Hi, peeps! After much long waiting, I've finally got Chapter 6 ready for reading! For this chapter, I give a special dedication to the Naruto fanbook, for without it, I wouldn't have been able to get some of the information for this chapter. Now, one of the last reviewers said that she was hoping for NaruHina, and that brought up a very important topic to my mind: pairings. Now, I'll explain what I plan on doing about that after the chapter is done, so if you want an explanation, stick around. Plus, I've got other interesting news relating to the type of crossover this is at the end of the chappie. Before I bore you guys anymore, here's the chappie!
Disclaimer: How many more times must I repeat? I don't own either of these two godly animes!
Strange Faces and New Friends
Things were calm and serene in the streets of the hidden leaf village. The villagers walked by happily going through their days. One of these people in particular happened to be a girl by the name of Hinata Hyuuga.
A small smile graced her lips while she walked, and the shy girl thought, "It's a good thing that we finished our missions so quickly today. Maybe, with any luck, I'll be able to find Naruto today and tell him my feelings."
Merely thinking of her crush made the indigo haired girl blush a light shade of pink. It left as quickly as it came, however, when she spotted a crowd gathering in front of her. The people seemed to be circling someone. Curious about what was going on, Hinata went to the edge of the crowd to try and get some answers. Suddenly, out of the crowd emerged Sakura. The pink haired kunouchi looked out of breath and slumped forward from exhaustion.
Slowly, Hinata approached her and asked, "Sakura, are you all right?"
The pink haired girl straightened her posture, and in between her pants, she said, "Hi, Hinata. Yeah, I'm fine. Kakashi-sensei and I are just trying to meet with Lady Hokage right now."
Before Hinata could respond, Sakura turned towards the crowd and shouted, "Kakashi-sensei, come on!"
When Sakura had turned, the young Hyuuga saw the cut in Sakura's clothes. Timidly, she asked, "Sakura, how did you . . ."
"How did I what?" Sakura asked her. The pink haired girl followed Hinata's gaze, and understanding, she said, "Oh, you mean what happened to my back. It's nothing. It's actually one of the reasons why Kakashi-sensei and I are taking this person to the hospital."
Hinata looked at her in confusion and asked, "Who are you talking about Sakura?"
Sakura recognized her slip up and thought, "Oh, darn it! I can't tell Hinata the entire truth of the situation. I guess it wouldn't hurt if I told her a little bit."
"Oh, he's new to the Leaf Village," Sakura told her. "We need the Hokage to tell us if he can be trusted here."
Once again, she turned around and yelled, "Hurry up, Kakashi-sensei!"
Although Hinata was slightly curious about this new guest, she decided to stray away from that subject and asked, "Do you know where I could find Naruto?"
Sakura turned back to her and responded, "I'm not sure, Hinata. Last time I saw him was over by the abandoned training building in that direction," she pointed in the direction where she came from. "I wouldn't expect to find him there, though. Naruto probably already left by now."
"Oh," Hinata said, a little disappointed. "Thanks."
"No problem," the pink haired kunouchi replied. After a few more seconds passed, Sakura groaned and yelled, "Kakas--"
"I know!" her sensei shouted from within the crowd. "I heard you the first two times, Sakura!"
Hinata noticed the tuft of grey hair sticking out of the crowd and wondered what the problem was. As the two girls waited, they heard Kakashi try to reconcile with the villagers; from what Hinata heard, they were curious about who or what he was carrying. Eventually, the grey haired man gave up trying to talk his way out, so he jumped out of the crowd, landing nimbly before the two girls.
"Let's go, Sakura!" Kakashi shouted as he broke into a dash.
"Right!" the pink haired girl replied as she began to run after him. While she ran after her sensei, she said quickly, "Sorry, Hinata! Gotta go! Nice talking with you!"
All the young Hyuuga did was stare after them. Earlier, the young girl had managed to catch a glimpse of what Kakashi was carrying, and she had seen that it was a boy with hair of three different colors and an arm soaked in blood.
"Who was that?" Hinata thought to herself while the villagers cleared out of the streets. ". . . . . Oh, well. I hope he'll be okay, whoever he is."
Then, she headed off in the direction that Sakura had shown her, hoping to find her blond crush.
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"What now?" Hinata thought, now standing outside of the training building where Naruto was last seen. "Should I go in there and look for him or wait out here for a little bit? I wish I knew if he was in there . . ."
Suddenly an idea came across her mind. The young Hyuuga gathered a small bit of chakra and activated her Byakugan. Her eyes inspected inside the building to look for any sign of a person. After a few seconds, she thought with disappointment, "Oh, Naruto's not here. I guess Sakura was right. I'll just go and . . . . . Hm?"
Her unique eyes had just spotted a strange chakra source in the building. Instead of the normal blue, the color was a golden yellow. Curiosity getting the better of her, Hinata went inside to find out what this unique chakra was and where it was coming from. The chakra became brighter with every step she was taking towards it. Eventually, she had to deactivate her Byakugan when she reached a turn in the hallway.
Cautiously, Hinata peeked into the hallway, but what she found was not a creature or a weapon: just a golden pendant attached to a silver chain. It rested by a small puddle of blood. This confused the indigo haired girl, and she walked over to where the object was. Upon approaching it, Hinata saw that the pendant was in the shape of an upside down pyramid and made of smaller gold objects.
As she picked up the pendant and noticed the strange eye on one of the faces of the pyramid, she thought, "How strange. How could an object this small have such a powerful chakra source, and why can I only feel a small portion of it without the Byakugan?"
She looked over to the side and noticed a navy blue jacket pinned to the wall by shuriken. Wondering what a jacket was doing there, she took out the shuriken and allowed the jacket to fall to the ground. Hinata bent over to pick it up and noticed a small, brown wallet sticking out of one of the pockets.
" . . . . . Perhaps I should look for an I.D.," the Hyuuga girl thought as she reached for the wallet. "Maybe I can find the person who left this here."
She opened the wallet and found an I.D. card with a picture of a young boy. He wore the jacket and the pendant, and he also had innocent, childlike, amethyst eyes. Hinata then read aloud, "Yugi Muto . . . . . Hm, I don't know who this is at all. How can I return these to him?"
She looked over the picture once more, and she looked surprised at what she noticed about this boy. He had hair that was magenta, black, and with yellow bangs: just like the boy that Kakashi was carrying to the hospital! After seeing this, an idea began to form in the indigo haired kunouchi's mind. . . . .
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Tsunade and her assistant, Shizune, were waiting for Kakashi to arrive at the hospital. They stood in the front lobby with some other medics there as well, just in case.
"Do you think Kakashi found them in time, Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked, being a little afraid of what might have happened.
