Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto, only the weird characters I create to fill space.
Author's Note - Well, we're at the final chapter. I left some things out intentionally so I can add it in future story lines. The second story should come out shortly after this one is complete. The next story will probably be more OOC than the last one. But I'll make it work somehow.
Again, thank you all for reading and reviewing!
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Chapter Twelve - And back again
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"Looks like our little adventure is coming to an end." said Damon as he flipped idly through his book. "Seems like my part is coming into play. Can't wait till Rica finds out who sent her there." he said with a smile.
Damon waved and disappeared only to show up on the outskirts of Konoha. He knew where they all were, and he knew they were due back in a few hours. Sticking his hands into his dark colored robes, he made his way into Konoha to kill time.
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The sun did not shine. Instead of a sunbathed morning, a chilly overcast day covered the forest as far as the eye can see. No birds sang their songs, no feeling of peace. Rica was the first to wake. She quickly changed into her clothes and stepped outside her tent and stretched, only shortly to draw her arms around herself in an attempt to keep warm.
"Wow…cold morning." she said between yawns as she looked around at the other tents to see if anyone was awake.
Light snores could be heard from Naruto and Sasuke's tent, while the other two were silent. Rica did not spend a long time outside, for it was cold. She ducked back into her tent and crept back into the sleeping bag. She sat there for a few minutes deep in thought.
Today seems a bit off…I can't put my finger on it.
Rica drew her sleeping bag up to her chin and let out a deep sigh. There was something off about the day. It wasn't due to the change in temperature or weather. Seeing that there was no reason to be awake, Rica drifted off to sleep for a little while longer.
Shortly after Rica went back to sleep, Luca woke up and crawled out of the tent. She too drew her arms around herself and walked around the camp site to wake herself up. She had been up thinking as well, despite her voracious reading. She had sensed some sort of tension between Kakashi and Rica. And she wanted to know exactly what it was.
If she went to Rica first, it would be the same thing. "Bullshit" this and "bullshit" that. She knew her friend well enough to figure out that it wasn't complete bullshit. Something similar happened a few years back, and it felt like déjà vu to her.
"Who to speak to first…the man or the beast?" she said to herself as she paced around the now extinguished fire pit.
"The man seems easiest to crack, while the beast…well, the beast…" Luca paused and thought back to all the times in which Rica would throttle her for saying things. "The beast will definitely come last. I don't want a headache this early in the morning."
Luca wrapped her arms around herself even tighter as she wandered over to Kakashi's tent. If he wasn't awake, he would be by the time she got in there.
Luca tapped on the flap of the tent and waited for something to move inside. Hearing nothing, she just opened the flap and sat by his feet, watching him sleep.
"Sleeping like a baby…" Luca whispered to herself. "Sucks to be him then." a small smile crept across her face as she inhaled deeply.
"WAKE UP." Luca shouted as Kakashi rolled over. The shouting didn't phase him, just woke up him out of a sound sleep.
"Nnn…what do you want?" Kakashi said rolling over to face the girl sitting down.
Luca pressed her hands together and sighed. "I've been thinking lately, and there are some things I'd like to be made clear, and I mean crystal." she said in a serious tone. "Soooo, want to make things all crystal for me?" she said in an overly happy voice.
"Eh?" Kakashi said as she straightened his headband over his eye. He barely heard a word Luca said.
"Don't play dumb man. Now answer the questions." Luca snapped.
"Well, you need to ask them before I can answer them:" Kakashi replied in a "duh" tone.
"Oh…right…moving on. First question. Can I see what's under the mask?" Luca said, she didn't want to get into the main question just yet.
"No." Kakashi replied quickly, but calmly.
"Damn." Luca paused for a second before her second question. "And why not?"
"It would get rid of the mystery." Kakashi paused and cocked an eyebrow at Luca. "I know you're here about something else, so just spill it so I can go back to sleep."
"Fine. Fine. Be that way. Alright, now I've been wondering about how you act towards my friend…" Luca began.
"There's nothing going on. Why would I, and why would she?" he said quickly.
"Don't give me that shit, just tell me the truth. Please." Luca put an extra emphasis on the please.
"To be honest, I don't know how or what I feel. If it makes you feel any better, there is something there, and if I find out, you'll be the first to know what it is. You really care about your friend, and its the least I could do to tell you." he said lazily as he just looked at Luca.
Luca blinked in confusion. "So there is something?"
"Yes. But I don't know what it is."
"Describe it to me then, maybe I can shed a little light on it, y'know." Luca said with an expression resembling "wtf".
