WE TAKE REQUESTS FOR ONE-SHOTS! SEND US A MESSAGE WITH YOUR REQUEST! Thought you should know, just in case. :)
Author's Note:
Eva: I am extremely proud of myself. I wrote…a good portion…well more then I normally do at least….Yeah…can't think of anything else to say.
FINGER COLADAS!!!!! XD
Claire: AND SHEEP MUFFINS! WOOT!
Know what other kinds of muffins there are today? BIRTHDAY MUFFINS! CUZ IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! No, seriously. January 16th is my birthday.
Aren't you people special? It's my birthday and YOU get a chapter as a present.
Leah: I am mad at Eva for not telling Claire that I was back from Virginia (she was mad a me T.T) so I couldn't help with this chapter (or have sleepover with Susan, Claire, and Eva)
Claire: IT WASN'T MY FAULT, SHE WITH-HELD INFORMATION! DON'T EAT ME I'MSORRYI'MSORRYI'MSORRY!
And don't kill the birthday joy, it's a thing of the past. ON WITH THE CHAPTER!
Chapter 2:
Claire, Eva, and Leah stood awkwardly outside of the Hokage's building along with Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, and Sai. Kakashi cleared his throat, breaking the silence and calling attention to himself. "I think I'll let you guys handle this on your own. I have to go…do stuff," he said vaguely. He waved offhandedly to the teenagers and disappeared into a crowd of people.
"So…what now?" Eva asked, trying to make conversation.
"Well, I guess we should figure out where all of you are going to sleep tonight," Sakura suggested, "It's best if we do that first so we can get it out of the way and not worry about it later."
The group nodded in assent.
Naruto scratched the back of his head and smiled nervously, "I guess one of you could stay at my place. If you don't mind sharing a room with a guy…"
"I have a spare bedroom in my apartment," Sai added helpfully.
"I can ask my parents if one of you could spend a few days at my house. I don't think that they'll mind," Sakura said, feeling a bit better that they didn't have to go find a hotel or someone else to house them.
Claire, Eva, and Leah shifted uncomfortably on the spot, not knowing what to say. They looked at each other then back at the ninjas.
Surprisingly, Leah spoke first, "I am uncomfortable sharing a room with a guy, so I guess I'll go with Sakura, if you don't mind," she said sheepishly.
Sakura smiled warmly. "Okay."
Claire looked from Naruto to Sai, thinking of who Eva should go with. Eva was hard for most people to tolerate due to her freakish hobbies, obsessive nature, hyper-activeness, and, in short, her annoyingness. "Okay, which one of you is not annoyed easily?" she asked in a business-like tone.
"This asshole here has no emotions so I guess he's more difficult to piss off," Naruto answered dully, pointing an accusing thumb at Sai, pleased with himself for managing to get back at Sai for his comment earlier that day.
"Brilliant! Eva, go with Sai," Claire exclaimed.
Leah giggled quietly and Eva scowled when she realized that Claire had been referring to her. "Rude!" she squeaked, "I'm not that annoying!"
"Yes you are," Claire said definitively, "And that mean's that I go with Naruto. Great! It's settled!" Claire said with obviously overdramatic joyfulness.
"Um, okay then…" Sakura said unsurely.
Eva grinned at Sakura. "You will get bored to death with Leah. She's a doormat and refuses to talk about guys in any size, shape, or form, or anything interesting for that matter."
"Not true," Leah protested. "I only don't talk about particular guys…" she murmured defensively.
"Ah, but it's the one guy that you say you don't talk about that you talk about the most….Oooh brain bender," Eva said, feeling smart but sounding like an idiot.
"Shut up about him," she snapped, eyeing Naruto uneasily in her peripheral vision.
"Seriously Eva…" Claire led off.
"Oh shut up Claire. You're in love with the crazy suicidal one."
"Give it a rest, you pairing nut. You're determined to itemize the most unlikely couples in everything, even real life," Claire snapped. The three young ninjas glanced at her quizzically, and Claire cursed herself inwardly for her stupid mistake. Though there was no way they would guess what she had meant by her comment, saying the words 'in real life' was enough to raise suspicion. She cleared her throat, deciding they should probably put an end to their idle small talk. "So are we gonna stand around here forever, or go put our stuff away?" she mumbled grouchily.
Sai smiled his phony smile and turned to Eva. "So, Eva, do you want me to take your stuff to my apartment?"
She blinked, surprised at his chivalry. "Yes, please. That's really nice of you."
