? Never! You're seeing things, Kagome! I'm fine!"

Kagome did not look convinced. "If you say so…"

"I know so! What's more, you're the one who looks worried!"

She blinked. "Really?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah! I mean, you're being all quiet and it's weird…"

"Huh," Kagome began, "I was being quiet because you were being quiet."

"I was just thinking!" Naruto countered, "nothing more!"

Once again, Kagome didn't appear to be convinced, but she dropped the matter. "Well, I'm not worried. And if I did look worried, it was only because I thought you were worried."

Naruto carelessly shrugged. "Well, I'm not worried either," he lied.

Blue clashed with blue as they stared at one another.

After a couple of moments, Naruto's face flushed red, and he focused his gaze elsewhere. "Hey, how about—"

The whole world came to a standstill when he spotted the last two people he wanted to see at the moment—not because he didn't want to see them, but because they would undoubtedly complicate things.

He grabbed Kagome's wrist and yanked her—as gently as he could while in a hurry—towards the closest alley. The girl stumbled but managed to regain her footing, all while Naruto threw himself against the wall and remained as close to it as possible. It seemed sort of pointless, though, considering that he was still very much visible to the public.

Kagome decided not to say anything about it and instead, she took a step closer to him. "What's wrong?"

Naruto lifted his pointer finger in front of his mouth in a shushing motion and gestured towards the pink haired girl and her dark haired companion standing in front of a fancy looking café just a few feet from where they were.

Kagome's eyes grew round. "Hey, that's—"

"Sakura-chan and Sasuke," Naruto groaned, cursing his rotten luck. There was no doubt in his mind that they had been there a while. A long while. To make matters worse, both of his teammates had irritated expressions on their faces, and he could tell they were just seconds away from tearing everything within 20 feet apart.

"Are you one hundred percent positive you haven't seen him at all today?" The Uzumaki and Nara heard Sakura ask in a strained voice. "I mean, I know he sleeps in every now and then but he usually shows up within the hour. Unlike Kakashi-sensei."

Somehow, they managed to hear Sasuke's cold answer. "I keep telling you I haven't seen him since yesterday. So stop asking."

"The bastard sounds pissed," Naruto murmured to himself.

Kagome mulled over that. "Sakura-chan sounds angrier."

"It's when she starts to yell that you have to worry. Sasuke, on the other hand, is the brooding type. Even though he doesn't sound as mad as Sakura-chan, you can tell by how snippy his voice sounds that he's freakin' pissed."

A slow smile spread across Kagome's lips. "How admirable for you to notice such things."

"Y-you think so?" Naruto sheepishly chuckled as he ran tanned fingers through his spiky hair. His good humor disappeared however when Sakura's voice reverberated through the street. "He promised to meet us here though, at 12:15 sharp, in front of this stupid café! It's almost two now!" She yapped while stomping her foot, startling a few passersby and some of the customers at the open bistro. "Where the hell is he?"

"Sakura, calm down," Sasuke bit out, only for the kunoichi to respond with a stingy, "No!"

In his and Kagome's hiding spot, Naruto tried his best to ignore his friend's rant and tried to think of the possible reasons why Sakura and Sasuke would be here, in this particular area, of all places. Also, when had he agreed to meet them here? In front of some cliché civilian café? And why—

It hit him then. 'Oooohhhh, that's riiiiight,' he remembered, 'our team meeting…' He had completely forgotten about it! It hadn't even crossed his mind when Inuyasha had asked him to help him a while ago!

He gulped. 'Ah crap.'

Kagome noticed how pale he had turned. "Naruto-kun? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "we're in trouble."

They both froze when they heard Sakura abruptly yell, "So, Naruto thinks it's okay to mimic Jiraiya-sama's perverted ways and Kakashi-sensei's habit of showing up late? I'll pummel him!"

Naruto blanched and Kagome's expression turned sympathetic. "I can explain the situation to them if you—"

"NO!" Naruto cut her off, rather loudly. In fact, it seemed to echo throughout the suddenly quiet street.

"NA-RU-TO."

All color left said boy's face when Sakura stressed his name in that way that told him terrible, terrible things were about to happen to him.

If he wasn't worried before, he sure as hell was worried now.

For a brief second, he really considered just surrendering and letting his teammates lecture and beat him. After all, it wasn't as if he could hide from them forever, and he had learned long ago that Sakura and Sasuke could hold one hell of a grudge. 'You can run, but you can't hide, Naruto,' he heard Sakura say in his mind as she cracked her knuckles and her eyes glowed red.

But the more persistent side of him cheered, 'Ah, come on Naruto! You're the Leaf Village's number one prankster! Your stealth is off the charts and you're just a few years away from becoming—!'

Somehow someway, Kagome managed to catch him off guard by grabbing his hand and directing him down the alley and in the opposite direction of the two angry members of squad 7.

"Come on!" the female Nara said with such a determined gleam in her blue eyes that it surprised the blond. "We have to hide!"

Naruto's musings and words jumbled together as he and Kagome tumbled into the following street and went straight through the doors of the closest store. Without paying much mind to how much force she used, she led him to the nearest display and crouched down behind it so that she was hidden. Once that was done, she yanked on Naruto's wrist so that he fell down beside her.

Naruto's breathe left him as Kagome turned towards him, her face flushed, hair tussled, and eyes bright with adrenaline.

"That was a close call, huh?" She said.

"Ye…what was that all about?" Naruto inquired, his eyes wide and contemplative.

There was no hesitation in her answer. "I didn't—I don't want to see you get yelled at. Plus, you save me all the time too, right?" Kagome confessed in a voice so sincere, that Naruto felt his face burn red in embarrassment.

Not many people cared about him like this. Not many people cared about what happened to him, period. To this day, he still received sneers from those who thought he didn't deserve the honor of being a shinobi from Konohagakure.

It made him feel elated to know that Kagome was one of the few who did. She cared.

What was this feeling? It felt like gratitude, but, perhaps it was something stronger? He didn't know how to word it. It was like…he felt…

"We'll just wait in here until everything has cooled over," Kagome suddenly remarked with a smile.

Naruto continued to watch her before he slowly smiled back. "Sakura-chan will probably be mad for an hour. Sasuke-teme will probably stay pissed for two, though."

"Then I guess we'll stay hidden for two hours," Kagome laughed before she let her eyes gaze around the shop. All she saw were unique displays of sharp weapons and various types of ancient armor. But this wasn't any ordinary armor. It looked like…armor from long ago. From the Feudal Era, perhaps. She glanced over at Naruto once again.

"What shop are we in?" She questioned while she peered from left to right.

"I thought you knew," Naruto replied with a weak chuckle, pushing aside all his perplexing thoughts for the moment. "Isn't this just any old weapons shop?"

"Well, yeah, but…everything looks old."

"Like, Ero-sennin old," Naruto consented.

"I'd say older than that still." Kagome added when she noticed a giant, tan boomerang hanging on the back wall in all its polished glory.

"Gah, that looks dangerous," noted Naruto and his blue eyed companion nodded in agreement.

"It is dangerous," said a new voice—a voice that definitely belonged to a female. "Especially in the hands of a person who knows how to use it."

Naruto and Kagome shared a wide-eyed glance before they both glanced to their left.

There stood a woman (who appeared to be in her early 20's) with piercing dark eyes, and a tall, slender figure. She was pretty, but she looked like the no-nonsense type. She also looked like she didn't appreciate the fact that they were using her shop as a hiding spot.

Kagome's blue eyes widened as she recognized her.

"Sango-san!"

End of chapter.