CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

PARTY PREPPING

"Kakashi," a soft feminine voice broke through the silence. "Wake up. Kakashi wake up," the voice continued. The girl stood back up sighing and crossing her arms. She looked out the window to see the moon still situated in the center of the night sky.

Looking down she glared at the sleeping man. He was lying on his back sprawled out on the sofa in the living room, his book lying open on his mask covered face. The other occupants that shared a room with him had kicked him out, yet again, for excessive giggling. In the end, the man had fallen to sleep in the living room.

The girl was beginning to grow impatient. She had been trying to wake him up for the past fifteen minutes. It seemed as if everything she tried failed in a way. She had tried shaking him, and yelling. Standing pack for a bit she tried to think up a way to wake him up. Coming up with an idea she turned her back to face him, and jumped up. Landing on his stomach, she checked to see if he was awake. He was not.

Groaning in frustration as she turned on his stomach to face him, straddling his hips. She slumped down on his chest, resting her head on his shoulder. She was at a loss. How could he still be sleeping after all she had been doing? It was a mystery to her. She slowly lifted the book off his face and placed it on the coffee table. Staring at his sleeping face, she decided on a new method. Her hands hovered over his face for a few seconds before she pinched his nose and covered his mouth with the other, cutting off his air supply.

Kakashi's hands jerked up and removed the smaller ones from his face. When he opened his eye, he was met with a glare.

"Care to tell me why you were trying to smother me in my sleep," he asked curiously. The amusement plain as day in his voice. Her glare hardened. "Kim?"

She sighed and let her arms go limp, her head falling back on his shoulder.

"I wanted to know if we could start training a little early today," she asked into his neck, her breath tickling the sensitive skin.

"Are you expecting to start training now," he pondered, fighting back the uncontrollable urge to shiver. Instead he shifted her lower on his body, pushing her to his side that was pressed against the sofa and letting her rest her head on his chest. When he felt rather than saw her nod, he asked, "Why?"

"Today's Jade's birthday and I wanted to do something for her. Like take her to that haunted house. Before that I need to do a bit of shopping for the party me and one of her coworkers are planning," Kim explained.

"The whole world celebrates Jade's birthday?"

"No dumbass! It's Halloween. The whole world celebrates Halloween today which so happens to be the day Jade was born. Hey," she exclaimed slapping Kakashi on the chest. "You can help me with the party shopping!"

"Where is this party even going to be at?" When she made a move to smack him again, his left hand shot out and caught her by the wrist before pinning it down on his chest.

"Her coworker Joey is going to be renting this huge old mansion for the party. It's really expensive, so I told him I would take care of decorations and food. Please will you help me? Please," she pleaded. Her eyes were wide and her lower lip was jutted out.

"I'll help you! Now will you stop with the face," Kakashi said exasperated. "What time is it?"

"Almost two," she smiled at him cutely.

"You want to start training at two in the morning?" He paused to look at her for confirmation. "It wouldn't hurt to skip training for one day. Just don't make a habit of it." When he looked down at her face, he saw that she had fallen asleep. He supposed the right thing to do would be to take her back to her room. Only, when he tired to place her down on the bed, she pulled him down with her. Not even bothering to undo her death grip, he laid down beside her. He'd better take his own advice.

"Good morning everyone," Jade shouted joyfully as she walked into the kitchen.

"Happy Birthday," Kim shouted running up to her best friend to give her a hug. The others did the same though a few of the guys gave her pats on the head. Jade was beaming with happiness. Today she was officially an adult.

"Chocolate chip pancakes for the birthday girl," Ren said as he placed a plate in front of her. He gave her a hug. "You kids grow up so fast," he cried squeezing Jade, rocking her side to side.

"You still have me, and I'm your daughter," Kim said indignantly.

"I don't like you very much," Ren stated.

"What why?"

"You refuse to give me grandchildren," was his answer. Jade laughed around her mouthful of pancakes. Deidara patted Kim on the head in a soothing gesture.

"Before you decide to get dressed, Konan and I have something to give you all," Jade said shoving the last piece of her pancakes into her mouth. She, along with Konan, ran up the stairs to her room. When they returned they had ten shopping bags between them.

"A few days ago we went to the mall to find things to make costumes," Konan started.

"This year I decided not to buy one, and make one instead," Jade added.

"We were inspired by the movies we had watched during our marathon-"

"So we went to the mall to find things we could use-"

"And we've been working on them ever since-"

"So here," Jade finished as they handed out the bags, which were labeled. "We decided to do couples costumes, so no one feels weird or out of place," she lied.

"Awesome I have a skirt, dattebayo!"

"Yeah, I made your costume to look exactly like Hercules" Jade explained.

"I'm a god, 'ttebayo! Beat that Sasuke-teme," Naruto shouted challenging the dark haired boy.

"Don't call yourself a god," Konan commanded.

"Why not," the blond boy questioned.

"Then you will start sounding like Lord Pein in the Ass over here," she answered pointing over to where Nagato was standing.

The redhead gave his childhood best friend an offended look. The two blondes in the room started laughing at his expense.

"I'm Superman," Sasuke said, answering Naruto's previously asked question, and pulling the suit out of the bag. Naruto cried.