"I can be myself around her, and you if you're not trying to kill Naruto. Though with your friend, I just feel calm." he said hesitantly.
"Sounds like something. Though you seem to be comfortable around her in a friendly way." Luca said trying to analyze the situation.
"I guess so. But lately its been…different."
"Different you say…hn." Luca put a finger to her lip and thought.
"What?" he said as he looked at her expecting something.
"You dig 'er, face the facts man. Its gonna take some time and then its gonna hit you like a ton of bricks to the face." Luca said with an abnormally large grin.
"Alright…if you say so. Now I'm going back to sleep. We're going to be leaving in a few hours." Kakashi said as he rolled over and threw the sleeping bag over his head.
Luca sat there blinking for a few minutes.
Now to tangle with the beast.
She crawled out of the tent and went back to hers. On the way back she waved to Naruto and Sasuke who got out of their tent and were stretching. They waved back as she crawled into her tent and sat next to Rica, who was sound asleep.
Luca blinked as she poked Rica several times, yielding no response whatsoever. She took another deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Wakey wakey eggs and bakey!" Luca screamed as Naruto and Sasuke stopped dead in their tracks and looked at each other.
"Better than an alarm clock." Naruto said as he looked at the tent.
"Hn." Sasuke said as he started to move around again.
Rica woke up with a start and sat upright almost immediately.
"What the fuck was that for?" she said as she held her head.
"Just want to talk to you, is all." Luca said cheerfully.
"Can't it wait?" Rica said groggily.
"No, it can't. Lets talk. Now." Luca said suddenly turning serious.
"What is it then?" Rica said yawning.
"Well, I want to ask you a few questions. I'm confused on some things and I need answers so I don't have to think about it anymore." Luca replied.
"Come out with the questions then." Rica said as she stretched her arms.
"Alright. Lets cut to the chase. How do you feel about the man?" Luca blurted out.
"The who?" Rica said confusedly.
"Kakashi." Luca said in a flat tone.
Rica groaned and put a hand to her forehead. "Not this shit again, how many times do I have to tell you, I feel nothing."
"That's exactly what you said about Matteo. I remember it clearly. You were in denial, and you always said "I feel nothing" when you damn well felt something. He is/was your close male friend and you seem to act the same way you did with Matteo as you do Kakashi. Come to think of it, they do seem a lot alike." Luca said looking directly at Rica.
Rica turned a light shade of pink at hearing Matteo's name, the turned slightly darker at the mention of Kakashi and Matteo being similar. It was true. Though they had more differences than similarities.
"Well…" Rica said in a soft voice.
"Well what?" Luca said hurriedly.
"I feel something. Maybe its because he cares about me, unlike some people that should." she said as she stared at her hands in her lap.
"So you dig 'im?" she said with a bemused expression on her face.
"I don't know. It'd be the stupidest thing for me to even have feelings for someone that I won't even have a chance of being with. Look at our goddamn situation Luca. We're in a fucking fantasy land." Rica said feeling ashamed of herself.
"You've seen Fushigi Yuugi haven't you?" Luca said trying to hold back her laughter.
"Yes." Rica said flatly.
"Well, what happened to the two main characters?"
"Oh bull. That won't happen and you know it." Rica snapped.
"You never know." Luca said with a smile.
Rica and Luca sat together in silence for a few minutes before Rica snapped.
"I cave, I cave, I cave you are right, you win…its true…fucking damnit its true." Rica said rolling around the tent.
"What's true?" Luca said clearly oblivious.
Rica got up off the ground and met her friends gaze. She pressed her forehead against Luca's.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about." she growled.
"I don't." Luca said in an oblivious tone. Though she knew exactly what she was talking about. She just wanted to hear her say it.
Rica sat back and blinked.
"You know exactly what I am talking about. I care, I don't know why, I don't know how, but I bloody hell care. And its been eating at me since day one. The hole is getting bigger and bigger, and the bigger it gets, the more scared I get. I don't know when we're going to be brought back home." Rica said in a exasperated tone.
"Then tell him." Luca said with a spaced out expression.
"I can't." Rica said.
"And why not?"
"It will ruin things for sure. This is not meant to happen. We were not meant to come here and fuck things up. And that would fuck things up." Rica wailed.
"Now how the hell do you know we were not meant to be here?" Luca said challenging her friend's logic.
"You've got a point." Rica said defeated.
"Then don't fuck up your chances and miss out like you did with Matteo. Besides, I doubt he'd refuse." Luca said with a smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rica said blinking at her friend.
