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MG-chan and Tsunade, when sober, tended to not get along.

When sake was present, they were good friends.

But, to MG-chan's extreme frustration, there was no sake present in the Hokage's office. Only her, Tsunade, and a piece of paper MG-chan had quite recently declared her enemy of enemies, perhaps even higher on the list than Itachi and Kisame.

"You want me to...WHAT?!" MG-chan's cry of frustration and outrage echoed violently in the room. "I know you don't care for me, and the feeling is damn well mutual, but this!? This brand of...BUSY WORK?!"

Tsunade only gazed at her, slightly amused. "Busy work? Think of it as...a vacation."

MG-chan looked down again at the paper in her hands, the mission summary line to be exact.

"Your mission, if you choose to accept it, AND YOU HAVE NO CHOICE, is to attend the annual festival of bells in the stone country. Your purpose is to show up, and act as an ambassador of sorts, representing Konohagakure to the best of your abilities."

"...A vacation? Getting there, and then the festival (a five day festival! How can anyone survive that!?), and then getting back here... That'll take the rest of the summer!"

"Summer vacation, then," Tsunade grumbled. "Just go, be nice, and come back. Party somewhere people want you to party, for a change...not Sasuke's. Or Iruka's. Or the Akatsuki headquarters..."

MG-chan winced at the memory of their revenge upon the GREEN guild trashing their hideout ("My...MY GAWD THEY TOILET PAPERED THE WHOLE VILLAGE?!"). She winced even harder at the memory of the tongue lashing they'd gotten from Tsunade for not informing her that they knew of the hideout's location.

"Or Gaara's. Or Kakashi's. Or...hmm ...did I miss anyone?"

"...I refuse to answer that on the grounds that I could incriminate myself."

Tsunade smirked. "I thought so. Just go on. It'll be good for you to get out of the village for a while."

"But what if Gai-kun returns while I'm gone?!" MG-chan said indignantly.

"No one's gonna try to make a move on him," Tsunade sighed. "I promise."

"...I'll go. On one condition!" MG-chan finally caved in. "If anyone from GREEN wants to come...you send them along after me."

"Done," Tsunade replied. "Now get outta here. The festival's in two weeks. Don't forget your yukata...and maybe... Find someone cute to dance with."

"Tsunade-sama. What the hell does that mean?"

"...hey, don't tie yourself to tight to one man, especially a ninja. Gai...is a ninja, in the truest sense of the word. He might not be here tomorrow."

MG-chan gazed back at Tsunade, slightly amazed at the older woman's attempt to show warmth and kindness.

"Tsunade-sama," MG-chan said, smiling gently, "Can I tell you something?"

"Hn?"

"...You're just like my grandmother!" MG-chan chirped happily, before running like hell out of the office, dodging a storm of well-aimed pens, coffee mugs, dango sticks, and precisely one chair.


***Time skip WHOOOOSH: The next morning***

MG-chan stood just inside the great village gates, squinting off into the distance and shifting her backpack.

"Off I go, I suppose...I hope someone else comes along," She gazed back into the village one last time, waved goodbye to Rock Lee again (who she had made promise to tell his sensei of the festival if Gai returned before she did), and started walking. "Otherwise, this'll be a long trip..."

"I can't believe she was going to leave me here! With KNIGHT!" Kat was furious. She continued filling her water bottle and silently fumed.

Once she was done packing, she ran out the door and towards the gates of Konoha where she found MG-Chan and her older sister chatting. She caught up to them and promptly hit Mitsune lightly on the head.
"What was that for?"
"Leaving me alone with KoF," she answered simply, "What's up MG-Chan?"
MG-Chan sighed, why did they always fight? "Not much, just walking to the Stone Country. I can't see why the old hag can't do it herself, isn't SHE the hokage?" The sisters nodded. MG-Chan continued her bitter ramble about Tsunade.

"MG-Chan? We know you don't like her, but could you... umm... stop?" MG-Chan sighed and agreed. There was an awkward silence.
If it was only going to be the three of them, it certainly was going to be a long trip. ((/hint))
~~~~~~~~~
Sorry it's so short~ >.<

Mitsune didn't like it when people told her to rest well. It usually meant she wasn't going to get much sleep.

"Watch? Who would attack a bunch of diplomats on their to a festival?" Mitsune muttered as she turned over.

"You say something, sibling?" Kitkat asked sleepily.

"Absolutly nothing!" Kat's blanket looked rather warm and snuggly, Mitsune thought. 'Wow, it's almost like we're babies, and I'm stealing her bottle or her place on Mom's lap again.'

After a few more hours the usual routine of trying (and failing) to fall asleep got old; Mitsune decided that sleep could wait.

~~~
"Bah, I never get to sleep easily," she complained to herself more than to her older friend. "So what's this Festival of Bells about, anyways?"

((What's even funnier is the mental image of RL me with a squirrel on my head! We both thank you for the laugh <3))

After hearing some whispering about, "do you think it has rabies" and "should we leave it alone," Kitkat decided to see what they were talking about. And when she sat up, she was greeted with something furry with sharp claws scuttling down the back of her shirt.

"Ahhh!"


Some time later, Kitkat was holding the squirrel in her hands. She had accidently injured it and decided to heal and keep the poor thing. MG-Chan and Mitsune were still snickering at the memory.

"So, whatcha gonna name it?" Mitsune asked, peeking at it. The squirrel was rather adorable.

