A/N: Hey! I'm back! Hopefully this chapter will be a good one!
This chapter is dedicated to: SparkDazzleDuez, I'mInCharge-GodHelpUsAll, Anime-Lover-LUV, Katarina Wolffe, Waymirec, yunaluna95, chuchuthepichu, Angelwings228, Red ChopSticks, Star Vamp, X. rainbow queen of earth.X, SakinaTheCursed, chibi-chinita (new chibi-princessa :P), bright-rebellious, Nibinokwe, chumble, evil-tea (wtf? XD), Deidara-Is-Beast (ROFL! You brought in my cherry blossom.), and AnimeCrazed121.
I'm glad you guys were as positive as you were about me bringing in Byakuya Kuchiki. I honestly didn't expect such a positive reaction! I expected Switzerland at best! (Switzerland meaning neutral) And you guys were super positive about the Star Wars refrences. To be honest, that's how I remember the formula for Force. "may the mass times acceleration be with you".
Oh, and as for future Bleach cameos...I'm going to get as many in as I can in the future. We ARE going to Karakura after all :P.
Well, on with the show!
Chapter 35: Mud
SCHWING!
Neji's head snapped towards Sora sitting on the couch, laptop in her lap. She was clearly playing some kind of computer game.
"What are you playing?" Tenten asked looking over her shoulder.
"Gaia Online." Sora stated. "This is just one of their games."
"Is it an RPG?"
"Kind of." Sora paused for a moment to click around for a few seconds. "It's called ZOMG. Not kidding."
Dark entered the room with a laugh. "You're playing that again?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Remember the OMFG?"
Sora laughed. "Yes!"
"What's the omphfuhguh?" Neji asked.
"Oh-em-eff-gee." Sora laughed. "There's a place in this game where you fight these creepy creatures. There are these small guys called OMG's, then there's the bigger one called the OMFG. Then, if you know where to go, you can face the OMGWTF."
Dark burst out laughing. "I forgot about that thing!"
"What's the OMGWTF?" Tenten asked, grinning.
"It's an OMG with wings. It looks like a manta ray." Sora stated.
Itachi sniggered from the corner. "OMFG."
Neji turned away from the computer game going on and looked out the window. The rain was just pouring down outside. Dark's brother had no problem with the rain. He was studying in a completely different room, as he had been ever since he arrived. Neji had to hand it to the guy. Neji hadn't studied through high school. Ever. Not even for an exam. But what he did do, however was the main part of getting good grades in school: he paid attention at all times and did his homework when he had to. Because of that, it made him eligible for the 'I'm-not-going-to-study-because-if-I-don't-know-it-by-now-I'll-never-know-it' technique.
Neji looked back towards the crew scattered in the living room. Everyone was bored with a capital 'B'. Even Sora who was occupied with an online game a few minutes ago was putting the computer away.
"Who wants to go mud sliding?" Sora announced.
Everyone stared at her. Dark merely grinned and said "Me."
"There's a nice big hill not too far from here. We can go slide down it!"
"Are you NUTS?" Itachi cried. "It's POURING out there!"
"Exactly!" Dark and Sora said at the same time.
"More water means more mud, which means more fun!" Sora argued.
Everyone remained silent.
"All right, you guys don't have to slide, but at least come out! You'll be less bored out there!" Sora stated, heading towards the front door.
"I'll get my brother!" Dark announced. "He's been studying for too long now. His brain must be fried."
Neji sighed but followed everyone towards the door. As they put their shoes on, they could hear the growing argument between Byakuya and Dark in the other room.
"Go away!"
"You've been studying for ages! Even you must need a break!"
"I don't have time for your juvenile games!"
"Oh come on, please? Isn't three hours of studying enough? You can come back to it afterwards!"
Silence.
"Yeah Byakuya!" Sora roared up the stairs. "Give your brain a break and come out for a bit!"
Silence.
The tension continued to mount.
There was a faint sigh. "All right, all right."
"YEAH HA!" Dark whipped down the stairs moments later, sliding down the railing. "WHOA!" He keeled over backwards and spun around quickly, landing neatly on his feet and rolling before standing back up again.
Everyone stared.
"Do that again." Sasuke stated.
"I probably couldn't do it again if I tried." Dark shrugged.
Byakuya began walking down the stairs. He looked like he was trying to relieve some kind of stress he was feeling at the moment. Still, he put on his shoes without complaint.
Sora lead the trek out the door. The mud was messy already and was leaking water into their shoes. They were the borrowed work shoes, however so nobody complained.
"Have you guys ever been mud sliding before?" Dark asked the group.
Everyone shook their heads.
Dark sighed. "You've been deprived."
Sora suddenly let out a tremendous whoop and ran from the pack. She disappeared a few seconds later in a downward direction, screaming at the top of her lungs. When the group arrived at the hill, Sora was still at the bottom, getting up and covered in mud.
She pumped her fists in the air. "EEEYAAAAAAAAA!" She roared.
Dark charged towards the hill and shot down the hill, whooping the whole way. Sora meanwhile began climbing up again.