"Being courteous is a very good way to make friends," he explained to no one in particular.
She handed him her backpack and he swung it over his shoulder, though it looked slightly awkward due to the other bags underneath it.
"So, Claire, do you have any bags that I can take to my ro—apartment?" Naruto asked, refusing to be upstaged by his teammate.
She raised her eyebrows at him. "What do you think this is, dumbass?" she asked sarcastically, pointing to her own backpack.
Eva laughed. "Naruto, your patience might be tried a bit with Claire…."
He frowned slightly. "I'm getting that feeling..."
Sakura tried to steer them back to the matter at hand. "Do you girls want to get settled first or do you want to get something to eat?"
"We should probably drop our stuff off first, so we don't have to worry about losing anything," Leah offered.
"Where should we meet when we're done?"
"How about Ichiraku Ramen?" Naruto offered.
"You are so full of surprises, Naruto," Sai commented sarcastically, receiving some giggles from the others.
Naruto ignored him, since he was learning that ignoring Sai was the best way to deal with his comments. "Be there in a half hour; if you're late, you pay," Naruto said quickly.
They nodded and began to walk towards their respective homes, Eva trying to keep up with Sai's freakishly fast pace, Claire complaining about something to Naruto, and Leah walking silently beside Sakura.
XxX
They had been walking for about four minutes and Eva was getting bored with the silence. She considered thanking him for carrying her bag just for something to say, but then realized how retarded that would sound and changed her mind. But still, the silence needed to end. "So…" she began, hoping he would pick up the conversation and say something interesting.
"Do you want to talk about something?"
"Yeah, but I don't know what," she muttered, embarrassed.
"Then don't talk," he proposed simply. "Sometimes the best thing you can do is keep the silence."
"Okay…." she said glumly. The silence returned.
When they did arrive at his apartment, twenty minutes or so later, Eva was a bit tired, and extremely hungry. Sai was, of course, fine. They climbed upstairs to the second story, and reached his room, which was surprisingly unlocked. The door swung open onto a three room dwelling; the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living quarters. He put her backpack down on the side of the living quarter's wall, near the window. She looked sadly at her belongings, wishing that her swords were with them.
"What is it, Eva?" he asked.
"Nothing, just wishing I had my swords. Leah and Claire made me leave them at the house," she pouted.
He raised an eyebrow so slightly that it was almost imperceptible. "You use swords?"
"Yeah. I had some classes and…" she stopped herself. She had almost revealed that Kisame had taught her swordsmanship while he was there. "And, yeah…I'm not very good at it though. Especially not compared to the people here."
He looked at her suspiciously, as though he was wondering what she had stopped herself from saying. She turned around, walking over to her bag and squatting down, pretending to look in her bag. She used that opportunity to mentally beat herself up about it, and she knew it was showing on her face. I'm so stupid! she scolded herself inwardly, I might as well have finished what I was going to say with 'and Kisame taught me a lot, but please don't tell anyone I told you that or they're going to kill me!' Honestly, I'm such a dumb-shit!
She dug her wallet out of her backpack and turned back to him, smiling innocently. "Shall we go?"
Sai nodded and glanced at a simple clock on the wall. "I guess we're paying."
Eva laughed, embarrassed. "Sorry. I have some money, so I can pay for some of it."
"It's fine Eva. I think we'll all end up paying anyways," he said, "Besides..." In one swift movement he grabbed her wallet and glanced inside it. Eva was too shocked to even make a squeak of protest, and simply blinked at her empty hand. He tossed it back and she fumbled to catch it. "I don't think they take foreign currency."
She looked down at her wallet that was full of American dollars, and it occurred to her how foolish it had been to offer since it could have exposed her being from an alternate universe. "Oh yeah," she giggled to hide her nervousness at slipping up again, but put the wallet in her back pocket anyway.
"You're not very smart, are you?"
"Hey!"
xXx
Naruto jiggled the door knob, trying to get his apartment key unstuck. Claire just watched him from a few feet away, arms crossed and skeptical expression present. Naruto grabbed hold of the key with both hands and yanked it hard. It finally came out and Naruto fell over from the sudden release. He landed on his backside with a thump making the floor shake like a mini earthquake.
"Fat lard. I bet your neighbors thought your falling over was a bomb or an earthquake attacking the city," Claire commented, grinning slightly. She suddenly assumed a high-pitched squeaky voice, " Help us, else Naruto's fatness will squish us to death!"
Naruto rubbed his head and stood up. "I'm not fat. All this weight is pure muscle, dattebayo," he defended playfully, seeing that she was just kidding around with him.
