The Psychic, The Swordsman, and The Sorcerer

Chapter 89

I don't own Naruto (Masashi Kishimoto), X-Men (Marvel Comics in association with 20th Century Fox), Zorro (public domain, though Zorro Production Inc. tries to say otherwise), or Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Studio), The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas), The Lone Ranger (currently Dreamworks Classics, but made by George Trendle), The Scarlet Pimpernel (public domain but made by Baroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci, without whom we would not have the very idea of a masked superhero), and Assassin's Creed (Ubsioft). Fun Fact: There are 700 chapters to Naruto.

It's been a while, but I've resurrected every project I've been working on, so we're back. Every four months, this one will be updated, so you can expect the next chapter of this in August.

"You know, it feels like you and I have been experiencing this whole day for over a year," Yakumo noted pointedly, "Don't get me wrong, I loved every minute of it, but it feels like we were put on a shelf somewhere for a good while."

"At least we're having a nice date?" Sai offered.

'And at least you've been showing up pretty often, especially compared to us,' Ido noted.

'And you three at least have names,' the underlined voice chimed in, 'I'm still working with a description instead of a name.'

"True enough. I just hope we get to see the fireworks sometime this year," she smiled behind her mask.

"Fireworks?" he asked.

"You'll see..."

At the same restaurant as the pair, both Zorro and Hinata were surprised when they saw the Scarlet Pimpernel approach a table with Koko. While they were aware that the former ROOT operative was a close companion of her in both of her identities, the fact that Koko had her arms around one of the Scarlet Pimpernel's arms did make this a surprising situation.

"I didn't know they were dating," Hinata noted.

"Neither does the Pimpernel," Zorro murmured back, "And I suspect Koko is unaware as well. We must let them realize things in their own time." He paused for a moment. "I do believe that we might have a spectacle ahead of us. Would you care for another trip, rather than returning immediately."

"You have my curiosity, Zorro-kun," she noted with a smile, "So, where are we going."

"That shall be a surprise, mi amor," he smirked, "A pleasant one, if the clone that dispersed is to be believed..."

Tenten could see the restaurant at the end of the block as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop, Haku still having failed to catch up and nowhere to be found. All she would need to do is jump off the next roof, roll, and she'd be the winner. She jumped to the next rooftop, landing gracefully before she darted forward once more to reach the end of her trail... and promptly found herself unable to run when her feet failed to move. Looking down, she found the rooftop had ice holding her in place, which she barely managed to register before she was suddenly engulfed in a hug from behind.

"I won," Haku teased playfully.

"How?" Tenten asked in surprise.

"I cheated," Haku replied shamelessly, "I remembered where we were going, took a shortcut, and waited."

"Betrayed by a medic," Tenten sighed dramatically, "Is there none who can be truly trusted?"

"I suspect you can be trusted to hold up your end of the bet," Haku smirked.

"Next time, I'll win," Tenten vowed as Haku dispersed the ice.

"We'll see," Haku replied, "Shall we?"

"Yep," Tenten replied, "Come on."

"Inari..." Tsunami began slowly, "Zabuza and I have been talking recently."

The boy immediately paused in his eating, lowering his chopsticks, "About what?"

"Your training," Zabuza explained, "I'll be teaching you how to properly maintain your crossbow. It isn't good to let your tools go bad, and I've been neglecting that lesson."

"And..." Tsunami began slowly, "He will be teaching you to use a sword."

Zabuza blinked in surprise at that even as Inari spoke up.

"You will?" he asked, just as surprised as Zabuza felt.

"You will?" Tazuna chimed in as well at the same time.

"He will," Tsunami nodded, "I want both of you to be careful."

"We'll start on the basics with bokken," Zabuza promised, "Once he's mastered the basic forms, we'll move on to dull steel." He turned towards Inari. "We'll discuss proper sword maintenance earlier than that. Like I said, you can't let your tools get ruined. Maintenance means that your tools will work when you need them to."

Inari nodded in understanding. Zabuza, for his part, began to form a general lesson plan for how to go about training him, based on the basic lessons that he'd taught Haku in the early days. On the whole, it was an otherwise uneventful night.

"Gentlemen," a Naruto in a construction helmet greeted as he approached Kiba and Shino, "How would you both like to have your evening made significantly brighter?"

"In what regard?" Kiba asked carefully.

"You will be seeing quite a beautiful sight to behold."

"What is the cost?" Shino inquired.

"I need you to send a message to your clan, Kiba," the clone replied cheerfully.

"What about?" he asked.

"There's going to be a series of explosions tonight at the mill," the clone answered, "I wanted to alert all of you because I don't know how loud it will be."

"Would that have anything to do with our evening being brightened?"

"It would," Naruto agreed, "One of the clones I made was working with the foreman clone and got popped by a falling flower pot. Deidara's putting on a show for the demolition. It's meant to be a demo for his upcoming art exhibit. Look to the sky when they start going off."

"The explosion guy..." Kiba mused, before sharing a nod with Akamaru, "Well, Shino, Akamaru, let's get to work."

"Very well," Shino agreed

Akamaru barked, causing the pair to blink in surprise.

"That would make things faster," Kiba agreed.

"It will take a bit of work to get all of those rubber ducks," Shino noted.

"Yeah, but at least we already have the peanut butter and the bell handy," Kiba noted, "That should make things so much easier."

"Agreed."

The redhead adjusted her glasses. The mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel had led her into this village and she had told the Pimpernel that she was going to be fine on her own, but the truth of the matter was that she had no place to go and no idea what to do next but did not want to admit to that to the stranger who had already helped her so much.

'So, Karin,' a commanding voice suddenly said in her head, 'You seem rather interested in finding a place to stay.'

'We might have a place for you to stay,' another voice said, 'You have family in Konoha, and beside that, you might have a place in the X-Men...'

"Who...?" she began, before a boy cleared his throat, causing her to turn and see a girl with pink hair, a girl with blond hair, and a boy with black hair, who was presumably the one who cleared his throat moments before.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha, and my associates are Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, who call themselves the Phoenix and the White Queen respectively," he greeted, "Whatever they told you was probably true. Your life is about to get very interesting..."