Happy smile hello! I finally wrote the next chapter. So read and review. Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top. And again, please don't flame me. I don't think my feeble mind could take it.
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Tsunade sat at her desk nodding approvingly. She was facing four young girls, who were all standing at attention. Shizune stood behind her, still stroking that pig of hers. From the left, there was a navy haired girl with seemingly no pupils and a humongous jacket, a girl with a dark complexion and dark hair pulled into two chinese buns, a blonde girl with a short ponytail and an enormous forelock, and, of course, Sakura, standing at the very end.
"Hinata, Tenten, and Ino, eh? No boys.. but that's probably fitting for this mission," Tsunade said, nodding.
"Um.. excuse me? Sakura said we were going to reestablish a kingdom," Tenten said, hopefully.
"Well.. That's a little complicated. Apparently, three people with.. well.. questionable mental capabilities, arrived in Konoha claiming to be royalty, but without enough money to buy a C-ranked mission. I've sorted this out to two possibilites. Either these people are.. handicapped in certain areas.. or they're exceedingly clever. In both cases, you four need to pretend you're taking them to Jiraiya while actually leading them to a friend of mine who runs an.. establishment for such people. If they actually do have ulterior motives, you'll be able to tell almost immediately. They might have some extremely dangerous mission, but lack the funds to pay for it. They might try and persuade you to help them with whatever this is, because they probably believe they're getting full support from Konoha. If that's the case, escape back to Konoha when you find out the ulterior motive and tell me about it. If it's dangerous but worthy, I'll send some Jounin I have sitting around somewhere. Yes, I DO have Jounin around. I just didn't tell them because of the measure of this mission. If it's dangerous, but not worthy, we'll have already taken away all aid. If it's a crime or war-mongering of some sort, I'll send Jounin to crush them immediately. Sakura, do you understand all this?"
"Yes. I understand completely," Sakura said, a little peeved at falling for the ridiculous story hook, line, and sinker.
"Good. Then you'll be team leader." Tsunade then explained to Sakura where the asylum was and how to get there and gave them a few last minute tips and finally told them to get going.
The procession was slightly more glum going out.
"Th-this sounds dangerous," Hinata said, quietly.
"Ah man! I wanted to reestablish royalty and then be celebrated and heralded as a hero and maybe get to know a handsome prince better and-" Tenten went on and on this way for some time. Sakura didn't say anything, being too deep in thought.
"I think this is stupid. Sakura, you should have gotten the low-down on the mission before you told me about it. Talking about two gorgeous guys and three beautiful princesses with long golden tresses was misleading!" Ino said, sulkily.
"I didn't say a THING about gorgeousness or golden tresses or anything! I just said a princess with two sisters and her bodyguards," Sakura said, angrily.
"Actually, we're not her bodyguards. It's quite the opposite really. She's a bodyguard WITH us." Sakura whirled around to see Ikamaru, grinning away right behind her. Ino seemed lost in her own little world, staring deep into Ikamaru's eyes. The ones that weren't looking at her.
"Heh. Well, I am beautiful, even if the golden part isn't exactly accurate," Mogura said beaming. Ino looked slightly repulsed. The entire world with her and Ikamaru had been blown to high heaven by the arrival of this freak.
"I'm glad you finally showed up. We've been waiting here for 2.47 minutes longer than was originally decided," the Surgeon said. He had been previously been staring at the sky and Sakura wondered how he could tell what time it was to the second from just the sun. Or was he looking at something else? It was hard to tell.
"Hey! It's that gorgeous guy from the shop earlier," Tenten said delightedly, "You seemed to know a lot about weapons!"
"Oh no. Not really. I can hardly fight at all," Ikamaru said, smiling demurely.
"Is that so? I wonder why someone so unexperienced when it comes to weapons would carry TEN in his sleeves," Tenten said, smiling innocently.
"As a bodyguard, I think it would be expected to have at least a couple weapons on hand," Ikamaru said, still smiling right back.
"Yes, but ten kunai hidden in your sleeves is a bit much," Tenten replied.
"Ahahaha... Not really Tenten. You shouldn't be talking since you have weapons hidden in all sorts of places on you," Sakura said, laughing strenuously. She had sensed that the two weren't striking it off very well, and that Ikamaru was definitely trying to hide something.
"But actually I-" Tenten started to reply but Hinata cut her off by screaming (as quietly as she does everything though..)
"R-REMEMBER THE MISSION!" Sakura hoped that that remark sounded like "Remember we're trying to help them, not fight them," rather than "DON'T TELL THEM ANYTHING!" to the newcomers.
Awkward silence.
"Well, let's be on our way then," Sakura said, "We'll lead you to Jiraiya and see if we can get aid from him. Then we'll continue on our way."
"Oh!" Mogura exclaimed, "First we need to go someplace!" Ikamaru clapped a hand over her mouth.
"What she's trying to say is we have something to pick up at Sunshine Inn, just south of Konoha. Just two day's walk from here, and if we move quickly we can be there before sundown."
"But that's in the completely wrong direction. Jiraiya is Northeast of here." Sakura said, suspiciously.
"This is very important. What's four days more?" Ikamaru asked, smoothly. There was something about that guy's way of talking that Sakura detested. She didn't trust him a bit but she couldn't let him know that.
"Hmm.. I'll need to talk to the cell about this. Give us a minute." Sakura led the other three away until they couldn't even see the three intruders.