Luca just sat there and smiled while Rica covered her head with a pillow and tried to disappear. She didn't want things to happen, she didn't want to care, and she didn't want to deal with stupid childish feelings such as love, hate, or whatever the hell you call it. It wasn't worth her time to deal with those emotions when there was more to life than just that.
She felt somewhat ashamed for even considering an animated character. Though it was every fan girl's fantasy to have their favorite character fall in love with them. She'd be the arch nemesis of an entire fan base, and even that didn't sit well with her.
She could see it now. Thousands of girls and some guys chasing her with sticks, swords and pitchforks wanting to rip apart every square inch of her. Rica shuddered at the thought. She let her mind wander to actually considering telling him how she felt. She gave herself a nice mental slap and let out a deep sigh.
By that time Luca had already exited the tent as was out trying to get the fire going. Rica got up again and stuck her head out of the tent. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were sitting around the pile of wood as they watched Luca have a hard time trying to set the thing ablaze.
Team 7 caught sight of Rica's head and waved. Kakashi noticed it too and waved as well. Rica quickly ducked back in her tent and fell backwards.
What the fuck am I doing?
Rica busied herself with cleaning the tent and stumbled upon Kakashi's book.
"So…what do you do to make people so fucking interested in you." Rica said as she opened the book to the first page and began to read. It didn't take long until she too got interested in the book.
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"Why'd she hide so quickly?" Naruto said to everyone.
"Dunno." Luca said as she tried to light the fire.
Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke shrugged and went back to watching Luca fumble with the fire.
"I got it." Sasuke said as he used a jutsu and set the wood on fire.
"You could have done it sooner." Luca said as she placed her hands on her hips.
"It was fun to watch you squirm." Sasuke said with a slight smirk.
Luca stuck her tongue out at him and sat close to the fire to try and keep warm.
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After eating a small breakfast Luca crawled into the tent and poked Rica who had fallen back to sleep as everyone ate.
"Yo, wake up. We're leaving soon." Luca said as she poked Rica's forehead with her index finger.
"…fine…let me change…" Rica said as she rolled onto her stomach. "So get out."
Luca made a face at Rica and crawled out of the tent. Sasuke and Naruto were already starting to pack up their belongings while Sakura and Kakashi just sat by the fire doing nothing. Luca shrugged and walked over to the two boys.
"Need any help?" she asked.
"Sure, take these." Naruto said as he flung her two sleeping bags. "Roll 'em up for us."
Luca did as she was told and rolled both the bags up neatly and set them aside. By the time she was done they finished folding up the tent and cramming it into its own little bag.
"Thanks." Naruto said as he picked up the bags and tossed them to Sasuke who put them away.
"You should go and get your stuff together. I can't wait till we get back to the village. The ramen needs me." Naruto said with a starry-eyed expression.
"Sounds like you need the ramen more than it needs you." Luca said as she patted his head.
Naruto gave her a little push towards her tent.
"Go. Clean." he said hurriedly.
Luca shrugged and walked over to the tent as Rica stepped out of it.
"Already packed everything." she said as she ducked back in to take out both bags and threw them to the side.
"Good. So the tent is all we need?" Luca asked
Rica nodded as Naruto ran towards them.
"I'll do it." he said hurriedly as he quickly took the tent apart and folded it. "Done." he said as he handed the tent to Rica who only looked at Naruto with a look of disbelief.
"Damn." she said as she looked at the tent, then at Naruto.
Naruto ran off to the other two tents and threw their contents out before taking each tent apart and quickly packing everything.
Sakura looked up to see what all the noise was about and gaped at Naruto flinging her stuff around.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Sakura screamed as Naruto flung her clothes around.
She ran towards him and throttled him. Naruto fell to the ground with a gigantic bump on his head.
"Owww. Sakura-chan, I was only trying to help." he said with a slight whine.
"Don't throw my stuff around." she said as she fumbled around to get all her clothes back in order. "And don't be in such a hurry either. We have all day to get back to the village."
"But I want to go back now." he whined.
"Just wait." she said as she finally got all her stuff together.
Kakashi blinked as he watched everyone run around getting their stuff together. He yawned and got up from where he was sitting to get his own things packed before Naruto went and did it for him. It only took him about ten minutes to get everything in good order.
"So when does everyone want to leave?" he said as he walked up to the group.
Sasuke, Sakura and Luca said nothing while Rica shrugged. Naruto jumped up startling everyone.
"Lets go now!" he said with enthusiasm.
Kakashi blinked and looked at the boy for a minute before speaking.