The blond woman just turned her hard gaze to the doors leading inside of the hospital and answered, "Let's hope so."
Shortly after saying this, Sakura burst through the hospital doors with her sensei following closely behind her. The rest of the room's occupants perked up and moved quickly towards them. Shizune asked, "Kakashi, is everybody all right? What happened?"
"Don't worry," the grey haired man told them in a calm yet serious tone. "I arrived before they could take off with Naruto. As for everyone's conditions, most of the injuries were very minor. Sakura has a cut across her back for you to look at, and I told Sasuke to meet us here seeing as he had gotten bruised pretty badly against Itachi. The most serious injury was inflicted on . . . well, him."
He stepped forward and showed the medics the small boy in his arms. For a moment, they all looked at the boy curiously, not recognizing him at all. Then, Tsunade addressed the medics and said, "Get a stretcher for this boy. One of you, find some bandages."
They all said a "Yes, ma'am," at different intervals, and they quickly left, leaving Tsunade and her assistant with the three visitors. Then, she and Shizune approached them to get a closer look at this boy. He had three different hair colors, his arm had a wound that had spilt plenty of blood, and the poor boy looked absolutely exhausted.
As Shizune brushed back his blond bangs, Tsunade asked, "Kakashi, who is this boy?"
"I'm not really sure of that myself," the grey haired man said after a moment. "When I found my squad, he was there along with three other strangers."
"Hm, I see," the blond woman replied. She turned to the pink haired kunouchi and asked, "Can you shed any light on this, Sakura?"
Sakura nervously answered, "Well, it's a little difficult to explain it all at once. You see, it's a really long story."
"All right," Shizune said. "That's fine, but could you at least give us his name?"
"Oh, yeah," Sakura said, but before she could say anything, someone else answered for her.
"His name is Yugi Muto, and he, along with his friends, Joey, Tea, and Tristan, were summoned by Naruto."
The four of them turned their heads to see Sasuke enter the hospital. While Kakashi and Sakura gave their greetings to him, Tsunade thought, "I wonder what he means by 'summoned'."
At this moment, one of the medics came back and said, "Lady Hokage, I got the bandages you asked for."
"Thanks," she responded as she took the bandages from him.
Shortly after getting the bandages, two more medics came with a stretcher. Then, Kakashi and Tsunade worked together on placing Yugi down onto it. After this, Tsunade tossed the bandages gently over to Shizune and said, "Shizune, make sure to clean up his wound, and get him in one of the hospital rooms to rest. I'll check on him after taking care of things here."
"Yes, milady," the young woman responded. With that being said, Shizune and the medics went down the hallway with the small boy in tow.
Next, Tsunade addressed the three shinobi and said, "Let's head someplace private. You can give me your report there, Kakashi. Then, I'll look at everyone's injuries, and your students can tell me what they've been up to lately."
The three of them nodded silently, and they quickly left the lobby to discuss things.
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It was about noon when Hinata finally reached her destination: the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Earlier, the indigo haired girl decided that she would go to the hospital. She wanted to return these items to the small boy after all. After putting his items into her backpack, Hinata realized that she should probably get something for him since he was recovering at the hospital. So, this led her to the flower shop before her.
After a moment, she took a step inside. Noticing the flowers on the side, she went over there and began looking for the right flower.
"Hey, Hinata. What brings you here?" a certain blond kunouchi asked from behind the counter.
Hinata turned to face her and said, "Oh, hi, Ino. I just wanted to get a flower for someone at the hospital."
"Really?" Ino said as she stepped from behind the counter to join the young Hyuuga. "Who's stuck in the hospital? Is it Kiba?"
Hinata shook her head and said, "No, Kiba's fine."
"Then, is it someone from the Hyuuga clan?"
"No, it's not a Hyuuga either."
Ino took a moment to think about who else it could be. As an idea came across her mind, the blond kunouchi sported a sly grin and said, "Oh, I get it. It's Naruto you're going to see, isn't it?"
Hinata's face blushed a deep shade of red, and the young girl stammered, "W-w-w-what?"
Ino giggled and continued, "It's obvious you have a crush on him; anyone can see that! You should just tell him already!"
The young Hyuuga reverted to her habit of pushing her two index fingers together, and after a moment, she responded, "M-maybe, but I need to go to the hospital first."
"Wait. It's not Naruto you're going to see?" Ino asked, slightly surprised. "Then, who is it you're going to see?"
"I'm . . . not sure myself," Hinata responded quietly. The blond kunouchi gave her a quizzical look, and the shy girl explained, "Sakura said he was a guest to the leaf village, and I think I found something that belongs to him. The last time I saw this boy, he was being rushed to the hospital."
Realizing something, Ino said, "Wait, I think I remember hearing some gossip from the villagers about a boy with strange hair being spotted in the village. Is this who you're talking about?"
The indigo haired girl responded with a silent nod. Coming to a decision in her mind, Ino left the room to find her mother. In a matter of seconds, she came back with a smile on her face. She told Hinata, "All right, I'm coming with you!"
The young Hyuuga looked at her dumbfounded, and the blond girl explained, "I'm curious about this boy. I want to know how he could cause such a commotion in the village, and if you're going to see him, then I wanna come, too!"
Hinata chose not to object to this, so instead, she asked, "What flower should I get for him, though?"
"I got it!" Ino proclaimed. She pulled out a white flower, handed it to her, and said, "It's a sweet pea. It symbolizes delicacy and gentleness: a great flower for making him feel welcome."
Hinata looked at the flower and smiled, thinking that it was perfect. Suddenly, something came across her mind, and the shy girl asked, ". . . Delicacy?"
"Well, sure!" Ino said with a mischievous grin. "You need to open yourself up to the other guys in this village. I mean, you have to admit that Naruto can be a real moron sometimes."
As they left the shop and entered the streets, Hinata blushed slightly and said, "That's not true, Ino. I know he makes a few mistakes sometimes, but I think Naruto is a very wonderful person."
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Elsewhere, at his favorite ramen stand, Naruto sneezed loudly in his stool. Joey, who was seated to his right, asked, "Hey, are you okay? You're not getting a cold, are ya?"
"What? Heck no," the blond boy responded. "I never get colds."
"Really?" Tea asked from Naruto's left. "Then, what else could it be?"
The woman working behind the counter, Ayame, suggested, "Well, maybe someone's talking about him."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Tristan asked from Joey's other side.
"Oh, it's something we've heard before," Naruto explained. "Apparently, if someone's talking about you somewhere, you end up sneezing."
"That's weird," Joey said, not really believing what his ninja friend said.
Soon, the old man who owned the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Teuchi, came up and handed everyone their bowls of ramen, saying, "Well, here you go. Enjoy!"
