A/N: *Bows down and bangs head to the floor* Oh great readers and people with mile-long patience to wait for this chapter, this lazy but humble writer offers you her deepest and sincerest apology...
Okay, this will be quite along rant so if you think that is not worth your time, just skip this bold lettered section and get on with the story.
Okay, first I would like to say that it feels so good to be back and I can't believe I still lived to update this story. XD
Reasons why this chapter took my quite a long time to upload:
*School's crazy and I'm crazier. I had a retake subject and I can't afford to fail it again so I have to set my priorities first even if it's against my will. (*Dang Calculus*)
*Also, I'm so scared of my Statistics teacher so I can't afford to fail Stat106 either. Retaking that said subject means meeting her again *shivers*, so that means I have to double—no, triple my time. I had already taken removals from her from my previous Stat subject(stat 105). Oh the horror...
*Failing is bad, all subjects included. lulz
*Even if I had those free times, my mind had been occupied with other important matters and even if I tried to write, I just ended up having a staring contest with my laptop.
*I had no choice but to wait for the summer vacation to be able to write this fic again.
*After the start of summer vacation(which starts in April), it took my brain a whole freakin' whole month to settle in, relax and finally work properly
*Well, actually, it only took me a day of rereading previous chapters(lost in my own storyline lmao), an hour of googling(for character references), a week of thinking(because I am really lost) and three days of writing(because my brain works the best at night) before I finally finished this story.
*I had to re-view some episodes of G.A. for inspiration and for some materials as well but I ended up watching the entire 26 episodes because I had been captivated all over again...
*Motivation is useless if you're lost. XD
Okay, next.
I would like to say thank you very much to the people who still had the patience to wait for this chapter and to those who gave precious reviews...I give you all my hugs and cookies 3~
Special thanks to people who gave their suggestions. Actually, I have been long thinking about those things and I promise they will surely be included in the later chapters^_^
Have fun!~
"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.
CHAPTER 7
-Just Messing Around-
"Well then, off to the Ramen Shop!"
"Hai!~" the Academy students all shouted together eagerly.
"Remind me again why do I have to babysit with you guys?" Sasuke sighed after they walked for quite a while, "this is seriously wasting a lot of my precious time."
"Come on Sasuke-niisan," Naruto taunted, "two negatives can add to a positive right? See I can even use a metaphor and arithmetic at the same time! Wahahahahaha!"
"You idiot," even Natsume couldn't stand such obvious idiocy, "that would still be a negative."
"And what do you mean by that you brat!" Naruto was about to retort back when Sasuke suddenly released a soft chuckle.
"And you," Naruto snapped back at Sasuke, "what's so funny?"
Sasuke gave no answer although traces of smirk is still evident on his face. "Not bad kid," he just patted softly Natsume's head and the mentioned kid surprisingly, never minded it.
"Temme," giving no answer, Naruto reverted his attention back to the crimson-eyed kid to supposedly scold him some more only to find out that he also had the same smirk as that of the sharinggan user, "Wha— what is it that is so funny?"
But all Naruto received as an answer was laughter all around him.
"..."
"And what is that friggin' dog doing here?" out of frustration, Naruto just directed his attention to Pakkun who was contentedly cuddling in Ruuka's arms.
"Aw, come on Naruto-kun...let the dog be happy." Tsubasa commented, "what is wrong with that?"
"What is wrong? That dog never usually is like tha— no, he never is like that!" Naruto looks as if he would be seeing flying pigs anytime soon too, "he rarely leaves Kakashi-sensei's side unless it is something important not because he just wants to be snuggly with blondie!"
With this remark, Naruto received one angry death glare and two deep growls right in front of him.
"Bring it on bra— what the hell, Akamaru?" Naruto might really be seeing flying pigs now because he found it really quite a peculiar sight seeing Ruuka riding on Akamaru's back with Pakkun in his arms and also with a death glare directed towards him. "Kiba, what is your dog doing with that brat?"
"No idea," Kiba answered calmly, "ever since he saw that kid, Akamaru had become some sort of giddy that his tail kept on wagging crazily."
"And you're fine with that?" Naruto chose to ignore the death glares that was sent his way by Ruuka and his newfound companies "that dog never lets anyone especially someone like that rich spoiled, pampered kid ride on his back except you!—Youch!"
