Jun wasn't used to this.

Whenever he and this author interacted, Scarlette had always been there, providing quality entertainment with her dry personality and subdued reactions to his adorable pestering. He could easily pass the time by picking away at her stoic outer layer.

Now he had to wonder what she had planned, because the lively Hayes sisters were nowhere in sight.

Kazue and Noriaki sat together in the small dango shop he'd been directed to (Miki-sensei had been pretty adamant he make time for this meeting), plainly oblivious to his arrival as they spoke over a single serving of dango that sat between them on the counter. They looked at ease, certainly not as though they'd been given any life-altering news, or subjected to any form of torture (Scar-chan had told him before how much her author enjoyed inflicting psychological trauma on her characters, though he'd had to respond that his own author was undoubtedly more vicious in her character development).

That was good. It told him nothing about the day's scheduled proceedings, but it was nice to know his teammates had hold of their mental faculties for the moment.

Stability was comforting, even when it wasn't your own.

"Kazue-chan!" he called cheerfully as he slid into the seat beside her, propping his chin on his knuckles. "You guys got called here too? Any ideas what's going on?"

Kazue shot him a vaguely alarmed look.

"Wait, even you don't know?"

Jun blinked, cocking his head.

"Why was I more likely to have information about... whatever this is?"

"That author likes you," Kazue deadpanned, as if this should have been obvious. "More than she likes me or Noriaki, anyway. I thought she might have told you something."

"Oh. Well, that's fair. She does think I'm pretty cute, and you guys aren't nearly as interesting - anyway," he went on, cheekily dodging the dango stick - stripped clean - Kazue jabbed at his eyes, "nope, I'm just as clueless as you. It's fun, though, right? Kinda mysterious, exciting, all that jazz. I'm looking forward to it!"

Kazue stared at him a moment, heaved an exaggerated sigh, returned to her chitchatting with Noriaki.

Undeterred, still buzzing with an eager anticipation, Jun spun towards the counter, lifting himself almost out of his seat so that he could peek into the kitchen area. He'd order something while they waited, and as his teammates clearly weren't fond of sharing, he'd have the plate to himself.

A young girl stepped through the curtained doorway, rushing a maddened apology behind her, her hands moving in wild gesticulations as though controlled by tremulous strings. Jun watched as ducked her head in apparent shame, working fingers through her flyaway hair in unconscious habit.

That was the first thing he noticed about her: the hair. It was an abomination, put bluntly - half fawn-brown, half russet-red, the latter of which looked faded to a degree (he had to wonder what the original had looked like, and if it would have resembled Miki-sensei's vibrant tresses).

He instantly liked it, and by extension, her.

"Hey, hey, miss" - he waved his hand, drawing her attention; her verdant eyes lit up, first with shock, then with a curious glee - "do you work here?"

"What? You think I- oh. No." She glanced at the doorway she'd just entered through, somewhat sheepishly rubbing at her wrists, then back at Jun. "Nope, I don't work here. I kinda just... popped in by mistake. I honestly meant to start by the Academy and work my way over here, maybe bumping into a few people along the way, but no, the damn MEP had to malfunction. I'm just lucky I didn't accidentally bring any sues with me; damn monsters woulda ruined everything."

He didn't understand much of what she was saying, but she spoke in a chaotic fashion, her lips moving as fast as her thoughts - and consequently, she made a mess of her words. She slurred, stuttered, skipped over words and went back to put them in their rightful place. He couldn't decide if she was nervous or possessed some type of speech impediment; either way, she was amusing, which earned her bonus points in his book.

"I'm Maria, by the way," she announced after a moment's respite. He guessed she was well aware of her communication issues and had used the pause to better gather her thoughts. The doubt glimmering in her olive eyes promised he hadn't seen the end of her theatrics. "Jun, right?"

It clicked.

"So you're the famous Author-chan Scar-chan and the others are always going on about! Hey, are you really as sinister as they make you out to be?"

Her response to that particularly inquiry was resounding silence. She tried, oh she tried to defend herself; her mouth opened, her tongue curled, something akin to indignation sparked in her gaze - but it just as quickly fizzled out, replaced by a weighty resignation.

"I'm not that bad," she mumbled, dragging a hand down her face, "you should see shibalove sometime... And your author's pretty damn sinister too!"

