Welcome back everybody! AnimeSnowflake coming back from the dead with another update! It seemed much easier to write this chapter after Christmas 'cuz I got a SansaFuze, and the music helped me with my writing! I'm happily bringing this update on account of that and several other things: 1) my B-day is this Saturday, 2) I got good grades on my semester exams, 3) I got a job, and 4) I finally got some members to join my NYC-Club on deviantart! But more on my life later. I hope you enjoy this update! :)

Disclaimer: It would be nice if I could own either of these animes for my B-day, but I highly doubt it'll happen then, or any other day for that matter.

Arrangement: Settling Down the Newcomers

The afternoon had already begun in the Hidden Leaf Village. At the current moment, Tsunade, Shizune and Kakashi were in the Hokage's office, discussing about the universal newcomers. More specifically, Tsunade was informing the two adults on what Yugi had told her earlier in the hospital.

"What?!" Kakashi said incredulously with evident shock in his voice. "Is this true?!"

"Yes," Tsunade said calmly. "He knows."

"But how?" Shizune asked. "How did Yugi learn about the Nine-Tailed Fox in the first place?"

"How he learned about it doesn't matter," Tsunade told her. "What I'm more worried about at the moment is that he learned that the Akatsuki are after it. And what's worse, they know that he figured it out."

"But Lady Tsunade," Shizune said with confusion. "I don't understand; is that bad?"

"Trust me, Shizune, it's bad," Kakashi told her, a serious tone in his voice. "When I fought those two, they tried to take me once they figured out that I knew about the Akatsuki and their motives. I'm pretty sure that this won't be the last time that they try to come after Yugi."

"I agree," Tsunade said, turning to look out the window. "Still, I find it hard to believe that this would be the only reason for him to become a target. Those two are after something, but what?"

The adults tried thinking of other reasons, but before they could say anything, there was a knock at the door. After a moment, the adults heard the voice of Sakura as she asked, "May we come in, Lady Hokage?"

"Wait one moment," Tsunade told her. Quietly, she said to Shizune and Kakashi, "We won't mention any of our suspicions concerning the Akatsuki to anyone. I don't want our shinobi or new guests to worry until we know for certain the enemy's next course of action. Do I make myself clear?"

They nodded their approval of her plan. As soon as she saw this, Tsunade called back, "All right. Come in, guys."

Silently, the young members of squad seven entered the office. The three of them looked occupied in their own thoughts: Sakura, thinking of how Tsunade would handle this situation, Sasuke, thinking back in frustration of his failed attempt to beat Itachi earlier that day, and Naruto, wondering when Yugi would finally introduce him to the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle.

After looking around, Kakashi was the first to break the ice by asking, "Um, guys, where are our guests?"

"Taking a tour," Naruto replied casually. He then turned to the Sannin and asked, "So, Grandma Tsunade, where are these guys going to stay?"

Tsunade's eye twitched furiously at the nickname. Before she could proceed to fling her desk at him or launch him out the window, however, Shizune intervened and asked, "First off, there's something we'd like to know. How did you summon them again?"

Naruto put on a look of slight confusion and said, "I don't know. I think we got the summoning jutsu from a book or something."

"Well, are you sure that this book didn't have a way to send them back?" the young woman asked as Tsunade gained back her cool.

Sakura replied, "Well, when we read the book, it looked like it had a jutsu to reverse it, but the page that it was supposed to be found on was missing."

"… I see," Tsunade said softly, putting her hand to her chin and having a thoughtful look in her hazel eyes. After a moment, the blond woman turned to Kakashi and asked, "Do you remember anyone ever looking through this book, Kakashi?"

Kakashi thought about for a moment, and then, he said thoughtfully, "Well, of course. Several Jounin have taken it before to learn new jutsu, and once, even the 3rd Hokage used it once."

This caused the blond woman to raise her eyebrows in surprise. Then, she said, "Really? And when was this?"

"I can't remember all that well," Kakashi said, rubbing the back of his head in an embarrassed gesture. "It was a long time ago."

As the grey-haired man pulled out his book, Make-Out Paradise, Tsunade thought over the information given to her. After a while, she said to the Genin, "All right. Here's what will happen for the next several days. While Shizune and myself try to figure out how to send Yugi and the others back, you three will have them stay with you. Keep them safe, and don't pick any fights."

As she spoke, Sasuke inwardly groaned and thought, "So, pretty much, she expects us to babysit? This will just hold me back."

"But, what if we're attacked again?" Sakura asked with worry. "If those two ninja come back, we won't stand a chance!"

