A/N: Wooooooooooooooh!~ I can't believe I'm back \(*n*)/ XD

Anyways, I would like to give you many many thank you for having the patience in waiting for this chapter. As appreciation, I'll try to answer all of your questions if ever you are pretty lost on anything in this fic =^_^=

Neither of them could really take it anymore and was poised for the attack, ready to jump off anytime.

"I'll teach you a lesson kid!"

"Why don't you try…sensei!"

"Wha—" Sasuke suddenly had gone numb and couldn't move his body no matter how much his brain would tell him to, he looked at Natsume's direction and was surprised that he also couldn't move.

The answer to his question lies behind Natsume. Sasuke saw that Shikamaru was stepping on Natsume's shadow so he concluded that somebody was also stepping on his shadow but he was baffled as to who did it. There were no other shadow manipulators besides the Narra clan.

"Okay, reunion's over guys…" it was an unfamiliar voice to Sasuke.

CHAPTER 6

Thus, They Collided

The situation is now getting tense and none of them spoke, scared that they might get burned if they do so. Besides they're also too busy comprehending the situation in front of them. It was only when Sasuke spoke that the tension lifted up.

"I can't believe this kid, what a handful." Sasuke let a short sigh, "By the way Shikamaru, who's stepping on my shadow?"

"A guy named Tsubasa Andou." Shikamaru answered lazily as he could see who was behind Sasuke. "That was a clo—"

"Whoever is stepping on my shadow should already start writing his last will and testament…" Natsume was still pissed off as usual. Even if he was shadow binded, he could still conjure up a fire.

"What the—" Shikamaru is taken aback when Natsume conjured up flames even if he was immobilized. He was about to step back for safety when Mikan interrupted and stood in front of Natsume, both hand on his shoulders. The flames suddenly vanished.

"Stop it bakka neko!"

"Tch…" was all Natsume could say.

"It's alright now Shikamaru-niisan." Mikan gave him a smile of assurance and Shikamaru released his shadow-bind upon Natsume. Just as the shadow-bind disappeared, Natsume collapsed upon Mikan's shoulder.

"What the…" Sasuke blinked, "is that brat alright?"

"I'm not so sure…" Mikan was doubtful, "he's been like that every time he uses his alice too much."

"Wait," Tsunade stood up from her desk, "let me tend to him."

Everyone's attention was now at the Hokage and Natsume. Tsunade ordered Shizune to lay Natsume down on the floor then she activated the chakra on her hand and analyzed Natsume's body.

"Hey Hotaru," it was Kokoro who spoke this time, "She's...was that a healing alice?"

"Kokoro's right Hotaru," Mikan butted in, "just like your brother's."

"I'm not so sure." Hotaru answered in a flat tone. "Tsunade-san does it in a different way than my brother's so I don't know."

"It still is amazing though." Misaki, who was standing beside them, commented.

"Eh, what do you mean Misaki-senpai?"

"What I mean is…even as a coincidence, it sure is amazing that there are some places besides the academy where there are people who are also like us." Misaki explained.

"You do have a point senpai." Kokoro agreed and the two nodded. Their attention then went back to Tsunade who released a long sigh when she finished tending Natsume.

"This kid's body is weird. I have never encountered anything like this in my life before…I can't even locate his Chakra Circulatory System and there's also something unstable within his body." The other Shinobi gasped at Tsunade's information.

"No Chakra Circulatory System…but then how can he activate that fire of his?" Neiji activated his Byakugan out of curiosity and examined Natsume's body. The Byakugan user gasped softy, "Hokage-sama is right, he doesn't have the system…but, I can see the middlemost chakra vessel where the heart of the chakra is." *

"Eh?" everybody exchanged curious glances.

"I don't understand either…" Neiji ran his fingers over his hair, thinking with full concentration, "but that chakra inside the vessel keeps on flicking. At times it would become so small that I almost thought it would disappear completely but then it would suddenly burst wildly and become ablaze and then it would slowly return back to normal and then the process would repeat again."

"So that's what I think it is." Seeing the curious and concerned look of Natsume's classmates, Tsunade continued after Neiji finished explaining. "You see, the chakra vessel is vital in every shinobi. When the chakra within it is extinguished, so is their life."

Almost everyone gasped when they heard what Tsunade just said.**

"Well…then…Natsume—"

"No need to worry." Tsunade give a reassuring smile at Mikan, "He's a strong-willed boy. Based on what Neiji described, he's fighting it. Not just for the sake of himself but also for the person he loves that he wanted to protect so much. He has the will of fire."

Mikan gave a weak smile of relief at this. The hokage's words comforted her a lot.

