Hidden Ninja, Crouching Genins

Episode Two: The House of Flying Greeting Cards

Kiba saw a card that was flipped over on the rack in the greeting card store. He knew the card had been flipped because there was a large Hallmark logo on it. He grabbed it off to see the front.

"Some people can be so superficial," Kiba commented and flipped it over to see a smaller logo on the back. Doing a double take, he turned it back to see that it was the front. Before he would put it back to save his manliness, he had wiped away a tear. "It is too sentimental for a birthday card for my teacher. Especially since there would be a party with all my peers here."

His sensitive ears caught a drift of Sakura and Ino who were arguing. No, you would need his sensitive ears to hear them; enhanced hearing would make the experience a whole lot more unbearable. Let me cut to the chase, they were yelling over who loved Sasuke the most.

"You call those wedding invitations? Hell no, they would not even be worthy to be cut up to use as confetti at my wedding." Sakura remarked.

"Who said that you would get any invitations to Sasuke and my wedding? And who cares what you do with your wedding to Naruto." Ino replied.

"Naruto!" Sakura said. "Never."

Instinctively, Sakura lowered down her forehead protector to her forehead surprisingly not breaking the damn thing, and Ino followed suit by removing hers from around her waist to put tied the headband where it really belonged.

"You are definitely keeping him to yourself." Ino chuckled. "Why don't you let Naruto on to Hinata's crunch to him, if you really don't want him to yourself?"

"Hinata does not." Kiba muttered to himself.

"Damn, why does Kiba have to be so loud in here?" Ino wondered.

"Take this; Konoha's secret jutsu: Flying Greeting Cards no Jutsu!" Sakura pulled off a hand full of inferior cards off the shelf and threw them at Ino. They cut deep inside of Ino, but the technique of body switch had not yet come. Replacing Ino, a life size cardboard cut out of Sasuke tipped back and landed flat on the floor.

"Body-mind switch," uttered Ino as her body fainted behind Sakura. With Sakura under her control, she ran out and announced her evil plans. "I will announce my love to Naruto. That idiot would believe in anything!"

"Okey-dokey," Kiba went back to looking at cards. "That had no point what-so-ever. Not that it would affect me. How is this card? What, it is a dollar? Hell to this, I'll make her one."

Kiba walked to another aisle where they put the serious cards of pink and yellow with all sorts of poetry without any sight of a limerick about a woman from Venus. Going down this aisle he tripped over something. He got up and saw he fell over Ino.

"Okay, it affected me a bit, so what?" Kiba said and saw that Ino showed some sign of consciousness. He offered his hand which she took with her hand that was not rubbing her head. With his help, she got to her feet.

"Now, Naruto thinks that Sakura asked him to attention Kurenai's birthday party." Ino stated. "When is it?"

"That's Hinata's job, not mine," Kiba said. "Pleased pretend that you didn't hear it from me. She would think that I don't have confidence in her if she knew that I did her job. Just a small mention, I think it looks cool on you to have your forehead protector around your waist."

"Okay," Ino said and tied her headband around her waist. "See you there. Now, I've to find my life-size cutout of Sasuke."

Kiba slowly backed away from Ino who wept over her prized possession.

"So, that turned out normal. Now I can forget the whole mess." Kiba said. He opened the door and stepped outside where Sakura was leading against the storefront window. Not that Kiba cared as he turned the corner to head home.

"She screwed up twice." Sakura mentioned. "Ino gave me the perfect set up to get Hinata and Naruto together now."

"No! Ah crapola!" Sakura heard the faint yelp of Kiba who was far off in the distance.

Next Episode Preview…

Sticking to his oath, Shino pursues the perfect disposable gift for Kurenai's birthday. One question plagues him. If Kakashi favors Sasuke, Gai favors Lee, and Asuma favors Shikamaru, who is Kurenai's favorite student? Read on – Episode Three: Mr. Hero.