"Mm-hm," she grunted neutrally.
Naruto smiled and opened the door to his apartment and walked inside with Claire not far behind him.
"Holy hell!" Claire exclaimed, "Do you ever clean this place?"
"Sorry, I know it's a mess. People don't really come here that much...and I don't bother cleaning for myself."
"I can tell," she led off, taking in his filthy apartment. The main room had his bed off to one side, with a window illuminating the airborne dust swirling around over it. The floor was cluttered with dirty laundry, scrolls, kunai, empty ramen cups, and random scraps of papers that she could only assume to be ramen coupons. On the wall opposite to his bed was an open arch-like passage that let to a small kitchen that was no doubt filled with a lifetime supply of salty and preservative-filled packed ramen. Yum. A door by the arch, Claire assumed, led to the bathroom. She feared the condition that it might be in.
Naruto tossed Claire's bag on his unmade bed and went to his closet. He pushed passed some of his shirts and jackets. Surprisingly, he didn't have more than one obnoxiously orange jacket as she expected, but he had a lot of plain blue, black, and white shirts and one other black sweatshirt. There were a few jeans and some baggy pants on the top shelf, the type that most jounin and chunnin wore. He pulled a mattress out of the corner along with a pillow and a few sheets.
"Where do you want to sleep?" he asked awkwardly, shifting the mattress into a more comfortable position on his shoulder.
"Um… I don't think there's any room with the amount of junk you have on the floor," Claire pointed out bluntly.
"Hm…you have a point," he thought for a moment and scoured his room for a spot. He walked over to a spot a few feet away from his bed and kicked a few things out of the way. He then let the mattress drop on the newly cleared spot and tossed the pillow and the still folded black sheets on it. "There we go. You have a bed."
"That works," Claire nodded approvingly. She hopped over her bed and moved her backpack from Naruto's to her own. She kicked it for no apparent reason, causing Naruto to glance at her questioningly. She offered no explanation, but stretched and headed back towards the door. "Let's go," she commanded.
"Okay. We'll probably beat Sakura and the jackass," Naruto said.
"I dunno about Sakura, but we'll definitely beat Sai. He has Eva with him. She's slow mentally and physically!" she added cheerfully.
Naruto grinned. They walked back out in to the hallway, and Naruto again waged war with his key and his door. But within another minute they were on their way to the ramen bar.
XxX
"Mom!" Sakura called, opening the door to her house. Leah stood shyly behind her, clutching her bag to her chest.
"I'm in here!" a woman's voice belonging to Sakura's mother replied from the adjacent kitchen.
"Can I have a friend stay over for a few days? It's part of a mission," Sakura explained as she walked into the kitchen. Leah just stood awkwardly in front of the door, looking at some pictures on the wall.
"That's fine," her mother replied accommodatingly.
"Thank you," Sakura said to her mother. She came back into the hall way and motioned for Leah to follow her up the stairs. She did as she was told and went to the upper floor of Sakura's small house. Sakura led her to the end of the hallway to her room and open the door.
Leah glanced around. Sakura had a nice room. A small bed was pushed up again the wall with a short armoire at the foot of it. A vanity set, complete with a mirror and stool was across from her bed with a few hair products, brushes, and some makeup on the surface, most of it was unused. There was a large window at the end of her room with white drapes falling in front of it.
"Where can I put my bag?" Leah asked, still feeling awkward and nervous.
"Just put it in the corner for now," Sakura answered with a small smile. She reached under her bed and pulled out an already made trundle bed from underneath. "This is where Ino usually sleeps when she sleeps over. You can use it for a few nights," Sakura said.
"Thank you," Leah said politely.
"No problem," Sakura replied. She smoothed out a few wrinkles on the sheets idly. "You don't like to talk much, do you?" she asked.
"Not really. I'm shy," Leah explained simply.
"Oh," Sakura said, starting to understand why Eva had said about being bored to death.
Leah straightened slightly, trying to smile, "I'm working on it though, and I'm getting better!" she said proudly.
Sakura laughed, "It's fine. I'm used to shy people so don't worry too much. At least you're not as bad as Sai who's completely socially retarded. All he talks about is Naruto's…you know what."
Leah rolled her eyes but couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "Yeah. Speaking of them, shouldn't we get to the restaurant? I'd love to see their reactions if we beat them there."