Naruto eyed his miso ramen with a lustful look in his eyes. As he drooled, the hyperactive boy said excitedly, "Oh boy! This looks delicious!"
"I'll say!" Joey exclaimed with an equal amount of excitement as he eyed his own bowl of barbecue pork ramen.
Tea and Tristan just took their two bowls in silence. In unison, the two blonds took their chopsticks and exclaimed, "Down the hatch!"
Then, they both slurped down their ramen with great speed. Seeing this, Tea scolded, "Slow down, guys! You'll end up choking on your food at that rate!"
"Forget it, Tea," Tristan told her as he began eating his own meal. "I think once these two go on an eating frenzy, nothing can stop them."
The young brunette had nothing to say to this, so she just began to eat her food while thinking, "I really need to get some more female friends."
"It's great to see that you've made some new friends, Naruto," the owner said after a while. "By the way, how's your squad these days?"
"Oh, they're doing well," the blond shinobi said with some noodles hanging out of his mouth. "They're actually at the hospital right now."
"Oh my!" Ayame said in response. "Are they all right?"
"Yeah," Naruto told her. "They're fine. I'm not too sure about Yugi, though."
"Yugi? Who's he?" the ramen owner asked.
Tristan set aside his completed bowl and said, "Oh, he's our other friend. He's not here right now because his arm got hurt real badly. We're planning on seeing him at the hospital after lunch."
"By the way, this ramen is awesome!" Joey said loudly with noodles dangling out of his mouth.
"Well, thank you," Teuchi answered. "To tell the truth, I never expected to find someone who loves ramen as much as Naruto."
"Oh, it's not just ramen," Tristan said in a teasing tone. "Joey loves any edible object in sight."
"Oh, is that right?" Joey asked, daring him to say anything else. "Where's your proof?"
"Oh, please. Don't make me bring up all those times that we went to those all you can eat buffets."
"You're supposed to stuff your face at those places! Besides, I'm not the only one with a bottomless pit for a stomach!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that . . ."
The two teenage boys continued to argue, but Naruto only tuned them out as he slurped down the remains of his dish. He set down his now empty bowl and looked at it with a feeling of guilt in his eyes. He had just remembered what he made Yugi say in their last real conversation. . .
"He's NOT a demon!"
"Huh?" Naruto asked, confused at Yugi's sudden temper.
The tri-colored haired boy continued saying angrily, "Yami is NOT an evil spirit! The only reason we're not completely sure is because he lost his memories from five thousand years ago, but when he gets them back, we'll know he was a good pharaoh the whole time! He is NOT EVIL!!"
". . . It's probably my fault," the blond shinobi thought with remorse. "I shouldn't have assumed that the spirit inside the Millennium Puzzle was an evil one. I didn't even understand half of the stuff he said, but if I didn't make him so mad, Yugi wouldn't have blurted all of that out to me. Then, maybe, Itachi wouldn't have been able to hurt him in the first place."
"Naruto, are you okay?"
The blond boy looked over at Tea, who had just placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. When he didn't respond, the blue-eyed girl asked, "Is something wrong? You look a little upset."
Naruto put a smile back onto his face. Then, he responded cheerfully, "Oh, I'm fine, Tea! Just a little tired from today I guess. Being a ninja takes a lot out of ya, y'know?"
In Tea's thoughts, she had a feeling that he wasn't telling her the entire truth of the situation. However, she decided not to push the matter and smiled back, saying, "That's good."
The rest of their lunch went by without much happening, and after saying their thanks to Teuchi and Ayame, the four of them were off to the hospital.
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"Huh? What do you mean 'No visitors'?" Ino asked the person behind the counter.
Ino and Hinata were now in the front lobby of the hospital, talking to the female attendant behind the counter. Strangely enough, when they gave their description of who they wanted to visit, the two kunouchi were automatically denied their request.
The young woman told them once again, "I'm sorry, but we're not allowing anyone to see him at the moment."
"Oh, come on!" the blond kunouchi yelled. "You have to let us see him! We found some of his things, and we want to return them now!"
"Look, I know you both have your reasons, but we just won't allow it," the employee pressed on.
Before she could shoo the two of them out of the lobby, a young male medic in his mid-20s came up and said, "Oh, it's all right. You can let them through. He won't be kept away from the villagers forever."
While the female employee gave him a look of disbelief, Ino gave him a happy look and asked, "Really? It's okay?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said warmly, giving her a friendly smile. "If you want to see him, what you want to do is take a left down that hallway, go right, and then, his room should be 7th to your left."
"Thank you so much!" the blond girl cheerfully said.
Before anything else could be done, she took Hinata down the hall, and they made their way to the strange boy's room.
After taking their first turn, Hinata said quietly, "I wonder why she didn't want us to see him . . ."
"I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't care," Ino said in annoyance. "That girl was being way too bossy!"
The shy girl decided not to comment on this, and they continued walking. Hinata looked at the flower in her hand and thought, "I hope I'm doing the right thing by seeing this Yugi. I wonder what kind of a person he is . . ."
"5 . . . 6 . . . and 7," Ino proclaimed as she began counting the doors to the left. As they faced the door, Ino said, "I guess this is his room. Let's go, Hinata."
After a slight pause, the blond kunouchi turned the knob, opened the door slightly, and peeked in.
"Hello?" Ino said quietly into the room. She only received silence. "Hello? Is anybody in there?"
After she realized that she wouldn't be getting a response any time soon, Ino opened the door all the way, and she and Hinata stepped inside. The room had barely anything in it. The room had the same white color in it that the others had. There was a window on the far wall that was slightly opened, and a bed was propped up next to the wall. The only other objects in the room were an end table by the bed with a vase on it and a chair in the corner of the room.
None of these objects caught the two girls' eyes, though. What caught their attention was the boy lying in the bed. He lay asleep under the sheets, taking slow, steady breaths. The sun shined through the window, making the blond bangs stand out more than anything else.
They were both awed by his appearance. As Hinata grabbed the chair and brought it over to the bedside, Ino exclaimed, "Whoa! I can see why the villagers were talking about him so much. Just look at that hair!"
As Ino continued to express her amazement, the indigo haired girl sat next to the bed in silence. As she put the sweet pea she got for him in the vase, Hinata took another look at his hairstyle and thought, "I guess his hair is different. I wonder if it came out that way naturally."
She watched his peaceful face as the wind blew the blond bangs across his face. Smiling softly, Hinata brushed the bangs away from the small boy's face. This caused the young boy to stir, and Hinata automatically pulled her hand back.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Ino asked when she looked over at the shy Hyuuga girl. Then, the blond kunouchi turned to the boy in the bed. When she saw him stirring, she said, "Oh, he's waking up."