Of course Jun just laughed.

By now they'd attracted Kazue and Noriaki's notoriously fleeting curiosity. In fact, they'd been watching for some time, but it wasn't unusual for Jun to interact with strangers so care-freely. Really, they'd only been waiting for their cue to intervene if he became too much of a bother for the girl. But the mention of sadistic authors had struck a raw nerve.

"Ah, so this is Violet's author?"

Kazue tried for a pleasant smile, which Jun immediately called into question, resulting in another improvised attempt at mauling the young Kurama which he effortlessly dodged again.

Maria watched on in amusement, but, checking her watch, she cleared her throat rather loudly, and when that didn't work, she whistled. Except she had no talent for the art form and the sound (if you wanted to give it such a gratifying name) that left her pursed lips was shrill and formless, as harmonious as a murder of crows.

Jun grinned, Kazue winced, and Noriaki... grabbed her wrist, thinking the sudden touch might silence her and save them the horror of shattered eardrums.

Worked like a charm.

"So!" She clapped her hands together pointedly, as if to waft away the embarrassment that flooded her cheeks and set her knees knocking together. "There's a reason I got you three together today. I've got a mission for Team Miki!"

"A mission? See," Jun laughed, "I knew it would be fun!"

"Missions for seasoned shinobi aren't likely to be a walk in the park, Jun," Kazue muttered.

"The danger's what makes it so enjoyable! Gets the heart racing!"

"Jun, you-"

"Anyway," Maria interjected smoothly (re: she literally shoved in between the quarreling genin, balancing her forearms on the counter so that she served as a makeshift barrier for the two), "the mission's simple, I promise. I just need you guys to retrieve some things I... lost a while back."

She was trying to sound casual, and she had the success rate of a starving lab rat exposed to polluted pepper-jack.

Still, Jun was hooked, and he'd drag his unwilling teammates along some way or another.

"Ooh, what'd you lose, Maria-chan? And where'd you lose it?"

"Well, first off, it's not just one thing, and it's not just one place. Which is why I wanted the three of you. You're all in one place, and it woulda been too much of a hassle to rope Irie, Aoi, and Kiyomi together... and Zaira and her gang aren't really suited for this... Whatever. That's not the point."

"Could we please get to that, then?" Kazue requested, for all intents and purposes polite. This girl was her senior, after all. Respect was a must, regardless of her increasingly frayed patience.

Maria bobbed her head and continued, cutting more to the point this time around.

"Right, well, I'm going to be sending each of you after one item to save time and all. I kinda... really need this stuff back as soon as possible."

There was a pallidness to her complexion now that hadn't been there a moment before. With it, the dark smudges shadowing her eyes were more pronounced, bordering on ghoulish, remnants of lost sleep. One could almost think she'd misplaced that sleep fretting over the safety of these items.

That was the conclusion Kazue came to, anyway.

Jun merely thought she was a troubled sometime-insomniac, though he did question the reasons as to why she was kept awake. It stoked his curiosity, but he left the matter alone, too intrigued by this extravagant scavenger hunt to care much for her personal troubles.

Seeming to realize she'd gotten distracted from her initial train of thought, Maria attempted to rekindle the conversation by informing each genin exactly where'd they be going.

"The Grand Line? Sounds fishy," Jun grinned.

"Ouran... Academy? I've never heard of it..."

Maria almost pitied Kazue, but she reserved the vast majority of her sympathy for Noriaki, with whom she'd left the most bizarre location.

"Hey, why is Emo-kun" - Jun really did like the nickname he'd picked up from the one and only Arianna Hayes - "the only one who stays in Konoha?"

Ever a fan of the dramatic, Maria placed a finger to her smile-curled lips, closing her eyes in a secretive manner.

"Don't you worry, Jun-kun, don't you worry. Just be ready for the freaking fantastic story Nori-kun's gonna have when he gets back!"

This was probably (most definitely) not going to end well.

________________

Jun

"Aoi-kun, is he...?"

"He's not dead. Probably."

"We should get a doctor, right? Aoi-kun, we need a doctor, right?!"

"Shut up! And where the hell do you expect to find a doctor out here? It's just us on a boat in the middle of the Grand Line!"

"Oh..."

Grand Line... Oh! That's right!