"Yeah, sure. Let's go," Sakura agreed. She stood up and Leah followed her back outside.
xXx
As it happened, Sakura and Leah were the first ones to Ichiraku, five minutes earlier than the others to be exact. Sakura lived the closest and Leah was capable of walking just as fast as her, unlike Eva who couldn't keep up with Sai if her life depended on it.
The two girls took their seats at the bar under the shade of the small awning, and decided to read the menu while they waited for their friends. The man who owned the little restaurant stood behind the bar tending to some cooking pots. Though Leah was still too shy to remark on it aloud, she was fairly excited about being able to sample some traditional Japanese ramen, rather than the painfully phony processed stuff available in the states. Her mouth was starting to water a little as she smelled the sweet, yet salty exotic herbs as Mr. Ichiraku stirred them occasionally in their large metal tubs. After a minute, when all the food seemed to be set to cook on its own for a while, he turned around and smiled to Sakura, recognizing her.
"Waiting for Naruto?" he asked casually as rinsed his hands in the sink and dried them on a towel.
"Yeah," Sakura replied, putting down her menu. She craned her neck around Leah and glanced down the bar, counting in her head. "If it's not too much trouble, do you happen to have two spare seats? We're expecting a bigger group," she asked and nodded towards Leah as an example.
The man furrowed his brow, thinking. "I think we do, I'll go check," he said. He put the towel back on the counter and disappeared behind a curtain on the back wall.
Sakura picked up her menu again. "He's such a nice guy," she commented idly, referring to the owner.
Leah nodded her head in agreement. If someone had asked for extra chairs in California , they would have received a glare and a hassled sigh from the waiter before he obliged, and only because his job would be at stake if he did not.
"So, what are you going to order?" Sakura asked, trying to make conversation with the silly shy girl.
"Um, I don't really know. I've never been to a place like this before," Leah answered honestly.
"You're kidding," Sakura said incredulously, "You've never been to a ramen restaurant before?"
Leah shook her head. "They don't have them where Eva, Claire, and I live."
Sakura laughed. "Wait until I tell Naruto! He'll freak out."
Leah giggled too, knowing that there was truth in this.
While Sakura and Leah scoured the menu, Naruto walked up with Claire. Claire had a small smirk on her face, but mostly just looked happy to be at the ramen restaurant she'd seen so many times on TV, glancing up at the small unlit lanterns hanging from the ceiling contentedly. Claire took the stool next to Leah, and Naruto sat next to Sakura. As soon as they did, the owner retuned with two more stools.
Leah handed her menu to Claire, seeming to have decided what she wanted and having no more use for it. Naruto, of course, had no use for a menu in the restaurant he frequented more often than his own home.
About ten minutes later, Sai ran up with Eva lying over his shoulder. She looked about ready to barf, but he still had his ever-present smile on his face. Leah and Claire couldn't tell whether it was due to his constant excuse of 'trying to seem friendly' or a slight sadistic streak at making Eva queasy. To their inquisitive glances, he only said, "She couldn't walk fast enough. I found carrying her to be a more reasonable solution."
Claire snorted and Leah giggled a bit. Naruto full on laughed, saying "That's really pathetic, even for someone who's not a ninja…."
If Eva hadn't been trying not to blow chunks, she would have glared at them.
"Well," Sai said, setting Eva down on her feet, "It looks like I'll be paying."
"I have money, and it's my fault that we were the last ones anyway, so I'll pay," she offered, putting her hand to her head and wobbling slightly.
"But like I said earlier, we don't have the same currency as you do," Sai said blatantly.
Eva blushed, murmuring a soft apology and sat down beside Claire, where she buried her head far too close in the menu to actually be looking at it.
They settled into idle chatter, each group more relaxed now that they were around more familiar people. They ordered after a while, waiting patiently and happily smelling the fumes from the ramen as it cooked. Finally it was ready. Naruto of course, was quick to attack his with the over-eager appetite equivalent to a man who had nearly starved to death in the middle of a desert. Sakura and Sai were much more orderly, calmly picking up their chopsticks and breaking them apart to eat. The girls, however, examined their intricate-looking meals with awed faces. The bowls simmered invitingly, filled to the brim with various vegetables, spices, pieces of pork or chicken, and even seaweed and bamboo shoots, all on top of the thin, wavy noodles. It looked a thousand times more appetizing than the processed type of ramen that was comprised of a square of noodles and a small packet of pre-made seasoning.
"What's wrong? Did they get the orders mixed up?" Sakura asked, noticing they hadn't started eating yet.
"No, it looks great!" Eva assured her, picking up her chopsticks hastily.
