I'm sooooo sorry! It's been so long since I posted! Forgive me dear readers!
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"What's this Hinata?" Naruto impatiently poked at a large shopping bag Hinata had brought in. She batted his hand away and began to rummage around inside of it. From it, she produced a large black velvet cloak, a matching gentlemen's top hat and a small tube of hair gel.
"Th-this w-will help y-you blend i-in." she said simply, looking proud of herself. She then proceeded to open up the hair gel tube and began to plaster the whiskers down onto his face.
"There. J-just l-like your o-old m-markings." Naruto glanced in the mirror and smiled. It was working! Then she thrust the clothing into his arms.
"Do I have to wear this?" Naruto grimaced. Hinata nodded.
"Y-your night c-c-cap was a-attracting too m-much attention."
"Something tells me I'll be attracting attention anyway…" he muttered as he sized up the hideously formal attire. Nevertheless he pulled the cloak on over his normal outfit and set the hat on his head.
"P-perfect!" Hinata clapped her hands together. She smiled at Naruto's disgusted expression. "D-don't worry! Y-you l-look great." Naruto tried to smile and failed miserably. She was happy but he felt like he had gained ten pounds overnight. Naruto sighed in resignation.
"Fine, well what now?" he asked.
"Y-you should g-go o-on with y-your l-life a-as normal." She replied.
Naruto grimaced at the thought. Tomorrow was going to be a long day indeed.
***
The next day, Naruto got dressed in his fiendishly heavy new clothes and set out for his daily training, braving the stifled laughter and pointing of the people around him. By the time he reached the training ground, he was bright red and thoroughly embarrassed.
'Dammit I look like a complete idiot!' he thought as Sakura and Sasuke stared at him in disbelief.
"Ummm… you look er… different…" said Sakura. Naruto didn't answer but flushed an even brighter shade of red.
"Whatever." She turned away and pretended to be indifferent. Sasuke merely scoffed and muttered 'dobe' under his breath.
Kakashi arrived later on. Naruto tried not to make eye contact with him. Kakashi pretended not to notice and started to brief them on their training exercise for the day. Retrieving a small ribbon from the top of a tall tree without using your arms. It was simple really but in his condition, it seemed a momentous task to Naruto. Juggling between the hat, cloak and chakra was, as you can imagine, not an easy task and Naruto was not known for multitasking. Still, Naruto is Naruto so he gave it 100% anyway.
***
Kakashi watched Naruto fall heavily for the fifteenth time. What was he thinking? There was no way he could do anything in that attire. Something was gravely amiss. Finally, the boy fell for the last time and lay there, breathless. Too proud to stay down, too tired to get up. Kakashi sighed and helped him up.
"I want you to take a break. One week okay?" he said in careful tones. Naruto nodded quickly and turned to leave but Kakashi grabbed his shoulder and bent to his level.
"Is there something you want to tell me Naruto?" he asked quietly. For a moment, Naruto wanted to spill out his heart to his sensei and tell him everything but his doubts overcame him and he slowly shook his head.
***
"Kakashi is something wrong?" Asuma looked at him questioningly. His friend had been silent all day. Of course this was not strange but Asuma could sense that something was bothering him. Just then they saw Naruto walking some distance away from them. Asuma's eyes widened.
"What in the…?" Kakashi smiled weakly at Asuma's stunned expression.
"Now you see what's wrong?" he said. Asuma quickly regained his posture.
"Now don't take this too seriously Kakashi. It's just a phase. All teenagers do that at some point of time." he grinned. Kakashi glanced at him.
"Why, he'll be back to normal in a matter of days! In the meanwhile, just don't press him too hard and don't prod at his secrets. They hate that." Kakashi laughed.
"You sound like a therapist you know that?" Asuma chuckled and put up a finger.
"More like the voice of experience my friend. You would never guess what Shikamaru did last week…" As the two men talked and laughed, Kakashi eventually let his anxiety about Naruto fade away.
***
Naruto walked as fast as he could go in those suffocating clothes. He wanted to get home as soon as possible so he could take the ensemble off. He dashed through the market, the less socializing the better. He looked up, he was nearly there! Just a little more and he could avoid everyone for the rest of the week. But unfortunately for Naruto, luck was not on his side.
"Hey Dobe!" Naruto stopped abruptly.
'Dammit not now!' he thought as Sasuke caught up with him.
"I see your dress sense is still dropping." He said with a smirk.
"But something tells me you're not just being stupid this time. Are you trying to copy me or something?" he looked at Naruto expectantly. "Well?" Naruto growled a bit. He was running on a short fuse today.
"Now why would I do that?" he asked in dangerously low tones. Sasuke chuckled softly.