"Not now. In a little while." he said simply as he walked off into the other direction and disappeared into the forest.
Naruto sat there with an open mouthed expression before falling backwards onto the ground kicking and punching the ground.
"Baka." Sasuke said looking down at him.
"I'm not a baka, bastard!" Naruto yelled up at him.
"Hn." he said as he walked off.
Naruto laid there for a few minutes before he walked off into the forest as well.
Sakura, Rica and Luca all looked at each other and shrugged before going off and finishing packing their things. Rica and Luca had already finished their share and sat down by the dying embers of the fire.
"I have a weird feeling about today." Rica said looking up at the sky, which was still overcast.
"What do you mean?" Luca replied.
"Well, I don't know who to put it, its just a weird feeling…" Rica paused for a second before going on. "Its like I have to do something, and if I don't do it, I won't have a chance to." she finished with a sigh.
"Hm. Weird." Luca sat there in silence for a few seconds before she sprung back to life again. "I KNOW. Tell 'im how you feel!"
Rica just looked at her friend with a blank expression before even trying to fight back.
"Maybe. Don't see what good it will do. Though that's not it…maybe…" she hated feeling like this. Indecisiveness wasn't a good thing to deal with.
"Find it soon, or you won't have a chance to do whatever it is you need to do." Luca said as she stood up. "I'm going to find Kakashi and drag him back to camp so we can get our asses back to the village." she said as she started to walk off. "Now you don't go and disappear like Naruto did."
Rica just nodded as her friend went off into the forest in search of the masked ninja. She sat there for several minutes trying to think of what she needed to do. Her attention eventually made it to her bag, in which a small paper was sticking out. Rica took it out and found it to be the comic strip that had freaked her out two days before.
It showed Rica and Luca in their day to day life doing what they do best - nothing. She still couldn't get over the fact that their lives were depicted in some weird comic. It really blurred the lines of which world was real, and which one was fiction. Her world could very much be fiction - but so could the world they were in now.
But whatever the outcome was. Both worlds were real to her. And she was starting to miss the one she had lived in for so long. It was only natural. Rica sighed audibly as she stuffed the paper back in her bag.
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Twenty minutes later Sakura and Rica heard random yelling not too far from where they were sitting. Luca had returned with Kakashi. She dragged him by the wrist. He appeared to be wet and slightly annoyed.
"This one took me out of the hot spring and forced me back here." he said trying to straighten his headband.
Sakura and Rica laughed for about a minute as a now frustrated Kakashi stood there trying to dry off his hair. It appeared that Rica caught him at the worst possible time. But that didn't seem to stop her one bit. She stood there triumphantly as if she caught a wild animal.
Kakashi groaned as he finished drying his hair and looked around.
"Where's Naruto and Sasuke?" he said turning to Sakura.
Sakura shrugged as Sasuke sauntered back into the campsite, hands in pockets. Naruto followed minutes later looking a tad disgruntled, occasionally shooting glares at Sasuke.
"Wonder what happened between them." Luca said as she watched Naruto.
"Dunno. Perhaps Sasuke refused to fight him again. Naruto tends to get moody whenever Sasuke refuses to fight him." Sakura said as she watched Naruto as well.
Kakashi spoke up causing all conversation to cease.
"Alright. Grab your things, we're heading back now." he said as he flung his backpack onto his back and started to walk the path they took to get there.
Everyone hurried to gather their things to follow the masked ninja, who had decided that a fast pace was the only pace to follow.
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Rica and Luca walked as fast as they could in order to keep a short distance behind team 7. The two girls lacked the physical endurance to keep up for an extended period of time. Luca would have been able to keep up, if it wasn't for the fact that she was carrying the bulk of the supplies, including the tent which weighed a considerable amount.
Their adventure in the forest proved to be fun, dangerous, and even enlightening to some people within the group. Little did they know that their adventure was about to end.
"C'mon you guys, slow down a bit." Luca said under the strain of her load.
Kakashi slowed down his pace somewhat while the others continued on their own paces. Sasuke and Naruto lead the group while Sakura walked a short distance behind them. Kakashi slowed down so the girls wouldn't be too lonely way in back, but still a good distance away from them.
"Gee, thanks." Luca grunted as she shifted the weight of her pack so it would be easier to keep up.
Rica remained silent the entire trip back. She was going through a mental overload of information. She didn't know how to take what Luca had told her earlier, nor did she really want to mess things up between everyone.