"Sakura's right!" Naruto added with concern evident in his eyes and voice. "We need to them how to fight back or at least how to defend themselves!"

Sasuke gave him a suspicious look at this statement, and he asked, "What are you implying?"

It seemed as if Naruto had been waiting for someone to ask him this; with a fierce look in his eyes, the blond boy said boldly, "I saw we train them to become ninjas like us!"

The adults remained silent, contemplating this, while Sakura said, "Are you kidding? It took us years to learn how to become shinobi. Do you really think they could learn in a few days what took us years to learn?"

Naruto replied with a huff, "Well, they're older than we were back then; I think they can manage. Besides, I don't see you or Sasuke making any suggestions."

"That's because we actually think about what to do, not just blurt out whatever comes to our minds first," Sakura explained in a tone that clearly showed her annoyance with him at the moment.

At that moment, Sasuke said, "Actually, I have to agree with Naruto on this one. Teaching those four how to fight like shinobi would make protecting them a lot easier for us."

Naruto smiled at hearing this, but this moment was short lived as the young Uchiha heir continued, "However, I'm not sure we should trust them enough for that. How can we be certain that they won't just stab us in the back later on?"

He then proceeded to glare at his blond teammate, daring him to respond. Naruto in response growled and said angrily, "They'd never do that! Besides, I think you're more worried about them going after that bastard brother of yours, Itachi!"

Naruto had hit the nail on the head with that last statement, those being Sasuke's actual thoughts. At hearing the elder Uchiha's name, Sasuke clenched his teeth together, and his hands balled into fists. He would've gone up to Naruto and started a fight, but seeing where this conversation was going, Kakashi moved over and placed himself between the two boys. After he had told Sasuke to calm down, Tsunade said to the group, "If you wish to teach them self-defense, I don't have any problem with it. For shinobi training, however, you need to have a Chuunin supervise, not to mention consent from everyone involved."

"Aren't all Chuunin busy with missions right now?" Sakura asked, wondering how they could get a supervisor.

In response to her question, Shizune said, "Actually, we just promoted Shikamaru to Chuunin; I'm sure you could get him to help."

"WHAT?!" Naruto said with shock. "He became Chuunin? Shikamaru?!?"

"Yeah," Kakashi said, laughing slightly. "Weird how things work that way, huh?"

After the members of squad seven got over their surprise, Naruto brightened up and said cheerfully, "That's awesome! Tomorrow, we can find Shikamaru and get him to train Yugi, Tristan, Joey and Tea! This'll be so cool!"

"Not so fast, Naruto," Tsunade said as she walked towards the office doors. "You're still going to have to convince him to help; plus, you need to propose this idea to everyone else. Fortunately, the latter has already been taken care of."

The young shinobi gave Tsunade looks of confusion. Then, after a brief moment, the blond woman opened the doors. Immediately, Joey, who had been leaning on the door to listen to the conversation, fell forward. Quickly, he got up, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment while giving a small chuckle. Behind him, Tristan and Tea sighed.

"Hey guys!" Naruto exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I thought you guys were taking a tour."

"Ino dropped us off," Tea explained. Then, she said nervously, "We would've waited downstairs for you to be done, but--"

"--But Joey here wanted to eavesdrop," Tristan finished, stating the truth rather bluntly.

"I did not!" Joey shouted at him. "I just wanted to gather information."

"Well, how much did you hear?" Sakura asked, not wanting to hear any more arguments today.

The blond teen turned to them and said casually, "Oh, well, the first thing I heard of your conversation was when Naruto said something about mini-Kaiba not wanting us to go after Itachi."

As Sasuke delved into the familiar feelings associated with Itachi, the adults became slightly confused at Joey's "nickname" for the raven-haired boy. Curious, Kakashi asked, "Um, mini-Kaiba?"

"Don't ask," Tristan told him with a short sigh.

Ignoring this, Tsunade said to the teens, "So, you heard about our plan to teach you to fight?"

"Don't you mean train us to be ninja? And yeah, we did," Joey told her.

"So?" Tsunade asked them. "What do you think?"

The blond teen seemed to think about it for a moment. Then, with a grin on his face and a fierce look in his eyes, he responded, "Well, I like the sound of it. You can count me in!"

"Me too," Tristan added in. "This sounds like something we should learn before something like today happens again."

A lapse of silence filled the air as all attention became focused on Tea. She was looking towards the ground, a concerned look in her sapphire eyes. To break the silence and hopefully get a response, Kakashi asked, "So, what about you?"