Two faces hovered above him, made indistinct by the foggy, pulsating sunlight that back lit them. From the pitch of their voices, though, he reasoned one to be a boy and the other a girl.

Jun's lips twisted into an earnest smile, subsequently alerting the luminescent figures to his regained consciousness.

"If you're awake, get up," the boy ordered, satisfied enough to leave his sympathetic post beside Jun. "You're lying on my sword."

So he was.

Jun rolled over, for the first time noting the impressive katana that had been digging into the base of his spine for however long he'd lain unconscious on the ground. His lips curled downwards in a slight, inquisitive frown, wondering why the sword had been discarded in such a a careless fashion, but he quickly regained his typical grin as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Are you ok, Stranger-san?" the girl questioned, helping Jun brush the minuscule patches of dust from his clothes, her face alight with a beaming smile that was as blinding as the unobstructed sunlight that bore down on them all.

I'm alright, right?

Subtly flexing muscles, testing joints, Jun systematically checked himself over. His back was sore (probably a direct result of having a sheathed blade rubbing him the wrong way), electric tingles ran rampant through his feet, his ankles, but that was of no consequence; he could shake out the numbing limbs in a moment.

Pronouncing a fairly clean bill of health for himself, Jun nodded at the girl.

"Pretty good, I'd say," he added. "I'm Jun, by the way. Kurama Jun."

He doubted these two would know anything of his infamous heritage, if his suspicions were correct, and so he felt no remorse for sharing his full name.

"Jun...?"

Light creases appeared between the girl's brow as she sought the attention of her white-haired companion, who'd since returned to his previous task of working an oil-stained cloth over a metallic object Jun didn't recognize. It gave off a rather menacing air, though, and he wagered it was some type of weapon unique to whatever world he'd been dropped into.

"He's probably some character our author created if you've heard his name before," the boy finally relented, then, after a pause, "Also, if he just randomly appeared on our ship, I really doubt he's from here."

"Oh!" - the girl clapped her hands excitedly - "Then where are you from, Jun-kun? Our author has some weird stories, so wherever you come from must be really neat! Right?"

Neat was one way of putting it, he supposed. Neat was actually a word he might have used to describe Konoha, among a collection of others that were most likely vastly inappropriate in the eyes of his passive teammates. But, thinking he could bare to do a bit better in this situation, he launched into a quick, intensive summary of both his native village and what he knew of the shinobi world in general.

The girl was enraptured; her companion could not have given less of a damn.

"I'm Akita Kiyomi, and that's Dracule Aoi," the girl babbled cheerfully, gesturing to herself and the boy respectively. "You can call me Kiyomi-chan, though! And Aoi is Aoi-kun!"

"I am not," Dracule Aoi-kun snapped, setting aside his glistening metal contraption for the moment. "Don't just tell some stranger he's allowed to be so familiar with us, Kiyomi!"

"Would you prefer I call you Aoi-chan?" Jun suggested, a teasing undertone to his voice that sailed clean over Aoi's head.

"Hell no!" he raged, his fair cheeks coloring a vivacious red almost instantly. "First off, I'm older than you, brat" - for some reason, Jun got the distinct impression that Aoi savored his chance to dub him a brat - "and second, I'm a guy. You don't add -chan to guy's names."

"You can," Jun insisted playfully, tucking his hands to the small of his back, rocking back on his heels a bit, "but yeah, that's usually with little kids. But I call Scarlette Scar-chan even though she's two years older than me, and she doesn't seem to mind all that much."

That was a lie. She minded very much, she only tolerated his use of the honorific, as she did most of her sisters' antics.

Aoi did not know who Scarlette (or Scar-chan) was, nor did he care in the slightest. What perturbed him was the casual way this boy spoke to him. Hadn't he been taught to respect those senior to him?

Damn brat, he seethed internally, pointedly snatching his gun again and immersing himself in its cleaning.

"Kiyomi-chan," Jun called; the bubbly girl tore her mildly troubled gaze away from Aoi to face Jun, another bright smile already transforming her features, "can I ask you something?"

Aoi was a lost cause, Jun knew. The look creeping over his face was one that perched precariously on the border between fury and indifference; he tried in vain to wipe the scowl from his lips, to replace it with a mask of disinterest, but the earlier teasing had riled him up too effectively. Until he calmed down, he wouldn't be of any help to Jun.