Becoming nervous, the indigo haired girl began getting out of the chair. However, as she tried to leave, Ino brought her back to the bedside and said, "Oh, no you don't! I told you that you have to open up to people, Hinata; now's not the time to get nervous!"
Hinata bit her lower lip out of nervousness, yet she didn't move away. Like Ino, the young Hyuuga girl wanted to know more about this stranger. As the small boy opened his eyes slowly, both girls were taken by surprised when they saw the unique color and expressiveness within them.
Meanwhile, as Yugi opened his eyes, he had a blurred vision of the room that he found himself in. He was able to make out two figures standing beside him. One of the figures had short hair. Mistaking the person for a familiar brunette, the small boy turned his head and asked tiredly, "Tea, what happened?"
"Tea? Who's Tea?" The second figure asked.
This confused the small boy greatly. Quickly, he focused his vision, and his eyes widened in surprise from seeing two strange girls beside him. The one he had mistaken for Tea had short, indigo colored hair and soft, lavender eyes. She wore a headband similar to the other shinobi that he had met, only hers was worn around her neck. She also wore a tan colored jacket. The second girl had bleach-blond hair styled in a ponytail and light blue eyes. She wore purple clothes and a headband across her waist.
For a moment, there was an awkward silence. Finally, Yugi sat up and observed the room he was in while asking, "Who are you guys, and where am I?"
"You're at the hospital," the blond girl answered calmly. "Apparently, something happened to your arm."
While she let him take in this little bit of information, the small boy thought, "Wait. My arm?"
He looked at his arms, and he noticed the bandages decorating his left arm. As Yugi gently grabbed the injured arm, he closed his eyes, trying to remember what had happened before he fell unconscious. Suddenly, his eyes shot open as he remembered what had happened that morning . . .
". . . you'll have to pay for that 'coward' comment earlier."
Yugi stared at Itachi in surprise. After spotting the kunai he held, the small boy tried to squirm out of his hold. Suddenly, though, he felt pain shoot right up his arm, and the tri-color haired boy looked to see the kunai lodged into his arm, blood gushing out. He took a few gasping breaths and screamed in shock and pain.
"GYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"
". . . That's right," the tri-color haired boy thought calmly. "Itachi had put that knife in my arm before trying to take me. Then, Tea showed up, and somehow, Itachi was forced to leave. I guess whoever that grey haired man from earlier was took me here."
"Anyways, it's good to know that you're okay," the blond girl said happily. "By the way, my name's Ino Yamanaka."
He looked over to the blond girl, smiled softly, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Yugi Muto."
"Hm, that's an interesting name," Ino said as she observed Yugi's physical appearance. After a moment, she finally said, "I like the shirt; it fits you quite nicely."
For a brief moment, Yugi looked down and saw that his jacket was missing. Before he could respond, the small boy realized that something else was missing. After figuring out what was gone, he was put into a panic, and he began to tear apart the bed while asking himself, "Where is it? Where is it!?"
"Where's what?" Ino asked in confusion.
"My puzzle!" Yugi nearly yelled in response. "It's my most prized possession! Why isn't it here!?"
Suddenly, the tri-color haired boy remembered when Itachi had carelessly tossed his pendant aside. He thought, "The training building! It must still be there! I have to go get it back!"
He began to push himself off of the hospital bed, but the blond kunouchi was quick in holding him back. As Yugi tried to get her off, Ino said, "Hold on! Where do you think you're going? If you leave without saying anything, the medics are gonna go ballistic!"
"Please!" Yugi pleaded with her. "You have to let me find it! The puzzle was a gift from my grandpa; and if I ever lost it . . ."
"Um, e-excuse me, but . . ."
The two of them turned their heads to the soft voice. They saw the indigo haired girl rummaging through her bag. As she reached for an object, she asked, ". . . is this w-what you're looking for?"
Yugi sighed with relief as she pulled out the Millennium Puzzle. As he nodded, the small boy asked, "How did you find it?"
After handing the pendant over to the small boy, the young girl began pressing her two index fingers together and said, "W-well, I was over at the training building, looking for Na. . ." she stopped herself and began to blush lightly. After turning her gaze to the ground, she continued, ". . . looking for someone I care about. I couldn't find them, but I-I found that . . . um, puzzle, as you called it earlier. Oh, and I also found this."
The indigo haired girl pulled out a navy blue jacket from her bag. She handed it to Yugi while saying, "I-I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but look in the pockets for an ID card. I recognized your face, s-so I just wanted to give these things back to you."
"Oh, it's no problem," Yugi responded as he put the Millennium Puzzle around his neck and draped his jacket over his shoulders. Then, he looked towards her and said, "Thank you. What's your name?"
The shy girl gazed into his amethyst eyes. She quickly gave a small bow and replied, "Hinata Hyuuga."
Yugi smiled softly at this and said, "Hinata, that's a very nice name."
As Hinata smiled softly from the compliment, the small boy turned to Ino and asked, "So, do you guys know Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto by any chance?"
Ino hesitated a little; sure, she knew them, but she wasn't exactly on the best terms with the group of shinobi. After carefully picking her words, the blond kunouchi responded, "Well, you could say that."
Suddenly, the three of them heard footsteps from outside the room followed by voices.
"Are you sure he's okay?"
"Urgh! Will you stop it already!? The doctor's already told us that Yugi's just fine, so stop asking!"
Then, the door swung open, and Sakura froze at the doorway. She looked into the room and spotted the extra people in the room. As soon as her eyes managed to spot Ino, the pink haired girl pointed at her and shouted, "What are you doing here, Ino Pig!?"
Ino became defensive at this and said in response, "Is it any of your business, Billboard Brow?"
Sakura put on a frown at her "nickname" and stepped into the room with others following from behind. The first to follow her was Tea, who said, "We're just a little curious; that's all."
As a brunette teen followed her into the room, Ino asked, "Hey, who's she?"
While the blond kunouchi said this, the next to enter the room was Naruto. When Hinata spotted him, the shy girl blushed a deep red and looked towards the ground. The blond shinobi was followed in by Sasuke and an older blond teen, who shut the door behind them. As soon as her eyes came across everyone else, Ino automatically brightened up and ran towards the group with a big smile.
Noticing this movement, the pink haired kunouchi glared at her while saying in an angered tone, "Ino, back off! You're not getting anywhere near Sas--"
The blond girl, oddly enough, went past the raven haired boy. When Sakura saw who she ran to instead, her eyes settled for a look of confusion. Everyone else stared curiously as Ino wrapped her arms around the blond teen.
While sporting an admiring look, Ino asked him, "Are you new to the village as well?"
