The Assignment - xx Hikari E
Summary - AU Naruto and the gang are in a slightly odd highschool. The gigantic warehouse across the street suddenly turned into a culdesac of houses. A certain project where people have to be paired together and take care of a 'baby' happens quite a lot, doesn't it? So, Health teachers Kakashi and Gai decided to spice it up a bit. KibaxSakura, ShinoxIno, NarutoxTemari, ShikamaruxHinata, NejixTenten
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters. Part of this plot belongs to Renniseht Entreri and I do not own several places listed below. Or any songs that may be included.
A/N: This will be a pretty long chapter, to make up for the fact that I've been updating every two months, and that's it's 2006! Happy New Year everyone! I was surprised at the amount of reviews I got this month, since it's been two months since I updated.
the dark icon writers - Wow. I didn't think my story would be better than most of the highschool fics around. Thanks though. That made me happy.
the-yamanaka-ino - Thanks! I was considering deleting this, but then I thought, it's my first fic. I don't have the heart to.
Albi - Thanks! I'm not very good at updating. Though I'm pretty sure you've noticed already. P After a few months of fictionpress, I think my writing has improved enough for me to continue. Hopefully.
ShinjucAt - Thanks! I was panicking. I didn't want to leave a big five month gap between the chapters, so I did what I could, add a filler. This chapter should be long enough to make up for it though. And thanks for the advice! I had my chicken pox when I was around five, so I don't remember much.
Violet1991 - Thanks! I've been thinking about that crush idea since the Chuck E Cheese chapter. I have a pretty cute couple in mind. You might see hints of it in this chappie!
Fiona McKinnon - Thanks! That PAMS thing confused me a bit at first. And just now, I realized that it said the meaning right beside it. XD
sexxy-azn92 - Thankies! Hah, I almost forgot about the tub. But, Sakura's not the only one in the house that has to clean, if you know what I mean. ;
MoonBeam SunShine StarDust - Thanks!
Dark-Little-Angel - Thanks!
And most of all, thanks to Charm-of-Dreams for all the suggestions. After reading your message several times, and getting a few reviews, it inspired me to continue. And if I don't start updating more after this, feel free to spam my e-mail with complaints. P
"speach"
'thoughts'
SCENE CHANGE
Chapter Eight - Shopping
Ino sat with her legs crisscrossed on her couch. She was reading the latest It Girl magazine. With Sakura sick in bed, she had the responsibility of taking care of Kira and Keiji.She didn't have to worry about them much, since Kazuo got along pretty well. They were currently playing with Lego Blocks. Or so she thought.
She checked her watch. 1:12 'Time to make a snack.' Ino rose from the couch and stretched a bit, after walking towards the kitchen. After a few steps, she paused and turned around. A few giggles were heard, but all she could see was an overturned cardboard box on the floor. Ino shrugged and continued walking to the kitchen.
A few steps from the door that connected the kitchen to the livingroom, she heard something moving behind her once again. She continued walking, pretending to not notice it. As soon as the giggling began again, Ino turned around and picked up the cardboard box quickly. There, on the floor, was Kazuo, Kira, and Keiji, all huddled up.
"Awww." The three of them whined in unison.
Ino stuck her tongue out and smiled. "Thought you could fool me, hm?"
"Mommy! Kira and Keiji are hungry." Kazuo yelled. He stood up and sat on the small, plastic, Fisher-Price, picnic table. He motioned for the twins to join him.
"I was just about to go make some," Ino said. She checked the refrigerator and cabinets. Nothing. "We need to go buy some food."
Where was Shino when you needed him? Wasn't the refrigerator full the night before? How was she going to go grocery shopping with three kids? Oh, let me rephrase that. How was she going to go grocery shopping with three kids alone? All these question were running threw Ino's head as she stared blankly at the refrigerator.
Ino sighed in despair. "Into the car, kids."
.o.o.o.
Sakura groaned as the itchiness took over her body. She was laying down on the couch. It was covered by a large blanket, just in case the germs rubbed off onto the couch. She had just finished with her oatmeal bath. As disgusting as it may sound, Sakura actually found it a bit soothing. But now, she stuck on the couch watching crappy soap operas. Not that she hated soap operas or anything, they just didn't seem very appealing, at the time. She was itchy and covered in spots for crying out loud! She did not want to feel all teary-eyed.
Beep!
"I cooked up some chicken noodle soup for you!" Kiba's cheerful voice said.