"Have you guys seen anything... freaky?"

"Freaky?" Kiyomi echoed curiously, pursing her lips in thought. "Like what?"

"I dunno..." Jun conceded, shrugging a bit helplessly. "Maria-chan just told me I'd know it when I see it." Sheepishly, he linked his hands behind his head, offering something of an apologetic smile. "It's not a lot to go on, I know, but that's kinda all I've got. Authors are vague sometimes, ya know?"

Kiyomi giggled, nodding emphatically.

"Uh-huh! Our author's like that allll the time!...Which you'd already know, huh...Oh, right!" Kiyomi whirled around, speaking over her shoulder as she ran off to the bow of the small vessel. "Raya-chan was here a few days ago, and she left something behind. If you're helping Raya-chan's author, this might be what you're looking for!"

"I thought I burned that piece of crap," Jun heard Aoi mutter darkly from his throne of denial - which just happened to be an overturned crate he sat cross-legged on.

Kiyomi skipped back to Jun's side after a few moments of rummaging through a small chest they kept on board, cradling something in her tanned arms. She offered said something to Jun when he was within reach.

Well... this is definitely freaky. And definitely Maria-chan's.

It was a small, plush doll, made to look like a young man with pale pink hair and impassive blue eyes. He was dressed in strange clothes, as well - what looked to be a gray black-backed vest, matching pants, a long-sleeved white shirt and black shoes. A tiny, white tag that protruded from one pant leg read Angelus Timor in fanciful black script.

"Raya-chan said it was a gift for Aoi-kun," Kiyomi giggled, to which Aoi immediately shot up and crossed the rolling deck to grab a fistful of her green scarf, jerking her with such harshness that she released a comical gurgle of dismay.

"It's not for me, dammit!" he snapped, clearly waiting for Jun to challenge him on the matter. He only smiled, unintentionally goading Aoi into continuing. "She just left it here for some reason! Probably to piss off that damn author of hers, alright? It's got nothing to do with me!"

Jun knew when to leave well-enough alone, and this was one of those times where his teasing might cause more harm than personal amusement. And so he kept silent, only dipping his head in what passed for acknowledgement, tucking the rather creepy doll under his arm.

"'Kay!" he chirped, offering a wave to Kiyomi, who was currently rubbing at her neck with tender fingers, though she looked no more aggrieved than she'd been before. "I'll be off then. Thanks for helping me, Kiyomi-chan, Aoi-kun."

And Jun would have been off, the first to finish his so-called mission and the only one to do it was ease, if not for the Sea King attack.

Aoi really could have sworn they hadn't passed into the calm belt.

__________________

Kazue

Kazue was beginning to think the job of an author was merely to frustrate and infuriate their respective characters. Amusing their audiences was a victorious by-product of the resulting misery.

What led her to this conclusion was, partially, the conversation that was being held almost directly over her head, strung between two ginger teens with identical mischievous smirks.

"She's kinda young, isn't she?"

"Maybe someone's little sister?"

"Except she looks like a foreigner, and the only foreigners are Zaira, Tono, Renge and Nekozawa. And we already met his little sister."

"Well, she's here, so I guess she's a customer, whatever her age. Shall we entertain her for a bit?"

That was where Kazue drew the line. As vague as the word might have been, she doubted she would enjoy what was associated with these boys' entertainment. And so, with a small noise meant to warn the twins of her impending movement, she rose from the couch they'd planted her on upon finding her unconscious some ten minutes ago, simultaneously shaking off the elbows they'd been resting on her shoulders.

"If you're not going to explain anything to me," Kazue began, eyeing them with muted distaste through hooded eyes, "I'll look elsewhere."

She hadn't gone more than five feet when they reeled her in again, dropping her firmly onto the very same couch she'd just escaped.

"Don't be so hasty, princess," the first twin grinned, waggling a finger just before her face that would have liked very much to break off in that moment. "We're here to cater to your every whim."

"We are hosts, after all," the second said, tacking the words seamlessly onto the end of his brother's sentence.

Hosts.

Hosts she knew, but she doubted they held the same occupation here as they did in her world. These boys were too casual, too... flirtatious.

