Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any form shape or fashion. If I did, I would have already killed him and taken Hinata for myself…
Chapter 5. Girl Talk.
Sasuke stepped out of the bathroom with Naruto. The girls were all gone now and Naruto had just finished stuffing toilet paper up his nostrils.
"I'm beginning to like this mission." Naruto said grinning.
"You're such a pervert. You're starting to act like Kakashi." Sasuke said in disgust.
This punched Naruto's outrage button and he immediately jumped up in Sasuke's face. "You're one to talk, you were staring at my rear the entire time we were showering."
"I was not." Sasuke said with irritation. "You were the one who kept trying to bump into me."
The two glared at each other for a moment, but let it drop. The simply truth of the matter had been that they'd BOTH been eyeing Kimi while she showered. The two of them let their thoughts drift back to the scene and Naruto grabbed more tissue.
Naruto finally finished drying his terribly long hair and passed the dryer to Sasuke, who in his male oriented world had forgotten several basic tools for being a young teenage girl. Sasuke quickly finished his hair and the two of them set off for their room. Naruto in a t-shirt and shorts, and Sasuke in his knee length nightshirt that he had just now realized with horror had unicorns all over it. He secretly resented the fact that he hadn't realized that a t-shirt and boxer shorts were perfectly acceptable sleepwear for girls as long as the boxer shorts looked ridiculous.
As they left the bathroom, Sasuke watched as Naruto put on some sort of ridiculous black and white nightcap.
"Naruto, don't you think you're going a bit far with the wardrobe?" Sasuke said irritably.
"What? My shorts don't have THAT many hearts on them." Naruto said defensively.
"I was referring to the nightcap." Sasuke said as patiently as he could manage.
"What are you talking about? I always wear a nightcap at home, and this one happens to be my favorite." Naruto said peevishly.
"Naruto, you're probably the only person in the world who wears anything that stupid." Sasuke said as they reached their dorm room door. There they found several of the girls standing around, many of whom were sadly wearing nightcaps. Sasuke groaned as he realized Hinata had one too that was identical to Naruto's.
Sasuke just sighed in defeat as he realized it must be a girl thing and secretly decided to stay a little bit further away from Naruto. It did explain however how Naruto was managing to annoy him to levels that normally only other girls were capable of. Sasuke shuddered as he realized he'd started thinking of Naruto as a girl.
"Hey, Shiori." Sakura said as the two arrived. "All the girls are coming in for a little visit."
Sasuke glanced at Naruto as both of them felt their heart sink clear into their shorts, well panties. "Fine, whatever." Sasuke said as he rushed past them to open the door. He opened the door to stare at Kakashi sitting in the middle of his floor.
Sasuke panicked and turned to stop anyone from coming in, but it was too late. Nariko and Yoshiko were already coming in behind him. The two girls had eyes as big as saucers as Sasuke struggled for a believable lie.
"No, wait. I can explain…" Sasuke said desperately.
"Jun'ko is going to have a cow if she finds out about this Shiori." Yoshiko said seriously.
"I don't care!" Nariko said gleefully. "He's so adorable! Can I hold him?"
Nariko brushed past Sasuke into the room. Sasuke turned back around to find a silver haired kitten sitting in the middle of the floor. Nariko ran over and grabbed up the kitten as fast as she could.
Thank Kami-sama for replacement jutsu. Sasuke thought earnestly.
Nariko cradled the little kitten hugging it close to her and the kitten proceeded to try to bury it's head into her breasts, rubbing up against the girl and purring loud enough to wake the dead.
OK, maybe it isn't a replacement jutsu. Sasuke thought in disgust.
The rest of the girls came in and Hinata was exchanging confused glances with Sasuke. "I'll tell you later." Sasuke silently mouthed to her.
All the girls sat down in a circle in the floor and Sasuke took a seat between Hinata and Naruto. He normally wouldn't have deprived Hinata of the chance to sit next to Naruto, but otherwise he would have had to take a seat next to Sakura, and she acted too weird even if he WAS looking like a girl. This thought disturbed him nearly as bad as starting to think of Naruto as a girl.
"So where are you girls from?" Kimi was saying.
"We're all from a place called Konoha." Sakura answered for them.
"I've never heard of it. What do your fathers do there?" Kimi asked intrigued.