"Don't you mean you micro-waved some Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup?" Sakura replied dully.
He shrugged. "I guess you could put it that way." Kiba handed her the bowl and flopped onto the other couch. "So how's the show? Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted, I think it's called."
Sakura looked at him weirdly and began eating her food.
"How was your day?" Kiba questioned, trying to start a conversation.
"Fine."
"Guess what?" Kiba grinned. 'This should get her talking for sure!'
"Did you save money on your car insurance by switching to Geico?"
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
.o.o.o.
"No jumping in the cart Kazuo." Ino sighed exasperatedly.
Since she wasn't going to let the kids run around Costco on their little feet, they were all in the cart. Keiji was sitting in the baby seat up front, while Kira and Kazuo were in the back.
"You three stay here for a sec, I'm going to get some milk. Don't move, okay?"
Kazuo saluted, and the twins nodded. "Okie dokie!"
She smiled and walked to the other side of the row, opening the glass door and looking at the expiration dates on the boxes.
"Okay, troops. Let's get out of here!" Kazuo whispered.
Keiji nodded, and began squirming in his seat. "I'm stuck." He pouted and crossed his arms.
Kazuo stealthily climbed over the edge of the cart and landed on the ground with both feet. "We will get you out of there!"
Kira followed Kazuo down the cart and walked to the front of the cart. She quickly motioned Kazuo to come over. "Lift me!"
Kazuo stared at her like she was crazy. "Okay?" He did as he was told.
Kira, who was now twice her height, reached up and unbuckled Keiji's seatbelt.
Keiji jumped off the edge of the cart and helped Kira off Kazuo.
"High-five dudes!" Kazuo yelled as they ran to the toy section.
.o.o.o.
Ino held up two cartons of milk. 'November Fourth, November third. The fourth will do.' She put down the other carton and walked over to place it in the cart. She then went to the poultry section, humming a tune.
"Wow Kazuo, you're being pretty quiet today." She smiled, looking down into the cart. Realization hit her. "Oh my fucking god! I lost the kids!"
Heads turned her direction and parents glared at her for cursing in front of their children, but she didn't care. Costco was a pretty big place, it would take her forever to find them!
'They couldn't have gotten far.' Ino thought, as she began searching for them.
.o.o.o.
"Hey.. The toys are still in a box!" Kazuo complained. He picked up a plastic box with an action figure in it. He shook it furiously, trying to get it to come out. "Poop!"
"We ran away from auntie, to play with nothing!" Kira pouted and crossed her arms, plopping down on the floor next to Keiji.
"Look!" Keiji pointed directly across from them. There, was a rack of Halloween costumes. To Keiji, Kira, and Kazuo, it looked like heaven. "Let's go play with them!"
Kira clapped her hands in delight and Kazuo grinned. The three of them ran to the costumes. Kazuo was the first to change. He unzipped the back of a lion costume and jumped in. They were obviously cheap costumes. Keiji inspected all of the costumes and decided on a pink unicorn costume, while Kira picked a knight costume.
"Down horsey!" Kira ordered, pointing a cut-out piece of cardboard at Keiji.
Keiji looked bewildered. Not that you could see, considering he was wearing a costume that covered almost his whole body. "But you're heavy!"
"Well, just 'cause you said that, down horsey!" She demanded again, she grinned knowing that he was going to oblige.
Her twin sighed wearily and went down on all fours.
"Come, lion!"
Kazuo also went on all fours and followed the knight riding on a pink unicorn. "Bark!"
After a couple of minutes of parading around in circles, the three of them bumped in to someone.
"Ow." A little voice said.
It was quite a cute sight. In the point of view of a passerbyer, you would see a knight in shining armor, a lion, a pink unicorn, and a little four year old girl with long, curly, auburn hair.
.o.o.o.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." Ino muttered. She ran threw every row in the poultry, dairy, and cleaning sections, and so far, she had found no one. 'Sakura's going to have a heart attack when she finds out.' Not 'if' she finds out, 'when' she finds out.
Then it hit her, like Naruto and a frying pan. 'The toy section!'
.o.o.o.
"Hi-hi, Haya!" Kazuo chirped.
Haya looked confused. A lion was talking to her. A big furry orange-brown cat. Talking to her. "A-are y-you from the Wizard of Oz?" she asked. Her daddy has shown her a lot of movies. One about a lion, a girl, and a yellow brick road was the last one she watched, and here was a lion! She must be the girl. But where are her red shoes? And her yellow brick road?
