"No consideration for those of us who have to make a living," agreed another farmer.
"More beer?" asked a third farmer, setting a jug out on the table.
"Don't mind if I do," said the first farmer, reaching for the jug and half-filling his mug.
"You done with that spyglass?" asked the second farmer of his daughter.
"Damn, pa, where'd you say you got this again?" asked his daughter, still staring at the moon.
"Told ya," said the father, slapping his wooden leg. "Back when I was crewing ships - when I was about your age. When the ship got sunk by that pirate raker, we all salvaged what we could and split up. I got the spyglass."
"I thought it was a telescope," muttered the daughter.
"Same thing, just you use a spyglass to look for enemy ships and you use a telescope to look at the moon," said the third farmer.
"You know, I think it'll be about the same size as the old moon," said the first farmer.
"No," said the farmer's daughter. "It's further away but it'll be the same size in the sky I think. Means it'll be bigger."
The three farmers considered that before the first one spat.
"If it's further away, then the orbit's gonna be slower," said the third farmer. "There goes all the calendars."
"Damn ninja," repeated the first farmer.
"Interesting," said Shibi Aburame as he looked at the newcomers.
The trio of newcomers looked back, the large antennae twitching on the lead member.
"I think we're going to get along quite well with our new neighbors," predicted Shibi.
"They have colonies of small insects living symbiotically with them," said Bzz R'ghtyr. "Fascinating."
"I think we're going to get along quite well with these neighbors," noted Pazz.
Jiraiya watched, curious. "So, you're wood element?"
"Yes," said the identical triplets in perfect unison.
Jiraiya was fascinated. Not only was this a set of identical and very attractive girls. This was a set of clothing-challenged identical attractive girls. They were also girls who had powerful abilities in a very focussed set of ninjutsu. "So you can't use Earth or Water techniques?"
"No," said the one on the far right.
"We're aware that this is unusual to your human mages of this world," answered the one in the middle.
"But we're neither human nor mages nor ninja," said the one on the far left.
"That's interesting how you finish each other's sentences," said Jiraiya.
"That's not the only thing we do together," said the one in the middle.
Jiraiya stopped. Jiraiya considered. Jiraiya pondered. They were as well stacked as Tsunade, but if he responded to an obvious come-on from someone with a temper anything like Tsunade - he'd get crushed. Painfully. On the other hand, who was he to leave an obvious line like that untouched? "Oh? Do tell? Should we discuss this in detail somewhere else?"
"Finally," said the one on the right.
"About time," said the one on the left.
The one in the center opened a familiar-looking orange book and opened it to a bookmarked page. "Can we try this one?"
"You're... very direct," said Jiraiya.
"And?" asked the one on the right.
"I like that," admitted Jiraiya.
Tsunade looked up. "I just got the feeling of something fundamentally wrong with the universe occurring."
"Again?" asked Shizune.
"Are you going to roll those dice or not?" asked the gambler.
"I don't think she has enough to cover the bet," said another gambler.
"How about I put this necklace up?" asked Tsunade, certain of her victory.
"The cursed necklace belonging to the Hokage that kills whoever wears it?" asked the first gambler.
"err, yes," admitted Tsunade, who hadn't expected anyone to recognize it.
"Sure," said the first gambler. "I think I know an interested party or two."
Aetheria was ruined. By metal-clad nasty-bad monsters from another universe.
Naruto had promised to do what he could to help them, both with their population problem, and with the fact that Aetheria had been ruined by those metal monsters.
Shadeleaf was a dryad.
Sparkwing was a pixie, which was a related species.
Brooke was a naiad. It was also a very common name for naiads, but there was one particular one which was associated with the others and which had come with the dryads.
All three of them had taken Naruto Uzumaki's promise of repopulation in a personal manner and were ready to pounce on him the moment his society would not give him trouble for such a thing.
"Found it," said Sparkwing, standing on the page in question and pointing at the relevant section. "While the ninja at genin is considered adult for most purposes - the age where they can officially start families is sixteen."
"So he was twelve when he left here, and he's been gone three years," mused Shadeleaf.
"Wait a minute," said Brooke, pausing by taking a sip of bottled water because she really had a problem with being away from water for any length of time, "is it biological time or chronological time?"
"Crap," answered Sparkwing when she read ahead.
That was sufficient answer for the two other female fae.
"We have to wait three YEARS?!" asked Shadeleaf.
"Looks like it," said Sparkwing.
Konohamaru rubbed the top of his head and glared at the boy.
The boy glared back.
"That's it!" declared Konohamaru. "You're my rival!"
"Fine," declared Naruto, who then stopped and looked thoughtful. "Hmmm. A ninja rival. I think that's another step on the road to being Hokage."
"Oh," said Konohamaru. "Hey. Yeah. That's right. All of 'em have had rivals for the position, didn't they? So that brings BOTH of us a step closer."
"Cool," summed up Naruto, taking out a book and turning to a page where he jotted it down.
"Which steps have you gotten down so far?" asked Konohamaru. Had to know what your rival was up to after all.
"Been declared a 'ninja hero', rescued people from big fights, rescued people from monsters, learned rare ninjutsu, worked alongside psychotic penguins..."
"Huh?" asked Konohamaru.
"Fortunately, that was VERY brief," said Naruto, shuddering briefly.
"I think I can skip that step," mused Konohamaru.
"Good idea," agreed Naruto.
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(Posted Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:40)
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