"We're just admiring it," Leah added as she and Claire also picked up their chopsticks.
Sakura nodded knowingly. "Oh right, because you've never had real ramen before," she clarified.
There was a loud clatter. All the heads in the row turned to stare at Naruto, wondering what on earth could have interrupted his inhalation of his precious ramen and make him drop his chopsticks into the bowl. He didn't even seem to care when a few drops of the nearly boiling broth hopped out of the bowl and onto his skin. "You've never had real ramen before?!" he asked incredulously. His eyes were as wide as any of them had ever seen them.
"Nope," Claire said simply, slurping up some of the noodles while carefully avoiding the chicken due to her vegetarian tendencies.
"Holy shit. You need more ramen, this is outrageous!" he babbled. "Yo! We need three more orders over here!" he called to the ramen shop owner.
Mr. Ichiraku turned around, grinning slightly. "Hold your horses Naruto, the ramen isn't going anywhere."
"You don't need to do that," Leah said quickly, shaking her head quickly in protest.
"Of course we do! You have ramen deprivation!" Naruto persisted.
"Naruto, they said they don't want anymore. Not everyone is as obsessed with ramen as you," Sakura said calmly.
"This is more than enough food," Eva said.
Naruto blinked disbelievingly at them, but slowly sat back down. He stared forward blankly for a while. "Wow. I could never live going without ramen for my whole life. That's crazy."
"You can't miss what you never had," Sai muttered.
The others nodded in agreement. Naruto shrugged and went back to scarfing down his ramen.
Mr. Ichiraku turned around. "So does that mean that you don't want the extra ramen?" he asked a little sadly.
"No," Naruto grinned, "Since they don't want it, I'll take it!"
The girls giggled and Sakura shook her head, smiling.
"Oi! Naruto, Sakura, Sai!"
The six of them turned and saw another boy, the same age as them with an enormous white dog bounding after him.
"Kiba!" Naruto grinned, greeting their friend by slapping him heartily on the back. Sakura waved and Sai nodded. Kiba acknowledged them too, his smile showing his many odd, pointed teeth.
"I'll get another stool from the back," Mr. Ichiraku said. Kiba looked up and noticed Eva, Leah, and Claire, who were the reason for the lack of seating.
"Who're they?" He mumbled to Naruto.
"What? Oh, that's Leah, Eva, and Claire. Tsunade told us to--"
"--They're our friends from another village," Sakura said, cutting him off.
Kiba nodded knowingly. "Mission details, eh?"
Naruto took the hint, and joined Sakura and Sai in their silence. The girls blinked, wondering if they should try to reinforce this story or not. Sakura merely shrugged.
Kiba waved it off and hopped up onto the stool the ramen shop owner had brought out. Akamaru put his paws up on the counter and panted heavily. "I get it, you don't have to tell me anything," he said. "So, what village are you guys from?"
"I thought you said they we didn't have to tell you anything, dattebayo..." Naruto muttered dully.
Kiba didn't hear him. He was busy staring expectantly at the girls. And not so much the girls as...Leah. Leah gulped.
"Uhh...it's really far away, I don't think you would have heard of it..." she said quietly.
"Try me. I'm smarter than I look, you know."
Sakura sniggered, feeling somewhat less tolerant of Kiba now that she had realized what he was up too. Claire and Eva were aware of it too. Claire whispered something to Eva. She held her hand up to her face to keep from spraying ramen out her nose. Leah elbowed Claire in the ribs.
"I'm really sure you wouldn't have heard of it," Leah insisted.
"Yeah, it's like it's in another dimension," Claire smirked.
Kiba decided to give up and moved onto another topic. "So when did you guys get here?"
"Just today," Leah said, still uncomfortable being the only one having to answer the questions.
"So you haven't met everyone yet?"
The girls glanced at each other. "No...guess not," Eva noted.
"You guys should come to the winter festival today!" Kiba exclaimed.
"That's today?" Naruto said dumbly.
"Well," Leah started, "we can't really go unless Naruto and Sai and Sakura go, because they're supposed to be watching us and--"
Kiba cut her off, adressing the other three ninjas before she could finish her excuse "--What do you say wardens, can they come out of their cells for a while?" he joked.
"Going to these festivals is a normal thing to do, right?" Sai asked.
Kiba blinked. "Yeah, sure."
"I wanted to go to the festival, I just forgot about it because of all the excitement today," Sakura added excitedly. She noticed Leah's expression and quickly said, "But if you three don't want to go, it's fine."