"Uh, yeah," he answered nervously as the young girl wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I guess you could say that."
Ino batted her eyes in an affectionate way and said, "Well, my name's Ino. And you are?"
"Oh, I'm . . . Jo. . ." the blond teen cleared his throat to lose the nervousness in his voice. Then, he finished, "Joseph Wheeler, but my friends call me Joey."
"Hm," Ino thought aloud while releasing her grip around him. "Joseph, I like it. Suits a handsome looking man like you."
At this comment, Joey got a light blush of pink on his face and laughed nervously. Meanwhile, Naruto and Tristan began snickering, finding this to be quite amusing. As they did this, Tea asked her new female friend, "Sakura, does Ino normally act like this?"
"Sadly yes," the pink haired kunouchi replied with a sigh. "But normally, she's flirting with Sasuke. Right now, I'd probably be annoyed if she was flirting with him instead of Joey."
Tea looked towards her blond friend, and after seeing his flustered face, she said, "Well, I think Joey's a little uncomfortable with this. Do you think we should stop her?"
Sakura thought for a moment, and after a while, she said, "I'm not sure. This might not necessarily be a bad thing."
Meanwhile, Inner Sakura cheered, "Keep it up, Ino! That way, Sasuke can be all mine!!"
"So, Joseph, do you have a girlfriend?" Ino asked curiously while stroking his chest with her finger.
Before the blond teen could respond, Tea broke the two apart and said hastily, "Yes! Yes he does! Now, if you don't mind, stop flirting with our friend!"
"Well, you don't have to be rude about it!" Ino snapped back at the brunette.
Suddenly, Hinata asked with curiosity, "Oh, a-are you Tea?"
Everyone turned their attention to the shy girl, and Tea nodded and responded, "Yeah, but how do you know my name?"
Deciding to join in this conversation, Ino said, "Oh, well, when your little buddy here woke up, he kinda mistook Hinata for you."
"Oh," the blue eyed girl responded.
Meanwhile, Naruto stepped forward and said, "Hey, Hinata! What brings you here?"
The young Hyuuga girl's face flushed a bright pink, and she stammered, "N-N-N-Naruto! W-W-Well, I . . . um . . . . . mm. . . . ."
She turned away from him shyly, a small smile gracing her lips, while the confused shinobi thought, "There goes Hinata: acting all weird again."
Meanwhile, Yugi had noticed Hinata's actions, and he couldn't help but smile to himself. He had a feeling that the young girl had strong feelings for Naruto.
Ino decided to respond to Naruto's earlier question and said, "Well, Hinata's the reason I came here in the first place. Apparently, she had found some of Yugi's things and wanted to return them."
The new occupants gave her quizzical looks while Naruto asked, "But what did we forget?"
The first to figure it out was Joey, and his face filled with shock as he exclaimed, "Oh yeah! We forgot the puzzle!"
He was about to run straight out the door before Yugi said, "It's all right, Joey. Hinata brought it back here already."
". . . Oh," the blond teen said after a while, getting back into a calm state.
"How did you get a hold of that puzzle anyways?" Tristan suddenly asked, a little suspicious.
However, Sakura answered instead and said, "Oh, I think I told her where we were earlier. You see, she was looking for . . . uh," she hesitated as she glanced at her blond teammate. Then, to stray away from the topic and spare Hinata the attention, she went towards the bed and said, "Anyways, let's just say she was looking for someone and leave it at that. So, Yugi, how do you feel right now?"
The small boy faced her and replied, "Well, besides the numb feeling in my arm right now, I feel fine. Thanks for asking."
"So, wait. What happened to get Yugi in the hospital anyways?" Ino asked, becoming curious about his injury now.
An awkward silence filled the room as everyone wondered whether or not they could explain what had happened that morning to the two girls. Sasuke was thinking of a way to hide the truth from the two kunouchi, but before anyone could speak, a yelp of surprise came from Tristan.
While everyone snapped their attention towards the brunette boy, Yugi asked, "Tristan, what is it?"
"Something just nuzzled my leg!" he exclaimed in surprise.
Joey stared at him strangely and said, "Dude, I think you're losing it. No one's in here but us. Besides, what kind of thing would come in here and -- Yipes!"
Everyone one looked at him due to his outburst, and Ino asked, "Joseph, what happened?"
"I don't think he's crazy now," the blond teen answered. "Whatever nuzzled him just nuzzled me!"
"But what is it?" Yugi asked curiously.
Before anyone could answer, Tea let out a small shriek. As everyone snapped their gaze towards her, she looked down to see what had nuzzled her leg. What she saw gave her a brief look of surprise before she chuckled slightly.
"What is it, Tea?" Sakura asked.
The brunette bent down. Then, as she stood back up, the brunette girl asked, "Is this what you were all so freaked out by?"
Everyone was slightly taken aback at what she carried in her arms. In her arms was a small pig wearing a maroon jacket and a white beaded necklace. The older boys sweatdropped while Joey asked, "Eh? A pig in clothes?"
"I know," Tea said with a smile. "Isn't it adorable?"
"I see you like Tonton."
Everyone turned their gaze towards the doorway. Standing there was a woman with short, brown hair and really dark brown eyes. She wore purple robes and was carrying a clipboard.
Tea looked back at the pig in her arms and asked, "So, his name is Tonton?"
As the woman stepped into the room and took Tonton into her arms, she said, "Yes. You and the other two gentlemen must be Yugi's friends, Tea, Tristan and Joey, right?"
For a moment, the older teens were shocked at the fact that she knew their names. Then, they nodded silently in response to her question.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you," the woman said politely. "My name's Shizune. You've already met Tonton."
The small pig oinked as if he was saying hello to them. As she walked over to the bedside, Ino asked, "Hey, how did you know their names?"
"Oh, the Hokage wanted to know about our new guests, so Sakura and Sasuke told her about them," Shizune replied calmly while placing Tonton down onto Yugi's bed. While she filled out some things on her clipboard, the small pig went over to Yugi and nuzzled his cheek, resulting in him chuckling a little.
"So, you must be in charge of the hospital," Tristan said to Shizune, not seeing any type of uniform on her. "Is Yugi gonna be all right?"
While Sakura rolled her eyes at hearing them ask about that again, Shizune replied, "Yes, his arm should be better in no time. "I'm not the one in charge, though. I'm more like the head assistant around here."
"Oh, then who's your boss?" Tristan asked with confusion on his face.
"Wait, you seriously don't know?" Ino asked incredulously. After seeing the brunette boy shake his head, the blonde kunouchi said, "You're really out of the loop! I bet you know who she is, right, Joseph?"
