Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Mirror Image ❯ Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

 

Ch. 14

 

Preparing for the Festival

 

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A Few Days Later…

 

 

 

 

 

“Natsuki, you should be taking it easy”, Sara advises, as they run down the street chasing someone/something.

 

“I've already spent two-days in the hospital resting, any loner and I would have gone insane from boredom…”, the blonde ninja states.

 

“Could you two ladies finish this another time, the target is getting away”, Kouichi says.

 

“Sorry…”, they apologize.

 

“He vanished in that alleyway….”, Sara informs.

 

“Natsuki, I want you to hang back, me and Sara can handle this…”, their male team-mate orders.

 

“Oh really…?”, she scoffs, stopping just outside the alley, “Fine, let's see what you can do…”, she adds, while her team-mates head into the dark alleyway after the mission-mark.

 

“He went under the crate…”, Sara whispers.

 

“Alright…”, he nods, getting onto his hands and knees to look under the crate, and has a pair of glowing-eyes glaring back at him, “Come here you…”, he says, reaching out to grab the target.

 

“MWAR!”, the target hisses, swiping an appendage at him and creates 4 tiny scratches on the back of his hand, causing Kouichi to quickly withdraw his hand.

 

“God damn cat!”, he curses.

 

“What's wrong? Can't handle a little kitty-cat on your own?”, Natsuki laughs from behind him.

 

“And you think you can do any better?”

 

“Of course…”, she smirks, walking past him and crouches be the crate, peering underneath, “Here Kitty-kitty…”, she gently calls, rubbing the fingers on one of her hands at the cat and making chirping-noises, “Come here, Tora…”

 

Slowly, but surely the brown-striped cat with a ribbon on it's right-ear comes creeping out from under the crate and starts rubbing it's snout against her fingers, and she moves her fingers to scratch under the cat's chin while she uses her other hand to lift the cat up into her arms.

 

“Good kitty…”, she coos, scratching the cat behind the ears and earns a purr of contentment from the cat.

 

Kouichi just stands there with his jaw dropped at how fast and effortlessly she got the target, “H-how…?”

 

“You need to know how to appease an animal…”, Sara giggles, “Me and Natsuki have a talent for it…”

 

“Only because we grew up in the forest”, Natsuki comments, “Tora, you have to stop running away from your owner… I know you don't like her, but every-time you run away she will also hire a ninja to catch you…”, she whispers to the cat, “But… If you need to get away from her for an hour or so, you can come to my house and have all the milk you want…But you have to go back to her afterwards, okay?”, she quietly promises, earning a lick-kiss from the renegade feline, “I take it that's a yes…”

 

“Well, Mission Recover Runaway Tora, is a success”, Sara smiles.

 

“Let's head back. We still have to get ready for the festival”, Kouichi states.

 

“Oh yeah, the festival!”, the blonde ninja gasps, “But there is a problem, Sara and I don't have kimonos to wear…”

 

“We could ask our brothers if there are any left behind by our mothers'…”, the female Uchiha says.

 

“Easier said than done… It may work out for you, but Naruto doesn't have a thing of our mom's in his possession…”, she sighs, “Except a little knick-knack he wears on the sleeve of his jacket…”

 

“He doesn't even have a picture of your parents?”

 

“Nope…”, she shakes her head, as she strokes Tora's fur.

 

“That's not good…”

 

“That's alright. It will just make it so much more fun searching for the truth…”, she chuckles, as she opens the door to the room where they receive their missions and Tora's owner waited.

 

“Tora? Did you find Tora?”, the cat's owner questions.

 

“Don't worry, Madam Shijimi. Tora is safe and sound”, Natsuki says, setting down the cat onto the floor, “Remember our deal…”, she quietly reminds, before he starts walking to his owner of his own free-will.

 

“Oh, there you are my cute Tora-chan!” the Fire-Lord's wife exclaims, hastily scooping up the feline and tightly nuzzles him against her cheek, “I was so worried about you!”

 

“I can really tell why he runs away…”, Sara whispers over to her team-mates.

 

“No kidding…”, Kouichi agrees.

 

“At least with my deal with Tora, not a lot of ninjas will have to be hired to locate him in the future…”, the blonde ninja states, watching as the woman pays the hiring bill at the assigned-table, “At least not when I'm home…”

 

“Young lady, I want to thank you!”, Shijimi energetically thanks, taking hold of one of Natsuki's hands into her own, “I don't know what you did, but this is the first time Tora-chan has ever willingly come to me!”

 

“It was nothing”, she says, smiling.

 

“As thanks, I want you to take this as extra”, she states, handing the stunned girl a small wad of cash.

 

“I couldn't possibly…”, she gasps, seeing that the small-amount of bills in the bundle were the 3-digit number dollars.

