W.I.T.C.H. fan: Well I do believe this is probably the fastest I've ever updated an original story. That's lucky for you guys huh?

Chapter 4

Hay Lin let out a deep breath as she flew over the village. The clear air helped to clear her mind to a certain extent, but it didn't calm her jumbled nerves. The air guardian had honestly no idea what to do about Naruto. Part of her wanted to avoid him at all costs, while another wanted to run right to him and throw her arms around his neck. With another sigh she landed on the Hokage Mountain, not really paying attention to her surroundings, and sat down with her head on her knees.

"I hate my life right now," she grumbled.

"I hope that thought doesn't have anything to do with me."

At the sounds of his voice, Hay Lin's eyes almost popped out of her head and she shot into the air intending to fly away from him. Unfortunately his hand grabbed her wrist when she was a few inches off the ground, preventing her from doing that.

"Please don't go Hay Lin, I just want to talk," Naruto said, gently pulling her wrist to bring her closer to him.

The girl eyed him. "Why are you up here?"

"Probably for the same reason you are. To think about what to do now that you and the other guardians are back," he replied.

"I was actually thinking about how I could avoid you," Hay Lin replied with a slight frown. Oh she lying and she knew it and she hated herself for trying to make him feel bad, but she just wanted to get away before either of them got hurt.

The Hokage narrowed his eyes at her. "Oh really, then why is your face turning red?"

"What?" Hay Lin asked.

"Your face always gets red when you lie. Don't think I forgot about that."

The black haired girl stared at him for a few seconds. 'He actually remembered that about me?'

"Hay Lin, please talk to me," Naruto tried again, in an almost pleading voice.

Hay Lin opened her mouth to speak, but someone else beat her to it.

"Let her go Naruto," Will ordered, coming closer to the two.

"Will what are you doing here?" The air guardian asked.

"I'm here because Cornelia and I have been looking for you and Irma. Naruto if you don't let her go in the next five seconds my foot is going to go straight up your-"

"Okay, okay," Naruto said, releasing Hay Lin's wrist. "No need to get so violent Will!"

Hay Lin looked at Naruto for a few more seconds before she flew away from the two siblings.

After she left, the atmosphere was, naturally, extremely awkward for the twins. Finally the knuckle head broke the silence.

"So do you wanna talk?" he asked.

"About what?" The redhead asked.

"Oh I dunno, maybe the fact that you're my sister?"

Will raised an eyebrow and eyed him for a few moments before sighing and walking over to him. "Alright so when did you find out we were twins?"

"Granny Tsunade told me right after you were kidnapped by Madara," Naruto said.

The keeper cringed slightly with guilt as she thought about having wholly believed Madara's lies. "Sorry about that by the way."

"What do you mean?" her brother asked.

"Thinking that you and the others were going to betray us and use our powers for yourselves."

Naruto snickered. "Well I'm sorry that I believed Nerissa's lies about you being spies for the Akatsuki."

Will laughed softly. She'd forgotten how cheerful Naruto could be sometimes. "Hey Naruto did you ever know our parents? Yan Lin only told me who they were, she didn't say anything else. What exactly happened to them?"

The hokage frowned slightly and hesitated before speaking. "The day we were born was the day Madara attacked and unleashed the nine tailed fox. Mom and dad died while saving our lives."

The girl felt her heart tighten at the revelation, but she had more questions. "Did you ever find out what they were like or how they looked?"

"Yeah I did. Mom had long red hair, the same color as yours and the same eyes as you, but I got her personality, while you got dad's."

"So I look like mom, but I have our dad's personality?" Will asked with a grin.

"Pretty much," her brother nodded.

The keeper's grin faded when a dark thought came to her mind. "So if our parents died the day we were born, what happened to you?"

Naruto shrugged aloofly. "Mostly grew up secluded from others since I was jinjuriki. Everyone pretty much hated me for that. I didn't have any friends until graduating the academy."

Will stared at her brother in shock. "How can you say that so calmly?"

"Because it's the past," the blonde said. "Besides no one hates me anymore, I've got a bunch of great friends, and I'm the Hokage."

"What about a girlfriend?" his sister asked.

The young man was silent for a while before looking out over the village. "Hay Lin's the only woman that I've ever been with."

The redhead let out a deep breath. It was time to make a few things clear with her brother. "Naruto, you know the guardians don't want to stay here long. Please don't make this harder than it has to be. I'm glad to see you, I really am, but we don't belong here. Hay Lin doesn't belong here."

The young man gave her a slightly angry look. "What makes you think she-"

"I'm sorry Naruto," Will said, cutting him off. "That's just the way things are."

With that said, Will took off into the air leaving Naruto behind her.

"What are you doing here?" Kiba asked coldly as Elyon glared up at him.

"That's none of your freaking business," she retorted.

"Oh I think it is considering you just slapped me!" the dog ninja shot back.

Elyon scoffed. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

Kiba threw his hands in the air as if he had just remembered something. "Of course you don't. I guess you aren't used to socializing with peasants like me. My apologies your highness," he said bowing mockingly.

The queen stiffened. "How dare you talk to me like that you insolent dog!"

Hinata stepped forward to try and calm her friends down, but Shino put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, a signal for her to not get involved in this.

"Well you've certainly changed in the past few years. You're a lot more of a snob then I remember. Let me guess, your parents completely spoiled you am I right?" the Inuzuka asked harshly.

