The Psychic, The Swordsman, and The Sorcerer

Chapter 55

I don't own Naruto (Masashi Kishimoto), X-Men (Marvel Comics in association with 20th Century Fox), Zorro (public domain despite what Zorro Production Inc. would like you to believe), or Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling in association with Warner Bros. Studios). Fun Fact: When he was first signed on, Alfonso CuarĂ³n asked Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint to write a short essay on their characters. Watson turned in a 16 page essay, Radcliffe turned in a one-page essay, and Grint never turned his in. Special Mention to CMVreud, who had guessed the Fun Fact of the Month in one of their reviews.

'Marvel Girl,' Ino's mental voice greeted the pink-haired telepath as she approached the girl as she trained with her fireballs. Nearby, Sasuke was reading a guidebook entitled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, not seeming to care that he was being excluded from the telepathic conversation. 'The Brotherhood is active again.'

'I'm aware,' Sakura noted dryly, 'They're calling themselves the Akatsuki. And I told you not to call me that, White Queen. I'm assuming you have a point in telling me the obvious... What else are you here for, to tell me about how they're planning on recruiting jinchuuriki to their cause as well?'

'In fairness to me, I don't exactly have that many people that I can discuss village secrets that are meant to stay secrets with, do I?' Ino responded, 'So, what do you have planned?'

'At the moment? Nothing.'

'What?!'

'I don't have anything planned to deal with them at the moment,' Sakura mentally shrugged, 'They haven't made a real move, yet. For now, I've been keeping a mental eye out for any mutants or jinchuuriki in the area. We need to show them that there's a better way. That we can have peace with the humans...'

'I'm impressed that you're saying that without suddenly deciding to kill off all life as the Dark Phoenix,' Ino replied with a mental smirk.

'I've gotten her further under control,' Sakura said, 'And it is a better way.'

'You don't have to sell me on the idea,' Ino replied, 'I disbanded the Hellfire Club for a reason.'

'True,' Sakura replied, 'At any rate, we'll try to recruit more people to our cause. I'm sure we can find people willing to live amongst the humans peacefully, rather than attempt a war of extermination. We just need to find sane, reasonable members of the community, and we'd probably do well to avoid certain fairly insane individuals...'


"Long story short, it turned out that cans of paint do explode with enough heat applied to them," Yakumo concluded as she and Sai painted the view of the village from atop the Hokage Monument.

'Oh, thank Kishimoto, we're back!' Ido chimed in, 'And we're all alone with our sweet, innocent boyfriend in a romantic setting. You know what you must do...'

'Oh, no you don't...' the underlined voice muttered, 'You are not talking her into more shenanigans. Just keep painting, Yakumo...'

'Pounce upon him,' Ido said, 'Tie him up and drag him to the Hokage's office and demand he join you two in marriage.'

'Hey, Ido,' the underlined voice stated, 'Why don't we see which of us can be quiet for the longest?'

'I'm not falling for that one again,' Ido replied, 'Take him now!'

Before Yakumo or the underlined voice could respond, however, Sai had apparently decided that she had fallen quiet for too long and thus seized initiative for himself, a rare occurrence with the mute valet, but one that did occasionally occur. He kissed her lightly on the cheek.

"What was that for?" Yakumo asked, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"It seemed like the right thing to do at the time," he signed, before offering a smile that looked a bit more sincere than his usual smile.

"Love you too, Sai," she smiled.


In yet another part of the village, meanwhile, another young couple were having a wonderful time of their own.

"Well, Lady Hinata," the swordsman smiled, his hat upon Hinata's head as they rested against a tree in the park, his cape beneath the two of them as they sat, "I am glad that we are able to enjoy spending so much time together..."

"I'm happy we can spend so much time with one another, too, Zorro-kun," Hinata replied with a soft smile, before an amusing memory came to mind, "Did I ever tell you about the mission we'd gone on where Kiba had almost gotten married to a girl who loved cats?"

"I don't believe you have," Zorro grinned, "Though it does sound like an interesting affair."

"Well, first, I have to say that neither of them had known that was what was going on at the time," she said, "Naturally, the whole thing had been arranged by Shino..."


Kakashi was reasonably content. After Sakura had burned his copy of Icha Icha Armory twice, though he actually did believe that she really hadn't intended on the second one, he had finally gotten a new copy, and was going to find out what happened next. What was Gekko planning? Were Haru and Momoko finally going to be officially wed? What was Kakashi going to see in the scene that had the critics demanding that people read that book?

All of these questions were his to find the answers to. His students were away from him, having completed the D-Rank missions he'd taken for them out of a desire to have a few mundane missions for once, he was nowhere near any flames or any potential source of flames or ink spills, Anko had agreed to let him have this day to himself, Iruka was not there, and Shizune had Tonton with her... Truly, there was nothing that could possibly keep him away from his book. Nothing could possibly distract him from the romance novel in the series he cherished.

"Kakashi, my youthful rival!" the voice of Maito Gai rang out in his apartment building, revealing to Kakashi that he had completely forgotten a very big distraction that he hadn't dealt with in some time, "I am here to challenge you to another competition!"

The door to his apartment slammed open, revealing his self-proclaimed eternal rival, brandishing a new board game.

Well, there went either the next half hour, or the rest of his afternoon. At least this time, his book was undamaged...