I'll have to go with what benefits me the most. Letting my emotions get the better of me in a place like this is not the best thing, and definitely won't benefit me in any way shape or form. Sure, I'll be happy, he'll be happy, whoever else will be happy. But at any time that happiness is surely to be taken away. And in the event of that happening, who will be happy then? No one would.
Rica bit her lip subconsciously as she trudged along the trail. Luca noticed that Rica was awfully quiet and chose not to bother her, since she was most likely thinking about important things.
Kakashi looked back at the two girls and stopped. They were moving too slow for his taste and decided to wait till they reached him so he could try to move them along faster. The two girls passed him without noticing he even stopped for them. He cocked an eyebrow at Rica, who looked deep in thought. He shrugged it off as he pulled out a copy of his favorite book and walked along behind them reading.
Ten minutes had passed in complete silence. Luca could not take it anymore and decided to speak up.
"Anything wrong Rica?" Luca asked.
Rica snapped her head up and blinked a few times before responding.
"No, nothing is wrong. Why would there be something wrong?" she replied, slightly confused.
"You seemed to be deep in thought and looked kinda sad. So I just assumed-" Luca was cut off by Rica.
"Don't assume, nothing good comes out of assuming, especially with me." Rica said as Luca shut her mouth and looked at her with a concerned expression on her face.
"I worry about you sometimes." Luca said as she shifted the weight of her pack to her right shoulder.
"Why do you worry?" Rica said as she watched the ground as she walked.
"You're always so tense, so uptight half the time, and when you're happy, its weird. I always wonder about you." Luca finished.
Rica nodded and smiled before answering her friend.
"Well, please don't worry. Nothing is wrong with me." she said.
Luca nodded and decided to drop the subject. She couldn't help but wonder if Rica was lying or not. It was hard to tell with her.
During the course of the girls' conversation, Kakashi had stopped reading and was listening to every word. He was also concerned about Rica's actions, and wondered about her as well. Both of the girls were an enigma to him. Once he seemed to have figured them out, they go about and do something to change his theories.
He once thought Luca to only be loony and not-so-bright. But it turned out that her lunacy was only a cover-up to hide her sadness. She was also very bright, but never chose to outwardly show it.
Rica he thought was only an over analytical, anal and uptight person. It turns out that being over analytical is only a defense mechanism. But even then there was a lot to know about her, and not enough time in which to learn it.
He let out a long sigh and walked ahead of the girls, who had slowed their pace down considerably.
"Try and keep up, alright?" he said as he walked ahead of them.
Both girls nodded as they tried to hurry and catch up with him.
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An hour later they made it back to the village. Kakashi, Luca and Rica waved to Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto as they walked to their homes for rest and a good shower.
Kakashi yawned as he opened the door to his apartment and let himself inside. He threw his pack onto the couch and wandered off to take a shower. Rica and Luca entered shortly after him and fell down onto the ground, exhausted.
"Goddamn, it hurts…it hurrrrts…" Luca wailed as she pulled off her shoes and began to rub her feet.
Rica sighed and looked at her friend from the floor.
"I know. No reason to let it be known." she said as she stretched her back out. Walking all that way strained almost every muscle in her body.
Rica and Luca sat by the door for a while as they regained enough energy to move around on the floor. Rica was the first to get up. She slowly made her way to the door, as she was about to close the door a newspaper caught her eye. Thinking of the comic she saw she picked up the paper right away and shut the door. She collapsed onto the couch and opened up the paper to the page with the comic and stared at it for some time in shock and disbelief.
"…no fucking way…" Rica said as she still looked at the comic.
"What?" Luca said from the floor.
"Check this out." Rica said showing Luca the page with the comic.
Luca got up and sat next to Rica on the couch and looked at the comic. She too looked at the paper with disbelief.
"What does it mean?" Luca asked Rica without looking up from the paper.
"Our time is definitely limited now." Rica said as she looked up from the paper.
Luca nodded and looked at the paper.
The comic had come out that day. It featured the man that had sent them there walking around Konoha wasting time before sending the two girls back. It read that the two girls would return home sometime that day, the time unknown.
They could very well be sent home within the hour, within two hours, or even that very minute. The idea of being sent home at any time scared both girls. They had grown accustomed to their surroundings within such a short amount of time. But the time will have to come for when they return home, and they knew that - but didn't really want to believe it.
Luca struggled to keep the tears in, but suddenly began to sob loudly.
"I don't want to go home, dammit." she said between sobs.
Rica didn't say anything, but put a hand on Luca's shoulder and patted her gently. She couldn't say anything for fear of getting emotional as well. It was better to remain emotionless throughout the entire time, to make things better for everyone else, as well as Luca.