After another brief moment of silence, the blue-eyed girl finally said, "Well, if we're learning ninja techniques…" she brought up her head, a determined look now in her eyes. "… would I be able to learn medical jutsus?"

The younger shinobi looked towards Tea, surprise in heir eyes; from the look on her face, she seemed determined to get this type of training. Her other friends, however, perfectly understood what she was thinking about. Joey asked, "Tea, does this have anything to do with what happened to Yugi today?"

Tea gave a sharp nod in response and said, "Yes. I don't want to be in that kind of situation again and not be able to help!"

Tsunade smiled at what she said; her words reminded the Sannin of herself when she was younger. Tea seemed pretty set on medical jutsus, and she had the proper drive to study it. So, the blond woman told her, "Very well. When you finish mastering chakra control, come by my office, and I can start training you in the medical field. Just know that it won't be easy."

Tea broke out into a bright smile bowed to her, and said, "Yes ma'am! Thank you so much!"

After this, Shizune said, "Well, now that that's settled, did you decide where everyone's staying?"

This seemed to stump the older teens for a moment; they hadn't thought about that. Sakura thought aloud, "Well, Tea will stay with me, of course. That goes without saying. We won't need to figure Yugi out until tomorrow since he's staying at the hospital tonight, so that just leaves Tristan and Joey."

"Right," Joey said. "And since we're supposed to be with you guys for however long we're staying here, we have to choose between--- Naruto… and…" He trailed off as he came to a sickening realization and looked over towards Sasuke with dread.

It seemed that Tristan was having the same exact thoughts, and at the same time, the two boys exclaimed loudly, "I call Naruto!!"

They both glared at each other, and Joey said, "You're going with mini-Kaiba!"

"Why can't you?" Tristan retorted back.

As they continued arguing, Tea groaned and smacked her forehead, muttering, "Boys…"

"Wow! I don't think I've ever beaten Sasuke at popularity!" Naruto said happily, earning him glares from his teammates.

After a while, Tristan ended the argument by saying, "Look, why don't we settle this the usual way?"

Joey paused and gave his brunette friend a look of confusion. Then, he asked, "Wait, do you mean 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'?"

"Yep," Tristan replied, earning sweatdrops from most of the occupants in the room. "First to three wins goes with Naruto."

"Fine," the blond teen replied, stretching his arms out. "Just don't cry when I beat you."

-A short moment later-

"WHAT?!? Three times in a row??"

Tristan stood there, a smile on his face, and he said, "Well, looks like I win. Sorry, man."

Joey was slumped over, a defeated demeanor being expressed from his body. He whined to his friend, "No. You're not sorry at all! You rigged those rounds, and you know it!"

"He didn't do anything, Joey," Tea said matter-of-factly. "All Tristan did was pick paper every round. You just weren't lucky; that's all."

Joey turned away from the group, anime tears streaming down his face, and he said with despair, "Don't remind me! Now, I'm stuck with mini-Kaiba 'cuz of my stupid luck!"

In response to this outburst, Sasuke said, "Hmph, just stay out of my way, idiot."

"What was that?!" Joey shouted back in an angry tone.

"You heard me," the young boy said in a smug tone.

As the blond boy growled and glared at the young boy, knowing that he wouldn't enjoy this, Kakashi sighed, thinking, "It seems Sasuke has a gift for making others hate him. This won't end well."

"Okay, you guys can leave now," Tsunade told them. "We'll call you back if we find anything about how to send our guests back home."

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade," Sakura said as she and everyone else left the office.

TimeLapseTimeLapseTimeLapseTimeLapseTimeLapse

The sun was now setting, and as Joey was walking down the streets, he couldn't help but frown and glare daggers at Sasuke. The group had split up a while ago, and at that point, the blond teen had stopped talking, knowing that the arrogant shinobi wouldn't be friendly even if he said something to him.

While they continued to make their way through the streets in silence, Joey thought, "Man, I still can't believe I got stuck with him of all people! That Sasuke's a real jerk, thinking he's all superior and what not. He's probably just gonna be a total ass the entire time we're at his house or mansion or wherever the hell he lives."

"Well, we're here," Sasuke told him in a monotonous tone, bringing the blond teen out of his thoughts. Joey had to do a double-take, however, not believing what he saw.

"What?" Sasuke asked while raising his eyebrow, wondering why he looked so dumbstruck. "Were you expecting something?"