"I'd rather just find what I came for and go home," Kazue said plainly, tipping her head back against the couch to look at both twins. "Do you either of you know... an author?"

The twins shared a cryptic glance.

"Isn't Hika-chan in class two an author?"

"No, no, no, that's Ei-chan, class three, I think."

"She's published around three books, so yeah, she's an author, I guess."

They had no idea what she was talking about. Or they understood her perfectly and were simply enjoying themselves, watching her patience wear ever thinner. She was betting on the latter (and preparing to escape their hold again as a result) when the doors located at the far side of the room opened, revealing the slight figure of a girl and the rather stoic shadow that trailed behind her.

"Oh!" - the girl's eyes widened impressively the moment she caught sight of the captive Kazue - "Y-You... you must be a friend of Micah, t-the one she told me about."

Micah? The name didn't ring a bell, but that didn't exactly matter. Kazue was far from well-acquainted with her author's (as well as Maria's) vast array of characters. Micah - and this girl who claimed Kazue was her friend - seemed her best bet for acquiring answers.

Kazue straightened in her seat as the girl and her companion drew closer, clasping her hands in her lap, lifting her chin so as to meet any gaze in the room.

"I think so," she said, then quickly added, "I mean, I think I'm the friend you're talking about. Remind me again, though, who Micah is?"

"Um, a girl around m-my age?" the girl said, nervously wringing her hands in front of her. "Short, black hair... green and red eyes... Ah! She said her author's name is Maria, too."

"You aren't Micah's friend," the tall, black-haired boy said, before Kazue to speak a word. "I doubt if you've even heard her name before today. But you recognize the author, correct?"

She nodded mutely, unsure how he'd come to the correct conclusion without her having said anything.

"I thought so," the boy said, fixing his glasses in a manner that strangely reminded her of Kabuto. "Zaira" - here, the young girl at his side started - "you can fetch what she left us. It should be in the classroom where she met us. You" - he fixed Kazue with a pointed look as Zaira scampered off obediently - "stay here and wait. Zaira will be back in a moment."

Well, what else would I do in the meantime? she wondered silently, feeling slightly abraded by his superior tone, speaking as though she had no right to refuse his kindness.

Still, what reason did she have? With this, her task would be completed, and she could return home without becoming worse-for-wear, as she'd originally feared.

Perhaps she just didn't enjoy the twin's company.

"Micah? Oh, that weird girl who knew all of us without being introduced."

"Don't you think she was kinda obsessed with Mori-senpai?"

"Honey-senpai, too. She wouldn't stop staring at them, even when she was talking to Zaira."

"Well, she was wearing the Ouran uniform. Maybe she knows us in her world?"

"Ooh, maybe she's in some love triangle with Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai! The girls must go wild over that, huh?"

Did they never shut up, or at least discuss something more worthwhile than trivial gossip? And why were they leaning on her again, for Kami's sake? Were they afflicted with some terrible disease that stole strength from their spines?

Lazy bastards, she mumbled silently, content to keep her irritation to herself for the time being.

Zaira returned in good time, but every second Kazue shared with the twins grated on her nerves. They chattered more than Jun, and teased just as harshly when the mood struck them. She'd have taped explosive tags over their mouths ages ago if she thought they wouldn't immediately remove them and ruin those money-making faces of theirs.

"Here," the timid girl said, handing a compact device over to Kazue's unwilling hands. She was afraid of breaking it, whatever it was. It didn't look like something that would survive an impact with a flying kunai, let alone a drop from the height of her hands.

"M-Micah said, um, that t-this is incredibly important to her author, so, um... be careful with it?" Zaira smiled weakly. "I-It has all her music on it, I think, and photos and videos of her f-friends. Micah said she might d-die if something happened to it..."

Die? That seemed a bit over-dramatic, but perfectly in-line with Kazue's view of the young authoress.

She slipped the rectangular whatever-it-was into her weapons pouch, careful to keep it beside the unmarked tags so as not to have it scratched by her loose kunai and shuriken.

As she was standing, once again brushing off the twin's hands, Kazue suddenly frowned, glancing from the weapons pouch to Zaira and her shadow.

"Why did... Micah bring this here?" she questioned, cocking her head to the side. Maria had said she'd lost the items they were sent after, not that her characters had gotten hold of them.