"You know nothing about me," the blonde growled through her teeth.

It was Kiba's turn to scoff. "Well that's probably because you never bothered to tell me or these two anything about you in the first place," he said gesturing the Shino and Hinata.

"I had my reasons Kiba," Elyon shouted. "I would've told you if I could have."

"Yeah right," the shinobi said rolling his eyes.

The blonde narrowed her. "You are the most arrogant, pig headed, stubborn man I've ever met!"

An evil smirk crossed Kiba's face. "Oh really? Well here's a little newsflash your highness. I've seen the type of upper class pretty boys your type hangs out with. I'm the only man you've ever met."

At those words, Hinata's jaw dropped, the bug user shook his head, and Elyon clenched her fists and ground her teeth in anger.

'And he just crossed the line,' Shino thought.

As Kiba turned to walk away, the queen saw a kunai on the ground near her feet. She grabbed it and threw it at the dog ninja. He jumped when the blade left a small gash in his arm. He looked over his shoulder at her, an angry look on his face.

"You really wanna go there huh?"

Elyon smirked wickedly. "That felt pretty good actually."

The Hyuuga heiress stepped forward then, despite Shino's protests. "You guys really can't you-"

"Please stay out of this Hinata. I'm sorry, but this isn't your concern," the blonde said. The thing that shocked all of them was she had spoken a lot more kindly to Hinata, than she had to Kiba.

"Why don't you go back to your friends," Kiba snapped. "I'm sure they're missing your oh so commanding presence."

"As long as it gets me away from you," Elyon said turning her back to him. When she was a few feet away she stopped. "Oh and are you sure that you weren't the one who didn't care about me?"

Before the man could reply, the queen left in a blur of color, leaving her former teammates alone.

"Well that really smoothed things over with her," Shino said in a monotone voice.

"Shut Up!" Kiba said through gritted teeth.

Irma laughed as Ino recounted a funny story to her. "I can't believe Chouji said that!"

"Oh believe me I slapped him hard for that one," Ino said with a grin.

"I don't doubt it," the brunette said through her giggles. "Oh man sounds like a lot of things have happened while I've been gone."

The blonde woman beside her shrugged. "I guess so."

The water queen bit her lip before the thought that had been plaguing her mind slipped out. "Does Shikamaru have a girlfriend?"

Ino blinked, obviously surprised by the sudden change in topic. "No he doesn't have a girlfriend. Why do you ask?"

The answer was a nonchalant shrug. "Just curious I guess."

The ninja raised a slightly disbelieving eyebrow at her friend. "Are you sure it isn't more than that?"

"Ino please don't," the guardian said. "So I was curious if he had a girlfriend, so what? I don't care what Shikamaru does. It's his life."

'And you could've shared it with him,' Ino thought. Out loud she said. "Fine I won't push that subject."

"Thanks," Irma said with a breath of relief.

Suddenly the door opened and the blonde saw who it was a second before Irma could turn around. Acting quickly she grabbed her friend and pushed her away from the door towards the back room. "The flowers you're looking for are right back here miss."

"Ino when you're done with a customer, Chouji wants some barbecue and I told him we'd come in a few minutes," Shikamaru said.

Irma's eyes widened at the sound of his voice and that the moment she was extremely gratefully for Ino's quick thinking.

"Sure thing, I'll be right there," Ino said. Turning to Irma she whispered, "Don't move until we leave, okay?"

"Thanks," the brunette mouthed with a smile.

The Akimichi woman nodded before going back to join Shikamaru. Irma leaned against the wall and put a hand to her head. She'd come so close to being face to face with the lazy genius again. What did he look like now? Had he gotten taller?

'His voice didn't sound like it changed much,' she thought. 'That lazy soft, warm, totally sexy-'

The guardian frantically shook her head trying to rid her head of those thoughts. She would not go down that particular road again. Not if she could help it. After a few more seconds she heard the door close and again let out a sigh of relief at having avoided a confrontation with Shikamaru.

"You seem kinda down Shikamaru," Ino observed. "What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you later when we meet Chouji," the dark haired man replied.

That's when the young blonde realized something. "Oh crap. I left my purse back in the shop."

"I'll go get it," Shikamaru said turning back.

"No don't!" Ino cried. "It's fine don't worry about it!"

"What's the big deal? I'm just doing you a favor," her friend replied, with a confused frown.

Before the woman could stop him, Shikamaru walked into the flower shop…and ultimately froze when he saw the brown haired, blue eyed young woman standing in front of him.

Irma was likewise frozen as they stared at each other for what felt like hours, but in reality was just a few seconds.

The genius's forehead creased as he studied the girl. 'It can't be,' he thought, but he knew that it was. While her hair was longer, going a few inches past her waist, her face was still the one he knew as well as his own.

"Irma?" Shikamaru asked.

Five years? The amount of time it had taken Irma to lock away her feelings for Shikamaru and move on with her life.

Two seconds? The time it had taken for all those bottled up feelings and emotions to come racing back, like a flood when he said her name.

'Aw crap!' Irma thought. 'I really hate this stupid mission!'

END OF CHAPTER

W.I.T.C.H. fan: Looks like things are starting to heat up a little. Hope you guys enjoyed it. PLEASE REVIEW!