"Of course we want to go! It'll be great!" Eva nearly shouted.
"Yeah, sounds awesome!" Claire agreed enthusiastically.
"It's settled then! Let's go!" Kiba said difinitively.
"Now?" Naurto inquried.
"Sure!"
The orange clad ninja shrugged and got off his chair. The six of them followed happily, and Akamaru removed his paws from the counter, sniffing the girls instead. He barked excitedly and licked Eva with his giant pink tongue. Eva giggled and held up her arms to prevent being slobbered on, though this measure was not very effective.
The seven of them soon turned and headed off. The three foreigners stayed slightly to the back so they could talk.
"Jeez, Leah, Naruto world people sure take a fancy to ya," Claire said jokingly.
"Shut up..." Leah scowled. "I don't want to go to a festival, I hate parties...and socializing...which you have to do at parties!" she complained.
"It's going to be so cool! A real Japanese festival! I'm so excited!" Eva squealed. "I wish I had my camera," she added glumly, "And my skulls...and my swords..."
"Stop whining, both of you. This is going to be great! I'm just glad we get to go! And, we get to meet all of the other Naruto characters!" Claire rambled happily.
Eva nodded, and Leah smiled slightly despite herself.
"Hey! Hurry up you three!" Naruto called back, waking the three from their trance. They realized they had fallen about twenty paces behind, and ran off to catch up.
The sun had already started to set when they left Ichiraku Ramen, and the sky was now painted with pastel shades of purple, pink, orange, and yellow as it sunk lower into the horizon of this foreign world. The longer they walked toward the site of the festival, the darker it grew. Some people were starting to turn on their lights, and others didn't bother, leaving their houses to go to the festival themselves. The streets, which had formerly been empty, were slowly filling with the citizens of Konoha, and the eight of them soon found themselves walking in a crowd. The girls made a point to try harder to keep up with their four ninja escorts (and one ninja dog).
They reached the festival area when the sky was a hue of deep purple. The stars were visible, twinkling in constellations that looked strangely similar to those that could be seen in La Jolla. But this was definitely not La Jolla. The stars were not the only source of light here; strings of lanterns hung tall from large wooden posts hammered into the ground especially for the occasion. The pathway was lined with stands--merchants selling traditional baubles and trinkets, artists offering original paintings to passer-bys. Several booths gave off more unfamiliar smells of Japanese cuisine and familiar ones of grease fryers. And the thing that set this gathering apart from others that couldn't be found in their own world was the ninja supply booths. Those that claimed to have the sharpest kunai, and the most silent shuriken, your enemy wouldn't know what hit them, as the sound of them flying through the air would be invisible to even the most perceptive ear. Though the girls kept it to themselves as they surveyed this magnificent spectacle in awe, they secretly giggled at the sight of a booth selling Ichi Ichi Paradise novels.
Kiba stopped in the middle of the crowd and took in a deep breath. "Ahh...I love festivals," he said, obviously in his happy place.
"I wonder if they have ramen here, dattebayo..." Naruto wondered aloud, peeking around various strangers, perhaps hoping that a figure clad in a giant foam Ramen suit would suddenly pop out and point him in the right direction.
"You just had ramen a couple hours ago!" Sakura gawked at him incredulously.
Naruto offered no comment other than his signature foolish grin.
Sai smiled too, though it had much more hidden menace than his teammates. "Getting fat won't compensate for having a bigger penis, Naruto."
Naruto froze and glared at him.
Eva cracked up, and Leah and Claire giggled at the long talked about situation, but not the joke.
Thankfully, they were saved the trouble of an argument by the appearance of Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, and Hinata.
"Hey Kiba, you lost your group. Thought I'd return them for you," Ino said cheerfully. Hinata blushed, and both were silent, as usual.
"Naruto, you okay?" Chouji asked, noticing Naruto's uncomfortable expression. He had obviously visited many, if not all of the food stands present at the festival, as he had an armful of food at hand.
Naruto continued to glare at Sai, who tilted his head innocently.
Sakura was continually on duty of her job of smoothing out the awkwardness created by her teammates. "So, Ino, are you guys enjoying the festival?" she asked politely.
"Festivals are troublesome. They dragged me here," Shikamaru muttered, indicating to Ino and Chouji.
"I know how that is," Leah muttered. The others may not have noticed the girls by this comment, seeing as they had been silent and fairly hidden the entire time they had been present, had it not been for Claire. As usual, she was being intolerant of Leah's whiny anti-social-ness.