"That Natsume kid is too cocky for his own good… Hey, you can let go of my shadow now." Sasuke is now referring to Tsubasa who was still standing on his shadow the whole time and only moved away when Sasuke addressed him. "By the way Andou Tsubasa-kun."

"Hai?" Tsubasa looked at the direction of the person who addressed him.

"Are you by any chance related to the Narra clan?" with Sasuke's question, Shikamaru also looked at Tsubasa curiously.

"As far as I can remember," Tsubasa looked as though answered he was in deep thought but then answered flatly, "no."

"Don't know him at all…" Shikamaru answered as Sasuke looked in his direction, "didn't even know anyone who can also shadow manipulate besides our clan."

"Eh?" Tsubasa blinked. Pretty lost on what the two shinobis are talking about, "clan? Well, I'm the only one who can shadow manipulate in our family. The rest are normal."

"Really?" Naruto started talking again, "You guys must really be special…just like me! Wahahahahahahaha!"

"Don't get too full of yourself." Sasuke answered cooly.

"Temme...say that again Sasuke you jerk!"

"That is enough!" Tsunade stood from her desk, showing her authority and everybody looked at her, "Let's stop wasting time and start planning for the strategy already."

"Hai!" The shinobis answered with full alertness. The Gakuen Alice students gaped with amazement.

"Okay," Tsunade continued, "Noda-kun here will explain everything so please listen carefully." (*A/N: uhh…what is Noda-sensei's full name? XD*)

"Ano…" Noda moved over to the center in front of the shinobis and explained but still looking rather lost. "There's really nothing much I can tell but…well, the main objective is to get to— ah…"

As Noda is talking, he is slowly becoming blurred, almost disappearing from view— signs that his alice is kicking in again. The shinobis who was listening to him with full attention all had their eyebrows raised and started looking at each other then back to the teacher. Even Tsunade gaped silently at what she saw.

"Eh, what is happening?"

"Is he…uhh…vanishing?"

"Is this some kind of a genjitsu?"

"Sensei?"

"Noda-sensei matte!" before the said teacher vanished completely, Mikan jumped and clung on to him tightly, "we can't have you disappear again now."

"Arigatou, Mikan-chan." Noda is back into focus again.

"Uh…what just happened?" Naruto scratched his head.

"Ah!~" Misaki tried to shift their attention, "well…uh, you see…ano…"

"I thought you guys are shinobis and you're surprised at something as little as this?" Natsume gave a sarcastic smirk. This time, his classmates are thankful of Natsume's arrogant behavior, "that is something that we normally do."

"Why you brat…" Naruto had a vein popping in his head.

"Why don't you deal with him Sasuke." Everyone stared as Gaara spoke. He was just so silent awhile back.

"Yeah Sasuke…" Naruto said rather tauntingly, "after all, it takes one to know one."

"Tch" was the only answer that Sasuke gave but went to Natsume's direction otherwise, "Hey kid..."

"W-what do you want again?" Natsume took a backward step as Sasuke moved towards him, he was somehow intimidated because Sasuke was also a fire-user, "I just gave a comment and you guys gave a big deal out of it."

"Bakka…" Sasuke still kept on walking towards Natsume's direction and the said kuroneko just stared at the Uchiha, dumbfounded.

The rest just stared with bated breath as Sasuke walked closer to Natsume while the kid just stared wide-eyed like a cornered pray.

When Sasuke was near enough, he raised his right hand in a pointing position, moving it slowly towards Natsume. At that moment, the kuroneko really felt like a child that was about to be scolded by his parents for doing something bad. He shut his eyes tightly, preparing for the scolding that Sasuke was about to give him and he waited, but it never came. Instead, a soft poke in his forehead was all he felt.

"Itte-" he cracked open one of his eyes first and then both when he saw Sasuke gently smiling at him, it surprised Natsume and everyone else inside the Hokage's office.

"It's not that painful you know," Sasuke was almost about to do what his brother would always do to him when he was young*** but it gave him a slight pang in his heart. Instead, he just poked Natsume's forehead and added a gentle pat in his head, "cool it will you? It doesn't do anything good being hot-headed all the time, trust me in this."

He gave Natsume one final pat on the head before going back to where Naruto and the rest are.

"Tch..." everyone thought that Natsume was going to retort back again but he just turned around and went over to where Ruuka was standing and stood there quietly, slightly red in the face.

...

The girls had little hearts in their eyes by what they saw while the boys just blinked in surprised after witnessing the scene before them.

"Uwaa~" Ino again turned into a fangirl, "that's so cute!"