"What's a Oz?" The pink unicorn lifted a hoof and scratched it's nose?
"Dunno." Kira shrugged.
Haya adverted her attention to the knight, who had just spoken in a girly voice.
"Haya?"
She snapped her head back to the lion, who was no standing up. Why was the lion so short?
"It's me, Kazuo! And that's Keiji and Kira!" He said, pointing a finger to indicate who was who. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh. I thought you were a aminal!" Haya giggled. "My daddys' took me here 'cause we ran outta cheese."
"Wanna play dress-up with us?" Kira offered. She nodded her head towards the rack of costumes.
"Okay!" Haya ran to the rack and squinted her eyes. "I'll be a monkey!" she said excitedly. She climed into a gorilla costume and joined them.
Keiji grunted as Kira sat back on him. He opened one eye and looked at Haya. "You look like Tarzan!"
She only stuck her tongue at him in return. "Ew! I licked something hairy!"
"Oh my squash! Kaz, I see your mommy!" Kira yelled. "Hide!" She got off Keiji and jumped into the big box of bath towels.
"Squash?" Keiji said, confused. "Wh-" Before he could finish, he was pulled into the box by Kazuo and Haya.
They hid under the bath towels, but kept their heads high enough to peek outside.
Haya gasped as she saw a figure stop right in front of them.
"Kazuo? Kira? Keiji? Where are you guys?" Ino said softly. She had checked every aisle, every section, every bathroom, the food court. Nada. Ino looked around, and saw a box of bath towels. "Hmm.. On sale.." She picked one up and inspected it.
"Eep!"
Ino raised an eyebrow. 'Found 'em' She picked up another towel and saw a shiney plastic helmet-like thing. 'Or maybe it was just me. Ooh! Maroon colored!' She dug deeper into the pile until it revealed four things.
"Okay. I've found you guys," Ino cheered. "Kazuo is the knight, Kira is the lion, Keiji is the gorilla, and who's the unicorn?"
The unicorn laughed. "Wrong!"
"Kira is the unicorn?"
"Nope."
"Kazuo?"
"Nope."
"I've had enough hide and seek for one day, can all of you just remove the costumes."
"Nope."
Ino smacked her forehead. "Why not?"
"We don't know what 'remove' means, mommy! Oops."
Ino cackled evilly, so he was the lion. "Take your costumes off, kids."
Each one took off there costumes and climbed out of the box.
"Aren't you Gaara and Lee's kid?" Ino questioned.
Haya nodded. "Daddy number one said to stay inside until I heard a 'beep' noise from my celly phone."
Ino gawked at her. "Cell phone?"
Beep!
"Bye-bye, friends!" Haya waved happily at them and skipped away.
"..Mommy, Kira and Keiji are hungry."
.o.o.o.
A couple hours later, Ino had the kids back at home sitting on the couch watching television. They told her the whole 'story' about the costumes, and Haya. She was still wondering how they managed to get out of the shopping cart, though. She could never jump out of a jumping cart. It was one of things she thought would make her leg fall off, or something of the sort.
It was now around dinner time, and Ino was too tired to make anything. Seeing that the kids had calmed, she decided on taking them out for dinner, with Temari, Naruto, Neji, Tenten, Hinata, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Shino.
Everyone met up at the 'restaurant'. The kids' favorite place.
.o.o.o.
Kiba pouted as he put the phone down. Ino had just called, inviting them to Chuck E. Cheese for another 'day of fun'. Unfortunately, he was stuck at home, taking care of someone that wouldn't even talk to him.
"Everyone's at Chuck E. Cheese." He told Sakura. "They're having a group dinner."
"I'm sorry." She said softly.
"Huh?"
Sakura cast her eyes downward. "You can't go because I have the chicken poxs, right?"
Kiba shrugged, also looking downward. "Forget about it. Feel like doing a puzzle? I'm bored."
"A thousand pieces?"
"Ten thousand."
"Hundred thousand."
"Deal."
.o.o.o.
One reason why Ino had invited a whole mob of people, was because:
1. She couldn't handle it if she lost them again.
2. She was tired and ready to collapse.
3. She needed the company.
4. She needed gossip.
Of course, there were other reasons, but these were the main ones.
Ino handed Kazuo her cell phone and told him to hold down the number two, Hinata's number, if he needed anything. Why Hinata? Well, because everyone knows that Hinata is the best with children.
