Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto obviously.

Author's Note - To my surprise things are moving quicker than I thought. I should have chapter four done sometime during the weekend or by Saturday at the earliest. I write mostly at night and re-read and edit it and upload it. I've never written a story with copyrighted characters before, so getting their personalities right is going to be a challenge. Its harder than it looks, that's all I gotta say.

Chapter Three - Last Resort

After 30 minutes of walking through the forest, Rica and Luca made their way to what appeared to be the outskirts of a few homes. They could see a good portion of the village and some of the people in it. Life was pretty calm, people walking through the streets with their children lagging behind. Older children running after one another and adults talking.

"Wow, I can't believe we're here, I can't believe we're here, I can't believe we're here." Luca said jumping up and down like a five year old. "This is a dream come true." She squealed happily.

"Shut up and stop jumping around. Don't draw so much attention to yourself either. We are outsiders Especially with the way we are dressed…" Rica paused for a second as Luca calmed down. "What we need is a way to earn enough money to get suitable clothes, these clothes won't do."

"I know! We can perform on a street corner as obvious foreigners doing skits of some sort!" Luca said waving her hand as if she was in a classroom.

"Eh…Only, and only as a last resort." Rica said in a low tone.

As the two girls were talking a boy with blond hair was approaching them, his vision directed towards the ground.

"Shit, into the bush!" Rica pushed Luca into a nearby bush without having the boy see her.

"That was a close one." Rica whispered.

Luca had something else on her mind as she peeked through the leaves with an overly starry-eyed expression on her face.

"N-N-Naruto…R-Rica…L-Look…Hold me." She choked out clearly trying to control herself.

"Shhh…we can't let ourselves be known, not yet at least. Rica said, covering Luca's mouth.

Both girls watched as Naruto walked by. He glanced towards the bush the girls were hiding in and gave a slight shrug. His attention was quickly averted to a dark haired boy and a pink haired girl some yards ahead of him.

"Sasuke! Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled and waved his hand before running to meet his teammates.

By this time Rica was having an incredibly hard time holding onto Luca.

"Mmmph…Mmmph…" Luca muttered through Rica's hand.

"Calm down dammit. I for one don't want to get into any trouble." Rica snapped. "Looks like the coast is clear."

The two girls retreated from the bush and made their way to town.

Meanwhile…

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura made their way to the Ichiraku Ramen since Sakura and Sasuke owed Naruto lunch. Naruto was well ahead of the other two, clearly excited that he was getting a free meal.

"Hey guys, I thought I saw two girls in a bush a while ago." Naruto said as he was preparing to eat a bowl of ramen.

"Really?" Sasuke said in an uninterested tone.

"Now that's stupid Naruto, it was probably your imagination playing tricks on you because you were hungry." Sakura said calmly.

"Mmm…maybe you're right Sakura-chan." Naruto said as he was finishing off the last of his ramen and was reaching for another bowl.

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Rica and Luca had failed at all their attempts for getting money. Well, not entirely. They had gotten some spare change from some kind people, and found a couple coins on the ground, but it wasn't nearly enough to purchase some clothing, not even a sock, and they didn't need those.

"Great. Reduced to playing on a street corner." Said a defeated Rica as she held out a cup as people threw change into it. Luca was dancing and doing flips in a small area.

"Gymnastics paid off." Said Luca between flips.

"Whatever." Said Rica as a passer-by threw a couple coins in. Rica smiled and nodded to the person.

After 20 minutes of performing, Rica and Luca had drawn a good sized crowd around them. Mostly people there just to gawk at their clothes. Rica had been wearing long denim pants and a gray tattered hooded sweatshirt, while Luca on the other hand had been wearing her track uniform which consisted of a white tank top with her school's logo on it and black loose shorts with the school logo on the left leg. Their clothing wasn't too outrageous, but different to those around them, which created the crowd.

"Are you some sort of traveling performer?" One young man said to Rica who had a bored expression on her face.

"I wouldn't call us that, we're kinda stuck here for a while." She said calmly.

"Where are you guys from?" The young man inquired again.

"Not from around here." Rica said quickly.

The young man could take the hint that she wasn't really open to a conversation and threw good amount of money into the cup.

"I hope you guys do well." He said and walked off.

Rica smiled as the young man left. "Maybe we can get something after all."

"Riiccaaa." Luca said in a whining tone as the crowd was dispersing. "How about you do something now, I'm tired."

"But what can I possibly do?" She said looking at her exhausted friend.

"I…uh…lets see…" She paused for a second. "I know! You can sing, so sing a song!" Luca exclaimed with a sudden burst of newfound energy.

"…I don't know. Its been a while since I sang anything." Rica said with uncertainty in her voice.

"Well, sing a song from our time, or just make up something. Its not like anyone is going to know the difference." Luca said sitting down. "Now lemme have the cup and count the change."

Rica gave the cup to Luca who dumped its contents onto the ground. She sat there for a while and looked up at Rica.

"How the hell am I supposed to count it if I don't know what each coin means?" Luca said frowning.

"Just sort them according to size. We can get someone to tell us how much we have later." Rica said hurriedly.

Rica sat down as Luca was sorting out the coins. They had a good amount, but they didn't know if it was enough to get anything. She sat thinking quietly for a song, nothing really came to her so she tried to form a song in her head. After five minutes, she stood up and dusted her pants off.

"I got something, do some flips to get more attention, I don't want to sing to nothing you know."

"Alrighty." Luca said as she put the coins she counted into a small bag she had with her.

Luca stretched and began to do flips once again, it took a little longer to draw some people before Luca stopped and shouted.

