CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A RECIPE FOR DISASTER?

"Morning everyone," Kim greeted cheerfully as she walked into the kitchen area.

"Ahhhhhhh," Naruto shouted, nearly falling out of his seat.

"Dobe, what's wrong with you," Sasuke asked monotonously.

"Kimi-chan! Don't push your bangs to the sides like that," the blond shouted, not paying any attention to his best friend.

"Kimi-chan? It sounds weird, but I'll get used to it," Kim said shrugging, moving to take a seat at the table. Then she remembered what had caused the initial shock. "What's wrong with my hair?"

"You look even more like the Teme when you do that, dattebayo!"

"Well, at least my hair doesn't look like a duck's ass," she grumbled, glaring a Sasuke for some unknown reason.

"It's doesn't look like a duck's ass," Sasuke retorted haughtily, returning his sister's glare from across the table.

"She has you there little brother," Itachi added as he walked over to them.

"Kimi-san, could you possibly help me," Hinata asked shyly. She had her hands on the top of her head holding all of her hair in place. Kim nodded, and followed after the shy girl leaving the guys to finish their debate. She led her to Kim's room, and asked her to close the door.

The shy girl dropped her hands from her head before Kim could ask what the problem was. When Hinata's hands were away from her head, her hair puffed up at the top. Hinata explained that she had tried to crimp it, but it did not come out right.

"I can try to fix it, but we don't have much time." Kim got straight to work on the other girl's hair. At first she tried to see if she could do anything to give Hinata the hairstyle she was aiming for, but it just wouldn't come out right. In the end, Kim pulled out her hair straightener and set to work. It worked for the most part, but the hair at the crown of her head refused to straighten causing some sort of wave.

Telling the momentarily crazy-haired girl to wait, Kim went into her closet. She came out with a pink and green square box, and pulled out a lavender-colored slouch knit hat.

"Try this on," the ebony haired girl instructed. The indigo haired girl did as she was told. The hat had done its job of hiding the messy hair. Sighing in relief, Hinata sat down on Kim's bed to allow the other girl to secure the hat in place with bobby pins. Something had caught her eye the box that was placed beside her. She pulled out a soft black case, and inside was a white handheld video camera.

"Oh hey! I've been wondering where that went," Kim exclaimed when she noticed what was in the other girl's hands.

"What is it?" She turned the device over in her hands, pulling open the side panel to reveal a small screen. It looked like a camera.

"That's right; you guys aren't as technologically advanced as we are. It's a hand held video camera." She then went on to explain how to work it. "You can have it if you want."

"I couldn't," Hinata tried to decline. She had heard just how expensive the video cameras from a movie set were worth from Sakura after she and her team went on that mission to protect the movie star turned princess. Surly something in a much more compact size had to be worth more.

"No it's okay. I never use it anyways. I'd rather take pictures with my camera than record videos," she explained with an encouraging smile gracing her features. Almost as if reading the Hyuga's mind she said, "Besides I won this thing off a group of collage kids trying to hustle me."

Hinata gave a nervous smile as she fiddled with the camera lens. "What would I film with it?"

"Anything you want! Even Naruto!"

"No!"

"Konan! Commence Operation: Matchmaker," Jade shouted as they walked into the entrance of the mall.

"I'm standing right here! There's no need to yell!"

"You're yelling too!"

"Touché," Konan said waving a finger at her partner. "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Well my dear blue haired friend, we are looking for the perfect costumes," Jade said as she was looking through the windows of the stores they passed, waiting to be inspired.

"I get that, but why can't we just go to a costume shop," Konan asked slightly confused. Going to a store that specialized in costumed seemed like the obvious course of action.

"It's because everyone in this city will get their costumes at a costume store. So if we look for cute clothes that we can turn into costumes, we will be unique and we won't have to worry about someone else wearing the same costume as us," the blonde explained. She then grabbed her partners hand a pulled her along.

The two girls soon found themselves wandering through the doors of a thrift shop.

"Hey what about this puffy shirt," Konan asked, holding up a loose off-white puffy sleeved shirt.