Once again, the blond teen had Ino's eyes set on him. Joey was a little nervous from her admiring stare, but not wanting to look like a fool in front of everyone, he said, "Uh, yeah. Yeah! Of course I do! Her name is . . . uh . . ."
Suddenly, there came a loud squeal, and Tonton jumped into Shizune's lap, trembling. Surprised by this, Shizune asked, "Tonton, what's wrong?"
Hinata looked over at Yugi who seemed pretty dumbfounded himself, and she asked, "Y-Yugi, what happened?"
Hearing her question caused everyone to turn their attention to the small boy. Feeling a little awkward, Yugi fiddled with his bangs and replied, "Oh, uh, I don't know. I was just letting him wander on my bed. Then, he came across the puzzle, sniffed it, and . . . well, then that happened."
"Really?" Shizune wondered aloud, curious as to why that would happen.
Hinata, like some of the people there, were curious about this, and the shy girl thought, "I wonder. . . Did Tonton sense that strange chakra energy that I found with my Byakugan?"
Meanwhile, Sasuke's own suspicions about the puzzle heightened. Ha was about to ask once more about the object's hidden powers, but he was stopped by a knock at the door of the room. A voice came through asking, "Shizune, may I come in?"
"Oh, she's here!" Shizune said half to the teens and half to herself. Then, she quickly replied, "Yes, milady."
The door opened, and a beautiful woman entered. She appeared to be in her mid-20s, and she had blond hair in two ponytails and hazel eyes. There was also a strange diamond mark on her forehead. The blond woman wore a grey spaghetti strap shirt under a green jacket. She also wore black capris and black high-heeled sandals.
Yugi and his friends were all awestruck by this woman's beauty. The young shinobi also seemed surprised, but this was only because of the fact that the 5th Hokage herself came to them.
The first to speak was Naruto, who pointed at her and yelled, "WHA!? What are you doing here, Grandma?"
While the hazel-eyed woman twitched slightly in annoyance, Ino smacked him across the back of the head and yelled, "Naruto, you moron! Don't call her that!"
The older teens were confused by these reactions; the woman in front of them didn't seem to look old in the slightest. As they all pondered this, Kakashi came in from behind the woman and said, "Well, it looks like everyone's here. I guess that makes it easier for us to talk with you all."
"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said, confused at why his teacher was here.
Yugi gasped as he recognized the grey-haired man, and the small boy exclaimed, "You're that man from before!"
Kakashi looked over to him and said, "Ah. You look much better than you were a moment ago. How are you?"
The tri-colored hair boy thought for a moment before saying, "Um, I feel fine, but what happened to Ita--"
He was suddenly silenced as the blond woman shushed him and pressed a finger to his lips. Then, she said, "Don't worry. We'll answer that for you soon enough."
She then turned to Ino and Hinata, addressed the two of them, and said, "Would you two mind waiting outside? I need to have a moment with our new guests."
"Yes, ma'am," Ino replied, not giving much thought about it. Before leaving, the blond kunouchi turned to Yugi's friends and asked, "Hey, when you guys are done, how about I give you a tour of the village?"
"That would be great. Thanks," Tristan told her as Tea nodded.
"No problem!" Ino responded. Before going out the door, she gave one last wink to Joey and said, "I'll be waiting."
Shortly after her departure, Hinata bowed to everyone and said, "G-goodbye. It was great to meet you and your friends, Yugi."
"It was great meeting you too, Hinata," Yugi replied cheerfully. As the indigo-haired girl began to leave, the small boy remembered something and added, "Oh, and thanks again for bringing back the puzzle."
Hinata gave a small smile and a short nod back, and then, she left the room quickly.
After he was sure that the two girls were a safe distance away, Joey let out a relieved sigh and said, "Man, I thought they'd never leave. That Ino chick is scary."
Naruto laughed at this and said, "Man, if you think that was bad, you should see her around her teammates or when she fangirls about Sasuke. Sometimes, she's as bad as Sakura, I swear."
"What was that?" The pink haired girl growled at him.
Before Naruto could think of a way to avert her rage, Kakashi cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. As soon as everyone became focused on the adults, the blond woman said, "All right. Before I ask about this morning, I want to get this straight. Sasuke and Sakura have told me that you four were summoned from an entirely different universe by Naruto; is this true?"
"Yes, ma'am," Tea replied. "But, can we ask who you are?"
The blond woman replied, "Oh, of course. My name's Tsunade; I'm the head of the medical department."
"Wait, you're the one in charge?!" Joey asked with disbelief. He then stated, "We were told that you're the leader of this entire village!"
"That's correct," Tsunade told him.
Suddenly, the blond teen remembered something, and he added, "Naruto also said that you're an old woman in your 50s. How the heck do you look so young?"
Tsunade twitched slightly at being called an old woman, but quickly, she calmed down and replied, "I don't think that's necessary for you to know. Now, I'd like to hear about what happened this morning from the rest of you: just so we can have a better picture of what happened here."
So, getting back into serious discussion, everyone took their turns telling their own side of the story. The most interesting one for the adults to listen to was Yugi's; to put it simply, they did not expect a person like him to react the way he did towards Itachi. The small boy did leave out any details that concerned the nine-tailed fox, however, not sure if Naruto would've wanted him to share that kind of information.
Afterwards, Kakashi and Shizune had several questions in their minds. However, before they could be asked, Tsunade said, "Interesting. I'll be sure to keep this in mind."
Then, she turned to her assistant and asked, "Shizune, you cleaned Yugi's injury, right?"
"Yes, milady," Shizune responded.
"Good," the blond woman said. "I want you to take them off for me real quick."
As the brunette nodded her head and moved to Yugi's side to take off the bandages, Tristan asked, "Wait, what are you going to do?"
Tsunade turned her attention to the teens and responded calmly, "I'm going to get rid of your friend's injury."
"Wait. Get rid of it? Do you mean, like, make it disappear completely?" Tea asked, slightly confused by the hazel-eyed woman's response.
Joey chuckled and said, "That's impossible. You can't just fix something in a matter of seconds."
"Oh, is that right?" Tsunade said, looking him straight in the eyes. "Why don't I give you an example of my healing abilities?"
Joey was startled by this question and asked, "What do you mean?"
The blond woman motioned towards the cut on the blond teen's cheek, and he was reminded vaguely of when Kisame had given him that slight cut. Tsunade went over to him and placed a hand on his cheek. Then, her hand began to glow a pale green, causing Yugi and his friends to look in amazement. In a matter of seconds, the glow faded, but as far as Joey knew, he didn't feel much different. So, he asked, "Wait, that's it?"
"Yep, that's it," Tsunade told him. She handed him a small hand mirror and said, "Why don't you check and see for yourself?"
