Chapter 8: New Clothes
A/N: Hey everyone! I'm sure everyone can tell what this chapter is about. Mikomi gets a new wardrobe during her stay in Gaia. And just for the record, this takes place after the chapter 'Never fear, Pakkun's here'.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Final Fantasy 7, I just own Mikomi.
Enjoy!
/
For the past two days, it had been raining nonstop in Edge.
Since that was happening, Cloud couldn't do his deliveries.
He claimed that it would be bad for his bike, but Mikomi figured that he just didn't want to get wet.
Since they chatted a few days ago, he started to open up more towards her.
He didn't realize how nice it felt to have someone understand his pain until then.
Even when he didn't give her all of the details to his past, she would still listen and tell him about her life as a ninja.
He had to admit, she was really good for talking to.
She didn't judge him or think poorly of him.
"Shit happens" she would always say.
She was currently helping him stack up the deliveries to his bike.
Since it stopped raining, he had to work twice as hard and delver everything twice as fast.
"I can help you out if you want" Mikomi offered.
Cloud just watched as she carried a rather heavy package with one arm.
"How in the world is she doing that?" he thought.
Pakkun sat next to him on the porch as he watched his master.
"It's a ninja thing" he said.
"You have to be extremely strong in order to fight of tougher enemies. Otherwise you're as good as dead"
When Mikomi put the last of the packages on Cloud's bike, she looked at him.
She wiped the sweat off her brow from all the hard work she did.
"That should be the last of them" she said.
Cloud nodded his head in thanks.
"I probably won't be home until later tonight" he said.
He sighed in annoyance.
Even though he hated this job, it put food on the table.
Mikomi looked at his stressed out look and frowned.
He shouldn't be doing all of this.
"Why don't you have me help you out" she offered.
"I can take care of the deliveries around here while you take care of the ones that are farther away"
Cloud just shook his head.
"Thanks, but I got it" he said.
"You're our guest, so you shouldn't be doing stuff like this"
Plus, he didn't want her to get hurt.
There were monsters out there, and he didn't know if she could defend herself.
Not only that, Sephiroth was out there.
There was no way that he was going to let Mikomi get anywhere near that mass murderer.
Mikomi just waved him off.
"Please, it's the least I can do since you've been putting up with me for a week" she said.
"Besides, do you really want be out that long doing deliveries?"
Cloud just looked at her dully.
He highly doubted that she could take care of the deliveries around here.
Pakkun just looked at him.
"Just go with it" he said.
"You're not going to win in an argument with her, she won't take no for an answer"
Cloud sweat dropped.
"Gee, that sounds like Tifa"
He just looked at her, while she had her hands on her hips.
"Well? What's it going to be?" she asked.
"Do you want help? Or do you want to be doing this until midnight?"
Cloud looked at her and just sighed.
"I know I'm going to regret this" he thought.
He pulled off the smaller packages that had to be sent here around town and handed them to her.
"These need to be delivered at the south end of town" he said.
"The addresses should be on the boxes, so you shouldn't have any trouble"
Mikomi grinned and took them from him.
"Don't worry; I'll get this done in a jiff"
She walked off the porch and started heading down the street.
Cloud raised an eyebrow at her.
Didn't she realize that the places she had to go were like 15 miles down?
There was no way she would get there on time by foot.
"You know, you're not going to get there on time by-"
Just then, she performed yellow flash and zipped down the street.
"Foot" Cloud finished.
Pakkun just looked at him.
"Her dad was known as the yellow flash back in her village" he said.
"She's the fastest ninja in Konoha"
Just then, Mikomi zipped back and looked at Cloud.
"Um…which way is South?"
Cloud sweat dropped and pointed towards the right direction.
"Oh, thanks!"
She zipped down the right direction.
"And the worst when it comes to directions" Pakkun added.
Cloud just held the bridge of his nose.
"This is not going to end well"
/
Twenty minutes later, Cloud had finished all of his deliveries.
He had to admit, that Mikomi helped him out greatly.
He was able to get to where he had to go and be on his merry way.
If he had done the ones in Edge, that would have taken him longer.
The people around here liked to haggle and try to get a low price.
He simply hated it when they did that.
He understood everyone was trying to get over METEOR and that they didn't have enough money, but he was in the same situation as well.
"Plus, my prices aren't even expensive" he thought.
Tifa came over to give him a drink.
She looked around to see that Mikomi was still not back.
She was starting to grow worried.
"You don't think she got lost or something, do you?"
She tended to be a worry wart over her.
Since she was their guest, that meant she was responsible for her.
Now that she mentioned it, Cloud was wondering where she was too.
The places weren't that far from the bar, so she couldn't get lost.
So what was the hold up?
He stood up from his seat.
"I'll go look for her" he said.
Just as he was about to step outside, Mikomi came in.
She covered in dirt and looked slightly wet.
"Mikomi, what happened to you?" Tifa asked.
Mikomi laughed nervously as she rubbed her head.
"EH…I was on my way home, but a car past me and splashed mud on me. I didn't want to walk in here and track mud, so I waited until my clothes got dry"
Pakkun sweat dropped at his master.
"Please tell me you brought extra clothes when you went on your mission" he said.
Mikomi waved him off.
"Of course I did. What kind of idiot do you take me for?"
She walked upstairs to go change out of her dirty clothes.
Pakkun shook his head at his master's stupidity.
"She's a genius when it comes to the battle field, but when it comes to regular things, she's oblivious"
She came down a few minutes later wearing her standardized Jonin uniform.
It looked just like Kakashi's only she didn't wear the vest.