Zaira looked ready to reply (somewhat), but the glasses-boy beat her to the proverbial punch, fixing his specs again as he did so.

"I believe this was done as some form of retribution. The girl looked rather cross for most of her visit, and especially when she mentioned her author. I'd say the writer penned something that set the girl off, and she retaliated by pilfering her phone and dropping it here."

"She could have gotten it herself, if she knew where it was..."

Kazue shook her head. She needn't bother to think this over any longer. She had the phone (whatever that meant); she could return now.

The twins, however, had other ideas.

___________________

Noriaki

This was not at all what Noriaki had been expecting when his eyes gradually adjusted to the stinging sunlight that broke apart over his visible skin.

He'd been told he'd remain in Konoha, and that was true enough. This was his village, though not quite as he remembered it.

An air of nostalgia encircled the village like a fine haze; he felt as though he were seeing things through filmy lenses, and no amount of rubbing at his eyes could lessen the fog.

Then there was the fact that he recognized not a single face among the bustling crowds that moved through the market place, both customers and shopkeepers alike strangers to him. That wasn't in itself unbelievable; he was so often occupied with thoughts of his duty to Kazue that he lost sight of those around him, but he should have found at least one familiar here. Team Miki went on frequent excursions to the marketplace for some odd reason or another, and it was rare when they haggled with an unknown seller.

Now, if one coupled the previous points with Noriaki's current situation, it made for quite the disconcerting tale.

He leaped back, steady fingers clasping instinctively around the hilt of his katana, which he'd been mildly surprised to fine strapped to his back as it would have been if they'd been assigned an official mission. He really could have sworn he'd left it at home for the day, though he was grateful for its presence nonetheless.

Brandishing his katana, Noriaki met the eyes of his assailant around the polished steel of his blade.

"Kid, you're wasting my time here," the man sighed, absently twirling a kunai around his finger. He made use of his free hand by brushing aside the oily black strands of hair that clung to his pallid forehead. "Look, I didn't mean to scare ya, you just kinda came outta nowhere, and I reacted. Ninjas are known for their paranoia, eh?"

Noriaki remained silent, much to the foreigner's chagrin.

"I'm not here for you, kid" - he spoke the word venomously, as though his distaste made it an insult - "I've got bigger game to fry. So just scamper off like a good little lemming, and I won't cause ya any trouble. That's a good deal, coming from me. I'd take it."

He'd been attacked. That was the first strike against this man, that he'd attempted to impale Noriaki's rib cage with a freshly-honed kunai when he'd been scrutinizing the minute changes to his home village. In no way had Noriaki made himself threatening; he hadn't "come outta nowhere" or suddenly appeared, unless the man had been staking out the village for far longer than he'd implied.

The second strike was rather obvious: The man's forehead protector bore the symbol of Kumogakure.

The third strike... well, to be perfectly honest, Noriaki didn't have anything else to count against him, apart from an inane dislike that he didn't immediately understand. He was slow on most occasions, constantly mocked for his inability to grasp the simplest of jokes (mostly by Jun) - but this was indisputable.

The man was not to be trusted, and subsequently, he would have to be taken down.

He was still blathering on about something, stalling for time, attempting to draw Noriaki into his flimsy webs of blatant deceit with finer persistence. Why he bothered, Noriaki wasn't sure. He'd been content only moments ago to simply slip a kunai between Noriaki's ribs while he'd been veritably defenseless and unawares. Perhaps he disliked confrontation, perhaps he didn't have the backbone for a face-to-face kill.

Either way, Noriaki didn't much care. He had a job to perform now, and the faster he accomplished it, the faster he could return to Kazue's side.

Shifting his weight, Noriaki readjusted his grip on the katana's hilt, leaning forward slightly as a prelude to his charge. Likewise, the man flipped his kunai into his palm, his eyes flickered, taking in the whole of the scene, picking over Noriaki's graceful form.

And, before it had even properly begun, the battle was finished.

Noriaki blinked, unconsciously lowering his stance.

Blood - thick and burgundy - sloshed to the ground, puddling beneath the man to whom it had previously belonged. The gaping wound in his chest still spluttered yet more blood, the viscous liquid pouring forth with greater intensity when the hand that had wormed inside it retracted. Sky-blue electricity danced around a crimson hand, lacing around calloused fingers.

