Disclaimer - I own nothing about Naruto and its characters. Though I do own the world created for this story and the characters I make up to fill the space within it.

Author's Note - I'm surprised people like this story thus far. To me its lacking something, but I have yet to pinpoint it. I guess this is how artists feel when many people tell them their art is awesome, or whatever - horrible comparison I know. I have a hard time writing humorous fics. / Need to come up with something ghastly before my brain explodes.

Thank you all for your lovely reviews. Though I could do well with some suggestions flung at me. Need to keep the fire burning, so throw some twiggies. XD

Well, on to the story!

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Chapter Three - Settled In

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Kakashi and his students stayed in the car as Rica entered the optometrist's office. They had no idea why they were in front of an optometrist's office, but decided to play along. It wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter either. Rica would throttle them if they left the car without her permission. As long as they were in her world, she deemed them her responsibility.

Inside the office…

"C'mon Taskei, lemme have the lenses." pleaded Rica as she leaned over the counter to get a better view of the box that Taskei was holding. Taskei worked as an assistant in the optometrist's office and had access to most of its supplies.

"You're lucky these are not prescription lenses. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to purchase them like this." he said in a low voice as he looked around to see if his boss was around. Luckily he was seeing a patient.

"Yeah, I knew that. Otherwise I wouldn't have called you in the first place. What do you take me for, some kind of idiot?" Rica said in an equally low tone laced with annoyance.

"No. Now give me what you have and I'll give you the lenses." Taskei said as he set the small box on the counter before Rica.

Rica took out a small wad of bills and gave Taskei the correct amount and pocketed the small box before Taskei's boss could see.

"Ah, Miss Rica, I haven't seen you around here in ages. How is your father doing?" said Dr. Mizuchi as he bent down to retrieve something from behind the counter.

"I wouldn't know. He left on another business trip and has yet to contact me or my brother." she said calmly even though the question brought up feelings of loneliness.

"I hope you hear from him soon. So what brings you in here today?" replied Dr. Mizuchi.

"Just asking Taskei about non-prescription contact lenses. I'm interested in the odd colored ones for Halloween." Rica said as she subconsciously tapped the small box in her pocket.

"Ah, I see. You do understand that wearing the lenses for an extended period of time can cause eye damage if abused." Dr. Mizuchi said as he looked at Rica suspiciously.

"Oh I understand, that's why I'm just looking around for the time being." Rica said with a smile. "Well, I have to get going, I'll be back to visit later on. Have a nice day."

Rica smiled and waved to Taskei and Dr. Mizuchi as she exited the office. She hurried to the car and got in.

"Why are we in front of an optometrist's office Rica?" Sakura said as she craned her neck from the back seat to get a good look at Rica.

"Just picking up something for Kakashi." Rica said as she pulled out the small box.

"Huh?" Kakashi said as he stopped daydreaming and looked at the small box in Rica's hands. "What is it?" he asked.

"Something to conceal your sharigan." Rica said as she opened the box.

Inside were three small contact lenses of the same color as Kakashi's good eye.

"You put one of these in your eye, and it should cover up the sharigan completely. They match your eye, so it won't be noticeable." Rica said as she closed the box and put it back in her pocket. "Though there are some things I will have to go over with you before you put it on. I'll tell you when we get back to the house."

Kakashi nodded as Naruto and Sakura leaned over the front seats to get a better look at the box.

"Alright. Sit down and buckle up kiddies." Rica said in a sing song voice as she started the car and drove out of the parking lot.

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"What in the hell are you doing?" Kakashi yelled from the upstairs bathroom of Rica's house. His yelling made Luca, Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto look up from their game of poker as Kakashi's shouts became more persistent.

"What do you expect if you can't sit still for crying out loud!" Rica shouted as Kakashi rubbed his eye.

"You're trying to stick that goddamned thing in my eye! What do you expect me to do?" Kakashi shouted back as Rica got ready to try again.

Rica sighed and set the box down. There was no use in getting him to get the contact in with her doing it.

"Alright then, macho man. How about you do it." she said as she thrusted the box into his hands and started at him for a few seconds which made Kakashi feel oddly uncomfortable.

"Fine. I will." he said trying to sound manly.

Kakashi looked down at the box and opened it. He carefully placed the contact the Rica had done before she tried to stick that god awful thing into his eye and placed it as close as he could get it without flinching.

"Its not so hard." he said as he placed the contact onto his eye and blinked it into place. He stood there shuddering for a few seconds trying to get used to the fact that he stick something in his eye. Kakashi of all men shouldn't be afraid of a little something in his eye, but you never really know someone until you make them do something stupid.