"I still can't believe you're complaining about being here. You need to get out more," she scolded.
"Oh hi! Didn't see you three," Ino explained, spying the three girls. She frowned. "You're not from around here, are you?"
Eva grinned sheepishly. "Everyone knows, huh. Guess this is one of those tight-knit communities where everyone knows each other," she said.
"That, and you're dressed funny."
Eva glanced down at her black combat boots, black jeans, and skull patterned t-shirt. Claire and Leah followed suit, realizing for the first time how out of place and suspicious they must look. Being around the Akatsuki for months and receiving few comments from them about their style, it hadn't occurred to them that others might notice when they...switched worlds.
"Eva, Claire, Leah, meet Ino, Shikamaru, Shino, Hinata, and Chouji; and you already know Kiba," Sakura introduced them all. They greeted the girls in a friendly way. Even Hinata managed a small 'hi'. Shino, of course, simply nodded.
Kiba nodded. "Yeah, I thought they should meet everyone, so I brought them all to the festival since everyone's around today," he explained.
"We saw Ten-Ten, Neji, and Lee a while ago. I think they were over there," Chouji noted helpfully, gesturing somewhere behind him and to the right.
Naruto craned his neck over the crowd. "Oh yeah, I think I see Lee. I'd recognize that bright green suit anywhere. It really sticks out."
Claire narrowed her eyes disbelievingly at him. "You're orange. Bright orange. Or hadn't you noticed?"
He blinked at her, and down at his orange self to which she was referring. "Yeah, so?"
"Nevermind..."
The new group walked over to where Lee, Neji, and Ten-Ten had last been seen. But, they were, of course, not there. Approaching the stand turned out to be a mistake, however. It wasn't Eva's fan girlishness this time that brought about her sound barrier-shattering scream. The stand did not present them with more of her favorite, previously un-meet-able Naruto characters, but—
"SWORDS!"
A large portion of the crowd surrounding them on all sides turned and stared at Eva. She didn't notice though, as she was busy scaring the stand's owner by practically falling over herself to examine the various swords. Thankfully, all the ones within her reach were safely sheathed, but they were also unfortunately decorated with eye catching designs that were particularly appealing to her low-track mind.
She picked up one, then another, then dropped it with a clatter for a third, babbling all the while about which ones she should get, or how many she should get, or where she was going to store them once she got home. Naruto, Sakura, Kiba, and even Akamaru were staring at her with eyes almost as wide as her own, obviously at a loss for how to react. Claire and Leah were sighing and shaking their heads at their friend's stupidity, though they were immune to the shock sometimes inflicted by her weirdness.
Sai, being emotionless, was not put off at all. He was the only one bold enough to point out to her, once again, that her brand of currency was useless. And he did it with a smile. Eva dropped the sword with a different, much more disheartened emotion than she had been doing previously, and the stand's owner tentatively tried to prod the swords back into place.
"Swords…" she mumbled numbly, gazing with teary eyes at the destructive weapons that she could not own. She suddenly straightened, and whirled around, grabbing Sai by the shoulders and shaking him violently. "YOU, GIVE ME MONEY NOW! NOW! I. NEED. SWORDS!"
Sai blinked. "I…"
"Hey look, it's Neji and Lee and Ten-Ten!" Sakura interrupted, spotting the three they had been searching for in the first place.
"Who are they?" Neji asked with a somewhat less enthusiastic tone than Kiba had used. His tone was more…repulsed, as he considered Eva frozen in the act of squashing Sai's shoulders into oblivion.
None of them had a chance to answer, however, as Eva released Sai and instead seized Neji. "YOU! RICH PERSON! I NEED MONEY!" she demanded, shaking the appalled Neji. "You are obviously rich, because your hair is too shiny for you to be poor! I NEED SWORDS!"
"Oh my god, Leah!" Claire exclaimed, suddenly remember one of her own childish fan-girl induced promises that they had made together years ago. "BRAIDS!"
Leah squealed uncharacteristically, and the two of them leapt forward also to attack Neji; or rather, his hair. Either way, he probably viewed it as a threat, but was still unable to react.
"I'm confused, dattebayo…" Naruto muttered as Leah and Claire proceeded to weave Neji's straight, silky hair into pretty braids and Eva continued to beg Neji for money.
"GIVE ME MONEY!"
"You're hair is so braidable…"
"It really is. I've always wanted to do this."
"SWORDS!"