Pakkun's fangs finally found his way to Naruto's thick head, "Ow, ow, ow...ouch. It hurts!" and Akamaru had its fangs down on Naruto's leg, "Hey, Kiba!"
"I don't mind," Kiba chose to answer between all the commotion, "as long as no one gets hurt except you, then it's fine."
"Wha—?" before Naruto could finish his outburst, Naruto heard some sort of a long whistle and he felt two bite forces in his body finally dissipate and the two perpetrators returned back happily to Ruuka's side.
"See?" Naruto was rubbing his now aching head and walking with a slight limp on his feet, "they bit me, because that kid ordered them to!"
"It's your own fault stupid," Kiba just looked at him with a bored expression, "and besides, I kind of like that kid, I feel calm for no reason."
"What did I miss? What is happening to you Kiba?" Naruto looked upwards and pretended to be looking for something, "are there flying pigs now?"
"Don't be stupid, pigs don't fly." It was Sumire's sharp tone this time, "now shut up. You are getting on my nerves."
"Stop butting in when you're not involved, girly!"
"Who are you calling girly, Spikehead!"
"Who else stu— wha-what the hell are you?"
Although Naruto never averted his face away from the snobby looking ten-year-old girl, he still felt like he had missed something— something quite important as his view changed quite drastically and he was now staring at the same ten-year-old girl with weird animal ears and a tail. Seems like out of anger, Sumire activated her alice unconsciously.
"Is that some kind of a ninjitsu?" Kiba, who was walking alongside Naruto couldn't help but also notice and it had piqued his curiosity.
"Eh? Wha—why...huh?" Sumire was taken aback by the bewildered stares made by the Konoha ninjas and have absolutely no idea why until she felt a harsh tug coming from her backside and she spun around, "Imai-san! Please stop tugging my tail— wait, tail...?
"Gaaah!" Sumire raised both of her arms towards her head and felt the fluffy ears, then moved downwards towards her nose and felt the whiskers there, adding the tail...and then she panicked. She doesn't really like anyone seeing her in her alice form. "Wha- wait...gah! Thi- this is—hey! What do you think you're doing, weirdo?"
She freaked out even more when out of nowhere, Kiba suddenly appeared beside her and started smelling her in a 'too-close-for-comfort' sort of way.
"Yeah, yeah, says you," Kiba just ignored Sumire's protests and continued on examining the cat-dog alice student, "that's odd, you have such a bland smell..."
"Stop smelling me you pervert!" Sumire's attempt to stay as far away from Kiba as possible proved to be futile as the said dog-breeder kept on advancing forward every time she took a step backward, "I'll really sue you for sexual harassment!"
"Eh?" This time, Kiba did stop what he was doing out of bewilderment. "Isn't it natural for dogs or, in our condition, dog-blooded to smell each other?Wait, you are a dog... right?"
"What? Are you blind?" Sumire had veins popping in her temples now.
Kiba blinked, he finally notice that she have a nose and whiskers like that of a cat. Kiba observed more closely, "hmmm...so you're a cat?"
"A—I...uhh, well..." Sumire was very flustered because of all the unwanted attention that she was receiving from the Konoha ninjas... or maybe because Kiba was just so uncomfortably close to her with a face scrunched up into that of innocent curiosity, "wh- what the hell? Why should I even answer a pervert like you?"
"Aw come-on...I've never seen anything like you before." Kiba had those big 'puppy dog eyes'. Well, he was dog-blooded after all.
"What should I do..." The blank voice of Kokoro was suddenly heard out of the blue and everyone turned their heads towards his direction. Well, everyone except Sumire who had a panicked expression painted on her face. "Should I tell them that I'm a cat or a dog."
"Stop reading my mind, you jerk..." Kokoro added just as Sumire, with unbelievable lightning speed, dashed over to where he was to cover the mouth that has been spilling all her thoughts.
"Ahahaha...Never mind what he said everyone!" Sumire's laugh was quite peculiar, almost guilty. "Kokoro-kun here likes to talk to himself a lot, ahahaha. Right Kokoro-kun?~"
"What are you talking about Sumire-san?" It was Kokoro's bestfriend, Kitsuneme who was talking this time, "Everyone knows Kokoro's alice is mind reading. He read your thoughts just now. Ah—"
"Mind reading?" Neiji raised an eyebrow at this.
"A genjitsu?"
"I am starting to get scared with this kids..."