"Well, that was certainly better than poking your eye out." Rica said as she put the box in the medicine cabinet and shut the it.

Kakashi nodded as Rica walked to the door and opened it. As if not thinking Kakashi stopped her and shut the door as she was about to leave.

"What?" she said as she turned around to face him.

He sighed heavily and put a hand on her shoulder as Rica jumped slightly due to the sudden contact.

"Ever since we arrived here I never got a chance to tell you that I missed you, we all have missed you and your friend." he said soundly slightly serious.

Rica blinked and looked up at him and smiled.

"I missed you guys too." she said simply.

"Really?" he said as he turned his head to the side.

"Yes, really. Though for some reason I missed you the most." with that Rica turned on her heels and exited the bathroom leaving Kakashi slightly confused and blinking.

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"So, did you get the bloody thing in his eye or not?" Luca said as she threw her hand down as Naruto grinned.

"Yeah, it sounded like you were trying to kill him up there." Naruto said as he pulled in his share of the poker chips as Luca was dealing another hand.

"I guess you could say that, considering how much it hurt." Kakashi said as he walked down the stairs without his mask and headband.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura all put down their hands and looked at their sensei for a few minutes before speaking.

"What'd you do to him?" Sakura said as she picked up her hand again.

"Made him look normal." Rica said pulling a chair and sitting down.

"Normal? I feel naked." Kakashi said as he too took out a chair and sat down.

"You look good." Luca said as she finished dealing out the cards. "Wanna play?"

"No thanks." both said in unison as they watched the others concentrate.

Rica was never really interested in playing poker, or any card game to be exact. It didn't amuse her as chess or other strategic games did. Besides, she didn't want to make the others look stupid by beating them all down within a few hands. After about 30 minutes of game play, Rica fell asleep on Kakashi's shoulder while he began to nod off as well.

Naruto arched an eyebrow as he looked up from his hand and spied on the two practically falling asleep on each other. He set his hand down temporarily and pointed at his sensei.

"What do you think you're doing to her sensei?" Naruto shouted. He planned on spooking his sensei, and it had worked pretty well. Kakashi jolted upright, causing Rica to jump as well.

"Stop being so noisy and get back in the game." Sasuke said icily as he set down a card.

"Hrmph." was all Naruto grunted as he picked up his hand and set a card down as well.

Sakura squealed with happiness as she took in all the chips and began to stack them, humming happily. Naruto pushed his chair back, and got up stretching.

"Well, we've played enough." he said as he set his arms down to his sides.

"What are you talking about? I finally win a game and you're calling it quits?" Sakura said getting up as well.

(Get your ass back in the game!) Inner Sakura bellowed in the background.

"Nah. I'm done." Naruto said obviously ignoring the vibes of rage coming from Sakura.

"Yeah. I'm done too." Sasuke said calmly as he slowly got out of his chair and pushed it in.

Sakura stood there for a few moments fuming silently as Luca sat down trying to think of something else to do. As Sakura was calming down, Luca got up.

"I got an idea! Lets take these guys to meet the others!" Luca said happily as Rica looked up at her groggily.

"The…others…?" she asked, clearly forgetting that she had other friends.

Luca blinked and flicked a poker chip at her friend, hitting her right between the eyes.

"Oooh! The others, I get it." Rica paused for a minute looked over everyone before speaking again. "Sure, I don't see what harm it could do."

"Great! Taskei had called me before I started the game and he said he'd be at the mall after work. He should be getting off soon, so we should get going!" Luca said as she collected the cards and chips and put them in the center of the table.

"Hmm…alright…" Rica said as she got up and walked over to the down stairs bathroom, stretching as she went.

"Okay. Sounds like a plan." Luca shouted in the direction of the bathroom and looked at everyone else. "This is going to be fun." she said trying to hide her immense enthusiasm.

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know, we'll make it up as we go along. Shouldn't be that hard." Luca said as she combed her fingers through her long black hair in an attempt to get it looking neater.

"Hm." Sasuke said as he walked towards the door. "Lets get a move on then."

"Rica! Lets go." Luca shouted in the direction of the bathroom once more.

Rica walked out casually and went straight for the door and opening it.

"Alright. Pile in my car and lets go." she said as she walked out of the house and towards her car.

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After a long and painstakingly slow car ride everyone climbed out of the car. Naruto had spent his time shouting at cars that were driving too slow while everyone cringed at the volume of his voice. If he had originated in their time, he'd surely be one hell of a driver with a bad case of road rage.

