Aimi and Sasuke ran through the streets, trying to find Naruto, Chika, Ichirou, and Miko. They found them. Aimi hid behind Sasuke. "Trick sound good?" she asked. "Sure." he whispered. "Hey guys!" he called. They all looked. "Sasuke! You're OK!" they all yelled. "Hn? Ya, Of course I'm OK. I'm ALWAYS ok." he said. Aimi giggled softly. "Oh, and I found a little something on the way." he added. "Really? What?" Naruto asked. Sasuke reached behind him and picked up Aimi. "This. Recognize it?" he asked, holding her out. "AIMI!!" they all yelled. They attacked her and Sasuke. They were all in one big heap, laughing hysterically. Even Sasuke was laughing.

Aimi saw Sasuke happy. And she became doubly happy-- if that's possible… They all scrambled to get out of the heap, still smiling. Sasuke quickly covered up his smile once out of the heap. Aimi rolled her eyes.

"How did she live?!" Miko asked. "I wasn't as dead as they thought. They were able to bring me back." Aimi replied. They all stared at her in shock. "So… Yah," she said. She could tell they all still didn't believe it, but were gonna take it because it was very good. Very very good.

--A FEW WEEKS LATER--

Everyone still hadn't gotten over the fact Aimi was alive, but things had returned to normal. The people fixed up the village again. The storm stopped. Blah, blah, blah. And everyone was feeling pretty darn good. Naruto and Miko looked cute together, very happy. Chika was the usual, happy, fun sister Aimi was used to. Miko was the best best friend anyone could ever have, happy and loving. Ichirou still hadn't gotten over Aimi, but he learned not to hit on her-- as much, and was very happy. Sasuke was normal--sometimes. He had changed a little over the events that had happened. But everything and everyone was alright. And that's the important thing.

()()()()()()()()

Aimi ran into class. No one was there. "Odd…" she whispered to herself. She began to walk to her seat and sat down. She began writing in her notebook. Kakashi, who had been in the room the whole time, came up behind her and tapped her shoulder. "AK!" she yelled, falling out of her chair. "Kakashi! You scared me!" she said, pulling herself up. "So I saw." he replied. She shook her head. "What, Kakashi? You never have no reason for scaring the wits out of someone." Aimi said. "Ah. Well, I was wondering if you could help me with a little lesson. See, I want to give a little… 'test' so to speak. Are you a very good actress?" he said. "Er. I think so…" Aimi said, unsurely. "Good. Well then. Here's the plan…"

()()()()()()FAST FORWARD TO CLASSTIME()()()()()()

Sasuke looked around. Aimi wasn't there. She was never late, she was never absent. Something fishy was going on.

"Ahem. Class." Kakashi said. They all looked up at him. "We shall be split up into out teams now, I think we all know who we are by now, so do I have to name you all?" Kakashi asked. Everyone shook their heads. "OK. Team 1, go to the training grounds. Team 2, go to town. Team 3, go to the plains. Team 4, go to the wilderness. Team 5, go to the community hall. Team 6, you will be joining Team 4 in the wilderness. Out you go." Kakashi said simply. Naruto raised his hand. "Uh. You forgot Team 7." Naruto said. "No. I have something… special planned for you." Kakashi said. Sakura raised her hand. "Where's Aimi? We need her." she asked quickly. Kakashi shook his head. "Not now. Come, come. We are going to the forest."

()()()()()IN THE FOREST…()()()()()

Naruto looked around. "What are we doing today?!" he asked excitedly. "We are going to have a test." Kakashi replied. They stopped in a spot. "Not much." Sasuke said simply. It looked exactly like all the other spots in the forest that they passed up. "Not much indeed." Kakashi said, a hint of amusement in his voice. They all looked up at him. "What?" they asked. Kakashi shook his head. "Hn. Aimi!" he called.

Aimi walked out from behind a tree. "'Sup guys." Aimi said as she stood beside Kakashi. Sasuke gave her a quizzical look. She shrugged. "He told me to wait here. You know his weird ways." she said, easily covering up the first issue. Kakashi nodded in approval. "Lets start the test." he said with ease.

He had them do all kinds of things. Run laps. Try to catch birds. Cut branches. Find a four leaf clover. Play the trust game. Find the tree with the "x" in it. At one point, Naruto got tired of all these things. "Can we do something challenging?" Naruto whined. Kakashi thought for a moment. "Challenging? You want challenging? Are you sure?" he asked. Sasuke walked over. "I have to admit, for once he's right." he said. Sakura agreed, of course. She agreed with everything Sasuke said or did. Aimi was silent. Kakashi sighed. "OK, then." he said, shaking his head. He went over to Aimi, pulled out his dagger, and held it to her neck. "You'll have to go through me if you want her to live." Kakashi said. Aimi looked scared. "Ka-ka-shi?" she whimpered.

At first, no one did anything. Sasuke just stood there, his mouth hanging open, just like all the others. Then he remembered about the thing with Itatchi. "Not with MY girl you don't." Sasuke jumped up and took out his dagger as well. He held it to Kakashi's neck. Kakashi's eyes went wide with surprise. "You'd really kill me?" he asked, letting go of Aimi. Sasuke nodded, taking down the dagger. "In that case, you all pass." Kakashi said. Aimi burst out laughing and high fived Kakashi. "Dang, you should've seen yourselves!" she laughed. "It… Was… Just… A… Test?" Sasuke asked. Aimi and Kakashi nodded. He glared at them before smirking. "I guess it was a good test." he said.