The air hummed with the faint echoes of screaming birds.

Chidori.

Noriaki knew the jutsu well enough to recognize it upon sight, and knew its owner just as well. His team leader was his personal stalker, after all.

"That's the last of them," Kakashi announced as he scrubbed his tainted hand on his pant leg, only really succeeding in scraping off the first lathering of crimson; the enemy ninja collapsed to his knees, then slowly yielded to gravity and fell face-first into the equally bloody grass.

A shadow flew from a neighboring tree to Kakashi's side, unperturbed by the corpse at his feet. Noriaki blinked again.

"No more?" the incoming girl questioned as she straightened from her landing crouch. There was an indifference to her voice Noriaki scarcely comprehended. "It's rare for them to send this few, even if this was only a scouting party."

"We're lucky they didn't send more," Kakashi reminded her coolly, then, with a casual glance in Noriaki's direction, he added, "Are you alright? I thought I'd intervene before anything serious happened, but I wasn't sure how long this had been going on" - he nudged a toe into the dead man's shoulder - "and I couldn't see any visible injuries."

The girl turned to him as well, following Kakashi's train of thought as she always did. And - yes, he was sure of it now. This was Miki-sensei, albeit a younger, rougher version of her. Which made sense, when factoring in how young Kakashi appeared. He looked seventeen at the most, making Miki-

"I'm fine," Noriaki eventually replied. Unnerved by Miki's unending stare, he'd thought it better to speak than to hold his usual silence.

"That's good," Kakashi said, nodding almost politely. "All the same, you should probably make a visit to the hospital. Miki, go with him. He looks shaken up. I'll take care of the clean up before going to the Hokage."

Miki, of course, followed orders and took Noriaki by the arm, despite the initial protest that formed on his lips, leading him into the village, through the brimming streets, along paths he could walk surefooted alone.

Eventually, Miki paused, spinning Noriaki to face her with two hands on his shoulders. She leaned closer, too close, her brown eyes narrowed; he could see the light freckles that splashed over her nose and fair cheeks with vivid clarity.

Then:

"I thought so. You're the boy Hibiki-kun said would be coming."

Hibiki-kun? As in, Kudo Hibiki? Sensei to the Hayes triplets he'd had to endure on several occasions now?

Why had he been here, before Noriaki?

Miki nodded to herself, as though his refusal to speak was answer enough for her, and she dug around in her weapons pouch for a moment before producing something that may have at one point been a stuffed bear.

It was haggard and worn, a victim of time's abuse and childish fancies. Colored in various tints of pastel, it looked shrunken, malnourished, even, with most of its remaining stuffing clogged in its head and rear end. Two flat, black eyes stared back at Noriaki as he raised an incredulous brow.

This was the item he'd been tasked with locating?

Miki pressed the bear into his hands, tucking her own behind her back when they were free of their charge.

"Hibiki-kun said you'd know who to give this to," Miki said.

"...I do. Thanks."

"Right. Then I guess I won't need to escort you the hospital. Get home safely, Noriaki-kun."

Then she was gone, carried away, seemingly, by the breeze he knew she so feared at times. More than likely, her speed was only increased so that she could return to Kakashi that much quicker.

Noriaki studied the bear a moment longer, then carelessly balled it up in his hands and jammed it inside his own weapons pouch.

Now, he only had to wait for that damnable author to recall him to his own time.

__________________

The authoress couldn't stop laughing.

She'd tried, mind you, tried her very darnedest not to poke fun at Kazue (the first to return) but she'd lost her composure the moment the young blonde had scowled at her. It had looked far too ridiculous while she still wore that flouncy dress the twins had forced her into.

Jun appeared just as Maria was ducking beneath the dango stand's counter to avoid a barrage of kunai an irate Kazue had volleyed at her.

He smiled, slid into his previous seat, and deposited the weird doll onto the counter for the author's approval, much like Kazue had done with her... whatever that was.

Maria, reasonably assured Kazue was out of viable ammo, popped up again. Her face lit up with pure delight upon seeing her "lost" items returned to her, and in the back of her mind, she was already contemplating just what she would do in revenge to her oh-so screwed characters.

