I DO NOT OWN NARUTO AND/OR THE CHARACTERS
The Cherry Bombs vs. The Midnight Carnival
The Cherry Bombs stood in Tsunade's office as she briefed them on their mission.
"Our client, Yoshi, the daimyo of the Land of Breeze, is traveling back and needs some protection, it's an A-Ranked mission," she said as she handed them the scroll.
"Yes, Lady Hokage," they said as they bowed.
Yoshi enters her office with what was supposed to be an entourage of two people.
"Thank you," he said. "My country isn't as prosperous as yours and I'd like to let you know how appreciative I am that you let me pay you anyway I could."
"Nonsense, you're village helped us once upon a time during the Second Great Ninja War."
"Really?" asked Sakura. "I'm sorry but I've never heard of your land before."
"That's not surprising, during the Third Ninja War, our shinobi were decimated by the Akatsuki on a mission for the Village Hidden in the Stones. We were pretty much ignored by our enemies during the war since we were dead in the water but afterwards our economy was decimated because our village brought in half of our income. After my father died, I vowed to return our village to what it once was but, even with the help of the Leaf, we've only managed to stay afloat since then until recently, now we've developed to the point where we can create and sustain a village but we need the help of the Leaf in helping us establish the village. I'm going back home to plan our next course of action."
"Then why do you need protection?" asked Karin.
"Becausethere are people that want me out of the way and I believe that the best chance is while I'm on the way back."
"Make no mistake, this will be a difficult mission," added Tsunade. "This is a high A-Ranked mission, it should be an S but I'm doing Yoshi a favor in addition to the fact that our mission faring jonin are all on missions at the moment."
"Right, well, we'll leave when you're ready," Ten said.
The journey back to Yoshi's home wasn't very eventful, in fact, it was downright boring and being away from Naruto was starting to get to them.
"I miss Naruto," said Ten.
"When I get back, I'm going to snap his dick off in me," Hinata said as she returned to her wild card persona.
After a few days of traveling, they happened upon something that breaks their monotony.
"Is that a carnival?" asked Yoshi in disbelief.
"Yes, and it's blocking our path," said Karin. "We should be careful, this may be a trap."
They approached the carnival cautiously until they get to the entrance where the ringmaster saw them.
"Come one, come all," he said. "Enter and see the most amazing sights known to man, you're sure to be lost in a world more wondrous and exciting than you've ever seen and you don't have to pay admission until you've had your fill of adventure."
They watched as he took his hat off and bowed to them.
"I don't like the look in his eyes," Ino said.
"Yeah, but we don't have a choice," Hinata said with her byakugan activated. "From what I can see, it'd take too long to go around and I can't see anything out of place within the carnival."
"Release!" said Sakura as she disturbed her chakra. "Well, it's not a genjutsu."
"We should put this to a vote," said Ten. "Show of hands."
The vote was tied two to two with Ino abstaining.
"Well, Ino?" asked Sakura.
"I still don't know about this."
"We should go," Yoshi spoke up. "There is time I have to consider as well."
"If that's the case, then yeah," voted Ino. "But let's make this quick."
They continued on until they passed by the bowing barker.
"Perfect," he thought.
They walked through the carnival with Yoshi in the between them for protection, they watched as the people were moving about and enjoying themselves.
"This seems like a normal carnival but something's strange about it" said Ten.
"Well, it is a carnival," replied Hinata. "But this place is little off."
"Yeah but I can't put my finger on it."
After walking for what seemed like hours they felt barely halfway through the carnival.
"This has got to be the world's largest carnival," complained Karin.
"Yeah, this place seems to go on forever," agreed Ino.
Things began to get strange when Hinata began to notice something.
"Hey, we've passed this ring toss booth before."
"Are you sure?" asked Karin.
"Now that she mentioned it, I remember wanting that fox doll," said Ino.
"Release," Sakura said as she once again disturbed her chakra. "This is either not a genjutsu or a very good one."
"So you've noticed?" a voice asked in between them.
They turned around to find the carnival barker with Yoshi in his grip.
"Who are you?" asked a startled Karin.
"You may call me the Ringmaster," he said with a bow.
He disappeared with Yoshi and his entourage as quickly as he appeared.
"Son of a bitch!" screamed Hinata.
"Do not agonize over your perceived failure for there is still hope, while we have them in our care we love a bit of fun so if you can traverse the abode of that which is truly breathtaking then you will have earned the return of your charge," the Ringmaster's voice boomed all around them. "But be forewarned, you have until sunrise for there are still people in the world bring amazement to and the Midnight Carnival really must be moving on.