Tifa looked at the outfits skeptically when she came down.
"That's your spare outfit?" she asked.
Mikomi nodded and she fixed the sleeves on her shirt.
"Yeah, this is the standard uniform in my village. I don't like to wear it, but I only have it in case my clothes are ruined"
"Didn't you bring anything else?" Tifa asked.
Mikomi shook her head.
"I was only going to be gone for a week on my mission" she said.
"But since I wound up on this world, this is all I have"
Tifa placed her hands on her hips.
Cloud knew that gesture didn't like what was going to happen.
"That outfit is unacceptable in this bar" she said.
She walked out from behind the bar area and dragged her upstairs.
"I'll loan you something to wear" she said.
"Then we're going clothes shopping"
Mikomi's eyes bugged out.
If there was one thing she hated, it was clothes shopping.
Ever since she was little, Yuri would pick out such frilly outfits for her to wear.
She had nightmares of the lacy monstrosities.
"I-I'm fine, really" she said.
"I have clothes; they just need to be washed"
Tifa gave her a skeptical look.
"One outfit does not count as clothes" she said.
"And this uniform doesn't count as an outfit"
She tugged up the steps and into the living quarters.
"We'll just have to get you a few pairs of outfits so you're not wearing the same thing over and over again"
She went into her closet and pulled out an outfit for her.
"Here we go, this should fit on you"
She gave her the outfit she wore during the time when METEOR and Sephiroth were about to destroy the planet.
This outfit held a lot of memories, but she figured that Mikomi needed them more than she did.
Mikomi looked at the outfit for a sec before looking at Tifa.
The martial artist just gave her a look and pushed her towards the bathroom.
"We'll leave as soon as you're ready" she said.
Mikomi started stuttering.
"B-but-"
"No buts! Now go get changed"
She closed the door on her and waited until she got changed.
Mikomi groaned as she slipped on the white shirt.
She knew that this was going to be a long day.
/
"Gee, this is going to be so much fun, 'Komi-chan!"
Tifa had called Yuffie to join them on their little shopping trip.
The Wutai ninja just jumped up and down as she enjoyed spending time with her ninja buddy.
Mikomi was beat red as she walked down the streets.
The outfit that Tifa had let her borrow was way to revealing.
She had to keep pulling the skirt down, fearing that it would ride up and show things.
Tifa just giggled at Mikomi.
She looked so cute when she was embarrassed.
She made a mental list of outfits that she thought would work best with Mikomi.
'She doesn't appear to be the dress type. And she doesn't like anything that's frilly or too girly'
They made it to the clothing store and stepped inside.
Mikomi had to shield her eyes from the bright lights.
She had never stepped into a clothing store before.
She usually got her outfits and special outlet stores that sold the standard village uniform.
As she looked around, she was amazed by how many colors she saw.
There were so many outfits and so many shades of the same color, that Mikomi almost felt that she was in a crayon box.
"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" Usagi said.
Tifa pulled her over to a pile of clothing and started looking for colors that would best suite her.
"Judging from her regular outfit, she seems to like wearing red and black"
She pulled out a few outfits with that color scheme and handed them to Mikomi.
"Go try these on and see which ones you like" she said.
She pushed her towards the dressing room and closed the door behind her.
Mikomi looked at the door for a second, then at the pile of clothes in her arms.
She dropped them on the floor and picked up and outfit that she thought looked normal.
It was pair of black gauchos and a red tank top.
"Well, these are as close as to my regular outfit as I'm going to get" she thought.
She slipped into the outfit and looked into the mirror.
She had to admit, she did look good in them, but Tifa and Yuffie had the final say.
She opened the door and showed her friends her outfit.
"Well? What do you think?"
Yuffie was smiling.
"That is totally you, 'Komi-chan"
Tifa wore a know it all smirk.
"I should have known that you would head for that outfit" she said.
Mikomi blushed slightly.
"I'm a creature of habit" she admitted.
Tifa just shrugged.
"Well, at least I know what to get you" she said.
Mikomi nodded and closed the door to get changed again.
She figured that she would get just the one outfit, but it seemed like Tifa had other ideas.
/
"Tifa! Are you insane?"
Mikomi's eyes were bugged out as she looked at all of the shopping bags that Tifa was carrying.
The martial artist had to have at least nearly bought half of the store.
Mikomi was flipping out.
She had no idea how much she spent on her.
Tifa and Yuffie were laughing at her expression.
"Relax, Mikomi. We didn't spend that much"
Mikomi started sputtering.
"B-but, you just bought half the store! Do you know how much money you spent? You didn't have to that crazy on me! One outfit would have been fine!"
Tifa just wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Oh, relax" she said.
"I wasn't going to let you get away with just one outfit. And besides, the people around here owe us a lot, so half of this stuff was free"
Mikomi remembered about the whole Sephiroth and METEOR thing.
She just didn't realize how big that was.
She slumped her shoulders in defeat.
"I don't know how I'm going to repay you" she said.
Tifa just waved her off.
"Please, you help out enough around the bar" she said.
"We'll call it even"
Mikomi looked at her.
"You sure?"
Tifa just nodded.
"Yep, and don't bring it up again, you hear?"
Mikomi nodded.
"Thank you" she said.
Tifa just smiled.
"Anytime"
They made it back to the bar and greeted Cloud when they went in.
Cloud took one look at the bags and shook his head.
"Girls" he said.
/
A/N: I hoped you liked that. I thought it would be nice to show a little girl time between the female characters of our story.
Please review and tell me what you think.
Ja ne