"It's perfect! What do you think about this red and white polka dots dress?" The red dress was long with short sleeves, and big white polka dots all over. Konan pulled a face. "I'm going to fix it up."

"Okay, that is something I'll have to see to believe," the amber eyed girl replied. Her eyes widened comically when they landed on particular jumpsuit. "Oh my Kami! This is like a blue version of the spandex suit Kakashi's friend wears," Konan exclaimed holding up a dark blue fashion disaster in question.

"I have an idea for that," Jade stated. "Wait Kakashi has a friend that wears a blue spandex suit? I thought he was one of those cool guys. Ya think ya know a guy."

"Well it's not blue, it's green," she corrected.

Jade shivered muttering something about freaks from a different dimension. "Because that makes it so much better."

The two girls continued their search, finding things they thought would make perfect costumes for themselves and their friends. Konan had found a short sleeved purple dress. It started off purple then faded to white under the bust, and then lightly darkened to a solid purple again. Jade found a pair of red men's skinny jeans, and a tuxedo jacket hidden amongst pinstriped suit jackets.

After a bit of intense searching they found the bottom half to the tuxedo, and various belts. They also found the top half to an old marching band uniform. Konan had found a short black pencil skirt and a black corset with a black ribbon tie up. Jade had found two white dresses. One was an off the shoulders peasant dress that stopped at the ankles, and the other was a white baby doll dress. The two also found a pair of black slacks, a golden puffy yellow ball gown that resembled a pastry, a red vest with black lining, and some random armor from an old production were just to name a few things.

Once the two had paid for their items, which was not that expensive, they headed to an arts and crafts store. Going to the back where all the fabrics were located, they began their search again. They got some red spandex material, red velvet material, shimmery gold tinted material, and some black material. They also got two types of see-through material, one in white and the other with a black rose design.

When they were done there the two went to a costume jewelry store. That was the quickest stop they had during the day. They picked some gold and silver pieces of jewelry, and some additional props to make the costumes complete.

Jade and Konan left the mall at ten minutes to closing. The girls had a good day shopping.

"Hey guys, we're home," Jade yelled as she walked into the loft. Konan just shook her head.

"What's with all the bags? Did you two go on a shopping spree," Ren asked from the kitchen.

"Something like that," Jade said in passing as she and Konan walked to her room. Everyone just shrugged.

"You all disappoint me," Ren hissed at Itachi, Sasuke, Naruto, Nagato, and Deidara. In a moment of boredom, Ren decided to teach the guys how to bake cookies, and it did not go so well. The first batch looked good, but tasted horrid. The second batch looked horrid, and tasted good. The third batch was completely burnt, and the fourth was undercooked, not to mention they had been getting the ingredients wrong.

"What smells burnt? I could smell it all the way from the middle of the forest," Kakashi stated as he walked into the loft after Kim, getting back late from training. The guys standing behind Ren hung their heads in shame. They were ninja and could do the impossible, but they could not make a decent batch of cookies.

"I'm making ramen, 'ttebayo," Naruto yelled as he walked over to the cabinets.

"Dobe, you ate the last of it this morning," Sasuke intoned. Naruto just stuck his tongue out at him.

"I know that, Teme! I'm going to make it homemade, dattebayo!"

"I want a bowl," Kakashi, Sakura, and Hinata said simultaneously. The others all raised a brow.

"N-Naruto-kun makes a-a-amazing homemade ramen," Hinata stated blushing while she twiddled her pointer fingers together, Kakashi and Sakura nodding in agreement.

"Awww! Guys! It's not as good as the old man's," Naruto said blushing slightly at the compliments, and sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"This I have to taste to believe," Sasuke stated, crossing his arms and watching his former teammate get to work.

Naruto ended up making dinner for everyone that night. The others were impressed with his ramen making skills. Most only thought he could only make instant ramen, and not homemade.

"So Teme did you like my cooking," Naruto asked with a foxy grin on his face, shamelessly fishing for compliments.

"Hn," was Sasuke's only reply. The blond haired boy jumped up and hugged his best friend/rival in glee. He knew it was Sasuke speak for it was good, that and the fact that he had gone back for thirds.