Kakashi entered the room a few minutes later to find the girls hunched over the newspaper.
"Yo." he said as he bent down to see what they were looking at.
Luca jumped up and closed the newspaper. She didn't want him to know that they might be heading home soon.
"Nothing." Rica said calmly as she looked up at him.
"I see." he said skeptically.
Both girls nodded in unison as they put the paper on the table.
Kakashi sat down on the chair directly in front of the two girls and yawned.
"Mind moving elsewhere so I can get some sleep on that couch you're both sitting on?" he said lazily.
Rica and Luca nodded again as they got off the couch and waited for Kakashi to take it.
"What?" he asked.
"N-nothing." Rica said as she turned to go into the bedroom. She needed to pack whatever belongings she accumulated in case she had to leave within the minute.
Kakashi shrugged as he watched both the girls disappear into the room. He yawned again as he laid back on the couch.
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"What are we going to do Rica?" Luca asked as she folded her old clothes and slipped them into a paper bag.
"I have no idea. We just need to be ready if we have to go now." Rica said as she too folded her old clothes and put them into a bag. She also included her gifts from Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura into another bag. She didn't want to leave those gifts behind at any cost.
"Guess we're done." Luca said as she looked around the room. A copy of Icha Icha Paradise was still sitting in the bookshelf. Luca walked over and quickly took it off only to place it in her bag. "A souvenir." she said as Rica gave her an odd look.
Rica shrugged as she sat on the bed and stretched.
"Kakashi had the right idea. I'm beat, so I'm gonna take a nap." she said with a yawn.
"But what if we have to go?" Luca said as she sat down on the bed.
"I bet we'll know when we're going back." Rica said as she laid back and fluffed her pillow. "So I'm just going to sleep."
"But what about Ka-" Luca was stopped yet again by Rica.
"What about him?" Rica said quickly.
"Weren't you going to tell him how you feel?" Luca replied.
"After thinking long and hard about it, I decided against it. It wouldn't work out anyway. If its meant to be, its meant to be." Rica said with her eyes closed.
"How would you know if it is meant to be if you don't even take a step in the right direction?" Luca snapped.
"Jesus, take a pill. Seriously, I doubt he feels the same, and my feelings are as confused as ever."
"If you say so." Luca said in a sing song voice as she too laid down.
Within minutes both girls were sound asleep.
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Damon sat at the Ichiraku Ramen with a large bowl of ramen in front of him. He had explored the village and found it to be very boring. He picked up his chopsticks and proceeded to stabbing his lunch.
"I hate chopsticks." he muttered as he used one stick to lift up some ramen. Without hesitation he stuffed the food in his mouth and began to gag. The ramen was way too hot.
"That's not the right way to use chopsticks y'know." said a familiar blond haired boy as he took a seat on the stool next to Damon.
Damon sucked the rest of the ramen into his mouth and swallowed hard before speaking to the boy.
"Well, I don't know how to use them." he said simply.
Naruto just looked at the man as if he was from another planet. Finding someone that didn't know how to use chopsticks was unheard of. At least to him.
Damon noticed the boy giving him a weird look as he used one chopstick to fish his ramen out. "What?" he grunted as he tried to get more ramen onto the stick.
"Nothing." Naruto said as he lifted the bowl up and proceeded to almost inhale the ramen.
This time it was Damon who looked at Naruto as if he was from another planet. He had never seen anyone eat so fast without choking. Except for the times when he'd witness one of his friends do a drunken dare. But this was completely different. He sat there staring at Naruto until he finished off his ramen.
Naruto noticed Damon staring at him and looked at his bowl.
"You gonna eat that?" he asked pointing to the ramen Damn still had in his bowl.
Damon wordlessly pushed the bowl over to Naruto. He inhaled that bowl as well, while Damon just shook his head in disbelief.
Naruto finished the bowl and gave an appreciative belch as he patted his stomach.
"Well, that was good." he turned towards Damon, "so what brings a stranger like you to Konoha?"
"Just looking for two girls. They were my responsibility and I lost them about a week ago." he said lazily.
Naruto sat there in silence for a few minutes. He had a feeling he knew what the man was talking about, but it hadn't hit him just yet.
"What'd they look like?" he asked cocking his head to the left.
"Ahh…one has long black hair while the other one has medium length brown hair. They're around 18-19 years of age." Damon replied.
Naruto blinked at this information and suddenly got it. That man was looking for Rica and Luca. He didn't know if he was either a friend or foe, and decided to not say anything that would connect him to the two girls.