Naruto took one look at the hill and dove for it. He was laughing and screaming the whole way. The slide was a good fifty feet long.
Azimora locked eyes with Itachi in the back. Two identical smirks formed on their faces. Azimora jumped first and grabbed Itachi's arm, attempting to drag him towards the mud slide. Itachi was doing the same thing to Azimora. Nobody moved and watched the fight.
Itachi and Azimora were now right by the hill, fighting for who would get dirty first.
Splatter!
Itachi and Azimora got a face full of mud. Guess who did it.
Sasuke looked towards Sora. Sora looked towards Dark. Dark looked towards Byakuya who's hands were filled with mud.
Byakuya threw the mud ball like a baseball. Itachi and Azimora ducked this time and dove for the hill to get away from the mud slinger. They screamed and whooped the whole way down.
SPLAT!
Dark laughed and ran from his brother.
Byakuya wiped the mud off his face with his sleeve. "That's it. You're dead." Byakuya tore after Dark. He caught up in a few seconds and flung Dark down the hill, but Dark kept a good grip on Byakuya's arm and dragged him down after him. The two brothers sat at the bottom for a moment, then Byakyua smeared a lump of mud on Dark's face before tearing up the hill.
Tenten took a few tentative steps towards the mud slide. She sat down and pushed herself down it.
"AHH HAHAHA!" She cried, grinning as the mud shot from the hill and into her face. It was just like tobogganing when the snow flew into your face, only it was mud this time.
SPLAT!
Tenten struck the mud puddle right at the bottom and got soaked through. Laughing, she stood up.
"Come on, Neji! It's so fun!" She called. She started back up the hill.
Temari ran towards the hill and whooped as she began her slide. Shikamaru followed her, not making a sound.
SPLAT!
"AUGH!" Shikamaru shook his head to rid himself of the muck. Temari laughed at him.
Naruto had conned Hinata into sliding with him. They linked arms and slid down the hill whooping and shouting as they went. Everyone was now sliding except for Neji, Sasuke and Sakura. Tenten arrived at the top of the hill again. Neji stared at her.
"Who are you and what have you done with Tenten?" Neji asked.
Tenten laughed and grabbed his arm. "Come on! It's fun!"
"Fine fine." Neji followed her to the hill and sat down. Tenten shoved him forward.
"WAH!" Neji planted his hands to attempt to slow himself down to no avail. He rocketed down the hill before plopping into the mud at the bottom.
There was a scream behind him just as Tenten fell into the mud beside him. Tenten laughed at Neji. His silver eyes stood out like coal on snow because of the mud on his face.
"Come on! Let's go again!" Tenten cried, running up the hill again. Neji followed as fast as he could, seeing if he could actually beat her to the top.
Sasuke realised that he and Sakura were the only ones who still hadn't gotten muddy. Sasuke smirked and grabbed Sakura.
"SASUKE!"
Sasuke laughed and launched both of them down the hill. Sakura screamed the whole way down.
SPLAT!
The two of them rolled a few times in the mud.
"You're so mean Sasuke!" Sakura cried.
"Admit it. You enjoyed that." Sasuke laughed, throwing mud at her.
It started to go over the top when Dark and Byakuya began to compete over who could get to the bottom and back up first. Byakuya, the physics major, picked the most aerodynamic position, his arms crossed over his chest like he was going down one of those super huge water slides. He actually did get to the bottom first, and immediately started back up the hill. Dark was hot on his heels however.
Neji and Tenten shot down the hill again.
Pretty soon after that, the rain stopped and the mud slide began to do less sliding and more stopping. Still thrilled from their new accomplishment, the group headed back to the house. Renji greeted them there.
"Who are you and what have you done with my band?" Renji cried.
The Fifth Element stepped forward.
"We're right here." Itachi announced.
Renji started for the unknown band member on the left. "Who are you?"
Naruto wiped his face to some avail so his pale skin showed through the muck. "I'm Naruto!"
"Prove it!"
"Uh...BELIEVE IT!"
Renji moved onto the next one.
"I'm Shikamaru." Shikamaru stated.
"Prove it."
"The value of pi is 3.1415-"
"You've convinced me." Renji moved on. "Who are you?"
"Sasuke. Need me to prove it?"
"Do so."
"Hn," Sasuke smirked.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense." Renji moved on. He stared Neji down.
"Why don't you guess?" Neji smirked.
"Why don't you tell me?"
"I'm Neji. Do I really need to prove it?" Neji had a point. His eyes were silver. But, Renji was enjoying his game.
"Prove it!" Renji grinned.
Neji sighed and sung a scale.
"Brilliant." Renji moved on. "Your name seems to have evaded me, sir."
"Uchiha. Itachi Uchiha." Itachi stated in his best James Bond voice. Azimora laughed.
"PROVE IT!"
Itachi laughed. He thought about it for a moment, then he let out a highly skilled, metal scream.
"GOOD! So you're my band!"
"No duh." Shikamaru muttered. The group laughed.