"Ladies, gentlemen, I present my friend Rica who will sing a SONG!" Luca said with gusto as Rica shot her a death glare.

Great, she had to embarrass me.

Rica cleared her throat and began to sing.

A myriad of colors flashing by
independent yet contained
wanting so much to be out there
among the flashing lights and musical sounds
of a world of color and fascination

lead the way, and I'll follow you
to where ever it is you're headed
exploring that has yet to be explored
doing things of which dreams are made of

Loving the feeling of the wind against my face
showing me that there's more to life than just sitting around
wanting so much to be free all the time
but to come back home at the end of the day

Life, love, truth, beauty
these are the things that make us sing
these are the things that dreams are made of
nothing can hold me down

Staring out into the great beyond
of places yet to explore
the places in which you feel unbridled and free
and hoping they're real, and not imaginary

Rica sang and tried her best to keep her voice from wavering as more and more people came to listen to her. She had been in choir for a few years, but never thought of herself as good enough to draw a crowd. As she was singing, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura walked out of the Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto clearly full to the point of bursting.

"You shouldn't have eaten so much you baka." Sakura said pointing a finger to Naruto's expanded stomach.

"B-But, I can't help it!" Naruto said loudly.

"So noisy." Sasuke said without looking at Naruto.

"Am I not!" Naruto said loudly and was about to hit Sasuke but he suddenly because aware of his expanded size and stopped. "Oooh, I think I'm gonna be sick."

"That's what you get." Sakura said.

The three turned the corner and noticed a crowd of people not too far from where they were.

"Wonder what's going on." Sakura said as she watched the crowd.

"Yeah, lets go find out." Naruto waddled faster towards the crowd as Sakura and Sasuke trailed behind.

Rica was just about finished singing as Naruto pushed his way past some people to the front. He stood there just like the rest. Rica almost cracked her voice as the blond haired boy pushed his way to the front. Luckily she was almost done and finished without missing a note. The crowd around her clapped politely and threw some more change at Luca, who hadn't noticed Naruto yet.

The crowd started to disperse as soon as Rica was finished. She bowed politely and thanked those who complimented her. When everyone left, Naruto made his way to Rica and waved.

"That sounded cool." He said smiling with a hand on his extended stomach.

"T-thank you." Rica said, uncertain on what to say. It wasn't everyday someone had a chance to talk to an animated character.

I feel like I'm stuck in some demented fanfic. Normal people don't talk to animated characters. They don't, they don't, they don't. Act calm, since they're people too, at least in this universe.

Sakura and Sasuke made their way to the crowd as it was dispersing. They only heard the last few lines of Rica's song.

"So, from the looks of it you two don't look like you are from around here." Naruto said looking at both the girls. Not half bad either. He thought to himself.

"Well, you could say that." Rica said in a softer tone than normal. "it's a rather long story."

""Maybe you can tell us sometime." Said Sakura as she walked up and stood next to Naruto.

Rica nodded and Luca finally looked up from what she was doing and had a blank expression on her face. She didn't know what to do or how to react, so she just sat there dazed. Rica looked down at Luca, who was still dazed and prayed she wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Yeah, maybe I could." Rica said smiling.

She extended her hand out and smiled.

"I'm Rica, its nice to meet you all. You're the first people to actually stop and talk to us since we arrived." She said with a broad smile, which was unlike her.

"Haruno Sakura." Sakura said extending her hand to shake Rica's. "Nice to meet you as well." Sakura was about to introduce the other two as Naruto jumped in front of Sakura to shake Rica's hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto at your service." Naruto said as he shook Rica's hand roughly. He walked over to the dazed Luca and grabbed her hand and shook it as well. "Nice to meet you." He waved a hand in front of Luca's face, which hadn't changed one bit.

"Don't mind Luca, she's spaced out right now, she'll come back to us soon." Rica said as she turned to Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke." He said in a monotonous voice as he gave Rica a firm handshake. "Nice to meet you." He said as he let go of her hand.

"Nice to meet you too." She said politely.

She was getting odd vibes from Sasuke, who had been giving them suspicious looks since he arrived.

"So what are you guys doing with all that money?" Inquired Sakura looking at the now full cup of coins.

"We're trying to get some new clothes. As we were traveling we lost out luggage and we need at least another set of clothes to tide us over before we find a job of some sort." Rica explained.

Well, we did lose our clothes so-to-speak. She thought to herself as Sakura's face brightened.

"I know a good place to get some nice clothes at a good price. I'll take you there now, since the boys are going to go train with Kakashi-sensei." Sakura beamed. She hadn't been around girls as much since she had been training with Naruto and Sasuke for the past few weeks.

"B-but what about training, Sakura-chan?" Naruto said pleadingly.

"You two need it more than I do. I'll make these two feel welcome here." Sakura said pointing to Rica and Luca, who was still dazed.

"Fine, fine. I'll find you guys after we're done." Naruto said.

"Lets go." Sasuke said as he started to walk away.

"I'll see you all later." Naruto waved and ran after Sasuke shouting something that the three girls didn't understand.

"Don't mind Naruto and Sasuke, they're good people." Sakura said.

"Okay." Rica smiled. "So where is this place you had in mind?"

"Oh, its this way." Sakura said pointing down the street. "Get your friend up and lets go."

"Alright." She looked down at Luca and kicked her. "C'mon lets go. We're going shopping."

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End of Chapter Three

Review Responses -

Ying and Yang Twins - You're my first reviewer, thank you! I'm glad you like the story thus far.

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Chapter four should be up this weekend. If not then, Monday. I'll be finding it harder to update as the summer goes on due to the fact that I got a job recently. It shouldn't take up much of my time, but I will finish the story.

Thank you again for reading!