"Yeah, and Sakura is Lois Lane, and Hinata is Meg," Konan explained. Sasuke smirked to himself. "Kim and Kakashi are pirates, Itachi and Hana are the Beast and Belle, Nagato is a devil, and Deidara is Mickey Mouse. I'm an angel and Jade is Minnie Mouse. Oh, and Ren is a sexy fire fighter." Kim gagged at the last one, though Jade and Konan made eyes at her father.

"Yes, now everyone go get dressed! I want to see how everyone looks," Jade commanded. "Ladies come with us."

The girls were all led to Kim's room, as it was the biggest which was only because she had less clutter. Once the door was closed and locked Jade got started on everyone's hair and makeup. After that she had to fight with Kim to get her costume on, but she gave in when Jade pulled the birthday card.

"I can't believe you convinced me to go without a bra," Kim grumbled as they made their way back to the front room.

When they were all in the front room Jade made them all stand next to their partners. She wanted to get a good look at her handy work.

Hana was Belle and wore a shortened version of Belle's dress from Beauty and the Beast. Jade had tailored it to go about knee length, and she added a white petticoat underneath to make it puff out more. She wore a pair of yellow rounded toe heels. Her hair was done up just like in the movie.

Itachi was the human version of Beast. He had on a white silk button-up shirt, the bottom half of the tuxedo with a shiny yellow waist coat. Jade had sewed on yellow stripes on the sides of his pant legs. The marching band jacket was styled to look like it did in the movie. He wore a pair of black boots, and held a red plastic rose as a prop.

Konan was an Angel. She wore a white baby doll dress that had a silver ribbon criss-crossed over her midsection. A layer of sheer see-through fabric had been added over the lower half of the dress. She had worn white arm bands that had some more of the sheer fabric forming sleeves. She also had short rounded angel wings, a fluffy halo hovering above her head, and a pair of white rounded toe heels.

Nagato was the Devil. He wore a black silk button-up shirt under a red vest that had a layer of black rose patterned lace over it. He had on a pair of black slacks. He also had a red velvet cape. There were red-black devil horns on his head. For shoes he wore a pair of solid black Converse, and he had a red pitch fork.

Jade was Minnie Mouse. She had cut the sleeves off the red dress with large white polka dots and made them short and puffy, and cut the length to about mid-thigh. She added a black petticoat underneath to make it poof out, sewed a black ribbon around the collar and added a bow in the middle. Her accessories consisted of and black belt, black mouse ears, and a red bow with white polka dots.

Deidara was Mickey Mouse. He had on red skinny jeans with yellow suspenders, a white button-up shirt with black buttons, and a black tuxedo jacket. He also wore black mouse ears and a pair of dark yellow Converse.

Sakura was Lois Lane. She wore a high-waisted pencil skirt that ended about mid-thigh, Jade sure had a thing for making things mid-thigh, and a magenta short sleeved button up shirt with her bra peeking out. Konan had forced her into a black lace push-up bra. Her hair was parted to the right, and she wore a pair of black pumps.

Sasuke was Superman. He wore a modified version of the dark blue spandex suit. The suit had the red and yellow S-shield on the chest, and the signature red undies with the dark yellow belt. He had a red cape and matching red boots. He looked very much like the Superman from Superman Returns.

Hinata was Meg. She wore the floor length purple dress that faded from purple to white then back to purple. Jade had decided the dress needed a little something extra and had cut a slit that ended at mid-thigh. On the straps were three gold chains going across. Under her bust was a golden ribbon, and she also had one tied up in her hair as a headband. She had a golden band on her left arm. Her shoes were gold colored sandals that had gold ribbons criss-crossing up her leg.

Naruto was Hercules. His costume was an exact replica of the one seen in the animated Disney movie. The boy had styled his hair in a way that left him with a curl hanging over the headband he wore. The straps of the gladiator sandals would take some getting used too. Jade and Konan had forgotten about the little blue cape the hero wore and scrambled to find something that would work.

Kim was a Sexy Pirate. She wore the peasant dress that hung off the shoulders that was cut to fall slightly past mid-thigh, sand had been forced into a black corset that went under her bust, and she was not wearing a bra; which made her a bit peeved. She had a black pirate hat with a white feather stuck in it, and wore black pointed toe heels.

Kakashi was a Pirate. He wore an off-white puffy pirate shirt that was cut into a V-neck that had white strings criss-crossing over his black sleeveless shirt with the mask, a pair of black pants, and a pair of black boots. He had a black belt with a square buckle around his waist. He also wore an eye patch over his closed Sharingan eyes.

"Wow! Everyone looks amazing," Jade squealed when she had gotten a good look at everyone. "To bad it's time to go to work already."

"Nee-san, since you don't have work today, can you bring us lunch," Sasuke asked.

"Is the school food that bad," Kim questioned, looking towards the other three high schoolers.

"Yes," Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, and Sasuke answered at the exact same time.

"Okay then… What do you guys want?"

"Something with tomatoes," Sasuke said shrugging, not really caring as long as he wasn't forced to eat what the school tried to feed them.

"Really now… Alright, just write down what y'all want on a piece of paper, and the time lunch starts," she instructed. The four teens did as instructed, and were out the door and on their way to school.

Soon the only ones left in the loft were Kim and Kakashi.