"Haven't seen 'em. But I'll keep a look out for them." he said confidently.
Damon was only making small talk with the boy. He already knew where the girls were at, and knew that Naruto was with holding information from him. It was alright, since he didn't expect the boy to spout off where they were in the first place.
He stood up and patted Naruto on the head before leaving.
"Thanks for eating the rest of my lunch, kid." he said as he walked off in the direction of Kakashi's apartment.
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Damon stepped up to the door step of Kakashi's apartment and knocked on the door gently.
Within the apartment Kakashi groaned and rolled off the couch to see who was knocking at the door.
"Wonder who it could be…" Kakashi mumbled to himself as he opened the door.
As he saw the door knob move, Damon put his hood on to disguise himself to however that answered.
Kakashi answered the door. He poked his head out and blinked a few times as he took in the sight of the hooded man in black.
"Yes?" he asked groggily.
"It appears you are keeping something that belongs to me." Damon said in a disguised voice.
"I am?" Kakashi said as he opened the door completely and faced Damon. "And what is it that I am keeping from you?" he said, his tone much more serious than before.
"Two girls. One loud-mouthed pest, and another dull one. You got 'em, lemme have 'em." Damon replied.
"Excuse me?" Kakashi said as he arched an eyebrow.
As the two men were talking, Rica rolled out of bed at the sound of the front door opening. She wandered into the living room to see who it was, and to her surprise she recognized the hooded man from before.
Rica let out a yelp of surprise which caused Kakashi and Damon to look at her.
"Shit." she said aloud as she ran off into the bedroom to warn Luca.
"There's the dull one now." Damon said calmly.
"Well, for one she isn't dull." Kakashi said sounding annoyed.
Damon shrugged as he took a step closer.
"Mind if I come in?" he said a bit forcefully.
Kakashi shrugged and let Damon in, who immediately sat down on the couch.
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"Luca, Luca wake the fuck up!" Rica said as she shook her friend awake.
Luca groaned loudly and batted Rica away as she sat up to face her.
"What is it?" she mumbled.
"He's here. The man that brought us to this place is right outside talking to Kakashi as I speak. We're probably leaving soon!" she said trying to keep her cool, which she was failing at.
Luca jumped out of bed and ran into the living room. She stopped dead in her tracks to see that Rica had been telling the truth. The man was sitting on the couch as Kakashi was shutting the door.
"You" Luca said as she pointed at the man.
Damon looked at her and smiled from under his hood.
"Yes, it is I. Are you ready to go?" he said sounding impatient.
"W-What?" she stammered.
"Get your things, we're leaving in a while." he said
"Where are they going?" Kakashi said as he stood in front of Luca.
"Back from where they came. It was agreed that I can take them back at my discretion. And I see that they have had enough time here." Damon tried to look past Kakashi and get Luca's attention. "Get Rica out here too. I need to tell her something."
Luca blinked and ran into the bedroom to shortly come out with Rica despite her protests.
Damon looked at the two girls and laughed.
"You've always been the hardest to control." Damon said getting rid of his disguised voice.
"Excuse me?" Rica said as she cocked an eyebrow at the man.
"I guess I should let you know a few things." he said as he removed his hood.
Rica's expression went blank as she stared at her older brother. She stood there twitching for a few seconds before running up to Damon and smacking him on the head.
"YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST TOLD ME IT WAS YOU." Rica shouted at her brother.
Kakashi and Luca stood there unsure of what to say or do.
After hitting her older brother Rica turned around to see that Kakashi and Luca were staring at them.
"Stop hitting me, Jesus Christ." Damon said as he sat up. "If I would have told you it was me, you wouldn't have come. It was a gamble to even have you agree to my message."
"You're damn right I wouldn't have agreed." Rica said with her hands on her hips. "You're fucking insane."
"Oh now that's not how you talk to your older brother." Damon said teasingly.
Kakashi and Luca both looked from Damon and Rica in disbelief.
"You're her brother?" Luca said as she pointed at Damon.
"Yes, hasn't she said anything about me?" he said turning to Rica. "Aw, you mean you haven't said anything about your dear ol' brother?"
"She has said things, but never said who." Luca said
Rica nodded in agreement.
"And I never said anything good either, you jerk." Rica said as she glared at her brother.
Kakashi just stood there.
Crazy…all of them…
He thought as he shook his head.
"Ok, I'm not going to say this again. Get your things." Damon said his expression turning serious all of a sudden.