He looked back to the young Uchiha and responded, "Well, yeah! I was expecting a mansion with balconies and statues and butlers and stuff, not an apartment!!"

And, in fact, they had stopped in front of an apartment. It did actually have one balcony, but other than that, it didn't resemble a mansion in the slightest. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the older teen's statement of surprise and moved towards the apartment, saying, "Well, if you have a problem with it, you can sleep outside."

Not wanting to be left outside to deal with a cold breeze, Joey followed him into the apartment. When they reached the place where Sasuke settled down, the blond teen was as surprised as he was when he saw the apartment. On the left side of the room upon entering, there was a wide window with curtains on each side. There was a picture of squad seven set up on the windowsill. Then, propped up under the window was a dresser for clothes, a small bookshelf and a wooden counter with a small TV on top of it. In the far corner of the room, there was an armchair with a table placed next to it. On the far wall, there was a sliding door that led out to the balcony. In the middle of the room was a neatly made bed; by its side was an end table with a lamp on top of it. Finally, on the right wall were two doors and one open walkway: areas that Joey guessed led to a closet, bathroom and kitchen.

"Wow," Joey said as he looked around the room. "There's not a single item in this room that shows how much of a jerk you are."

"A shinobi doesn't need a fancy place to live," Sasuke said as he turned the lamp on to get some light into the room. "As long as the regular human needs can be met, the house is just fine."

"… Weird," Joey thought as he meandered over to the wide window. Looking out through the window, he thought quietly, "Nice view."

"You take the chair tonight," Sasuke said, once again bringing the blond out of his thoughts. "We'll set up a mattress tomorrow. There should be a spare blanket in the closet."

With that being said, the young shinobi went to the kitchen to find something to eat. Joey was surprised at Sasuke's unusually polite behavior; he hadn't even thrown any snide comments. The only thing that irked him was how the raven-haired boy wasn't even trying to strike up a normal conversation. However, he didn't let this affect him, and the blond wandered over to the closet. Strangely enough, he picked the right door with the first guess, and he was surprised to see the closet so organized. Joey scanned the storage space with his brown eyes until he spotted a neatly folded maroon blanket. When he reached for the blanket, he felt its fleecy texture. He draped the blanket over his right shoulder and was going to take it over to the armchair until something caught his eye: a small, old picture frame with a layer of dust coating the glass.

Curiosity getting the better of him, Joey quietly picked up the frame, observing the wooden outline. He thought, "This is a nice frame. Why doesn't Sasuke use this? I mean, even a guy like him has to have pictures to put in here, right?"

His fingers shifted slightly across the glass, and the blond teen was surprised to see part of a photo already in the picture frame. Wanting to see the full photo, he wiped away the brown dust, and his brown eyes were greeted by a family photo. There were four people in the photo: the parents and two young boys.

Joey did a double-take at seeing the younger boys, and after a moment, he thought, "Whoa! Is that Itachi and Sasuke?"

After observing the photo more intently, he could see the similarities between the Uchiha brothers and their younger selves, but he still couldn't believe the fact that they were smiling. The father had brown hair, deep onyx eyes, and a serious look on his face: the ideal picture of a leader. The mother seemed gentler and had black hair and onyx eyes.

As he stared at the photo, Sasuke came out of the kitchen, chewing the remnants of an onigiri. He turned to Joey and said, "Well, how long do you plan on staying the--"

He froze, however, when he spotted the picture frame that Joey was holding. A pang of discomfort ran through his body as memories that he would rather forget flashed in his mind. Joey seemed to notice Sasuke standing there, and he brought the young boy out of his daze by asking, "Um, are you okay?"

Finally being able to react, Sasuke quickly snatched the picture from Joey's hands and hit him across the back of the head. After giving a short yelp, the blond teen shouted, "OW! What the hell, man?!"

"Don't EVER touch this!" Sasuke growled in a furious tone, much different then his indifferent tone from earlier. Sasuke would probably never admit this to anyone, but he had an extreme pet peeve against people who would nose around in his family business. Not only was it disrespectful, but for Sasuke in particular, it brought up painful memories: either of the Uchiha Massacre or sometimes happier times he had with Itachi when he was younger. At moments, those memories were worse than that of the Massacre since Sasuke knew that the happiness from long ago could never come back in his life.

As he shoved the picture back into the closet, Joey said, "Hey! Why are you getting so worked up? It's just a photo! Is there something wrong with showing a picture of your family? I mean, I guess I get why you wouldn't want to be shown in a picture with Itachi, but what's so bad about your parents?"