 

“No, no, no… I insist!”, the wealthy-woman firmly informs, continuing to hold out the money to the teen.

 

“T-t-thank you, ma'am…”, she hesitantly says, taking the money from the gracious-woman.

 

“If and whenever my little Tora-chan runs away, I would like that young lady to be the one to return him”, Shijimi declares, turning towards Tsunade.

 

“Only if she isn't on another mission at the time”, the 5th Hokage informs.

 

“Then that would be alright, if I have to hire a different-ninja while she is out on other missions”, she decides, turning and heads towards the door, “Let's go home, Tora-chan”, she says, vanishing through the door.

 

“Wow…! That is a lot of money!”, Sara gasps, staring at the money her friend held in her hand.

 

“I still can't believe that happened to me…”, Natsuki mutters.

 

“Well Team Hisoka, you have made an extremely good first-impression with the Fire Lord's wife…”, Tsunade states, getting up from behind the table she sat behind to stand behind the Jounin-less squad, “That normally doesn't happen…”

 

“Thank you for the words of kindness…”, the blonde-ninja bows, while slipping the money into her pocket at the same-time.

 

“Now considering that there is a festival today, you three probably be wanting to be going to it”, the older woman says, “Here is your pay from the mission and the three of you go have fun”, she informs, giving the teens their cut of the pay.

 

“Thank you, ma'am”, the three of them bow, before leaving the building.

 

“Well, I'd better head home and see if I'm lucky enough to see if there is some clothes left behind by my mother”, Natsuki sighs.

 

“If you don't find anything, you can borrow one from my house”, Sara says, “I do remember seeing a few kimonos while looking for clothes our first & last day at the academy”

 

“Hmm… That sounds a good back up plan”, she agrees, “So meet up at my house or yours?”

 

“Yours… If you don't find a kimono, you can send Chobi with a note stating that you did find one and I'll bring you the spares to choose from”

 

“Sounds like a plan!”, Natsuki nods, “See you two at my house in half an hour!”, she exclaims, running off before Kouichi could say anything.

 

“So Sara…?”

 

“Yes Kouichi-san?”

 

“Can I walk you home? Since Natsuki took off”, he asks, offering her his elbow.

 

“Certainly”, she nods, taking hold of his arm and starts walking with him.

 

 

 

 

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Uzumaki Residence…

 

 

 

 

“I'm home!”, Natsuki calls out, as she walks in through the door, “You here Naruto?”

 

“I'm in the bedroom!”, she heard him shout.

 

“What are you doing?”, she asks, peeking into the room, to find her brother on his hands and knees on the floor looking like he was searching for something underneath his bed.

 

“I'm looking for something”

 

“I can see that… But what are you looking for?”

 

“Ah-ha!”, he exclaims, bringing his body upright, “I was looking for this”, he replies, smiling victoriously as he holds up a gold-comb with two dark-pink gem en-crested flowers.

 

“It's beautiful!”, she gasps.

 

“It used to be our mother's, believe it or not…”, he says.

 

“Wow…!”

 

“I think you should have it”, he adds, handing the hair-piece to her, “Especially at the festival”

 

“That's great and all, but I don't have a kimono to wear”, she explains, looking around at the items thrown all around the room, except for the corner where her hammock and chest of possessions were and sat immaculate.

 

“Oh yeah, a package came for you in the mail today!”, he exclaims, walking past her into the kitchen to grab a box off the table.

 

“A package…?”

 

“I was shocked too, who outside of Konoha knows where you live?”

 

Natsuki takes the box from her brother's hands and sits down on Naruto's bed; which surprisingly was still perfectly made, and uses her house-key to slit the tape open, pulling the flaps up she is greeted by the sight of cherry-blossom pink cloth with a smaller red cloth on top neatly folded inside the box.

 

“What the…?”, she mutters, removing the red cloth and places it on the bed, before gripping the pink cloth in both hands and starts to remove it to find the cloth beginning to unfold as she lifted the item, having to stand up and let the box fall to the messy-floor just to get a clear look at the article that had been mailed to her.

 

The item completely unfolded turned out to be a kimono made out of high-quality silk and Natsuki could tell just by holding it that it was slightly longer and would go past her ankles, but that was nothing a little pinning wouldn't fix, it was just the fact that she had received the very thing she required to attend the festival with and that it was such an expensive kimono that left her stunned.

 

“Naruto… What does the box say of who sent the package…?”

 

Naruto blinks for a moment at his sister's request before kneeling onto the floor to pick up the box and looks at the shipping-label, “It doesn't say who sent it”, he replies, before removing a card from inside the box, “But there is a card with it”

 

“A card…?”, she gasps, snatching the small piece of paper from his hand, looking at it herself.