Rica and Luca nodded as they disappeared into the bedroom to get their things.
"They're leaving?" Kakashi said a little sad. He didn't want them to go just yet for some reason.
"They have to. I can't let them stay here any longer without causing problems in their world." Damon said
"What problems?" Kakashi asked.
"People will start to realize that they're missing. And I don't want that to happen. So they have to come back." Damon said as the two girls appeared with their things.
"I understand then." Kakashi said as he adjusted his headband.
Damon nodded and stood up.
"C'mon you two. Lets get going."
"Wait a minute please." Rica said as she took a deep breath. Luca was already tearing up, and Rica didn't want the same thing to happen to her.
Luca couldn't hold it in anymore and began to sob loudly as she ran and hugged Kakashi. Kakashi stood there with Luca squeezing him tightly. He smiled and patted her on the head and peeled her off himself.
"I'll miss you too." he said forcing a smile. He tried to appear to be strong in front of the girls.
Luca smiled and followed Damon outside. Rica stood there trying not to become emotional.
Kakashi and Rica stood facing each other for a minute in complete silence. Rica blinked, realizing that she had to do something and ran up to Kakashi and gave him a hug.
"Thank you so much." she said choking back her tears.
"For what?" he said as he patted her head as well.
"Everything." Rica said letting go and running after her friend.
Damon, Luca and Rica stood outside Kakashi's apartment as Damon prepared to leave. He murmured the same words that had brought them to this world. Before they disappeared Kakashi stood outside his apartment and waved to them all.
Luca and hugging Rica's arm as Rica waved goodbye to Kakashi and the village of Konoha. They were gone in a flash of light as Kakashi blinked for a few seconds only to realize that they were gone.
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Damon, Rica, and Luca appeared in the backyard of Rica's house. Luca was still sobbing as Rica tried to pry Luca off her arm.
"We're home now." Rica said in a soft voice.
"Well, see you two later. I got a party to crash." Damon said as he hopped the fence and walked off.
Rica didn't even bother calling after him since she knew it was useless.
"C'mon Luca, lets go inside." Rica said dispiritedly as she opened the sliding glass door which lead into the dining room.
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Kakashi stood in silence for a few minutes before he went inside. He shut the door behind him and walked into his bedroom.
"They're gone…" he said aloud feeling a little sad that no one was in the house with him. He had grown accustomed to having people over.
He fixed his bed as a someone knocked on the door.
"What is it now?" he said aloud to himself as he walked to answer the door.
Gai stood at the door tapping his foot impatiently as Kakashi opened the door to greet him.
"Oh…Gai, nice to see you." Kakashi said half heartedly.
"Lets go get something to drink if you're not too busy." Gai said with exuberance.
Kakashi shrugged as Gai grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out of his apartment and shut the door.
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Rica waved to Luca as she walked down the walk way. Rica shut the door behind her and let out a sigh. She was home, and home alone as usual. Everything was just as she left it, so her parents didn't even notice that she was missing. Rica slowly made her way upstairs and turned on her computer.
There wasn't anything else she could do, considering she was alone once again.
Luca made it home and waved to her mother who casually waved to her. Luca's mother didn't even notice her being gone either. She sighed heavily and walked into her room, shutting the door behind her.
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Damon was as happy as always shouting and cheering as one of his friends was trying to drink as much beer as he could within one minute.
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Kakashi was dragged home by Gai who had convinced him to drink more than he should. Gai dropped Kakashi on his couch and wandered into his bedroom and slept on his bed. Kakashi had to endure yet another night of sleeping on his couch, but he wasn't conscious to know it yet.
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Rica turned off her computer as she got ready for bed. She had partially missed her own bed and was happy to be able to sleep in it. She regretted not being able to say anything to Kakashi, or even getting the chance to say goodbye to the others. Perhaps she'd have another chance, and for some reason she had a feeling she would.
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Around 3:00AM Damon crept back into his house and collapsed in the hallway. He was too drunk to make it to his room.
To imagine a man like Damon with the weird ability to send people to where they want to go. No one would ever suspect someone like him.
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Rica shut off her lamp and curled up in bed.
I'm going to miss them all. Hopefully I can see them again someday.
She thought to herself as she covered herself up.
Little did she know that she would get her chance in the future.
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The End
(At least of the first part)
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Well, that's the end of the first part. Its uber long, I know, I know.
I will get to starting chapter one of the sequel as soon as possible.
Thank you to everyone who has read, and will read this story.
And thank you to all my reviewers! Thank you so very much.
Until the next story
Darkestviolet