()()()()FAST FORWARD, AFTER SCHOOL()()()()

Aimi walked home with Sasuke. He detoured her into the woods. "Where we goin'?" she asked, going along with it. "The woods." he said coldly. "Sasuke? Are you mad?" she asked. "Oh, why would I be mad? I was just completely humiliated this morning, that's all. No reason to be mad." he said angrily. "Kakashi asked me to, OK?" Aimi said tiredly. "No. Not quite OK." he said, his grip on her wrist getting tighter and tighter. "Ow!" she yelped. He loosened his grip a bit. "So we are going in the woods why…?" Aimi asked. "We need to talk." he replied. Aimi sighed. She wasn't looking forward to it.

Once they got to the spot he wanted, there were Aimi's arrows. She shot them at the target while listening to Sasuke's complaints. Once he was through she just said, "sorry" and continued shooting. "Ai-mi!" he whined. "Well what else should I say?" she asked. She gathered up her arrows and began to walk away after he didn't respond. "Aimi, just listen to me-" Sasuke pleaded. Aimi whirled around and aimed her arrow at him. She shot and it went straight through the collar of his shirt, pinning him into a tree. "No. You listen to me. Quit whining and move on, 'cause whatever I did, I'm sorry. Just stop being so annoying about it or I won't be sorry. Got it?" she asked, right up in his face. He tried pulling the arrow out, but it was deep into the tree. "Got it?" she asked Again. He rolled his eyes and nodded. She pulled the arrow out easily and Sasuke collapsed.

They still walked together through the forest- mostly because Sasuke wouldn't give up and leave. Aimi ran a little to get ahead every time Sasuke came close. "Aimi!" he would yell before running to catch up. This went on over and over.

"Aimi, I just want you to-" he began but was cut off by a raspy voice. "WE want you to give us your belongings." The two teens looked around. "Who's there?" asked Sasuke, reaching for his dagger. "Oh, just us. The jipushi." laughed the voice. (NOTE: jipushi is Japanese for gypsy or gypsies). "Dang it." Aimi growled. Then they all came out. Lots of men surrounding them laughing and snarling at them.

The jipushi surrounded Aimi and Sasuke like the band of pirates they were. They had their daggers in hand, ready to strike if either one of them tried anything. Sasuke and Aimi stood back to back, their daggers in hand also, ready to strike if the jipushi tried anything. The leader jipushi grinned at the sight of the two teens trying to look fierce. This will be easy, he thought to himself. "Give us your possessions! You have no choice but to surrender and hand them over!" he said in a raspy voice.

"Nice going, Sasuke. Look what you got us into NOW." Aimi whispered to Sasuke.

"Me? Yah, well, Shut up. Now we need a plan. Jipushi use their smarts and cleverness. So for once, use your brain." Sasuke whispered back to her.

"Why can't you use your brain, as well? Oh yeah. I forgot. You don't have one." she whispered angrily to Sasuke.

The leader jipushi said, "Give us your possessions! Or prepare to die!"

One of the jipushi spotted a necklace that Aimi had on. Quickly, he grabbed it off her neck. "My wife will love this!" he said with a laugh. Aimi took her dagger and pointed it at him angrily. "Sir, you WILL give me my necklace back."

"Oooohhh. Hey boss! We got a tough one!" he yelled over to the head jipushi. The head gypsy came over to Aimi. "Put the dagger away, youngin. Just give us your possessions."

Aimi flipped her dagger in a showy way as if to challenge the head. And a fight broke out between the gypsies and the two teens. Sasuke glanced at Aimi while he was fighting. "JIPUSHI AT YOUR RIGHT!" he yelled to her over the ruckus. She turned and kicked the gypsy down and called back, "THANKS. YOU SHOULD KNOW, THERE'S ONE BEHIND YOU!" without even looking at him. Sasuke turned and began fighting the other. She didn't even look up. How did she do that?

Finally, the jipushi dropped their swords. The leader cried, "Alright, alright." Sasuke and Aimi kept their daggers up just in case.

Aimi grinned and grabbed her necklace. "With your fighting, WE should take your possessions. Give us a horse." The leader rolled his eyes. There was no way she could take anything from THEM, the city girl. But it seemed like a good show. "Fine. Take everything you can carry." And you can't carry a horse or your little friend, he added in his mind.

She looked over at Sasuke. She knew it was a trick. They were clever. The loop was, take all you can carry. Don't walk side by side with anything, carry it. She'd have to leave him behind… unless… she put her chin up and walked over to Sasuke. He looked betrayed. She just rolled her eyes. "You seriously-" he began. But before Sasuke knew what was happening, she grabbed his legs, grabbed his shoulders, and with some difficulty, lifted him sideways onto her shoulders. She walked away with some difficulties, Sasuke over hanging sideways off her shoulders. Carrying him. Well, the jipushi HAD said take all you can carry.

She heard laughter behind her. "Oh alright! Come back, we'll give you a horse!"

TO BE CONTINUED…

Hee. I liked this one :D.

OH! Can anyone out there draw because I'd like to have a picture of these guys… but I cant draw for the life of me… Heh heh… ?