"Hey, what are you exactly?" Shikamaru had a 'you're-quite-suspicious' look
"We-well, you see..." Misaki was fumbling for answers and had to slightly nudge Tsubasa using her elbows for help.
...
"So that means..." thankfully, Kiba seems to be undisturbed by Kokoro's ability and used that moment of silence to voice out his thoughts while he kept on staring at Sumire like she was a newly born puppy, "you are like some sort of a cat-dog?"
"So what?" Sumire was clearly becoming more embarrassed now especially since Natsume was around, "g-got a problem with that?"
"Cool!" Kiba's eyes sparkled weirdly and he's face is starting to look like Naruto's stupid face, "you are amazing!"
"Eh?" but Sumire can't help but blush from the compliment, "I- it's nothing special really... and stop staring! You're creeping me out."
"What kind of a cool jutsu is that?" Kiba still has those sparkles in his eyes, "I sure would like to learn that."
"Wha-what jutsu are you saying?" Sumire had to scratch her head this time.
"So that's not a jutsu?"
"No, obviously no."
"So, is that some kind of your clan's special abilities?"
"Eh, what? No!" Sumire found it pointless to answer anymore. She felt like they were on opposite sides of the earth.
"A horrible experiment?"
"What the he—"
"We're here guys!" Naruto's voice drowned out Sumire's outrage and everyone's attention was back to the noisy blond who had a grin on his face that could almost reach his ears. "Now let's eat, I'm starving I could eat a whole horse!"
With this, Ruka had a vein popping in his head and had sent a glare that might contain daggers towards Naruto's direction but dismissed it after a few seconds knowing that it's only a figure of speech. But still, he can't help but be disturbed by Naruto's choice of words.
"Uwaaa...this is my first time eating in a place like this!" the rest of the Alice students can't help but be awed.
"I like ramen."
"We used to eat ramen back at home too!"
"Jii-chan used to make me ramen every once in a while!"
"Actually, I kind of miss eating ramen."
"We should have ramen at school!"
"It sure is nice to look at kids being excited with just a ramen," Hinata commented.
More hustle and bustle as both the Alice students and the Konoha ninjas tried to settle themselves inside the small ramen house before...
"Itadakimasu!"
And then, the only sound heard was laughter and hungry stomachs being filled.
"Natsume, where are you going." out of all the commotion, it was Mikan who noticed Natsume leaving.
"I'm going to take a walk again." was Natsume's answer without looking back.
"B-but...aren't you hungry?"
"Lost my appetite, too much crowd." the crimson-eyed boy just kept on walking, his frame becoming smaller as the distance between them increased.
"But..."
Natsume just waived a hand and continued his walking, unaffected by Mikan's tone of worry.
"Bakka neko..." she whispered to herself as Natsume's body disappeared from her sight as he turned around the corner.
Just then, Mikan felt a soft touch upon her shoulder. She turned around and had to lift her head to look at the smiling handsome face of Uchiha Sasuke.
"You're worried right?"
"H-hai..."
"I'll keep an eye on him," and with this, Sasuke also walked towards the direction that a certain black cat just treaded not so long ago.
Done! Whew, sorry if it was shorter than the length of what I usually write. I did really try my hardest to even reach this far, I kept on getting lost somewhere in the middle*wipes forehead* I'll try my hardest to make the next chapter more interesting.
Please no flames, I don't have a fire extinguisher with me... but constructive criticisms are fine.
I happened to like Kiba a lot and speaking of Naruto, I had long given up updating since my supplier of the said anime had long graduated. Maybe I'll just wait for the anime to finally end(I wonder when is that...ahahahaha) before watching it completely...
Special thanks to for the Kiba and Sumire suggestion. It had a light bulb clicking in me wee brain and I had fun writing them both. Although I dunno if that was what really is in your mind, but I hope you liked it. Also, Iinchou's Alice will be featured in the later chapters. Hmm...maybe I should also include Itachi XD.
Next chapter would be some Natsume and Sasuke moments(because I love them both a lot.). The Mission is almost starting!~
And oh yeah, so sorry for the typos and wrong spellings in my previous chapters. I totally forgot to recheck them(man, I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo). I think I'll be able to change them by this week(I hope).
Do tell me if I had some typos...
Well, would you look at the time...
2:00 AM and I am still as wide-eyed as a tarsier...
GOOD MORNING!
~awoooot...