Slowly, Joey took the mirror. When he looked into it, he slightly gasped with surprise. The cut was gone! As he gently touched the spot where his cut used to be, the blond teen said quietly, "No way. It's like I never got hit. How did you do that?"
"Medical ninjutsu," the older woman said with a shrug, as if it were that simple. Then, she quickly turned her attention towards Yugi, whose arm was now completely un-bandaged. With his arm now uncovered, the occupants of the room could now see the scarred mark on his arm that was left by the kunai.
"All right, Yugi. Just relax," Tsunade said as she sat by the side of the bed.
Slowly, she placed her hand over the injury, and her hand began to glow a pale green once more. As she did her work, Tristan said to Sakura, "We had no idea you guys had healing powers; that's incredible!"
"Not really," the pink-haired girl said. "Although, it's true that you don't see many medic nins out there. You guys should be grateful to Lady Tsunade. If it weren't for her, there'd probably be even less medical ninjas out there. In fact, it's because of her work in the field of medical jutsus that made her known as one of the legendary Sannin."
"The legendary Sannin? Who are they, Sakura?" Tea asked her with curiosity.
Before the young kunouchi could explain this to the older teens, Tsunade said to them, "Well, his arm's fixed now."
The older teens looked over, and sure enough, Yugi's arm looked fine, clear of any marks. Tea, who seemed the happiest of Yugi's friends to hear this, turned to Tsunade and said, "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!"
"It's no trouble at all," the blond woman told them. "We would, however, like to have Yugi stay at the hospital for the night: at least until we sort things out."
Joey was about to protest by saying that Yugi was a lot tougher than they thought and that a simple jab shouldn't keep him in the hospital, but Tristan elbowed his friend hard in the ribs and said, "Oh, that's fine. Just do what you gotta do."
After Yugi had gotten done looking at his newly healed arm with awe, the small boy turned to Tsunade and said, "Yeah, thanks, Lady Tsunade."
"No problem," Tsunade responded warmly. "Now, before I leave, I do have one more question for you."
As Yugi and the other young occupants looked at her curiously, the older woman said, "According to what I've heard from Sasuke, Itachi was planning on killing you right away. However, he noticed that you had said something that caused him to refrain from doing so. I just want to know what exactly you said to Itachi to make him change his mind."
The small boy hesitated in his reply; he wasn't sure how to answer since Naruto had seemed pretty uncomfortable with people knowing about his inner demon. After a while, Yugi finally said, "Well, I told him that I knew why they were after Naruto."
"Wait, you figured out why they were trying to take him in the first place?" Tristan asked with disbelief.
The other adults, however, became wary with the small boy's response. He sounded honest, but it was hard to believe that a stranger to their world could discover something as serious as this. To make sure that he wasn't fooling around with them, Tsunade came up close to him and whispered, "What were the exact words you said to him? Don't worry; you can tell me."
Yugi looked at the other occupants cautiously before he whispered back so the others couldn't hear, "I said they were after . . . the NTF."
It took a moment for the older woman to process the hidden meaning behind the letters. After realizing what NTF stood for, her mind went into a surprised state. She now knew without a doubt that Yugi knew about the nine-tailed fox.
"Uh, you okay?" Joey asked her after some silence had passed in the room.
The blond woman went out of her surprised state, nodded, and said, "Yes, I'll be fine."
Then, she turned to the other two adults and said, "Kakashi, Shizune, I'd like to speak with the two of you in my office right away."
They nodded in agreement and moved to leave the room. Then, Tsunade turned to the pink-haired kunouchi and said, "Sakura, I'd like you and your teammates to come to the Hokage Tower in about an hour. We'll discuss where our new guests will be staying then."
"Yes, Lady Tsunade," Sakura responded, giving a small bow.
As the adults left the room, all three of them thought that the next several days were going to be interesting to say the least.
"Lady Tsunade sure is something," Joey said after the three adults had left the room. "No wonder she's your leader."
"Yeah," Tea said, her thoughts drifting to how their small friend had answered her earlier question. Before she could ask about why they were after the blond shinobi, Sakura said, "Well, I need to go get a drink of water real quick. I'll make sure to come up here when I'm about to leave, okay?"
Everyone nodded back to her, saying that it would be fine. Then, the pink-haired girl left. Shortly after, Tristan said, "Well, we should probably get going. That girl, Ino, wanted to give us a tour, and if we're going to be staying here for a while, we should probably get to know this place a little better."
" . . . Oh, all right," Joey said with a slight groan, not wanting to run into the flirtatious girl again. Before heading out, he ruffled the small boy's hair and said, "We'll see ya later, Yug."
"Okay, see ya, guys," Yugi said to them. "Have fun."
"Get better soon," Tea said before giving the small boy a kiss to the forehead, resulting in said boy blushing lightly.
And with that, the older teens said their goodbyes to the other two shinobi and left. Afterwards, an uncomfortable silence filled the room. Yugi observed Sasuke and Naruto; from the silence, the tri-color haired boy guessed that something was troubling them. Finally, he asked, "Is something wrong, guys?"
The blond shinobi took a deep breath, feeling a little uneasy, and while playing with the sleeves of his jacket, began to say, "Look, Yugi. Um, about what happened earlier . . . . . well, I never . . . I didn't mean to . . . . . Look, I--"
"Hold on, Naruto. Before you say what you want to say, can I ask something first?"
Naruto looked over at his rival with a confused face. Then, after thinking about it, he dumbly nodded his head. Yugi asked, "What is it, Sasuke?"
The young Uchiha heir looked at the small boy and said, "Yugi, I know you're no idiot like Joey or Naruto."
The blond shinobi gave Sasuke a cold glare while the raven haired boy continued, "You, of all people, should've been able to realize how powerful Itachi was. He's a heartless bastard who rarely ever spares anyone, yet you still stood up to him: even after knowing how strong he was. Why? Why did you do that?"
Yugi went into silence, remembering vividly what had happened that morning. He turned his gaze to look out the window while thinking of how to respond. After a long moment of silence, never turning his gaze away from the window, he said softly, "I was scared."
Naruto and Sasuke both found his response to be a bit strange, so they waited for the small boy to clarify. As Yugi gripped the chain to his pendant, he continued, "Ever since I finished the Millennium Puzzle, my friends and I have been put in danger countless times. Normally, they were only after me, though. When I felt Itachi's power today, I knew that he was probably the most dangerous person that I've ever come across before, so I guess I was scared that he'd end up hurting people that had nothing to do with what they were after."
He then turned to his ninja friends with a friendly smile on his face, and he finished, "I guess to put it simply, I was afraid that he was going to kill one of my friends right in front of me."
