"Now I'm worried," said Sasuke.
"H-h-hello, Naruto-kun," said Hinata, tapping her fingers together.
"Oh, hi Hinata," said Naruto. He picked up the pouch he'd placed on the ground earlier, tugging it open again, reached inside, and pulled out... "Sakura?! How did you get in there?"
"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" asked Sakura, from the neck down still in the pouch. "Let me go!"
Naruto shrugged and released her. There was a shriek that went on for quite some time, fading with apparent distance, until it couldn't be heard any more. "Anyone know how she got in there?"
"Can you do that with more of my fangirls when they're being annoying?" asked Sasuke hopefully.
"When you were eating ramen she was checking your pouch," said Yugao. "You do realize she'll be even less happy with you after this?"
"I had a crush on her once, years ago," said Naruto, hefting the pouch in one hand. "I asked her out every day for three years. She turned me down every time, often violently. She's repeatedly said how much she dislikes me. I'm no longer so naive as to believe that she'll simply change her mind some day."
"I never saw why you kept after her," said Sasuke.
"I saw her being bullied, thought we had something in common," said Naruto. "Can't stand to see someone get bullied."
"Naruto," said Yugao.
"Hmmm?" said Naruto, apparently staring into his miso ramen as if trying to find the Answers To Life in there.
"Naruto. Sakura is your team-mate," said Yugao.
"Oh yeah," said Naruto, picking up the pouch and contemplating how to do this. Finally he simply inverted it and held the pouch open.
THUMP!
"Uhm, not that I have any idea what's going on here, but - what's going on here?" asked Kiba.
"Sakura apparently decided to investigate my pouch, which is not a good idea," said Naruto. "She got sucked in."
"Okay..." said Kiba. "Your sensei's right though. You shouldn't treat girls like that."
"YOU!" said Sakura, jumping up and hitting Naruto repeatedly with a chair.
"Cause they hit really really hard when you do that sort of thing," began Kiba.
A large slimy tentacle whipped out of the pouch that was now lying on the ground, wrapped around one of Sakura's legs. Then sucked Sakura back into the pouch.
Yugao considered the (I'm not going anywhere NEAR it) pouch lying so deceptively innocent on the ground. She considered the unconscious Naruto. She considered Team 8. "Take a seat. This may take awhile. I'll go over the mission details while we wait for Naruto to wake up."
Sasuke ignored the startled glances as he picked the pouch up and regarded it briefly. "Hey. You in there. Can you hear me?"
"Sasuke?" came Sakura's voice, sounding as if she was way far off.
"Not you, Sakura. Naruto's unconscious so we've got to wait for him to wake up before we can get you out. I was talking to the guardian."
"Interesting," came an impossibly deep and growly voice that somehow managed to conjure up images of things that lived under large mountain ranges and were older than continents.
"Naruto has access to a treasure vault through this thing," said Yugao, her mind catching up to Sasuke's conclusion. "Mitternacht is a goddess of another realm. A goddess might just employ a powerful guardian for a treasure vault."
"Well reasoned for a creature whose lives begin and end in less time than it takes for me to digest a meal," replied the voice. "Why are you bothering me?"
"We'll need Sakura back, and she IS a member of his team," said Yugao as she watched Hinata cautiously approaching the pouch.
"There's a smell like... lizard," said Kiba, his nose wrinkled. Akamaru, apparently having more sense, was a quivering ball of nerves hiding inside Kiba's jacket.
"byakugan," said Hinata as she tried to look inside the pouch. "There's - oh dear."
Yugao stepped up and caught Hinata on the way down. "Okay. Nobody do ANYTHING with ANY of Naruto's supplies unless he's there and CONSCIOUS to do something about it."
"Hinata?!" squeaked Kiba.
Shino continued to remain silent but there was a buzzing from his vicinity as his insects picked up on his emotional state.
"Kiba, Shino, stand down," ordered Kurenai as she walked up. "Paperwork kept me. What happened here?"
"Sakura knocked Naruto out and got sucked inside that pouch," said Kiba. "Hinata looked inside, got that expression, and fell over in a faint."
"Mortal child to dare look upon me," came from inside the pouch. "Be grateful my eyes she did not look upon, for her eyes would surely have melted from their sockets."
Sasuke considered how he could get that pouch from Naruto and somehow convince Itachi to look inside. Tricky.
"Sasuke, draw that little string and close that pouch. We've already made enough of a scene," said Yugao. "Teuchi-san. Do you have anything to drink? This might take awhile."
"Naruto paid for reservations," said Teuchi. "I just didn't expect him to get knocked out that easily."
"You really need to learn to protect yourself from that girl," said the woman at the table, laying cards out.
Naruto took a chair across from Midnight and looked out at the fields surrounding them. "It was necessary."
"Na-naruto?!" squeaked a familiar voice.
"Yes, Hinata," said Naruto, making a gesture and a third place was set for tea by the time he finished the gesture.
Someone slowly looked around the corner of one of the pillars to glance at the woman with Naruto.
"I am Midnight, child," said the woman. "And I don't bite."
Naruto turned back fully to regard the woman.
"Well, not little girls at least," said Midnight.
"Is this a dream?" asked Hinata.
"The simple answer would be 'yes'," said Midnight. "The more complicated but correct answer would be 'yes and no.' Oh, and let me introduce you to those who stand behind you."
"EEEEP!" squeaked Hinata, as she whirled, immediately spotting the number of individuals who had somehow appeared behind her without her noticing.
"Time for you to wake up, Naruto," said Midnight.
"What? Why?" asked Naruto, feeling he had a right to be there.
"Because Sakura Haruno is trapped where she is until you get back," said Midnight. "Second, and more important, it appears that Hyuga-san is more self-conscious with you here than not."
"Ah," said Naruto, who got up and then tousled the short girl's hair for a moment before fading out.
"Now that he's gone," said Midnight, making a gesture at the empty spot of table.
Nervously, Hinata took the place offered, glancing back at the mysterious figures who were silently regarding her in their turn.
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(Posted Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:37)
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