Samitor came out of the yard bearing a garden hose. She fired the hose at everyone until most of the mud was gone and they were shivering from the icy water. Ryonue brought out towels for everyone. The group wrapped themselves up and headed inside.
Tenten dug through her clothes. "Oh no!" She cried.
"What's wrong?" Sakura asked.
"I don't have any clean shirts!"
Sakura looked surprised.
Tenten sighed. "Do you have an extra?"
"Well, I do, but I highly doubt you'd want to wear it..." Sakura stated. "It's pink, and it's frilly."
Darn. Tenten's worst nightmare. Pink and frilly. She thought about other friends she could ask. Temari's shirts were too big for her, Hinata's too small, and Azimora's a little bit TOO bad ass for her liking.
Next thing she knew, she imagined what it would be like to borrow one of Neji's shirts and quickly shook the thought away. She was not that desperate.
Tenten sighed and left the room, still in her wet and cold shirt. She ended up in the living room where Sora was turning on the television.
"Oh, you didn't change?" She asked.
Tenten sighed. "I have no clean shirts."
"You can borrow one of mine if you want." Sora stood up.
"Oh, I shouldn't..."
"No, it's fine, really. I have too many shirts anyway." Sora walked out of the room. Tenten followed her up the stairs, slightly nervous about borrowing clothes from someone she barely even knew.
Sora stopped in the middle of the hallway and grabbed a long stick. Tenten watched as she opened the attic door and pulled a ladder down.
"My bedroom's in the attic." Sora stated. "You can come up if you want." She climbed the ladder and disappeared over the top. Tenten put her hands on the ladder and climbed carefully. It was a rope ladder so it was slightly wobbly. When she pulled herself up over the edge, she gasped in surprise.
"Wow!" The attic was pretty big, and there were birds of all colours and sizes in cages around the room. All awe aside, Tenten just had to ask. "Why do you have your bedroom in the attic?"
Sora shrugged. "I like high places."
"Isn't it even slightly creepy?"
Sora laughed. "Yeah I guess that's the stereo type of an attic. But this one has life in it, so it's not that creepy. It's actually the quietest room in the house, which is good because I like quiet." Sora opened a dresser.
"I would think that having your bedroom in the attic is very impractical." Tenten stated walking over to the dresser.
"That's what my parents said. But hey, look what I made of it." Sora stated. "Pick a shirt, any shirt."
Tenten laughed and looked at the shirts. Thankfully, no pink, no lace, no frills. However, there was a lot of green.
"Hello!"
Tenten jumped at the odd sound. She realized a second later that it was a parrot.
"Hello! How are you?" Sora said to the parrot.
"I'm good! How are you?" The parrot was actually carrying a conversation with her.
"Quite well, thank you!"
"You're welcome!"
Sora laughed. The parrot laughed.
"Oh my gosh, that is just crazy." Tenten cried.
"Crazy!" The parrot cried.
Sora laughed again. The parrot laughed too.
"I talk to him all the time. He's gotten quite good at it."
"That's good! That's good!" The parrot called.
Tenten turned back to the shirts. She finally grabbed a darker green one, but then her eyes fell on something just lying at the bottom of the dresser. Unable to help it, she picked up. It appeared to be a necklace of some kind with a small round stone about the size of a quarter. It was an interesting thing to look at.
"What's this?" Tenten couldn't help but ask.
"Hm?" Sora looked towards the necklace. "Oh that. I had forgotten about that. I got it years ago. Do you like it?"
Tenten stared at the blue-green stone. "Yeah actually, it's pretty."
"You can have it if you want it."
Tenten looked at Sora. "Huh?"
"I don't wear it anyway. I may as well give it to someone who will actually use it, right?"
"Uh, yeah..." Tenten looked back towards the necklace. She wanted to take it, but Sora had been so nice to her. She didn't want to take too much from her.
Sora was opening one of her bird cages. She held her hand in the cage of budgies and all four of them jumped onto her fingers.
"Shouldn't you go change into the shirt?" Sora asked, staring at the budgies on her fingers, softly stroking the feathers.
Tenten nodded and hesitated, realizing she still had the necklace.
"Take the necklace by the way. You'd be doing me a favour if you took it." Sora told her.
Tenten smiled. "Thank you, Sora."
"You are welcome."
Tenten disappeared down the ladder, still holding the shirt and necklace. Sora watched her go, wondering whether the necklace would be better off in Tenten's hands.
The budgies whistled and flew back into their cage. Sora put her hands down. Maybe...just maybe it was true...
Yamato, Kakashi and Dark's dad re entered the house just before dinner.
"Good news." Yamato announced. "The bus should be ready to go for tomorrow."
The group's heads snapped up in surprise. If this was good news, then why did they suddenly feel their hearts sink?
A/N: WOO HOO! Another chapter completed. Yeah. The time at Kona farm is beginning to come to a close. As sad as it may be, all good things must eventually come to a close.
Whooeee. Life here in Canada is starting to get chilly! It snowed like crazy here the other day. Unfortunately, it's almost melted again...But believe me: It's December here, and the snow will be back. Mark my words...
~SilverEyeShinobi