"They're like brothers!" being Natsume's number one fan, Sumire never failed to miss the scenery, "what a nice display of brotherly love!~"

"That's just plain adorable!"

"I should have brought my camera!"

"That sure shut him up completely," Naruto blinked, quite surprised by what he saw.

"But now the girl's won't shut up," Shikamaru pointed lazily over to the girls who still had big hearts in their eyes.

Sasuke just gave a grunt as a response.

"Okay, that is enough guys!" thankfully, Tsunade gave the initiative to do that and everyone silenced at once, "since everyone's already gathered here and we're not waiting for anymore people, I guess everything is all set."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Naruto is all fired up, " Let's go already!"

"What a minute there Naruto," Shikamaru intervened Naruto who was about to jump out of the door from eagerness then looked at Tsunade, "If we go together at the same time, the group's too large and can arouse suspicion, creating more danger."

"Shikamaru is right," Temari agreed who was standing beside the shadow manipulator, "also, being in a very large group is quite a handful. Especially if they're kids."

"Hey, we're not just kids you know..." Sumire intervined, "we know how to take care of ourselves onee-san."

"You may have a point, uhh...what is your name again?" Temari was about to explain.

"It's Sumire Shoda," Sumire looked at Temari with one eyebrow raised. She was a little intimidated by Temari's presence because she loooked like a stern older sister- or maybe that was just because of the huge fan that she was carrying behind her back.

"Yeah, Sumire-san but-"

"It's the nation's borders we're talking about," Gaara cut what Temari was about to say and continued, "Outside this village is a very dangerous place, the borders are a perfect nest of S-rank criminals and black-listed shinobis. I have observed that you guys does posses special types of skills but I doubt it if you can even do advance nijitsus, genjitsus or taijutsus."

At this, Misaki and Tsubasa just stared at each other with guilty smiles but none seemed to notice them as Gaara continued explaining. "Being cooped up strictly at your academy, of course you wouldn't know how dangerous it is out there."

"Well, it's not our fault that the academy won't allow us to go out." It was Mikan who spoke and everyone looked at her, even Tsunade.

"Seriously!" Naruto spoke again, "then how do you do your missions?"

''Missions?" Mikan blinked twice, "As far as I know, only the dange-"

"-Ah, why don't we wrap this all up?" Noda had to stop Mikan from spilling any more information about the Academy, "We haven't got much time, it's already afternoon and it might get dark soon."

"A well, yes." Tsunade faked a cough, covering the fact that she also got distracted, "The students will be divided into groups and each group will have assigned shinobis. I'll leave the team dividing to Shikamaru."

Tsunade looked at Shikamaru's direction. The mentioned Shinobi just nodded quietly, "Meanwhile, I suggest you all have your rest. Shizune here will lead you to your temporary place to stay, that goes the same also for Gaara, Temari and Kankuro, you will leave first thing in the morning tomorrow. Any questions?"

"Uhh, ano..." Kitsuneme spoke for the first time after entering Tsunade's office, and everybody else stopped what they're doing to listen, "where can I eat? I'm really starving, ahaha..."

Everybody just sweatdropped but then, they also realized how hungry they were after all the tension.

"Now that you've mentioned it, I'm also starving." Yuu added.

"Well then, leave it all up to me!" when it comes to eating, Naruto never misses anything, "who's up for some ramen? We'll go to the best ramen shop in all of Konoha! Let's go!"

"If there's no more questions, then you are all dismissed!" Tsunade gave one last smile before dismissing them.

She gave one final sigh before sitting down on her chair, closing her eyes to catch a few extra winks.

Footnotes:

*Like where the heart is located in our Circulatory System XD – author just made this up LMAO

**I don't know about Naruto Science but I just made that up again XD

***Back then when Itachi used to flick Sasuke's forehead.

A/N: Uwaa~ I can't believe I actually finished it!

It's the longest chapter so far...well, I did promise that this chapter will be pretty long. The ideas just kept on flowing just as I was reaching the 5th page while typing XD.

During the next chapter, the kids will be wandering around Konoha since they still have time before leaving the next day and the Shinobis can't help but to babysit them. More clashes will be happening, Natsume will again cause more trouble, Ruuka with his pheromones and Sasuke(forced) being like an older brother figure! (extra preview for you guys who are still supporting this fic! *wink, wink*)

I'm not certain on how many chapters this fic will reach but I estimate it will be between ten to fifteen chapters(depending on the storyline).

I am also open for your suggestions on what do you want to happen in the following chapters...(*v*)

PS:

Thank you guys for still continuing on reading this fic even if the author is extremely lazy and late in updating (*o*)/

Banzai!~ *dead*