Author's Note:

I apologize for the delay in the release of this chapter. Life's been busy. Thanks for all the reviews so far. I've included the bits about 'Amerika' as they were in the original Great Glass Elevator, but they've been changed in order to remain in context with the world of Naruto…which I hope works out. Thanks again for reading.

3. Precarious Situation! The Link Up!

Inside the great glass elevator there was also a good deal of excitement. Hinata and all the others could see clearly the huge silvery shape of Space Hotel U.S.A. about a kilometer ahead of them. Behind them was the smaller (but still pretty enormous) Commuter Capsule. The great glass elevator (not looking at all great now beside these two monsters) was in the middle.

Everybody, it seemed, knew exactly what was going on. They knew the three astronauts in charge of the Commuter Capsule were named Shuckworth, Shanks, and Showler. The whole world knew about these things. Newspapers and television had been shouting about almost nothing else for the past few months. The development of the Amerika Country and its Space Hotel was a landmark event.

Everyone knew this…except Naruto Uzumaki.

"Oi!" He shouted, pointing and gaping at the enormous silvery thing in front of him, "What the hell is that thing! Is it some kind of space monster! What the hell!" he began to get very distraught and panicked.

"What do you mean 'what the hell is that'?" Sakura slapped him upside the head. "That's gotta be the famous Space Hotel the Amerika-jins built. Haven't you been paying attention to anything lately!"

"Spasu…hoteru?" Naruto fumbled, looking even more confused. "I haven't heard anything about something like this!"

"S-Sakura-san…" Hinata interrupted. "N-Naruto-kun wouldn't know…i-it all began while he was away t-training with Jiraiya. He w-wouldn't know about it yet."

"Oh…really?" Sakura replied, understanding. She began to explain how the country of Amerika had been founded by emigrants from other countries, and their subsequent development of space-faring hotels. Despite a lengthy explanation, Naruto still looked quite confused.

"What a load of luck!" cried Wonka-san. "We've landed ourselves slap in the middle of the biggest space opera of all time!"

"It looks to me like we're slap in the middle of a huge mess!" Naruto wheezed.

"C'mon!" yelled Sakura, "We've got to watch it now! This is history in the making you know!"

Wonka-san then floated right up close to Hinata. "Psst, hey. Let's beat them to it, Hinata," he whispered, "Why not get there first and board the space hotel ourselves!"

Hinata gasped. Then she gulped. Then she said softly, "I-It's impossible. You've g-got to have all sorts of s-special gadgets to link up with something like that, d-don't you?"

"Um, yeah!" he replied sarcastically. "But, I mean, the great glass elevator's got tons of gadgetry to get us through! We could link up to a crocodile if we wanted to! Although…" he grimaced, "…I'd rather not try that one. C'mon…let's boogie!"

"Naruto-kun!" cried Hinata, "Did you hear that? We're g-going to link up to the space hotel and go on board!"

Naruto grinned. "Yeah! What an awesome idea Wonka-san, believe it!"

"Oh I believe it…" Wonka-san smiled, "…but that saying is a little odd. Is it some sort of new catch phrase? I'm not too fond of it myself. Either way, off we go then Hinata! But wait…"

Wonka-san suddenly looked a bit perplexed. "…this is a very tricky maneuver. I'm thinking I could use a bit of help here. We have to push a lot of buttons, all in different parts of the elevator. Now, I'm gonna take the buttons on the left side of the elevator; the white and black ones." Wonka-san made a funny blowing noise and glided effortlessly across the elevator to the other side. "Naruto, if you would, please position yourself beside that silver button there…yes, that's the one. Hinata, go up and stay floating beside that little golden button near the ceiling. Now, each of these buttons controls a very important series of booster rockets from different places outside of the elevator. That's how we change direction. Naruto's turn us to the right. Hinata's turn us to the left. Mine make us go higher or lower and faster or slower. All ready?"

"No! Wait!" cried Hinata, who was floating exactly midway between the floor and ceiling. "H-how do I get up? I-I can't get to the ceiling!" she was trashing her arms and legs nervously , like a drowning swimmer, but getting nowhere.

"Okay, yeah…" Wonka-san sighed, "This isn't water, so you can't exactly swim in it. You've got to propel yourself along by blowing with your mouth. Watch me. You take, like, a big breath of air, then you blow it out in the opposite direction you wish to go. See, neato!"

Soon everyone began practicing this business of flying about, and the whole elevator was filled with the blowings and snortings of the passengers. Sakura, who was taking in exceptional amounts of air, was rocketing along, flying from one side of the elevator to another. "Uwah! Out of my way! I can't stop!" she cried, bumping into people along the way.

You may wonder, of course, what the millions of people down on the planet were thinking as they watched all of this on their television screens. You must realize that they couldn't see things very well. Even so, the watchers below could see them buzzing about wildly like insects in a glass box.

"What in the world are they doing!" shouted the President of the country of Amerika, staring at the screen.

"Looks like some kind of war dance, President-sama," answered astronaut Showler over the radio.

"You mean they're savages!" said the President.

"I didn't say that sir."

"Oh yes you did, Showler."

"Oh no I didn't, President-sama"

"Silence!" barked the President, "You're muddling me up."

Meanwhile, back on the elevator, the group was still having a marvelous time trying to move themselves along without the use of gravity. This ended up involving a fair amount of raspberry sounding noises and very funny faces. After much delay, Hinata said "All set, Wonka-san" as she settled near the ceiling of the elevator.

"Fantastic! Now, being the most senior type person, I'll give the orders." He replied. "I'll be your captain…YARRR…Now, don't go firing those booster rockets until I say so." Wonka-san pressed one of his own two buttons and the elevator leaped forward, but lurched suddenly to the right! "Hard a-port!" yelled Wonka-san. Snapping to it, Hinata pushed her button. Her rockets fired. The elevator swung back into line.

"Phew…that was close" Naruto sighed as they rocketed along towards the Space Hotel. Wonka-san pointed over towards it, telling them the docking port was just ahead.

To Hinata, it felt rather as though she were in a tiny boat underneath the stern of the biggest ship in the world. The Space Hotel towered over them. It was enormous. "I-I can't wait," she thought, "to get inside and see what it's like."

Back in the very dark and very cramped room on the opposite side of the Commuter Capsule, the two obscured people continued their conversing.

"How much longer again?" the tall one asked.

"We should have arrived by now…there must have been a delay." The shorter one replied.

The tall one groaned. "We've been stuck here for hours! It's uncomfortable! It's dark! And above all else, it's smelly!"

The short one merely nodded. "It shouldn't take much longer…remember the mission."

"Yeah yeah…"