CHAPTER NINE

ILLEGAL ALIENS

Before they all went their separate ways, in search of jobs, they all made an agreement. Once they had found a place to work, they were to meet back at the food court. There they would get lunch before heading back to the loft. All, but two, were sitting around a large round table, waiting to order.

"I'm so hungry," Naruto groaned, his head resting on the table. He stood up and lifted his shirt, exposing his stomach. Hinata blushed, and a few girls nearby giggled. "Look at this! Look at this! It's like I'm getting skinnier by the second! At this rate I could die, 'ttebayo! I'm going to wither away into nothing!"

"Naruto! You idiot," yelled Sakura, hitting Naruto upside the head.

Everyone gave Kakashi a questioning look, silently asking him if he was going to do something. The white haired man just shrugged, and continued reading his green book.

"I have to agree with the idiot blond," stated Deidara. They all sent him confused looks at his statement.

Konan was the first to speak what was on all their minds. "Deidara? You do realize that, you're a blond too?"

"Yeah. What's your point?" The blond bomber just looked confused. He had not seen anything wrong with what he had just said.

"Never mind," Konan sighed, giving up. Arguing with the blond was a lost cause. He would get angry, lose his temper, and blow something up. No one really wanted to deal with that.

"What would you all like to drink," a blonde waitress asked, fluttering her eyes at the boys. Konan narrowed her eyes, when the girl's eyes landed on Nagato. The girl paid her no mind, and pushed out her chest.

"We'll all have iced tea," Hana replied, putting the menu down. The girl shot her a look, and jotted down the order.

"What about Sasuke-kun and Kim?" Jade looked over at Sakura. She had forgotten about those two.

"Two more are coming. They'll have iced tea as well," Jade said, smiling at the girl, before the waitress walked away. A couple minutes passed before the waitress returned while Deidara was in the middle of one of his many rants about art.

"Oh! So you're an artist," their waitress exclaimed, as she was setting their drinks on the table. Deidara nodded, a bit miffed at being interrupted. "I love art! You know I'm planning on becoming an actress. I'll be a star, and in movies!"

"You do realize, that you're in the wrong state if you want that career," a voice questioned. The waitress turned around to see a girl with ebony hair. The newcomer continued. "This is Texas, not California." She got closer. "But you wouldn't know that. Considering that your hair dye most likely fried your brain along with your hair."

Everyone sitting at the table, including the ebony haired boy standing behind the newcomer, all tried to hold back their smirks, laughs, or smiles. The waitress looked around, thinking that one of the guys would defend her, she thought wrong. She stalked away in a huff, her tray tucked under her arm.

"Kimberly Ann! What did you do to your hair," Jade shouted, standing up after getting a good look at the Latina. She walked over to her friend, and started running her finger through the younger girl's hair. Kim slapped her hand away with a sharp pointed glare, and took a seat between Itachi and Naruto; Sasuke taking the only other available seat between his brother and Sakura. "Well, someone's in a bad mood," Jade muttered as she retook her seat.

"Hn," came Kim's grunt of a reply. She crossed her arms, and slouched in her seat, a frown marring her features.

"Wow! You really are the Teme's sister," Naruto exclaimed with a cheeky grin directed towards his best friend. Sasuke glared at his best friend.

"That's why you took so long," questioned the blond artist, ignoring the growing hostility between the young male members of Team 7, and effectively getting everyone back on track.

"It's not like I had much of a choice. It was either this or look stupid," Kim grouched sinking further in her seat.

"Why? What happened," Jade asked, concern lacing her voice.

"She got stuck," Sasuke stated, and Kim's glare hardened. Everyone looked at him, silently asking him to elaborate. He let out a sigh. "We were trying to escape my fangirls, but no matter where we went they found us. So we hid in a clothing rack. The front of Kim's hair got stuck on one of the metal hangers."

"But if you untangled her hair from the hanger, then there wouldn't have been a reason for a haircut," reasoned Jade. Kim glared harder if that was even possible.

"I didn't think about that, I just pulled it out. After I did that, the hair was just about down to her nose. She's been in a bad mood since after she saw her reflection," Sasuke finished.