"My father has a position in the government there." Sakura said proudly. Sasuke honestly didn't know exactly WHAT Sakura's parents did, but if she were lying then she was a pretty good actress.
"My father is a wealthy and powerful member of the community there too." Hinata said quietly.
The rest of the girls nodded and looked at Naruto and Sasuke expectantly.
"I'm an orphan." Naruto said miserably.
"Me too." Sasuke said quietly. He hated being grouped with Naruto in just about anything, but this time it couldn't be helped.
"How are you two attending here then?" Kimi asked suspiciously. "The tuition is pretty high."
"My teacher arranged for me to come." Naruto said honestly. "He thought that it might make me better… person."
Sasuke had to admit the dope had managed a believable story. He was just about to use the same one when Sakura piped up.
"Shiori is the last of a powerful and wealthy family in Konoha as well." Sakura said proudly.
Sasuke shot daggers at Sakura from his eyes, but didn't say anything. Fortunately their stories seemed to convince Kimi.
"I guess that means you have a lot of suitors, eh Shiori." Kimi said knowingly.
"Yeah, actually." Sasuke said truthfully. Then, he couldn't resist tossing a barb at Sakura. "All of them are pretty annoying though. I wish they'd just leave me alone."
This seemed to deflate Sakura a little, and Naruto looked ready to jump him if he hadn't been in a room of other girls.
"Yeah, boys can be pretty annoying sometimes." Kimi said sagely. Sasuke just smirked. And girls aren't?
"Me personally, I find it best to go find a friend that I can rely on and then I have him pose as my boyfriend. That generally keeps most of the less serious crushes away." Kimi said jokingly.
Sasuke stared at Kimi for a moment. She was pretty attractive, not that Sasuke thought he wasn't after all; she might have to deal with similar numbers as himself when it came to members of the opposite sex.
Sasuke caught himself glancing at Sakura. She hadn't looked up after his comments about wanting to be left alone. Who knows, it might work.
"I'll have to keep that in mind." Sasuke said finally.
"How about you Hinata? Any boy problems?" Kimi asked.
Hinata nearly fainted. She looked over at Naruto timidly. Naruto was naturally oblivious as he ran a brush through his long blonde hair.
"What are you looking at Naniko for, Hinata? You're not gay are you?" Kimi asked leering at the poor girl.
Sasuke decided to come to the girl's rescue before she really did pass out. "Hinata is in love with Naniko's cousin. Uzumaki Naruto." Sasuke said simply.
"Gone again." Sakura said clinically as Hinata's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell backwards. Fortunately, she'd already been sitting.
"What?" Naruto asked incredulously. "Hinata, wake up! Come on, is that true?"
Naruto moved over and was trying to wake up Hinata. Hinata however looked down for the count. Meanwhile, the little silver haired kitten had been being passed around and had pretty effectively gotten a face full of just about every bust in the room. Sakura held out the kitten to Sasuke who just looked at it. "Sorry, don't like cats. You keep him."
Sakura set the cat down in her lap and it curled up into the warmth of her lap and looked like it was in seventh heaven.
"What about you, Sakura?" Kimi asked.
"Oh, I don't know." Sakura said, quietly blushing.
"Oh, please." Naruto said exasperated, finally giving up on waking up Hinata. "You're always 'Sasuke this…' and 'Sasuke that…'" Naruto said peevishly. "You need to give up on that loser."
Sasuke tried to keep from killing Naruto on the spot, when Sakura retorted. "Sasuke is not a loser! He's the strongest, most beautiful man I know." Sakura said heatedly.
Kimi watched the exchange with glee. Apparently, she was into soap operas. "I guess you have got it bad for this 'Sasuke'. So have you told him how you feel?"
Sakura shot a quick unnoticeable glance in Sasuke's direction before responding. "It's not like it hasn't been obvious. I'm always asking him out, but he doesn't even act like I exist."
"Sounds to me like he's gay." Kimi said finally. Sasuke looked up quickly at the other girls who were apparently nodding sagely.
"I'm sure he's not gay." Sasuke said in his own defense.
"How do you know? Have you ever seen him kiss a girl?" Kimi asked.
"I did see him kiss YOU one time." Sakura said glaring at Naruto.
"It was an accident, I swear!" Naruto said in a panic. Then he looked at Sasuke and grinned. Oh no, Naruto. Please don't. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Sasuke MUST be gay if he isn't returning your affections Sakura."
