Sasuke had handled many disgusting things in his life and was curious. He picked it up.
Sakura continued to choke.
Naruto looked over Sasuke's shoulder to read it. It looked like it wasn't a typical O-mikuji. They normally didn't have that much printed on it.
If you want to change your future, work hard. Build
your chakra reserves, use your intelligence and
chakra control to develop your ninja skills to
where you can stand on your own two feet. And for
crying out loud - if the eyebrows bother you that
much give him a pair of tweezers and some fashion
tips.
Naruto blinked. "Uhm. The priests normally don't let me draw a fortune or nothing on New Years but... isn't that a lot more detailed than is normal?"
Sasuke nodded. "Yeah. It is. Fairly personalized."
"God of mischief - so some of it might actually be true," guessed Naruto.
"I'd say most of it," guessed Sasuke. "The more of it that comes true, the more frantic Sakura will be to prove it wrong."
"Well, maybe. Unless she takes the advice and breaks that chain," tried Naruto.
"She can be extremely stubborn, all those fangirls were," said Sasuke with some disdain in his voice.
"It's not true!" said Sakura, standing up. "ACK! DON'T READ THAT!"
"Already did," said Sasuke. He walked past Sakura and the little girl and placed the somewhat-soggy paper on the wire fence.
"That is why that's there," noted Cherry aloud, tapping his staff on the ground and setting the little rings to jangling.
"You like doing that, don't you?" asked Naruto.
"What can I say, I like little dramatic gestures," noted Cherry. The little monk made a praying gesture. "Not much reason to get into this business if you don't like that sort of thing."
"I suppose," said Kakashi, frowning under his mask.
"Uhm, who's the girl?" asked Naruto.
"Oh, that's the spirit of the tree your sensei just killed," said Cherry.
"Uhm," said Kakashi.
The little girl frowned and pointed at Kakashi. "You're mean!"
"Ninja," stated Kakashi.
"Not all ninja are mean," protested Naruto.
"Most are, or crazy, or crazy and mean," offered Kakashi.
"I don't like you," said the little girl to Sakura. Her eyes passed over Naruto and Sasuke, then snapped back to Naruto. "Oooh!"
"Uhm? Can I help you?" asked Naruto as the little girl-spirit levitated a foot or so off the ground and approached him.
"Not you. You still have a dumb expression on your face. No. This guy!" The little girl stabbed a finger at Naruto's stomach. "So much rage but he's calmer than he was. Such power. Such fierceness. Such heart."
"Uhm," said Naruto, guessing what the girl was saying.
"I will try to reach him through his remaining rage, and will show him how to change that hate into happiness," said the girl-spirit.
"Uhm," said Naruto.
"He's not evil," protested the girl, her head snapping around in a manner human necks were not designed for. "He's just misunderstood."
"I didn't say a thing!" protested Kakashi.
The girl faded away then, her eyes glaring at Kakashi the last thing to fade.
"Can I ask what that was about?" asked Sasuke.
"No," answered Kakashi.
"Rage and power, both attractive things in the spirit world," muttered the priest as he walked past Kakashi.
"Oh great," muttered Kakashi, face-palming. "It has a fangirl. One who has a grudge against me."
"This too is Fate," said Cherry, making a quick prayer sign.
"What's 'it'?" asked Sasuke of Sakura.
"Where he stores all that ramen?" guessed Sakura.
"Eh, a rabbit?" asked Naruto, holding the thing by its ears.
"Naruto! You idiot! What was the idea of scaring me like that!" complained Sakura.
"It's a white rabbit in this season?" asked Naruto.
"Duck!" said Kakashi.
"I'm pretty sure it's a rabbit," said Sakura just before getting pulled to the ground.
A massive sword slammed into a tree and someone leapt onto it.
"There's some design problems with that sword, the balance should be pretty horrible and-"
The missing-nin glared at Naruto.
"Never mind," finished Naruto.
"Well, Sharingan Kakashi," said the missing-nin.
"Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist," said Kakashi.
"Wait a minute. I thought those two hiding in that puddle back there were the 'demon brothers' right?" Naruto pointed. "This is their big brother? He doesn't look a thing like them."
"Can we talk about conventions in ninja titles at some other time?" asked Kakashi. "We're in a battle where the other side is going to kill you in especially unpleasant manners if he wins."
"Oh," said Naruto. "You mean he's a necrophiliac? Necrophilist? Necro-"
"AM NOT!" insisted Zabuza. "Don't even start a rumor like that. I have enough trouble getting business."
"Come on, Naruto. We may be ninja but we have some standards," said Kakashi. "How do you even know about such things?"
"Certain comments made against me which have recently made some degree of sense. Untrue and sick sense, but some sense," responded Naruto.
"We're getting a bit off track here," noted Zabuza. "How about you save your green little genin and let me kill the bridge-builder and then we can all get on with our lives."
"You were hired to kill him? We were hired to guard him." Kakashi sighed. "As troublesome as it is, we have to stick around."
"Gee, thanks," said Tazuna. "I vote for a third option. You go home and say you never saw me."
"Wow. Almost a comedian. Makes me sad that you won't have time to work on your delivery, what with your head being something I have to deliver," said Zabuza.
"Naruto? How many shadow clones did you just make?" asked Kakashi after noticing orange flickers among the trees.
"About two thousand," said Naruto. "Guess I need to work on the stealth stuff."
"Two thousand?" asked Zabuza. "Well, two thousand of nothing is still nothing. What's the worst you could do?"
Two thousand kunai came out of the woods heading for the swordsman. He twirled his sword around at high speed to knock them all out of the air.
"Now that the preliminaries are out of the way," said Zabuza. Who then stopped and blinked. "Where... where did the bridge-builder go?"
"With the original Naruto obviously," noted Kakashi. "As the mission is protecting the bridge-builder, he's got the right idea for once."
Zabuza snorted in his mask. "I'll be able to find him as soon as I've dealt with-"
It turned out that one of the kunai had an explosive tag, which had landed near Zabuza's foot and then been concealed by the other kunai. It went off.
Sasuke and Sakura slowly peeked out from behind trees.
Kakashi sighed and dropped the few kunai which had been blown his way before they all dispelled and left smoke all over the area.
"Okay. One of your green genin has at least the shadow of an inkling of what it means to be a ninja," said Zabuza as he felt the edges of a real wound from a replicated kunai. "Sneaky and violent. What a pity I'll have to cut short his career as a ninja."
"That's if you can get past me," said Kakashi.
"Bleh!" said Tazuna, spitting up a leaf from where he'd been dumped on the ground.
"Quiet you," said Naruto. "Oh to heck with it. You don't snore do you?"
"Why? What would that-"
CLONK!
"Because if you're unconscious there's much less chance of you accidently giving away your position," Naruto informed the unconscious client. Making a gesture he made three shadow clones. "You - go back and keep an eye on everybody. Be ready to assist when needed. You - henge into Tazuna. You two go ahead. We'll lag behind."
Naruto paused, looking off to the side. It was like there was something off but he couldn't narrow down what it was.
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(Posted Tue, 08 Oct 2013 16:47)
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