Reader's Responses!
Dear MachiGai: I don't drink beer and I intensely dislike alcohol, so I wouldn't know about a Yebisu as in beer XD Sorry ;; Secondly, sakihodo is spelled sakihodo, even though "sakki" means "some time ago". Though, if you read manga in Japanese, sometimes proper spelling is altered a little to fit the character's personal style of speaking.
Also, it is "Henge" not "Hengen". Even if you just listen to the voice actors they say "henge" quite clearly - This is because though "Hengen" means "transform", if you read the kanji it is really the one for "Henka" (which means "to change") except you'd say "henge" when ninjas transform. I suppose it's just a Japanese thing. At any rate, I think ANBU does a wonderful job fansubbing. Fansubs are so much better than the awful American Shounin Jump ones shudder
Thirdly, you're correct in surmising that Naruto-tachi can't read English. They don't understand it. They read the book the same way you and I would read a comic book that's in a foreign language; by looking at the pictures. Finally, it's been a long time since I've watched/read the part with Ebisu/Konohamaru, so I forgot that Ebisu calls Konohamaru "Omagosama". Thank you kindly for pointing that out! And thank you for your helpful review. .

CHAPTER 12: How to Get Home

The group of five stared at the large, gray, rectangular metal box. A small sticker at the top right-hand corner proudly proclaimed it to be "HEAVY-DUTY INDUSTSTY-SIZE TYPE F100726" and offering "LIFETIME WARRANTY!" Below that, a slot for quarters, and a few knobs and dials for temperature and time adjustments.

Other than that, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the clothes dryer.

The girl blinked and bent foward, looking at it curiously. "This is the one?" she asked. Turning around, she took in their blank expressions and winced. Oops. I did it again... "I mean, kono kikai desu ka?"

Kakashi nodded.

Hmm. So, it wasn't the machine after all...but the dryer, she observed, thinking back to the conversation between her middle-aged neighbors that she'd overheard. ...How ironic. Out loud, she asked, "So...do you think you can go back the way you came, Kakashi-sama?"

The Jounin just shrugged. "I suppose we could try," he said off-handedly.

His three students turned to gape at him.

"Try!" Naruto shouted. "US!"

"Sensei, these commercial dryers can get up to really high temperatures!" Sakura added.

"This isn't a joke..." Sasuke put in coldly.

"Yeah, that's RIGHT!" Naruto exclaimed. "If you want to test it out then you'd better find someone to do it, because I sure as hell ain't gonna---

The blonde boy trailed off abruptly as he suddenly noticed that everyone was now staring at him with predatory gleams in their eyes. Cold sweat began form on his back and trickle down in little rivulets. He shivered.

Sakura laughed. It wasn't a pleasant laugh, but cold and brittle like ice. "Heheheheheheh."

Sasuke, his eyes harsh as always, took a menacing step torwards Naruto.

"W-wait," Naruto stammered out nervously. "What are you guys trying to--"

In an eyeblink, Sakura and Sasuke had each grabbed an arm and was now mercilessly dragging Naruto towards the dryer with the intention of stuffing him into it, while Kakashi watched on indifferently.

"Come to think of it, what was the start of all this?" Sakura asked in a deceptively pleasant voice.

"If it wasn't for you in the first place, we wouldn't be here," answered a pissed-off Sasuke.

The girl looked on blankly for a few moments, until she realized she had to do something to help Naruto and snapped out of her trance. "Wait!" she blurted out. "There's another way. I, uhm, conveniently forgot to finish up my laundry, we can just try it out with my wet clothes and see what happens!"

"'Convenient', indeed," Kakashi muttered inaudibly to himself, feeling a bead of sweat slip down his forehead.

Sasuke looked at the girl suspiciously. "What if it doesn't work?"

"I'm actually pretty sure it will work," she answered. "There's been talk of things disappearing here, and I bet all those things that are missing appeared in your world. Tell me, the place where you fell into and ended up here, didn't you find anything strange or other-worldly there?"

"Come to think of it..." mused Sakura, remembering the strange pouch, the pen, the gauzy fabric...

"And come on," the girl cajoled, "You don't really want to put your teammate in danger, do you?"

The pink-haired kunoichi just 'hn'ed in response, folding her arms over her chest and turning her back on her blonde teammate. But her disappointment was actually due to something else. Secretly, her Inner Self had already been plotting the various ways to get Sasuke to go on a date with her once she got rid of Naruto. "Whatever," the miffed kunoichi muttered. "Let's just try it already."

"Well, here goes..." The girl said. All her clothes had been dumped into the dryer, and they now waited in anticipation as she hovered her finger above the "start" button. After a moment's more of hesitation, she pressed it.

...Nothing happened.

Frowning, she pressed the button again, harder.

Immediately, the machine began churning and emanating heat as the clothes whirled in circles inside, around and around.

And around.

And around.

And around.

And around as the clothes still remained intact.

"Nothing's happening," Naruto whined.

The girl frowned. "Wait, wait. Let's just all stay calm and think about this logically," she said, stopping the electric dryer temporarily.

Everyone else stared at her incredulously. The illogical being who kept phones in cooking pots was speaking of logic. However, they wisely refrained from commenting and they all sat down to think.

Meanwhile, she examined the dryer. All her clothes were loaded in. The door was closed properly. She'd put in four quarters to start off the machine. The heat setting was on high. The timer was on automatic.

--wait.

She went back to the heat setting. Something about that struck her, and she tried to figure out why.

...gold fountain pen my husband left in his shirt pocket...

...fine gauze curtains...

AH-HAH.

It clicked.

All the things that disappeared; gauze curtains, gold fountain pen...a fountain pen would be used by someone wearing nicely pressed silk shirts, a child's toy pikachu pouch and book would have most likely been left in a backpack, and with the horrible quality of bags and pouches these days...all those materials were delicate, and wouldn't be dried on a high heat setting meant for durable cotton clothes! Quickly, she turned the heat adjuster down to the lowest setting and restarted the dryer.

The machine whirred normally for a few moments, then it emitted a soft click and pronto, all her clothes disappeared in a flash.

Everyone jumped up at once, excited.

"It worked! It worked!" Naruto cheered estatically. "I can go back and eat all the Ichiraku Ramen I want!"

"Thank you very much," Kakashi told the girl emphatically. "We can return now."

Naruto, much more confident now that the heat was on the lowest setting, was the first to go. He was then followed by Sakura, then Sasuke, and finally only Kakashi was left.

The gray-haired Jounin opened his mouth to speak, but before he say a single word, the girl cut him off.

"You're not going to say 'goodbye', are you?" the girl asked quickly, "you better not, because I'm going to go with you."

"Wha-!" was the only thing Kakashi could get out.

"Of course!" the girl exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how consequential a breach between two different dimensions can be? I need to go to your world to investigate. You don't know who else might have fallen in here besides you and your students. Besides, all my clothes are still there!"

"You don't do your laundry until you run out of clothes?" Kakashi asked blankly.

"That's not the point."

In the end, the Jounin was unable to argue against the girl and ended up bringing "extra baggage" along with him back to Konoha to be greeted emphatically by his students.

"WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING HERE!" Sakura and Naruto exclaimed in perfect synchronization, staring up at their mentor in disbelief.

"Hi. Did you miss me?" The girl asked with an evil smile.

A/N: Kono kikai desu ka - This machine? In the context above, it means "is it this machine (that you came out of)?"

Been writing smooth lately. Intervals between chapters likely to shorten for the next period. Feed me reviews please.