She watched Kazuo scurry away to his friends, smiling fondly.
.o.o.o.
"Splash!" Takara shouted as she jumped into the ball pit.
She was playing tag with Kazuo, Kira, Keiji, Seiichi, and Akina.
"Tag, you're it!" She exclaimed, pushing Kazuo. "Oops." Takara watched as he fell under the a pile of balls.
"You killed him!" Akina gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.
"Nuh uh! He's over there!" Seiichi said, pointing over to the corner where Kazuo resurfaced.
"Uh oh." He said worriedly. He flipped his pockets inside-out, but all he got was lint. "I lost my mommy's celly phone."
They all gasped in unison.
"Don't worry! We'll help you find it!" Kira said, patting him on the back. Right after, she dove down to the bottom of the pit. Or what she thought was the bottom.
The other kids watched her. They then looked at each other and shrugged, following her example.
"Hey! Look what I found!" A boy that looked around ten years old shouted.
Kazuo popped up and shouted, pointing at the small silver object in his hand, "Hey! That's mine!"
The boy stuck his tongue out. "Finders keepers, losers sweepers, you little squirt!" As soon as he said that, he began running away.
"After him!" Takara screeched.
The mob of kids were hot on his trail.
"My mommy once told me that if I had nothing nice to say, to not say anything at all!" Kira yelled. "But my mommy's not here, and you're a weanie!"
"Yeah!" Takara added. "Stop being a wussy! You big baby!"
Akina, Seiichi, and Keiji kept quiet, as they were the seemingly 'good' kids.
"Who are you calling a baby?" The boy retorted. He climbed into a tunnel, going up the ladder.
"Which way did he go?" Seiichi asked. He looked at the three different tunnels, each a different color.
Akina thought for a moment. "We have to split up. Me and Seiichi will go through the green tunnel. Keiji and Takara will go through the blue tunnel, and Kira and Kazuo will go through the orange tunnel."
Everyone nodded in agreement and split up.
.o.o.o.
"Hurry up Kaz! He could be getting away!" Kira demanded, crawling as fast as she could.
Kazuo winced. "Wait! I have weak knees! Ow!" he whined as he bumped into Kira.
"Uh oh." She said. Kira pointed to the rope net that they were suppose to climb across to get the other side.
"You got to be kidding me." He said bluntly. When she shook her head, his expression turned as serious as a five year old's could get. "For my mommy!"
Kira looked at him weirdly. After his battle-cry, he had began crawling his way to the other side. She looked down, and saw the ball pit below them. With a deep breath, she went after him.
.o.o.o.
Akina and Seiichi were having a little more trouble.
"I'm not climbing up there." Akina said. After many twists and turns, they ended up at a plastic 'stone' wall with a long thick rope. Some fake rocks were scattered around.
Seiichi shook his head. "You're going. And you're going first."
"No, you're going first." She whined.
"Row sham po?" Seiichi suggested.
She nodded in agreement. "Best two out of three." She added.
Akina - 2, Seiichi - 1
Akina grinned proudly as Seiichi started for the rope.
"Here goes all the bones in my body." Seiichi sighed.
.o.o.o.
"It's like this tunnel never stops!" Takara complained. Her and Keiji had been crawling for at least two minutes. It was a straight tunnel, no ladders, no holes, no turns, nothing.
"Look! There's something up ahead!" Keiji called out from behind her.
Takara sped up her crawling, and squinted her eyes as they neared the light. Then, she felt herself falling, and screamed. She snapped her eyes shut as she went through several turns.
"It's just a slide." Keiji said, his voice echoing.
Takara's entire mood changed. "I love slides!" She squealed, throwing her hands up. She slowed down as she neared the end of the slide.
"Watch out!" Keiji yelled. "I'm right in bac-"
Boom!
"Ow!"
.o.o.o.
"My parenting senses are tingling! Kiba! We have to go save Kira and Keiji!"
"No. Go to sleep."
"But. But!"
"No."
"They need us!"
"No."
"Fine."
A/N: Hope you all liked the chapter! I was hoping for it to be longer, but I have school tomorrow, and if I stop writing, I'll lose inspiration. This took me about.. Six hours? My longest chapter yet! About nine pages, rounded up. When I wrote this chapter, the kids reminded me of The Rugrats. I made them seem a bit older, if that's okay with you all? Happy new years! Edited by skim-through: 10.01.2006