CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

MOVIES AND RANDOMNESS

Once again all twelve of the loft's occupants, excluding Ren, were lounging around the living room. The four youngest of the group had just gotten back from their first day of school, and they were relaying the highlights of their day.

"You should have seen her, dattebayo! I didn't think she was going to do anything, but I was wrong. Dead wrong, 'ttebayo! Sakura-chan just got up and walked over to him calmly. When she got there she started acting all cute, like she hadn't just seen him sucking face with some other chick. Then as she was talking she grabbed a handful of spaghetti, and then BAM! She threw it in his face! She even shoved garlic bread down his pants! When that other girl tried hitting Sakura-chan, she tripped her! That girl landed in another girl's cake! After that the entire cafeteria broke out into a food fight! It was so much fun, dattebayo," Naruto retold the events of their lunch break.

Hinata was shaking her head and giggling along with Konan and Hana. Sasuke sat there smirking while Itachi was shaking his head at his little brother. Kim, Deidara, and Nagato were full out laughing. Kakashi was surprised to hear that was all she had done to the guy, he knew of her temper that rivaled that of the Hokage's. Jade was raving on about their ruined outfits slightly reminding Sakura of another blonde.

"Did any of you join a sports team," Ren questioned them eagerly. "I've always wanted to be able to go to my child's games or meets, but Kimberly ruined that for me."

"What the hell, dad! I was practically finished with school by the time I even met you," Kim retorted in her own defense, glaring at her father.

"No one told you to graduate THREE years early! You damn nerd," Ren said crossing his arms in defiance.

"I wasn't even in public school! I was home-schooled, remember? I remember you giving me so much grief when it came taking me to go take the standardized tests."

"Excuses," muttered Ren making Kim throw her arms up in exasperation. "So did anyone join a sports team?"

"Once me and the Teme learned how to play, and the coach asked us to join the basketball team," Naruto stated nonchalantly. Ren was so excited that he jumped up and gave the boys a bear hug.

"This is so exciting," Ren exclaimed. "What about you girls?" They shook their heads in the negative.

"You guys should join the cheerleading squad," Jade shouted her suggestion, though everyone in the room knew that it really wasn't. Kim rolled her eyes. "I was a cheerleader in high school! It's so much fun! You get to go to all the sporting events for free, they even give you snacks, and you get to wear the cute little uniforms," she gushed. The two girls told her they would try out, causing her to squeal in excitement.

"It's not even real gymnastics. It's all stiff movements and pep," Kim grumbled under her breath. "Not to mention all the glitter. It's not like any of the teams have ever made it to the semi-finals or anything."

"Someone's salty," Kakashi whispered into her ear, followed by a light chuckle. She glared at him. He gave her a cheeky grin. "I've always been partial to the performing arts. The ballet in particular."

"Shut up," Kim whined, knocking the man with her shoulder.

"I'm bored," Hana announced to the room in an attempt to take Itachi's hard stare off of the Hatake and his little sister. It seemed to work.

"Movie marathon," Kim suggested with a shrug of her shoulder. She looked around getting the approval of the group. "Hana picks the first movie."

Hana nodded and got up from her seat. She walked over to one of the two selves on either side of the mounted tv that contained all the movies they owned. After skimming through the movies, she found one she thought would be cute. Holding up the movie for the others to see, she waited to hear their responses.

"Beauty and The Beast, an animated Disney Princess classic," Jade stated as Kim sat up straighter with a dorky grin on her face. Surprisingly only Deidara, Nagato and Sasuke groaned when they heard the word: princess.

"Oh! That was a beautiful ending, dattebayo," Naruto shouted wiping a stray tear. "The feels!"

"Sakura gets to pick the next one," Hana shouted, shoving the girl forward.

The pink haired girl rose from her seat and look through all the movies. She could not decide on a good movie, so she just chose one at random. She ended up choosing the 1978's Superman. The group ended up watching the 1980's Superman II, and Superman Returns. All the guys congratulated Sakura on her choice of movie.

After that they went to bed as it was late on a school night, and some had work.

Kim woke up in a daze the next morning, sitting up groggily and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. As she stretched her arms out over her head, she glanced at her digital alarm clock. Looking straight ahead and then turning her head, giving herself whiplash, back over to look at the clock, she hoped she had read it wrong. She stared at the clock for a few minutes, before jumping out of bed and scrambling to get dressed. She was two hours late for work.

She nearly fell over as she tried to put her on her shoes as she ran out of her bedroom and then running back in as she realized she had to pee. Walking back out of her room, slightly more composed, she headed straight for the front door.

"You're not late for work," Kakashi spoke as she passed him on her way to the door. She stopped in her tracks, turning on her heel to face the man sitting at the kitchen counter.

"I was supposed to be there two hours ago," she shouted, "and don't you have to be at work too? If you continue being late all the time, you're going to get fired."

"I won't get fired. I bring in too many customers for them to even consider it," he said smirking slightly underneath his mask. "Besides we are already at work."

"How the hell can we be at work when we're still in the loft? Are yo-"

"Shadow clones. Although I don't have enough chakra to make as many as Naruto, I can still make two, one for me and one for you, and sustain them for a few hours."