"Hinata. Activate the Byakugan and make sure no one spies on us," Sakura commanded. Hinata did so.
"There's a timid-looking man in this house but he's on the second floor," Hinata said.
"Then that should be all right." Sakura said.
"What'll we do? Now we're certain that they have an ulterior motive!" Ino said, worriedly.
"We'll risk it of course! We're definitely strong enough to fight off those three if they try and force us to do something and if they try persuading us gently we can just refuse," Tenten said.
"What if they have reinforcements waiting there? We'll probably be overpowered. After all, not a single one of us made it past the chuunin exam preliminaries! Remember that when making your decision, Sakura," Ino said. Sakura bit her lip in thought.
"We'll have to do it. It's dangerous, but we're ninja, right? But make sure NOT to slip up!" Ino and Tenten nodded. Hinata squeaked.
"Ikamaru's coming!"
"Have you made your decision?" he called.
"Yes. We're going to do it. Tsunade didn't give us permission to, but what harm can it be?" Sakura said, already getting into her role.
"Good. Well, if you're ready, then can we go?" Ikamaru called.
"Coming!" Sakura led the other three back quickly.
"Let's go then. Open the gates," Mogura commanded. Ikamaru pushed one of them open and cordially held it back as the girls exited. It wasn't neccessary since the gate wouldn't have swung back anyway, but he was probably trying to make an impression. Sakura sniggerd inwardly. It's not going to work!
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It was twilight and they were still only halfway there. Surgeon and Ikamaru were setting up makeshift tents while the girls went and washed up.
"So.. Um.. Mogura.. What's it like in Fudaraku?" Ino asked, nervously. She still hadn't gotten over the shock of Mogura's lack of stunning beauty. To her, it just proved that Mogura was lying.
"It's a mess. The rebels, remember, stupid?"
"No! I meant what WAS it like? I know what it's like now!"
"It was.. okay.. I guess. It was boring. Courtiers sitting around playing chess and stinky, sweaty workers dying here and there... and stuff." Ino was shocked by the extremely calm way Mogura said this.
"What? Why?"
"Duh! When you make weapons you need to work iron and to work iron you've got to make everything hot, and workers would be stupid enough to sear off their legs or arms or something while pouring molten iron into casts." The way she said it reminded Ino of someone explaining math to a five-year-old. Ino was getting freaked out quickly. It was most certainly true this person was insane even if her friends had some sort of ulterior motive. That Ikamaru guy was hot.. but it always seemed like he was telling lies, or at least not the whole truth.
"But wasn't anybody sad? People dying usually is," Ino said, frantically. Mogura stared at her blankly.
"Um.. Well. I guess. Maybe.. Probably.. Not.. No.. Um.. well.. should they?"
"Well yes! Haven't you ever seen somebody die?" Mogura was silent for a while.
"Yes. I did. And you didn't." Ino, seeing this was true, quieted herself. It was true. No one she knew had ever died. Maybe that's how everyone reacted to death. How should she know?
"If you're a ninja, you're going to see a lot of people die. If this is how you react to death, maybe you should try a new occupation. Judging by your reaction to Ikamaru, have you considered prostitute?" Mogura sniggered. Ino stopped feeling sorry for this person immediately. WHAT A JERK!
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It was dark and everyone sat around the campfire. Everyone was roasting something Tenten had killed. Only heaven knows what. Ino was huffily roasting her meat for a few seconds and then stuffing it into her mouth. Surgeon was looking slightly repulsed at the rawness of everybody else's meat while burning his until it tasted like paper. Tenten was looking extremely proud.
"Has anyone besides me considered the possible diseases this meat could carry?" Surgeon said, reaching into the fire and selecting a red hot stone, with which he began scraping the black crud off his meat. All four Konoha kuonichi wondered why Surgeon was not at all bothered by the heat of the stone, yet Ikamaru and Mogura didn't give it much thought.
"There'll only be a little while more to go in the morning. As for me, I'm hitting the hay," Ikamaru said, getting up, popping the last of his meat into his mouth and walking off to one of the tents.
"Keh keh keh. Don't you want to go with him, Little Miss Piggy," Mogura asked, leaning over to Ino.
"SHUT UP!" Ino yelled, grabbing Surgeon's disgustingly burnt meat and shoving it into Mogura's mouth.
"Good show. I can never get her to eat my cooking," Surgeon said, clapping as Mogura gagged.
"I'm going to get a drink of water and then I'm going to bed!" Mogura squealed and then walked towards the stream.
"We have a long way to go tomorrow, so I propose we all get some sleep," Surgeon said, walking over to a tent, even though he hadn't eaten anything yet.
"That's a good idea. I'm going to sleep too," Hinata said, timidly. She got up and started to walk towards the tents but then a weird expression came over her face.
"Is there something wrong Hinata?" Tenten asked.
"Th-there are only two tents. One has Ikamaru in it and the other has Surgeon in it," Hinata said, nervously. The other three whirled around and lo and behold it was true.
"Those jerks..." Sakura fumed.
So in the end, all four of them hit the hay more literally than Ikamaru had and slept on the most comfortable ground they could find.
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Author's Krad: Alright. That was it. The second chapter. What do you think? If you have anything to tell me about this story like if it's too inconsistent, there's no continuity, the characters are unbelievable and undeveloped, or you think the entire thing is stupid, tell me. I'd also appreciate it if you said some nice things too. REVIEW!