Sasuke vowed to destroy Naruto. Just as soon as his brother was dead he was going to bury Naruto next to him.
"So Shiori, have YOU ever kissed a guy?" Kimi said enthusiastically.
"You kissed Naruto." Hinata said sadly. Sasuke turned to find the girl had recovered and was sitting up. She looked crestfallen, and Sasuke felt sorry for her.
"Don't worry, Hinata. HE kissed ME. I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about from me. In fact, you're ably the only girl that would have him." Sasuke said looking back at Naruto and grinning.
Naruto was effectively ready to kill Sasuke, and obviously wanted to talk to Hinata. Sasuke decided to leave it at that; he was above getting into shouting matches with Naruto.
"So, Naniko. You think you might be able to fix up Hinata with your cousin Naruto?" Kimi asked finally.
Naruto looked like he'd been struck square in the face. Sasuke knew the look well, since he'd put that look there enough times. "I don't know." Naruto said getting more serious than Sasuke had ever seen him. "I never gave it any thought before now."
"Are the two of you close?" Takara asked.
"You could say we're inseparable." Naruto said vaguely.
The rest of the evening was spent with the four young ninjas interrogating the girls. Kimi was a stuck up rich girl who tried to be the best at everything. Sasuke already didn't like her. Nariko was a gentle girl a lot like Hinata, whose father was a low level bureaucrat. The two hit it off immediately and Sasuke figured that Hinata was probably going to have a pen pal after the mission was over. Yoshiko's father was one of the wealthiest men in the oil industry. She didn't get to see him much as she pretty much spent her life surrounded by servants and tutors before coming here. Takara's father held a mid-level post within the government, which she knew very little of, except that he was some sort of ambassadorial liaison.
The girls finally left to return to their rooms. After they left, Naruto turned around to look at the kitten. "So who brought the cat?"
A puff of smoke filled the room and after it cleared, Kakashi was sitting once again in the middle of the floor. Naruto and Sakura immediately clamped their arms over their breasts. "You pervert!" They cried in unison.
"Now, now." Kakashi said placating the two. "I didn't have a choice."
"Yeah, right." Naruto said obviously offended. "You purred the entire time you were here."
"I just came by to let you know that Kurenai and the boys are settled into the boys school across the lake. I've made camp near here and I'll be watching you throughout the day." Kakashi said simply. "I was going to suggest that the four of you get down to the business of investigating these girls to see if you could determine the assassin's target. So… what do you think?"
"I think we can rule out Nariko or Kimi. Their fathers aren't really important enough to rate having somebody try to use their daughters against them for leverage." Sakura said seriously.
"We also don't have very much information on Takara's father. She doesn't know what he does, but it is associated with the military. Can we get somebody on the outside to check on him?" Hinata said quietly.
"Wow, you guys got all that?" Naruto said, impressed at their perception.
"All you had to do was listen dope instead of brushing your hair." Sasuke said acidly. He thought Naruto was WAY to comfortable as a girl.
"We'll see what we can find out about him. In the meantime, you three keep your eyes peeled. Tomorrow you'll be introduced to some of the faculty. Keep your eyes open for anything that seems out of the ordinary." Kakashi said quietly as he got up to head out the window.
"Also, I want the two of you to pay attention during your classes." Kakashi said gesturing to Naruto and Sasuke.
"Why?" Naruto said confused.
"They two of you could learn a lot here on how to act like girls. Quite frankly the two of you stick out like a sore thumb to a trained professional. Try to learn how to BE a girl. The Hokage thinks this will be a good training exercise to teach you about being undercover. She even mentioned leaving you here until the end of the semester even if we catch the assassin." Kakashi said as he stepped out onto the ledge.
Sasuke watched Kakashi go and then looked at Sakura. He noticed Naruto staring at Hinata, and then they both glanced at each other. It was scary sometimes how they almost seemed to know what the other was thinking. They had a mission to complete. They'd have to deal with the girls after they had completed the job at hand. Besides, he and Naruto were going to have a lot on their minds, and making nay long term decisions about their relationship with the girls was going to have to wait.
"Good night Sakura." Sasuke said climbing into bed.
"Good night Hinata." Naruto said as he did the same.
"Good night." The girls echoed and the four of them settled into prepare themselves for the coming day.