 

“What's it say? What does it say?”

 

“It says: `Happy 13th Birthday Natsuki Uzumaki!

I hope you enjoy the festival while wearing your birthday present!'”, she reads, “But it doesn't say who it is from either…”

 

“Strange… How are you supposed to thank them if you don't know who sent it?”, Naruto comments.

 

“I don't know, but maybe I'll find out eventually…”, she says, looking at the beautiful silk kimono again, “Well, I have to get ready for the festival. If Sara and Kouichi-kun get here before I'm ready, please don't make my team-mates wait outside”, she informs, gathering the kimono, obi, her brush, and the gold hair-comb, before disappearing into the bathroom, “Also don't forget to get ready either”, she adds, before closing the door and the sound of the shower turning on is heard.

 

 

 

 

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Half an Hour Later…

 

 

 

 

Naruto stands in front of the mirror in his room, straightening his orange kimono with blue obi around his form and finger-combs his hair.

 

“That is the best I'm going to get it…”, he sighs, “It would be better if I could have taken a shower before Natsuki took over the bathroom…”

 

A knock on the door echoes through the apartment, causing Naruto to answer the door and when he opened the door he is greeted with the sight of Sasuke, Sakura, Kouichi, and Sara standing on his door-step.

 

“Good Afternoon, Naruto-kun!”, Sara greets, while wearing a blue knee-length kimono with a sky-blue obi and her shoulder-length hair pinned-up with 3 blue hair-clips.

 

“May we come in, Naruto?”, Sakura, her hair was pinned up elegantly and she wore a red kimono with pink cherry-blossoms printed on it with a golden-orange obi.

 

(A/N: See the image; http://www.foroswebgratis.com/imagenes_foros/1/4/9/2/3 /608146sakura%20kimono.jpg )

 

“Oh! Sure, sure… come on in!”, he stammers, snapping out of his daze and motions them inside.

 

“Nice apartment, Naruto-kun. Is Natsuki-chan ready?”, Kouichi questions, wearing a maroon kimono with a black obi.

 

“Still in the bathroom…”, he replies, pointing towards the bathroom, “By the way Sasuke, this is the first time you come to my home…”

 

“I've been here before, but you weren't home…”, the stoic male Uchiha states, wearing a navy-blue kimono with a dark-grey obi, “When my brother came looking for you the first time…”

 

“Really?!”, Naruto gasps.

 

“Don't mind him, Naruto-kun. He's in a bad mood since me and Sakura-chan had to drag him here”, Sara informs.

 

“That sounds a lot like Sasuke-kun”, they heard Natsuki's voice say from behind them.

 

They turn around to see Natsuki walk out of the bathroom wearing the cherry-blossom pink kimono with red obi she received in the mail. Her blonde-hair was elegantly folded; so that half of her hair rested against the nape of her neck, and pinned up using their mother's hair-comb, her eye-lids were delicately colored with frost-pink eye-shadow while her cheeks were dusted with blush that only enhanced the natural-features of her face, and her lips were gracefully painted with red lipstick, making her no longer resemble the tomboy they knew.

 

“So…? How do I look?”, she asks, looking nervous.

 

The three male ninjas begin blushing because of her appearance.

 

“W-what… What is wrong…?”

 

“Wow! Natsuki, that is quite a change in appearance!”, Sakura exclaims.

 

“Thank you…”, she blushes.

 

“Natsuki, you now look like the beautiful princess I see you as”, Kouichi says, bowing before her.

 

“Stop it, Kouichi-kun! You're embarrassing me!”, she screams, hiding her face behind her hands.

 

“Hey, Natsuki?”, Sara asks.

 

“Hm…?”, Natsuki peeks out from behind her hands.

 

“Where did you get the kimono?”

 

“I don't know where it came from, but I got it in the mail”, she replies, spinning around to show off the kimono.

 

“Who sent it?”, Sakura questions.

 

“Don't know…”, she shrugs, “It was anonymous…”

 

“Who cares about that? Let's get going to the festival!”, Naruto exclaims.

 

“Tonight is a night of celebration!”, Kouichi cheers, “It is the day Naruto-kun and Natsuki-chan turn 13!”

 

“Oh, yeah…! That's right!”, Sara gasps.

 

“Hey, Sara… Is it just me or does your brother seem to be smitten…?”, Natsuki whispers to her best friend.

 

“Really…?”, she quietly asks, glancing over at her sibling, “I think you're right… But it's more like shock…”

 

“Whatever…”, Natsuki sighs, “Just grab him so we can go party!”, she adds, holding onto the nook of Kouichi's arm.

 

“Come on, Sasuke-onii-chan!”, Sara says, grabbing him by the hand and drags him from the apartment.

 

 

 

 

 

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