"Okay, we know what he have to do," said Ino.
"Right," they said in unison.
"I'll track him," volunteered Karin.
She used her chakra sensing abilities but something represses them.
"I can't sense anything but a few feet in front of us."
"I'll give it a shot, Byakugan! Same here, I can only see a few feet ahead of us."
"No cheating," said the Ringmaster. "You must find your way through the carnival on your own, leave the tricks to us but here's a hint, look behind you."
They turned around to find one building lit up.
"A-Maze-ing?" asked Ino. "You think we should go in?"
"I don't think we have a choice," replied Ten.
The building was especially demonic looking in addition to something else they began to notice as they were getting past their initial shock of losing Yoshi.
"This is the only building lit up," Karin realized.
"And what happened to the people?" asked Ten.
"I don't know, but we've only got until sunrise," said Sakura. "Let's get going."
They approach the door to find a sign next to it.
"There's a surprise waiting at the center."
"We'd better be prepared for anything," said Ino.
They agreed and went inside, they began to run through a giant maze. They ran for a few minutes and after a series of dead ends, thing began to feel futile.
"Another dead end?" asked Karin.
"I'm getting really tired of this," added Hinata.
"I've got the medicine right here," Sakura said as she put on her gloves.
She stepped up and began to plow through the walls of the maze towards the center, upon reaching the center, they found the surprise waiting for them.
"Hello, I'm the Bearded Lady," she said with a smile.
"No, Sakura's right here," said Hinata.
"Cool it, Hinata" responded Sakura. "Now, she's going down."
"Let's do this," they said in unison.
"I'm sorry but you must wait your turn, only one of you can participate at a time," the Ringmaster said.
"Okay, I'll go first," volunteered Karin.
"Are you sure?" asked Ten.
"I know combat really isn't my forte, especially one on one, but you heard what he said and we don't know what's coming later so we really shouldn't waste you guys."
"I guess you're right," agreed Sakura.
Karin stepped forward to face the Bearded Lady as she pulled out a sword sized razor.
"I must apologize, you see, I've used this to shave so much that it's become dull and it may take a few hacks to do the job for you."
"That's okay, I don't plan on losing this."
Karin took a kunai from her pouch and stood ready, she took the initiative and charged her with the Kunai. The Bearded Lady avoided the attack swiped at Karin with her razor but missed as Karin quickly retreated, this went on for a few moments as Karin continued to test her abilities.
"She may be hand to hand primarily," Karin thought. "We don't have a lot of time for me to keep feeling her out. It's time to show them what I've learned since I came to this village."
Karin took out another kunai and attacked the Bearded Lady with a swirling whirlwind of kicks and kunai swipes.
"Wow, she's gotten better at taijutsu," said the surprised Ten.
"Yeah, no shit," added Hinata.
They battled it out, kunai clashing against sword until the Bearded Lady decided to get serious.
"You're good but we're better."
"We're?" asked a confused Karin.
The Bearded Lady split into two people, the room suddenly went dark before they could make out the figures and a spotlight came on to show the Ringmaster.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to introduce to you, Momoko…" he said as another spotlight turned on a beautiful woman who looked like the Bearded Lady without the beard.
" …and…"
"Chuck," a big burly man with a beard said as the spotlight shown on him.
"On with the show," the Ringmaster said as he gracefully bowed out.
GO TO MY PAGE AND VOTE GUYS, YOU HAVE THE POWER. ALSO, I'D LIKE TO SAY HELLO TO RAVERCOZY, WHO, IF TAPPED, CAN POWER THE ENTIRE CONTINENT OF AUSTRALIA FOR 44 MINUTES. LEGEND OF NAMIKAZE NARUTO WHO CAN DIVIDE BY ZERO. AZRALEAN WHO ALWAYS KNOW THE EXACT LOCATION OF CARMEN SANDIEGO, VALLAVARAYAN WHO HAS TWELVE MOONS WITH EARTH BEING THE CLOSEST, CHEWIE COOKIES WHO WALKED INTO A BAR WITH MR. T AND CHUCK NORRIS AND THE BAR WAS INSTANTLY DESTROYED FROM THE LEVEL OF AWESOMENESS IN ONE BUILDING AND ROSE TIGER WHO'S GAMES OF DODGEBALL IN SECOND GRADE ARE WHAT THE OPENING SCENE OF SAVING PRIVATE RYAN WERE BASED OFF.