"So where are we again?" Naruto said aloud as Rica locked the doors to her car.

"The-" Rica began, but was shortly cut off.

"The mall. Now we're going to have fun, or something of the sort." Luca said looking around for a familiar face.

The three students nodded in unison as Kakashi just stood there. He didn't see any interest in shopping, in fact he hated it.

Luca ran off to the entrance as the others followed. Minutes later she met up with Taskei, Matteo, and Rico. Rica blinked as she saw two heads one of electric blue, and the other a vibrant red. She could tell who they were from a mile away.

Luca glomped her friends as Rica just stood there shaking her head. After the exchanges of "what's up?" and "good to hears" the three men turned their attention to the four standing off to the side, clearly confused.

"So, who are your friends?" Matteo said as he pried off Luca.

"Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura." she said calmly as she pointed to each one in turn.

Matteo, Rico, and Taskei nodded as they waved to the group, who waved back, still unsure on what to do.

"Well, I need to shop for my sister. Its her birthday." Matteo said as he looked around trying to find a place to go into.

Rico nodded as both Matteo and Rico wandered off in different directions, leaving Taskei all by himself.

"Luca, lets go." he said emotionlessly as he walked off. Luca blinked a few times and shrugged her shoulders, following him.

"Well, your friends are different." Kakashi said trying to sound sarcastic.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I normally don't hang out with them." she said casting an icy stare in Taskei's direction.

"Can we go look around?" Naruto said as he peeked over Rica's shoulder. Rica poked his forehead and put a watch in his hand.

"Well, just make sure to be back by 5:30." she said as she turned to Sasuke and Sakura. "And I don't want you three to separate." she said giving a look to Naruto.

"Uh-huh…uh-huh." Naruto said not really paying attention. He wandered off in the opposite direction, Sakura and Sasuke following closely behind.

Rica turned around to face Kakashi and throw a watch at him as well. But as soon as she turned around, Kakashi waved at her and disappeared. Apparently he didn't need to be told twice when he was to return.

"So that leaves me to do whatever then." she said as she leaned against a support beam.

Rica wandered around the mall aimlessly trying to find something to do. It annoyed her that everyone just suddenly decided to run off in different directions. She hated being responsible, even though she really had no reason to be responsible for their actions in the first place. If everyone was going to run around and have no regard for anyone or anything it was her duty to bring some order to that. She didn't mind it much, but now it was getting to her. When she was in Naruto's time, she really didn't need to be as responsible as she was in her time. Maybe that is why she missed being in Konoha so much.

Rica shook off those thoughts and looked around. Not much interested her these days, spare the 50 off signs or the "buy one get one free" stickers in most stores or shops. She looked down at her watch.

"Five o clock." she muttered softly as she stared at the second hand ticking away the seconds as it made one full revolution around the face of the watch. As Rica was doing this, she kept her attention strictly on the watch, and not where she was going. As she walked, she bumped right into a tall muscular man smoking a cigarette in front of the entrance of the public restrooms.

"Watch where you're going you asshole." the man growled as he turned around. Rica still wasn't paying any attention to the man as he now faced her. "Hey, didn't you hear me you little bitch, I'm talking to you." the man growled again, this time Rica looked up and blinked as if the room suddenly got brighter.

"Sorry. Now excuse me." she said absentmindedly as she tried to pass the man. The man blocked her path and pushed her backwards.

"Who in the world do you think you are, brat?" the man growled again, this time two other men around the same height and weight walked out of the bathroom conversing amongst themselves, only stopping to see what their friend was doing.

"You found a cute one eh?" said the smaller of the two men.

"Why should you have all the fun?" the other man said as he walked towards Rica, who still didn't really grasp the severity of the situation.

"What in the fucking hell are you two talking about?" said the man as he let go of Rica's shoulder.

"Well, you have a girl, do you not?" the smaller man said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Actually, you don't." said a calm voice from behind the two men.

Kakashi had been wandering when he stumbled upon an odd gathering of people and decided to check it out, he never thought he'd see Rica among such scum.

"And just who do you think you are?" said the taller of the two men.

"You like to say that a lot don't you?" Kakashi said calmly as he separated the two men standing in front of him and walked up to the man standing in front of Rica. "What are you doing with her?" he said, his eyes narrowing at the man.

"That's none of your business, asshole. Keep out of it." the man said as he pushed Rica behind him.

