Chapter 4
Mia
I woke up to sunlight filtering through my eyelids and the smell of food.
"Morning, everyone," I greeted sleepily, grabbing a plate from one of the cabinets and helping myself to some eggs.
Various people mumbled their greetings.
"Hurry up and eat," Shikamaru yawned, "We need to get our backpacks and stuff today."
"But school starts next week," Naruto protested, "Why not do it some other time?"
"Because we need that time to plan," Neji explained, "And possibly find somewhere to train, while we're at it."
"You're also going to need to buy clothes," I added, "Tsunade only gave you one change of clothes, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"Leave it to Tsunade to make us go shopping," Sasuke muttered.
"I'll help buy the school things," I offered.
"Appreciated," Shikamaru said.
"How about the girls get their clothes first, today?" Tenten suggested, "Since we only have one, um, credit card. The guys can get their stuff tomorrow."
"I don't mind," Neji agreed.
"Neither do I," Sasuke said, "We can look for places to train meanwhile."
I went to the bathroom to change and brush my teeth, while the other girls went to their rooms. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was still recognizable – well, to me I was – I had the same black hair, only it was a bit longer, same blue eyes, maybe a bit thinner, and still as short as ever.
"Ready to go?" I asked when I emerged from the bathroom.
"Sakura and Ino are still getting ready," Temari said.
"Doing what?" I snorted, "They've only got one change of clothes."
"S-Sakura was having trouble with h-her w-wig when I checked on her," Hinata explained.
"Oh, right. The wig…that's what she gets for having pink hair…itchy and fake hair…" I muttered to myself. Temari and Tenten snickered.
"I'm ready!" Sakura exclaimed, running out of her room, Ino close behind her. Her brown wig was down to her shoulders.
Naturally, Sakura wore a pink T-shirt, with a jean skirt. Ino wore the same, except a purple shirt.
I looked over to the others. Hinata wore an oversized lavender shirt and jeans, while Tenten wore a tight fitting – they must have gotten her size wrong – baby blue shirt and knee length skirt, and Temari wore a red long sleeved shirt and jean capris. I wore the same as almost every other day – black shirt and matching jeans.
"Can we go now?" Temari complained, "I wanna see what this place has to offer."
"This place doesn't have the best sense of fashion," Ino commented, walking over to the door.
Hinata followed behind her and the others. "It's not s-so bad," She stammered.
"Okay," Tenten said, "Where do we find a mall around here?"
-x-
"Oh, this is so cute!" Ino exclaimed, holding up a dark blue mini skirt, "I take it back; this place has a great sense of fashion!"
"I like this," Hinata was looking at a light purple shirt with the words "Miss Innocent" on it.
"It fits your personality," Tenten complimented, draping another shirt on her arms.
After much difficulty, even with my help – hey, don't blame me, I never went out much – we found mall close to the apartment complex.
There were enough black clothes to satisfy me (I needed to shop, too, you know!), and surprisingly, Temari convinced me into buying – wait for it, wait for it – a skirt. Yeah, yeah, you can laugh.
"Are we done yet?" I asked.
"I am," Sakura said.
"Me too," Hinata agreed meekly.
"I'm done," Ino said.
I got nods from Temari and Tenten, and they followed me to the counter.
"Wow, that's a lot of clothes," the clerk said, "That's really gonna add up…"
I smiled weakly, waiting for him to say the total price.
"Four hundred and thirty-six dollars, and twenty-two cents," He said slowly.
Okay…so it really did add up…
I handed him the credit card, punched in the code, and signed it, expecting at any moment for him to snatch the card away and cut it in half. I was relieved when he handed it back to me.
We separated our purchases into different bags, and took our clothes.
"I'm starving," Ino patted her stomach, "Let's find something to eat."
"Want some burgers?" I asked.
"What's that?" Tenten asked.
Unsurprisingly, burgers are nonexistent in their world, and they were delighted to eat burgers and fries, calling them delicious delicacies.
"This is very good," Sakura said through a mouthful of fries, "Too bad they don't have this in Konoha."
"People eat them so much that they start gaining a lot of weight," I shrugged, popping an onion ring into my mouth, "So it's not that bad that Konoha doesn't have any."
"We still need backpacks and school supplies," Temari stated, "Where do we get them?"
"The Ninety-Nine Cents' store."
"Which is where?" Tenten asked.
"The store behind you," Ino giggled.
"Oh."
Once we were finished with our 'delicacies' we entered the Ninety-Nine Cents' store. We bought pencils, pens, rulers, notebooks, and backpacks.
Hinata had bough a dark blue backpack with a purple flower on each pocket. Sakura (naturally, of course) bought a soft pink backpack, Ino got a dark purple backpack with white stripes, and Tenten got a peach colored backpack. Temari and I had gotten messenger bags, except hers was red and mine was black and grey.