My original-story characters wouldn't pull crap like this, she muttered silently. Well, Hal might, if he were pissed off enough... Not the point, though!

She should probably change her sadistic ways, but that was a troublesome thing to do, and it would require a lengthy recovery period that she wasn't content to wait out. Her characters would simply have to suck it up and deal with her wild fantasies a while longer.

"Where's Noriaki?" Kazue questioned once she'd wrestled herself out of the horrid pink thing that had been suffocating her this entire time (she thanked Kami she'd talked those infuriating twins into letting her wear her own clothing beneath the damn dress).

"Dunno," Maria replied noncommittally, shrugging a single shoulder to further prove her ignorance. "He should be back by now... Damn, I thought he was the least likely to get off track..."

Kazue wasn't sure if she should be offended by that assumption or not; Jun dismissed the matter entirely with a cheeky smile.

"Ugh, who's someone that wasn't in on this?" Maria mumbled, tapping thoughtful fingers at her cheek while she stared out at the crowded streets. "Maybe I can send Ren after him... Hoshimi would do it, too, she likes me... I kinda doubt Akari would help, same goes for Seiichi, he'd think it was annoying..."

"Maria-chan?"

"Er, yeah, Jun?"

The Kurama beamed, spinning around in his seat to point behind them.

"No need to worry! Noriaki's back safe and sound!"

And so he was.

He dusted himself off, making sure he hadn't accumulated any bloody debris from his encounter with Kakashi and the Kumo shinobi, then strode forward, dropping his own spoils on the counter. At his contribution, Maria practically squealed, instantly snatching up the soiled bear and clutching him to her chest as a child would their favorite toy.

"Oh, man, I really cannot sleep without you, can I? Stupid Hibiki, he knows how much I need this little guy..."

Team Miki exchanged bewildered glances.

As if sensing their confusion, Maria's cheeks colored a disheartening crimson, and she swiftly tucked the bear out of sight, perhaps thinking they'd adhere to the old adage, "Out of sight, out of mind".

The last thing she needed was another thing OCs could embarrass her about.

"Anyway!" she chirped, rubbing her hands together earnestly. "Thanks so much for your help, guys! That's it, you can all go home now, hold a story night for all I care. I'm sure you all have some fun tales."

Kazue scowled again. She hadn't hated the dress itself, but it had been inconvenient and the color did nothing for her. The frilly thing would have to be burned sometime later.

Jun picked at a small gash that marred his arm, frowning. Sea Kings were dangerous creatures, that was for sure. If Aoi hadn't gotten that one amazing shot at its eye, he might have been being digested at this very moment. That wouldn't have been fun, in any sense of the word. Interesting, maybe, but very, very unfun.

Noriaki would most likely not delve too deeply into his own travels. He still didn't understand everything himself, and he didn't want to unnecessarily excite the others. Jun would probably be begging for his own trip back in time.

"Right, well, I'll just be going, then-"

A loud, obnoxious, but over all familiar voice cut clean through Maria's parting words:

"Author-chan, you ruined the game! Dammit, it took forever to convince the others to help us, and you go and cheat by getting these guys to find shit for you? For shame, Author-chan, for shame!"

Maria blanched, then scrambled over the counter and took off running down the street without a word, a shimmering stylus already in her hands. Jun was surprised she'd remembered to grab her things in her haste.

Not a moment later, Arianna Hayes, in all her fangirl glory, burst from the inner room of the dango shop, clearing the counter in a single leap, and chased after her fleeing author, a sadistic gleam in her amber eyes.

Violet followed soon after, much more giggly than hell-bent on vengeance, as her sister was; she stopped a moment to throw her arms around Kazue before speeding off at Ari's heels.

Then came Scarlette, who merely smiled enigmatically at Jun and dipped her head to Kazue and Noriaki before she, too, was gone.

The three remaining genin collectively sweat dropped, though Jun did so unconsciously, and quickly regained his good humor.

"Wanna go with them?" he asked cheerily.

Kazue was already making her way home, the dust-coated dress under her arm, her thoughts abuzz with ideas on how to best get rid of the evidence. Noriaki walked with her, a silent shadow trailing after its master.

"Oh well," Jun grinned, hopping down from his seat. "Guess it's just me. Hey, wait up, Scar-chan! I want in on whatever we're doing!"

end