"Sorry, no can do." Kakashi said as he disappeared and reappeared behind the man, he had draped his arms over Rica's shoulders and stared at the group nonchalantly.

"So she's your woman, eh?" said the smaller of the three as he took a few steps back.

Kakashi blinked for a few seconds and pulled Rica closer.

"Yes. Now leave." he said threateningly as the three men moved away from him and walked off muttering.

Kakashi immediately let go of Rica and turned her around.

"What were you doing?" he asked

"No idea, I just bumped into their leader and he got all pissy." she said looking around to see if she could spot the others.

"You should be glad I found you." Kakashi said, his voice suddenly turning stern.

"And why? So I wouldn't be their woman?" Rica said as she walked past him. "Just to let you know, I don't belong to anyone, not even you."

"I only said that to shut them up, and it worked, didn't it?" Kakashi said in a "duh" tone.

"Uh-huh." Rica said as she looked down at her watch again. "Shit, its almost 5:30, we better get back to the entrance."

"Alright." Kakashi blinked and disappeared.

"Damn him." she said as she looked around for any sign of Kakashi.

She put her hands in her pockets and turned around. It looked like she had to walk back to the entrance alone.

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Rica had a deadpanned expression as she drove the rowdy bunch home. Naruto stuck his head out the window while Sasuke cringed under the weight of Sakura. Luca tried to wedge herself free from beneath Naruto and Sasuke in hopes of getting air.

"Will you all just sit down?" Rica snapped as she caught a glimpse of everyone through her rear view mirror.

Everyone obeyed and sat down, all except Sasuke who kept shifting his weight under Sakura. It didn't take a lot of time until Rica finally make it back home again, by the time she pulled into the driveway everyone was rowdy again. She roughly poked Kakashi who immediately snapped out of his trance like state and blinked at her a few times.

"What?" he asked.

"Time to get out of the car." Rica said as she got out and slammed the door behind her. Kakashi blinked again and did the same and headed into the house without a word.

Why did he have to go in and save me from those men. I could have handled them.

Yeah, like hell you could.

Shut up.

Rica shook her head, dispelling all her current thoughts and walked into the house to find that Luca turned on the TV while everyone else sat in front of it watching intently.

"Way to keep 'em entertained." Rica said as she stopped her friend from walking into the kitchen.

"Yeah, and to think Pokemon would be the one to do it." Luca said as she walked past her friend and disappeared into the kitchen.

"GO PIKACHU." Naruto shouted as Sasuke snorted at his teammate's display of stupidity.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in the upstairs bathroom in the master bedroom." Rica said as she headed up the stairs. No one had heard her, they were all engrossed in the show.

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Rica sighed deeply as she slipped into the bathtub. What better way to dispel bad feelings with a hot relaxing bath. She lay there listening to the muffled sounds that managed to make their way upstairs.

Looks like they're going to ruin the house sooner than I thought.

Yawning slightly, Rica made a small mountain out of the bubbles which made up half of her bath.

"Should get out soon…don't want to fall asleep in here…" she said stifling yet another yawn as footsteps unnoticed by her made their way to the bathroom.

Kakashi had enough of Pokemon and sought refuge in his temporary room. He had no idea that anyone was using that bathroom as he opened the door without knocking. Thankfully for him he saw nothing that would have gotten him killed. Rica shouted as Kakashi stood there stiff as a board for at least 30 seconds. He blinked a few times and turned on his heel and quickly shut the door behind him.

He could hear Rica growl with anger as he heard her get out of the bathtub. She quickly wrapped a towel around her and put on a robe and exited the bathroom.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing man!" Rica fumed as Kakashi just stood there.

"Ooops." he said smiling as he ruffled her damp hair with the palm of his hand.

"Ooops?" Rica mimicked.

"Yes, oops." he drew her in and gave her a quick hug. He released her and walked into the bathroom.

"Thanks for freeing up the bathroom, I appreciate it." he said cheerfully as he shut the door behind him.

Rica stood there for a few seconds. She didn't know what she was going to do. She soon gave up and walked to her bedroom and slammed the door. She'd deal with him once she was fully clothed.

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End Chapter

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I know there was so much more I could do with this chapter, but my heart just wasn't in it this time. /

I plan to put this on hold until I can come up with a more solid storyline to keep this going for at least three to four more long chapters.

In the meantime I should be updating my collective of songfics and possibly a oneshot.

Again, I would like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed. I appreciate the time being spent on telling me how I am doing. I just wish I had more input.

I'd like to know what I can do to improve, etc.

bows

Thank you again.