Unseen by Joey's eyes, Sasuke's face expressed shock and ….. a hint of pain? Now, the young boy felt that the older teen was taking this conversation too far. Realizing something, Joey asked, "Speaking of which, where are your parents?"

"None of your business," Sasuke said, voice trying to hide the signs of discomfort. He slammed the closet door and went towards the window.

Kind of annoyed, Joey said, "Don't you dare pull that crap with me, mini-Kaiba! Isn't it important for me to know your parents? How do you know that they're okay with a complete stranger staying here with you?"

"They won't know a thing about it," the raven-haired boy said, voice wavering in volume levels as he tried to calm down with little success.

As he sat on the edge of his bed, back facing the blond teen, Joey asked, "Oh, really now? Why? Are they sick? Stupid? Out of town?"

"Dead."

Joey froze, startled by that one simple word. The young boy had simply uttered it, but somehow, he could sense the bleakness in Sasuke's voice. Wanting to make sure he heard right, and hoping that he didn't, Joey asked, "Wha… What'd you say?"

Sasuke's hands balled into fists at hearing the question, and a sick feeling entered his chest; how many times did he have to say it? In a slightly louder, more aggravated tone, he replied, "They're dead, okay? Just drop it now."

"… Oh," Joey muttered quietly, looking towards the ground in shame. He finally realized that he had brought up a very painful subject to Sasuke. He had no idea what to do as the silence seemed to engulf them. Talking about things could make things worse, and he was NOT going to give him comforting human contact! Sasuke probably wasn't the type to accept that, and besides, doing that was more like Yugi's kind of thing. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Joey said, "Well, I guess that explains your attitude then."

Sasuke glanced over at him, unable to hide the questioning look in his eyes. Joey went to the armchair and explained, "Well, some pretty serious crap happened with Kaiba, too. Yug knows a lot more about it than I do, but apparently, Kaiba and his little brother, Mokuba, got adopted by some guy called… Eh, well, I forget his name. Anyways, because of that guy, Rich Boy's the arrogant son of a bitch that he is today."

Sasuke hn'd and turned away from Joey to turn off the lamp. He didn't even bother to change into more comfortable clothes to sleep in; he wasn't in a mood to get up. He got under the covers, not wanting Joey to talk to him anymore. Joey sat in silence and looked up towards the ceiling, thinking about their conversation. After a long moment in silence, the blond could tell that Sasuke had already fallen asleep. Looking towards his still form, Joey said, "You two really are alike; you've both gone through some serious shit that somehow made you stronger. But you're also different from Kaiba. While he cares about his brother more than life itself, you loathe Itachi to no end."

In a quieter, gentler voice, he said, "I'm gonna figure out what Itachi did to make you hate him so much. As soon as I find out what he did, I'm gonna force him to make it up to you; it's his duty as the older brother to fix this!"

After saying this, Joey settled down into a comfortable position, and after a while, he fell asleep, believing that no one had heard what he had just said. Little did he know that Sasuke had heard every word of it. He had been unable to sleep with his troubling thoughts keeping him up, and he was surprised to hear Joey say such things, especially when it seemed that Joey was the one who disliked him the most. For a moment, he thought about telling the blond teen that it was actually Itachi who had killed his parents, but he decided against it, not wanting him or anybody else to learn the truth. Finally, after a few more minutes, Sasuke fell into a dreamless sleep.

PreviewPreviewPreviewPreviewPreview

Naruto: All righty, guys! Let's go!

Tristan: Hold on; where are we going exactly?

Naruto: To find the person that'll help you guys become shinobi like us!

Joey: Oh, yeah. Someone called Shikamaru. So, what's this guy like anyways?

Sakura: Um, well, how do I say this?

Tea: What? What kind of person is he?

Naruto: Look, let's just save that for later and find him already!

Next time - Initiation! The Laid-back Teacher!

God! The preview for next chappie was very difficult to type this time around! Well, overall, the only thing that I may have a problem with in this chapter is my portrayal of Sasuke. I'm not sure if that got him out of character or not. Oh, well, I guess I'll figure out in the reviews! This chapter seems very short compared to the last three; that's kinda weird....

Anyhoo, I have a feeling that my life is going to run more smoothly the next several days. What with the good grades and new job (as a vender at Six Flags, I might add) I feel as if things couldn't get any better. If you could review or try to join the NYC-Club on deviantart, that would add more pleasure in my life.

So on that note, thanks for reading the latest update, and I hope your days are going pretty good as well. See ya later! ^-^