The two shinobi stared at him, shocked at the response, and Naruto thought, "Wait. So he made Itachi attack him . . . . . to protect us?"
Sasuke was additionally surprised because the only one that he had seen Itachi hurting was Sasuke himself, which would mean that Yugi was urged due to that. This confused him, though. Did that mean that Yugi considered them friends? After a while, Sasuke decided to leave. Before heading out the door, though, he scowled at the two occupants of the room and said, "Well, if we ever run into Itachi again, Yugi, stay out of my way. I'm the only one that will call Itachi out and fight him."
Then, he left and slammed the door behind him. Yugi stared after the direction that the Uchiha heir left through with a thoughtful expression on his face. Meanwhile, Naruto said, "Man, he is such an asshole! Why does Sasuke constantly say that only he can fight Itachi? I swear, one of these days, I'm gonna . . ."
". . . In a way, he's like me."
Naruto's mind went blank as he processed what his friend had just said. When he finished, the blond boy went into a fit of laughter as if he had heard a really, REALLY funny joke. He laughed for a few minutes before calming himself down quickly. Then, he looked over at Yugi and saw that he didn't find it funny. Finally, Naruto asked, "Wait. You're serious?"
When he saw Yugi nod his head, the blond boy couldn't believe it. He asked, "Are you crazy, Yugi? I mean, how could you compare yourself to a jerk like Sasuke? What could you two possibly have in common?"
"It has to do with Itachi," Yugi responded, resulting in Naruto staring at him, confusion evident on his face. The tri-color haired boy chuckled slightly at the look on his face and said, "Maybe you'll understand someday. Anyways, you wanted to say something earlier, right?"
In a matter of seconds, the blond shinobi remembered what he was going to say. He sat by the small boy, took a breath to relax himself, and said, "Well, I just wanted to say . . . I'm sorry."
Now it was Yugi's turn to look confused. With curiosity, he asked, "For what?"
The blond boy looked down and thought for a moment before saying, "Oh, I don't know. A lot of things, I guess. Like, I didn't mean to call you a dwarf earlier. Plus, I shouldn't have let you get hurt. Most importantly, I'm sorry that I had made assumptions about the spirit inside your puzzle."
Yugi looked at him with surprise; the first two things weren't a big deal to him, but he didn't expect Naruto to apologize about the last bit. To be honest, he had completely forgotten that he had told Naruto about Yami. When the small boy made no response, Naruto continued, "I shouldn't have just called him a demon, but I didn't know any better. I've only met one other person with a spirit in their body, and that spirit was a demon too. So, I thought that all spirits sharing a body with someone were like that. I wasn't thinking that the spirit wasn't evil, so, sorry. Maybe if I didn't assume things, you might not have gotten hurt this morning."
Yugi's amethyst eyes inspected the young boy, and he could see from Naruto's sparkling blue eyes that he truly did feel sorry about all this; how he had kept that regret hidden so well before was a mystery to him. With a kind voice, Yugi said, "It's all right, Naruto. I forgive you, although it wasn't your fault that I got hurt. What had happened was a result of my own actions, so you shouldn't worry about it. And it was more my fault since I had accidentally spilled to you all of that information. You have to understand, Naruto, my friends are already sharing my burden, and they've been put in danger so many times because of it. I didn't want you, or anyone else, to get put in that kind of danger, too."
Naruto suddenly came to a decision in his mind, and after a moment, he said, "Okay, how about we do this, then? I won't tell anyone about the spirit inside your Millennium Puzzle if you promise not to tell anyone about my inner demon. All right?"
The blond boy held his hand out to him, waiting for some sort of response. Yugi looked at him for a moment. Then, he smiled, shook Naruto's hand, and said, "Deal."
Naruto gave a fox grin in return, and after shaking hands, the two boys sat in silence. After a while, Naruto asked, "So, can I meet him?"
". . . What?"
"The spirit in your puzzle, can I meet him?"
"Oh!" Yugi said, realizing what the blond boy was asking.
Before the small boy could say anything to his question, the door opened, and Sakura popped her head in and said, "Naruto, we need to get going soon. Are you coming?"
Naruto sighed and muttered quietly, "Of all the rotten luck . . ."
"Don't worry," Yugi said. "We can talk later, okay?"
The blond shinobi looked into the small boy's amethyst eyes for a moment. Then, he smiled, got up, and said, "All right! See ya later, Yugi!"
"Bye, guys," the small boy said as the two shinobi left.
Now, finally alone, Yugi laid back in his bed, and through his mind link, he said to Yami, "Well, today's been pretty hectic, huh, Yami?"
"Yes, I agree," Yami replied. "But I have a feeling that this is only the beginning. Yugi, we must be careful these next few days."
"Right," Yugi replied before finally deciding to take a small nap, hoping that things could be sorted out soon.
PreviewPreviewPreviewPreviewPreview
Naruto: Well, this is just terrific!
Joey: What's the problem?
Naruto: Granma Tsunade knows all about you guys now. She says that we need to keep you guys safe while she figures out how to get you home. What are we going to do until she can find something?
Joey: . . . . . Um, I don't know. . . . . Hey! I know! Why not train us to be ninjas?
Naruto: Say, that's not a bad idea. It'll keep ya safe, and I could get in some training at the same time! All right! I'll bring it up!
Next time - Arrangement! Settling Down the Newcomers!
Well, there you go folks! Now, before you push that review button that oh so many fanfic users enjoy, I must speak about pairings. Since I'm trying to make this story sort of show format, there is no certain romance that I'm focusing on, so if you see something hinting to a pairing you like, then yay for you. If I do lean to a specific pairing, it will be a crossover romance between Hinata and Yugi. Now before I get a hundred complaints from NaruHina shippers, allow me to explain!
One day, during lunch, I was thinking of other possible pairings with Hinata. I thought, "Naruto is too oblivious to be worthy for Hinata sometimes, and he's a main character, so she may get in danger more often because of that." No one else seemed to fit, though. Then, randomly, Yugi came into my mind, and I thought, "That would be a cute pairing! I don't care if they're not in the same anime; that's adorable!" And then, through a lot of interesting daydreams, this crossover story was born. But, like I said earlier, I'm not gonna focus on romance that much in this story, so any pairing, be it canon or crossover, you see a slight hint for, then yay for you.
Now for my next matter of business. For those with a deviantart account, I am thinking about making a NarutoxYu-Gi-Oh crossover club. Anyone that thinks I should do it and/or would think about joining, go to my fanfic profile and find the link to my deviantart account. By now, I should have a new journal up, giving details about this idea. So, help make this unique crossover slightly more known in the world! :)
Okay, now I'm done. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review if you have any comments, and peace out!