Chapter 7: Garden of beauty

"Welcome my dear flower buds! Welcome to Akemi Nanami's patented garden of beauty training party!" Akemi Nanami announced, his voice echoing throughout the packed park. His cheerful announcement was soon followed by a roaring cheer by the large crowd that had gathered.

Both ninja and civilian alike were lined up on the grass, excited to see the event before them begin.

"What. The hell! IS THIS!" Asked Sayuri out loud to no one in particular. But of course Akemi would never miss an opportunity to give a flowery explanation. "Why I thought I told you dear? This is Akemi Nanami's patented garden of beauty training party!"

"I heard your announcement the first time. What I'm asking is why this "training party" has turned into a public event?" Akemi tapped his folded paper fan, that he seemed to pull out of nowhere, on his forehead, seemingly disappointed in Sayuri. "Dear dear dear, a maid must be able to handle her job in a large crowd. Especially a cute one. They are the ones being watched the most, and rightfully so.

After all when you walk into an art gallery and see a lovely painting you never question the artist intent, you simply recognize genius. The majority of people prefer a classic beauty, the stereo type, if you will. We see this in mankind's vision of angels. In many different lands these heavenly beings appear to us, and we instinctively know that they are of the divine. I have yet to hear of a culture that mistook an angel for a monster, it simply isn't done.

You, my dear, posses that rare beauty that can capture peoples hearts in such a way. You already do so with your raw beauty and strong presence, but a lady must appear soft and gently. Much like the flowers that make up a garden.

"Okay that explains why Sayuri is here. Sakura told me all about the bet and with Naruto being involved I get how things got to be this bad. But why the hell are we here too!?" Asked an angry Ino, who was dressed in a copy of Sayuri's dress. Her balled hands were placed on her hips, and her signature ponytail was undone, letting her long hair flow beautifully down her back. All the girls of the rookie twelve were present and dressed the same way, along with a few extras as well. All the girls were lined up side by side to each other.

The order went: (from left to right)

Tenten: whose hair was as long as Ino's outside of her buns.

Temari: Who Akemi was able to borrow from the sand village thanks to him sending it in as a mission. Her hair went a little past her shoulders now that they were freed of her trademark four way ponytail.

Ino: With her hair freed of her usual ponytail it was shown to be only a little shorter than Sayuri's, going just passed her butt. It still went over one eye, however, now her bang merged with the rest of her hair.

Sayuri: Momo had fixed her outfit for her and put her hair back into two pigtails using the same frilly hair ribbons.

Sakura: Although dressed like the other girls Sakura couldn't help but feel particularly out of place. Mostly because the girls she was between had a lot harder time fitting into their dresses, at least the chest portion. Her hair was held in two small pigtails, tied by red ribbons.

Hinata: Normally her shy nature would never allow her to dress like this, let alone in front of a crowd. But when Naruto's name was mentioned she gathered her courage and went along with it. Even at her bravest Hinata was tugging at the small skirt in a futile attempt to make it longer, or at least cover some more of her. Hinata was very aware that one wrong move meant that the crowd would get a good look at her underwear.

Hanabi(Hinata's little sister): She looks like a mini, long/brown haired Hinata. She didn't tug at her skirt like Hinata did, but she did pick up her sisters habit of fiddling her fingers around. Like Sakura Hanabi had some ribbons in her hair, but hers were dark purple and her hair was kept free flowing.

"Why do I have to do this? I'm not even part of your village." Temari questioned, her arms crossed over her chest angrily. "Hmp, please listen and I assure you you'll want to stay. That is, of course, if you want to become part of the elite." Temari raised an eyebrow at this. "Elite? How is any of this elite? An elite ninja would never wear such a ridiculous outfit."

" You see, in order to properly train Sayuri I need others for her to compete against and an audience to judge her every move. I need them in order to push her to her very limits! For this training is far harder than any simple ninja training, this is Ninja maid training!"

"Ninja maid training..." All the girls thought in unison, calling their own intelligence into re-view for going along with any of this.

Akemi smirked at their reaction, "Ah to be so young and naive..."