"Do you know how much hair they had to cut off just to make it look decent? There was a mountain of hair on the floor! Then the stupid hair stylist just had to go and add some layers in. I have bangs! Bangs! I haven't had bangs since I was five," Kim exploded, gesturing to her new haircut. The stylist had taken a razor to her hair, and gave her messy bangs, that fell just below her eyebrows, and added a few long layers.

"It looks good. Kind of like mine, only I don't have any layers and my bangs aren't as messy," Hinata said with a smile. That encouraged the other girls to jump in, and tell Kim that it wasn't as bad as she thought. Itachi just patted his little brother on the shoulder. The rest of the guys just sent him pity filled looks. You just didn't mess with a girl's hair, especially your sisters. Deidara knew that first hand.

"Can we order our food, now? I'm starving," Nagato complained. "Where is our waitress, anyways?"

The group of twelve soon got tired of waiting on their waitress, and decided to go back to the loft and order take out. They picked up their shopping bags and headed back home. As they were slowly approaching the shop, they saw a man get in his car and leave.

"Hey old man we're home," Jade shouted out into the room as she threw the front door open.

"I'm not old," came the indigent reply. Ren walked into the room to see them all putting their shopping bags on the floor, and taking seats on the sofa, exhausted after a long morning. "What happened to your hair," he asked his daughter. His daughter just glared at Sasuke, and stayed quiet. "Anyways... I hope you all found jobs."

"I got a job at the Art Studio, teaching a clay sculpting class. Even though my boss creeps me out," Deidara said, giving Jade a look.

"I got hired at a clothing store called American Eagle. I don't think the manager believed me when I said that this is my natural hair color," stated Sakura, twirling a lock of her hair.

"I saw a pair of shoes that I liked, and decided to work at a shoe store called Journeys," Hinata said, blushing in embarrassment.

"Some random man walked up to me, and asked me if I wanted a job at Spencer's. The he took me to the manager, quit his job, and told her to give me his job," Nagato informed like it was nothing new.

"I saved Sasuke from his fan girls, and a got a job at Forever 21. Though I wish I had left him to the crazy fan girls," Kim muttered tugging on the ends of her new bangs as if it would make the hair grow.

"Kim dragged me into a store, and the manager offered me a job at Hot Topic," Sasuke said, returning Kim's glare for her comment.

"I got a job at Pet Smart. I can't wait to work with the animals they have in the store," Hana gushed. "They even mentioned that I could work as a dog trainer."

"I was eating cookies, when some old man ran up to me talking about surveys. Then he gave me a paper and told me to show up to work at GameStop on Monday," Naruto said offhandedly.

"I got a job at Body & Jewelry Corner. All the girl asked me was, if I was good with a piercing gun," Konan said.

"I got kidnapped by some random woman. Apparently, I boosted sales so much the manager offered me a job at Bath & Body Works," stated Itachi.

"I got kidnapped by a group of women, who wanted my opinion. The manager said that they went in everyday, but never bought anything, and today they did. She offered me a job at Victoria's Secret," Kakashi retold lazily. Everyone just stared.

"Kakashi-sensei you pervert," Sakura and Naruto chimed together. He just shrugged and went back to reading his little green book.

"Oh! I love you," Jade shouted, jumping up and tackling Kakashi in a bone-crushing embrace. "Now I can get a discount whenever I shop there! I love to shop at all those places. With the exception of Spencer's, GameStop, that piercing place, and Pet Smart, but the rest I love! Kim," Jade said quieting down. "I don't think working at Forever 21 is such a good idea."

"What, why," Kim questioned a bit confused.

"That place is super girly, and you're more of a Tomboy."

"I can be girly," Kim said defiantly.

"You hate cutting your hair, for one. You don't even own a skirt, much less a dress. Can you even walk in heels," Jade questioned.

"I guess you're right, for once," Kim muttered in agreement. Though to be fair, she spent the majority of her time working in the shop. More often than not she was covered in oil. Jeans, blacks shirts, and her oil stained Converse were the more practical choice. It's not like she was opposed to wearing those sorts of things, she just didn't have the time to wear them.

"I know I am... Hey," Jade shouted, hearing her end comment.

"But that doesn't mean that I can't work there. I'll just dress nicer, without wearing a dress and heels." She made a mental note to herself to browse the shops under the guise of visiting her friends. Another shopping trip with Jade was something to be avoided at all costs.