"What's a shadow clone?"

"You can learn that when you learn to mold chakra. Get changed and let's get to your training," he said standing up and grabbing an apple.

Kim quickly ran back to her room, and took her time changing into her workout clothes. She opted for another pair of black shorts and a yellow tank top over a gray sports bra. Once she was changed and had laced up her black running shoes, she made her way out back and towards the clearing in the forest.

"Well you sure took you time." She smiled cheekily as a reply.

"When do I start learning to mold chakra, whatever that is," she asked excitedly.

"Chakra is the resulting form of energy when two other energies are mixed together, having those other two energies become more powerful, and will in turn make the chakra more powerful. These two energies are physical energy, which is collected from the body's cells, and spiritual energy, which is built up through experience and meditation," Kakashi explained.

"Now I know what chakra is, but what does molding chakra mean," Kim asked still confused.

"Molding chakra means to extract energies from both the body and the spirit, and then mixing them up in your body. And the amount of each energy will differ from the type of technique you wish to execute. In other words, the amount you'd need to draw out will be different. You are not able to use your chakra effectively. Even if you are able to mold a large amount of chakra, if you cannot control the balance, your technique will only be half as effective or not executed at all. Using too much chakra can result in chakra deficiency. Do you get it?"

"Yeah, pretty much. So basically I'm going to have to build up my physical strength, and start meditating," she replied, completely simplifying the man's explanation. "Once I do that then I can start molding chakra, and learning how to control it. How do you release it? I would hate to think that I'm just leaking chakra out all the time."

"We don't leak it. We release it with hand signs," he said laughing. "We release our chakra with hand signs. There are twelve hand signs. They are bird, boar, dog, dragon, ox, tiger, serpent, rat, horse, monkey, hare, and ram," he explained forming the hand seals as he spoke their names.

"How about we focus on building up my physical strength, and working on meditation before we go into all that confusing stuff," she asked smiling sheepishly. Kakashi stared at her. "Don't look at me like that. I understand what you've said. Are you going to keep up with that shadow clone thing every day so we can train?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"How many laps?"

"No laps. Today we are going to focus on meditation."

"WE'RE HOME," Naruto shouted as he walked into the loft. Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata trailing behind him. Sakura was about to yell at Naruto for being so loud when Jade ran up to her. The hazel eyed girl grabbed the green eyed girl by the shoulder and started shaking her.

"Did you guys try out? Did you make the team," Jade demanded.

"We both made the team," Hinata spoke softly.

"Yes," Jade exclaimed happily. She then turned around skipping and then plopped herself down on the couch next to Deidara. Sakura and Hinata both shared bewildered looks.

"What do we do now," Konan asked, flipping through a magazine as per usual. It was a great way to pass the time while simultaneously learning about their new home.

"We continue on with the movie marathon," Nagato offered. The others agreed to that.

"I want to pick the movie, dattebayo," Naruto shouted as he ran into the living room area and over to the shelf filled with movies. He took his sweet time choosing a movie, and when he finally picked a movie he chose, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The movie was met with a round of boos from Jade and Kim. Going back to the self he took a leaf from Sakura's book and pulled one out at random. Disney's Hercules was soon popped into the DVD player.

Everyone settled in, getting comfortable. Somehow they had convinced Deidara and Itachi into making them all snacks. The two rivals came back from the kitchen with bowls of popcorn, pickles, candy, and cans of soda.

"That dude's wearing a skirt, 'ttebayo," Naruto shouted when Zeus made his appearence on the screen at the beginning of the movie.

"My turn," Kim shouted when the movie had finally ended. She already knew what movie she was going to pick since the day before. The group ended up watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. All four of them.

"Hey Konan," Jade whispered, later on that night after everyone had gone to bed. She had gone to get a late night snack when she spotted the other woman sitting at the counter.

"What do you want," was the questioned girls reply. She knew Jade was up to something, and it seemed she was going to find out whether she wanted to or not. Putting down the perfectly folded paper bird, she turned to face Jade.

"Keep your voice down," Jade whispered harshly. Regaining her composure she asked, "Want to join in Operation Matchmaker?"

"Do I even have a choice?"

"I like you, you catch on quick. Listen…" Jade then went on to explain her idea of getting Hana and Itachi together. When Konan asked why they were getting those two together, she explain their tragic love story. Then she went on to explain that she was going to help the others get together as well. In the end, Konan was on board.

"How are we going to get them all together," the amber eyed girl wondered aloud.

"Yeah, I haven't come up with that yet," Konan admitted. "All I know are the couples we want." She continued to fiddle with the paper as she lost herself in thought. Soon she had a jar of full of little paper hearts and an idea. "I've got it! Halloween is coming up, right?"

"Yeah," Jade said unsurely. "Wait, how do you know what Halloween is?"

"The internet, but that's not the point."

"It's not?" Konan shook her head in the negative.

"Nope. My idea is to use the costumes to try and get them together."

"You mean like costumes for couples?"

"Exactly! In one of the magazines Susan left at the store, there was this big article for couples' costumes."

"Tomorrow the two of us are going costume shopping. I already have a few costumes ideas in mind."

The two kept on plotting into the night. They worked out which couple would get which costumes.