Akemi spoke out loud, his voice robust and full of confidence(perhaps a little too much), "You see there are female ninja who, rather than serving a village or even themselves, serve a master. These masters gain control over the female ninja in some way or another. But it is almost always through two reasons. Either a family tradition or a dept that they must repay. Sayuri's situation is the second one. For what Naruto has told me you lost a bet my dear Sayuri and now must serve as a slave. This is actually quit lucky for you."

Sayuri was confused by this. "How exactly is being a slave and forced to wear a maid dress lucky?" Akemi seemed amused by this. "Allow me to answer your question with a question my dear beauté violente.

How many people have seen your panties?" A Shuriken flew by Akemi's head, cutting his cheek and making him freeze in fear. It was obvious to everyone that Sayuri was not amused by Akemi's question. Sayuri starred daggers at the fancy man, letting her sharingan burn holes in the mans over inflated ego. Akemi couldn't help but tremble a little at small girl before him. "Terrifying...this girls definitely a rose, yes that flower suits her perfectly. A legendary and breathtaking beauty, nd yet her thorns are so frightful I pity any man who tries to pick it up."

Akemi smirked amusingly, "I must remember to applaud Naruto-chan, he must have strong hands to be able to hold this rose. "

Suddenly Akemi pointed at Sakura, his free hand finding his hip and his body moving into a braced stance. "The same question goes to you young Sakura! How many!?" Sakura's face turned red, her shock even causing her hair to fly upwards. Did he really expect her to answer such a question, in front of this crowd of people?

It was beyond humiliating, even if no boy had seen her panties before. She was pretty sure even her father hadn't seem them. "W-WHAT! NO ONE!" Akemi then asked Ino the same question.

She reacted the same as Sakura, although she threatened him and called him a pervert. He quickly went down the line of girls, asking them the same question. All of which said no one, while blushing brightly, except for Temari who pulled out her giant fan, from where Akemi could never guess and probably wouldn't want to know, and tried to hit him with her wind scythe jutsu.

"As I thought...now tell me, how many of you wear skirts on your missions?" This simply confused them, first he was asking about their panties now their mission cloths? What was this pervert after? "I see you are confused, let me explain. Ninja maids don't wear mission cloths out in the field, not normally anyways, rather they keep their prestige for the ninja maid style and fight in their maid uniforms. This almost always have them fighting in skirts."

Fighting in skirts? It now made sense to everyone why he was asking about their skirts and panties. But that just sounded impractical. "That's completely idiotic, you'd get killed fighting in one of these dresses." Ino spat hostilely. Akemi tapped his fingers to his forehead, "Tell me young miss, what was the first lesson they taught you at the academy?"

Ino raised her left brow at this. She answered slowly, almost hesitant. "To...to make anything...and everything training." "Correct! Now tell me! If kunoichi can run up walls and fly through the air, why is it a simply skirt can be so deadly."

Ino tried to answer but found that the words wouldn't form, she couldn't really think of a good reason beyond not wanting...their...underwear...she now understood what he was getting at. "Ninja maids are of the highest class because they are constantly challenged! This is no different than wearing weights into battle! No, it is even harder because you must keep poise in place of power! Something no normal kunoichi can do!"

The girls had to admit he was not wrong. A ninja that could do all the flips and twirls while in a skirt, and keep her modesty? Could it really make them better ninja? They all looked at each other, giving the same look of understanding. After all they were already in the outfits and it had all been set up already. So why not?

"All right we'll do your stupid competition, but this better not be some sort of trick Naruto!" Sakura spat out at her blond teammate. "Wha! Hey this was Akemi's idea, why am I getting yelled at." "Do not fret Naruto. After the competition your friends shall sing your name in praise! For you see this training shall take your lovely kunoichi friends to their absolute limits!

Now if you would please follow me my dears, we shall begin." Akemi waved his hand, signaling the others to follow. The girls and Naruto followed Akemi, walking not even five minutes, surprised to what laid before them. Sakura was the first to speak, with her platinum blond rival right after her. "What the!? When did you put this in?" "Does the civilian council even know about this? "