"We're hungry," Naruto and Nagato said in unison. They were both getting tired of waiting for food. Everyone made faces at the thought of cooking.

"I'll order pizza," Ren said, getting up from his seat on the coffee table. Taking his phone out of his pocket he paused, "What does everyone want?"

"Mushroom, onion, green pepper, and hamburger with extra cheese for Kim. A meat lovers for me. That weird buffalo wing pizza for you. I'm not really sure what everyone else might want. Do they even have pizza where you guys are from?"

After finding out that the ninja had no clue what pizza was, the three knowledgeable ones filled them in. They ended up ordering thirteen small pizzas, cheese sticks, and hot wings. While they were waiting for the pizza to arrive, Ren decided to let them in on what he had did that morning.

"So, while you all were busy shopping and finding jobs at the mall, I did some things of my own. Since you're all going to be working and all, you all will need certain documents. Such as, birth certificates, social security cards, IDs, and driver's licenses for those of you old enough to actually drive."

"How didn't we think of that," Kakashi said, his eyes widening.

"There's no way we can work without those," Itachi added.

"Don't start freaking out," Ren commanded, effectively silencing any further comments from the others in the room.

"Kim," Jade called looking over to her friend, worry making her voice thick.

"What?"

"How can your dad be so calm, at a moment like this? They could all be mistaken for illegal immigrants, and accidentally get deported to Japan. If anyone finds out about their super powers, they could wind up in a government facility," she wondered. Kim just shrugged her shoulders, and pointed to her dad.

"I don't want to be experimented on, dattebayo!"

Ren coughed to regain their attention.

"So, like I said, I did some things of my own this morning. When I was in prison, I met a man who could create near perfect forgeries. I met with him, and gave him some pictures of you all. He did the rest, and came by just a while ago to drop off the finished documents," Ren said, dropping a stack of folders on the coffee table. "Everything you might need is in here, and unless you commit some major crime, you'll be fine."

"You were in prison," Jade screeched pointing at the man she considered a father, then to her best friend she cried, "He was in prison."

"Yeah. You do know that he's a reformed criminal, right?"

"WHAT!"

"Apparently, not," Kim muttered. The ninja just shrugged it off. Ren was a kind man. They never felt an ounce of killer intent coming from the man. Besides, most of them couldn't talk, unless they wanted to be called out on being hypocritical.

"What did you do to get thrown in prison," Naruto wondered aloud. Sakura hit him over the head telling him to mind his own business. They all awkwardly turned to face the man.

"It's okay. He's just curious, he means no harm," Ren defended the young blond boy, "but I don't really like to talk about it. That part of my life is over now." Just then the doorbell downstairs chimed, saving Ren from further explanations.

The rest of the day was spent eating pizza, and watching movies. Jade introduced them all to her favorite horror movies. Kim introduced Naruto, mush to the displeasure of everyone, to orange soda. They all had a good time. Jade was having the time of her life tormenting Kim, scaring her every chance she got. So much so, the girl had somehow managed to wedge herself between the Uchiha brothers at one point.

Soon day turned into night. No one went to bed until about 3:00 in the morning.

Jade being Jade, snuck into Kim's room and found a nice hiding place in the closest. Just as Kim had gotten comfortable, she jumped out making the ebony haired girl scream in terror. Jade continued to torment her best friend for the rest of the weekend. By Sunday night, Kim was so freaked out she couldn't sleep. She was too afraid that something or someone would jump out at her again. Soon she couldn't take it.

"Jade that bitch," Kim muttered, as she got out of bed and walked to her father's room. The door was locked. She was freaking out. She swore she could hear footsteps. Fuck this, she thought. She ran to her older brother's room, and hopped in to bed with him. She snuggled in between Itachi and Sasuke.

"What are you doing," Itachi mumbled sleepily. His eyes were barely open.

"Jade keeps freaking me out. Please let me sleep in here," Kim begged making the most pitiful expression she could muster.

"Fine." With that he turned around and fell asleep. She had brought her own pillow and blanket with her. She got comfortable. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard someone speak.

"You're a weird one," Kakashi spoke from the bottom bunk.

"Shut up." She turned over and fell asleep, faintly hearing someone chuckling.