"Now all we need are those contacts," Tenten said, "Though I agree with Neji – they're redundant."
She just agrees with him 'cause she loves him…
"I-I saw an optometrist on the other side o-of the m-mall," Hinata stated, "Should we ch-check there?"
"Why not?" I shrugged, "I'm just as clueless as you guys."
"You know," Sakura began as we exited the store, "Sasuke's birthday is next month…"
Everyone (except Hinata, though I'm sure she did it in her mind) groaned. That was all she could talk about last week. Hey, I may be his girlfriend, but I need a break every now and then.
"We should start planning his party," Sakura suggested, ignoring our reactions.
"It's next month, Sakura," I said, "Besides, you know he won't want one."
"Fine, fine," Sakura shrugged, "I'll bring it up some other time, then."
Is it just me, or is she a little too obsessive of Sasuke? Katana asked.
I would be fine to say it's just you, but no, she's just obsessive. I replied.
Hmph. She was apparently miffed.
"Um, w-what should I-I chose?" Hinata stammered.
"Whatever you want," I shrugged.
"I can't choose be-between green and b-blue," She replied.
"Blue being Naruto's eyes and green being kinda cool?" Tenten asked. Hinata blushed.
"N-n-no," She blushed furiously, "It's j-just a n-nice c-color!"
"How about grey?" I asked, "For Neji's sake, atleast. Grey eyes are almost like yours, right?"
"I'll c-choose grey," Hinata said.
"You sure?" Sakura asked. Hinata nodded.
"Then it's settled," I said, taking the two boxes of contact lenses.
I could faintly hear Hinata say, "I-I wonder how I p-put contact lenses on," to herself before paying for the contacts.
Sasuke
"I'M BORED! LET'S GO DO SOMETHING!" Naruto yelled.
"Shut up, idiot," I said, "Go do something by yourself."
"When are the girls gonna come? I'm hungry," He whined.
"When they drop Mia off at her house," I replied.
"Didn't Mia leave her weapons here?" Gaara asked.
My eyebrows rose. I had told her to have her weapons with her today. Crap.
"She did?" I asked in monotone. Gaara nodded, and I inwardly groaned.
"Where do we find someplace to train?" Neji asked.
"How should I know?" Shikamaru replied.
"I'm so bored!" Naruto complained again.
"We heard you the first time, Naruto," Kankuro rolled his eyes.
"I say we just go find someplace to train," Naruto suggested.
"We don't know where we are," Choji argued, "How do you expect to find someplace to train?"
"We can just walk around till we find a park or something," Neji shrugged, "It's better than doing nothing."
"Hn." I grunted.
"Um, what's this?" Lee asked, holding up a rectangle with a power button and a bunch of numbers.
"I don't know," Shikamaru said, "Maybe it's somehow connected to that big box thing in front of us."
Lee shrugged, pointed it to the black box, and pressed power. The box came to life, showing people…acting…or something, in it.
"Whoa," Naruto breathed, his eyes glued to the box, "What is this?"
"We'll be right back to Wizards of Waverly Place," A narrator from the black box stated, "On Disney Channel."
"Well," Shikamaru sighed, "This certainly counts as something to do."
Naruto only nodded, eyes wide, a thin trail of drool coming out of his mouth. Idiot.
Mia
"Is this it, Mia?" Temari asked.
I looked at the medium sized house, seemingly less shabby than what I remembered it to be.
"Yeah," I replied, waving my goodbye to the five.
I waited for them to leave, before I looked back at my home. With my parents.
I walked up to the light blue door, the paint chipped at the edges, and took a deep breath. I knocked on the door, and it seemed like an eternity before it opened.
"Hey, Mom," I said weakly, my hand in my pocket and my other hand carrying the two bags of clothes.
"Hn." She grunted, "Get in."
I walked inside. This place was less shabby than I remembered it to be.
"Where were you?" My father's voice rang out in the silence, from the kitchen.
"Somewhere," I shrugged, desperately wishing I could run up to my room and disappear.
"I want to know where," He said through gritted teeth.
"Like I said," I shrugged again, though my I-couldn't-care-less attitude was shattered by looking down at my feet and shifting from one foot to the other, "Somewhere."
"Go to your room," He growled, "You're just lucky to even be able to come back."
He had muttered that last part, yet I still heard, but I didn't care. I half ran up the stairs. It took me a moment to remember where my room was – second door to the left. My room didn't look different, as if no one entered it since my departure. The drawers were half open, some clothes were scattered on the floor, no doubt from when Sasuke broke into my room – even the window was left open.
I set the bags down onto my bed, kicked off my shoes, and got down to business – cleaning my room.
"Mia!" My mom came through the door, a grimace on her face.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"You're grounded," She said, and walked out of my room.
I sighed. Yup, it's official: I'm back home.
Crap.