"Don't play innocent. It's obvious that you're after Sakura. But since a loser like you can't tell, Sakura is NOT INTO YOU." Naruto's frown deepened. He was tired, hot and his clothes were strangling him to death. He was not in the mood for Sasuke's taunts.
"Just save yourself the heartache, dobe and give up now." Naruto's mood was worsening.
"I'm warning you Sasuke…" he muttered. But Sasuke was on a roll, he paid no heed to Naruto.
"She's too good for you dobe. Nobody loves you, you know that? Not even Hinata would go out with you…"
"THAT'S IT!" Naruto roared and pounced on Sasuke. Sasuke cried out at the sudden assault and the two fell to the floor. The people in the market stopped whatever they were doing to watch the shinobi fight. It wasn't much of a fight though, in fact, it hardly lasted five seconds. Naruto was overcome by a sudden burst of fury and he landed a solid punch at Sasuke's face, breaking his nose in the process. He began to bleed and at the sight of blood, Naruto seemed to regain control of himself.
"D-dobe what's wrong with you?!" Sasuke clasped his hands over his nose and gasped in pain. Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what he had just done.
'What's happening to me?!' he turned and broke into a run, leaving Sasuke to his pain.
***
"N-Naruto? Y-you l-look worried." Hinata was standing at the Hyuuga Manor's door.
"Hinata is anyone else home?" whispered Naruto.
"J-just N-N-Neji." She replied, looking concerned. "Wh-what happened?"
"We'll talk inside." he said, looking around anxiously. Hinata nodded and let him in. She led him to her room and closed the door behind them. Naruto threw off the cloak and hat and proceeded to collapse on the bed. He sighed blissfully at the feeling of freedom.
"S-so what h-happened?" Hinata sat down next to him. Naruto frowned at the memory.
"You wouldn't believe what I did, Hinata. Something is really wrong with me." He stood up restlessly and began to pace nervously. Hinata grew pale.
"Ummm N-Naruto?" But Naruto wasn't listening. He was pacing rapidly around the room and narrating the day's events, especially stressing on his crazy attack on Sasuke.
"N-Naruto I th-think we have b-bigger p-problems." Naruto stopped and looked at her.
"Honestly Hinata, I don't think things can get much worse than this." Hinata shook her head.
"You m-might w-want to l-look a-at your tail." she said in a worried tone. Naruto sighed.
"What could possibly…" Naruto screamed. Why? Because instead of one tail, now there were two, merrily swishing behind him. Naruto started to race around the room screaming and wailing all the way.
"N-Naruto c-calm down!" Hinata grabbed onto him and held him in place. Naruto was hyperventilating; he couldn't take his eyes off the new tail! "Hinata? What's all that screaming? Is something wrong?" Neji's voice echoed up the stairs. The two fell silent as they heard Neji coming up. Hinata panicked. She quickly shoved the black clothes into Naruto's hands and pushed him into the closet. It was a small closet really. Just big enough for him to stand in.
Neji shoved open the door and stepped inside.
"Hinata?" he looked around suspiciously. "Was someone in here with you?
"N-no N-Neji!" but Hinata was a terrible liar. Neji took another look around the room. Finally he looked like he was going to leave when there was a thump in the closet and a muffled 'ouch' from inside. Before she could stop him, he rushed to the closet and pulled open the door. His jaw dropped as Naruto (thankfully clad in black) tumbled out.
"What the hell?!" Neji pointed at Naruto. "What was he doing in your closet?!" Neji looked horrified.
"N-Neji I c-can e-explain!" cried Hinata, blushing bright red. Naruto stayed on the floor, decided to preserve his silence.
"No! Never mind, I don't even want to know!" yelled Neji putting up his hand.
"But you!" he turned his glare to Naruto. "If you so much as lay a finger on Hinata, I will rip you apart!" Naruto gulped and nodded submissively. Neji nodded in satisfaction and stormed out of the room. Naruto stood, brushing himself off. Hinata was still bright red and so was Naruto.
"W-well I guess I'll just be leaving now…" he muttered. Hinata nodded, still too flushed to speak.
***
That night, Naruto slept fitfully. He was deeply concerned about the appearance of the second tail. Eventually he slipped off to sleep.
In the dead of the night, a voice entered Naruto's sleep. It spoke to him.
"You resist me now, but in time you will submit to me kit." It hissed in a silky yet seductive tone. "And when that happens, I will be ready and Konoha will be crushed like an insect under my paw." The voice gave an icy laugh that sent Naruto into shivers as he slept. "Yes kit… It is not much longer now…" The voice faded away, leaving Naruto in his feverish sleep, tortured with nightmares.
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Phew… that was quite long. Once I start writing I never stop! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. (I worked really hard on it!) As for my extended absence, I have no excuse, I was just being lazy… Anyway, hope to see you soon!
Kira