Neji appeared to be paralyzed, except for the slight twitch going under his eye. Lee decided to put in his two cents as he examined Claire and Leah's handiwork.
"Neji! That hairstyle is very youthful! You should wear your hair like that every day!" he chanted excitedly, getting that familiar Lee twinkle in his eye. Ten-Ten giggled and covered her mouth with her hand stereotypically, as was to be expected due to her lax character development. Kiba didn't bother to hide his loud roars of laughter.
Neji finally summoned his voice back, deciding this was too much. "Okay, STOP!"
The laughter stopped, the staring returned, and the girls froze, dropping their braids halfway down the strands.
"If I give you money for a sword, will you shut up?!" he demanded of Eva as he roughly clawed his fingers through the braids, unraveling them but tangling his usually smooth hair even more.
Eva dropped her manic expression and replaced it with an innocent little smile. She nodded happily, sensing victory. He sighed and pulled out some money from his pocket, shoving it roughly into her hand. She clutched it gleefully, saying, "Thank you so much, Neji," in the most un-annoying way she could manage at the moment, and rounded back on the sword stand operator. He gulped and nervously asked her which one she wanted.
xXx
"That was the weirdest meeting I've ever endured," Claire muttered as they left the slowly thinning festival grounds sometime later. Eva walked along side them humming contentedly and snuggling her face against her shiny new sword's felt cover.
"Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen Neji freak out like that," Sakura noted, "He sure runs fast."
"I think you scared him…" Leah told Eva. She didn't receive a reply. She didn't really need one, since everyone figured this was probably true anyway.
"I don't think you made a very good first impression on those three," Sai observed, possibly reflecting on his own experiences.
Naruto grinned somewhat sadistically. "Lee and Ten-Ten though it was funny. I did too, actually. Neji's just a bum." He turned to Eva, "So, what sword did you get dattebayo?"
She pulled it out of its sheath, causing Leah and Claire to nervously take a few steps back. "This one! It's so pretty," she squealed, handing it to Naruto. He took it, but not seeing anything on it that would qualify it as 'pretty' in any way shape or form, handed it back.
Kiba scratched his head, "Me and Akamaru have to get back home, my sister's making ramen."
Naruto's mouth started watering, he was ignored.
Kiba walked off, Akamaru in tow, towards his house. Sakura smiled, waving goodbye, and then turning to Eva, Leah, and Claire. "You three should probably get to bed too; we wake up a bit earlier than most people, because we go to train. We're supposed to be your permanent guides around Konoha, so we're going to have to wake you up and take you with us."
"Ooh! Training! Can I bring my sword, please, PLEASE?" Eva whined.
"Um…sure," Sakura said, slightly concerned.
"Yay!" As their group separated and walked off towards their house, it was unavoidable that some of them were walking into the dying sunset. From far off in the distance, they could have sworn they heard Lee cry, "YOUTHFUL!!!"
Author's Note:
Eva: I GOT MY FUCKING SWORD!!!!!!!! When we wrote the part where I couldn't bring my sword, I died a bit….BUT NOW I HAVE MY SWORD! AND IT'S COOLER THAN MY OLD ONE!!! XD
I think Neji hates me now. Not that I blame him, but still….
-thinks about it more- Actually, I'm making a very crappy impression in general….that kinda sucks…
Claire: ….I think I saw your other sword cry a little…..
Eva: NO! SWORDY! I'M SORRY!! I TAKE IT BACK! –feels like an even bigger moron than before but had to say it-
Claire: I don't think your moron level could go up much more…
Eva: I would get mad, but it's true…
Claire: Who's the idiot who sold her ACTUAL swords that are ACTUALLY SHARP? (Even though they aren't supposed to be) She actually has swords in real life. I feel that the world is now a little bit less safe. 0.o
Maybe a lot less safe…
Eva: -is holding sword on her lap- Yeah, that person was kinda stupid...but all the better for me! YAY!!!! XD (Plus, I kind of already had sharp swords……)
Leah: Eva tortures me again…WITH KIBA THIS TIME! Why?! (rambles about how Eva is evil pairing nut)
We ate all of Jason's donuts and cookies. It was fun.
Claire: Fun? It was fucking hilarious! He cussed us out and called us cookie whores. And to think, today he wanted me to give him one of my birthday muffins! Tch. Ridiculous.
…
The only reason I gave in is cuz I don't wanna be fat! Leave me alone! DX –fails at life-
Leah: -pats Claire-
Claire: Sorry for our ridiculously long author's notes. :)
And for making it longer with this. Just had to point out that I knew.