"Cute," she replied nonchalantly

"You're naming it "cute"?" MG-Chan asked, thinking she hadn't heard Mitsune. Kitkat nodded.

"It is cute after all, so the name "cute" fits." The youngest explained. The three continued down the road talking about pets, names, and other such things before stopping to eat. "Hey, what do squirrels eat?"

"Ehh... nuts? Berries maybe?" MG-Chan answered.

"I'm going to find some, see ya later!" She waved goodbye.

"I personally find it funny how she expects to find nuts and berries because we left the forest a while ago." Mitsune said with a straight face. "She never exactly has been the sharpest tool in the shed."

MG-Chan laughed a little before looking for something to make.


((I'm sorry if I characterize you wrong MG-Chan! And to KoF: You were going to join in, right? Well, you're a bit late, buddy.))

(Spot on characterization, Kitkat! But take it a little easier on KoF, eh? It's all in good fun.

KoF: An animation would be fantastic! And if ya change your mind about joining, feel feel to pop out of a bush or something.]

MG-chan trotted off in search of a midday snack. True, there probably wouldn’t be any nuts or berries to be found, but there were many streams and patches of wild vegetables in the Fire country.

It was just a matter of finding them.

After about twenty minutes or so, she returned to Mitsune, Kitkat, and Cute the hungry squirrel with an armful of wild carrots. The fruits (bah-dum-bum-pssh) of MG-chan’s search were distributed, and they rested for a moment to eat their vegan meal. The Sannin spread a map in front of her to study as she ate.

“Will a squirrel eat carrots?” Kitkat wondered, dangling a smaller carrot in front of Cute.

“If they don’t, Cute can feel free to go foraging next time,” MG-chan said around crunches.

Whether Cute found the carrot to be to his liking or if he was frightened by MG-chan’s threat, none knew, but they all squealed at Cute when he launched himself at the carrot, wrestled it to the ground, and started nibbling on it.

“We should reach the next village by nightfall,” Mitsune said, momentarily eyeing the map. “Tokoro village. We can stock up on squirrel food for him.”

“Could we stop at an inn?” KitKat asked, giving Cute another carrot. “It’d be nice to sleep in a real bed.”

“Do we have the money for that?” Mitsune wondered aloud.

The sisters both looked at MG-chan for an answer.

“Oh-kay, I guess I’m the treasurer for this little outing then,” MG-chan said, doing her best to juggle figures in her head. “I knew we were gonna spend a lot at the festival, so I brought extra ryo with me, along with the funds Tsunade provided for the mission, so, there should be enough for us to stay at some inns along the way.”

“Good,” Kitkat sighed. “If I couldn’t shower on at least an almost regular basis, I’d go nuts.”

The word nuts perked Cute up immediately. He perched on his hind legs in attention, and looked at the three of them in quick succession, with watery, wide eyes and his cheeks big and round with carrot.

The three girls squealed at the fuzzy ball of adorable called Cute again.

After finishing their carrots and squealing at Cute's cuteness one more time, they set off again.

They walked for the next few hours, still chatting away (the topics of conversation including: how cute Cute is, their favorite books, what they each wanted to do at the festival, and how they all hoped to dance with someone cute.).

It was late afternoon when they finally arrived at the outskirts of the village.

"Here we are! Tokoro village!" Kitkat proclaimed happily.

"...ya know, Tokoro means place," MG-chan said to Mitsune.

"Cute the cute squirrel and Place village," Mitsune said. "I think I'm seeing a pattern here. Let's find the Motel Inn."

*About 20 minutes later...*

"...I was actually joking."

Mitsune was dumbfounded. MG-chan was laying on the ground in spasms of laughter. Kitkat was feeding Cute nuts she had bought out of a small paper sack.

They stood in front of a three story establishment, not fancy but not dingy, bright and welcoming, with a large painted sign out front that proclaimed unto them:

"Welcome to Tokoro's famous Motel Inn~"

After MG-chan finally calmed herself, the three managed to procure a room for the night. It was a simple place; the lobby was fairly small, but had a small restaurant tucked into a corner. Their room had two beds and a couch, all plenty comfortable. MG-chan immediately claimed the couch ("Nothing better for a catnap than a good old fashioned couch!"). Mitsune and Kitkat each took a bed.

"Well," Kitkat said, watching Cute dart about the covers of one of the beds. "Now what? Dinner time?"

"The, er, restaurant in the lobby maybe?" Mitsune suggested, skimming over a menu she had grabbed. "Oooh, these dumplings sound good."

"Here," MG-chan said, fishing some money out of her pocket, and she handed it to Mitsune. "You two get whatever you like to have for dinner. Just don't, ya know, go nuts."

"What about you, MG-chan?" Kitkat asked.

"I'm goin' out." She smiled innocently.

"...MG-chan, I thought Tsunade wanted us to behave?" Mitsune reminded her.

"At the festival," MG-chan grinned. "But till then... Travellin' makes me real thirsty. Besides, I wanna try to find out if anyone we should know about is heading to the festival to. Taverns are a perfect spot to overhear things. I'll be back before too long! And if you want, you're always welcome to join me. Later!"

She walked out of the room.

"Mitsune?"

"Yeah?"

"Does MG-chan have a problem?"

"Yup. She's more like Tsunade than she'd care to admit."

"... She's not gonna behave at the festival is she?"

"Nope."

It took a few minutes for MG-chan to calm herself after finding Tokoro village’s seemingly only tavern.

Not because she was excited, or frightened, or happy.

Because she was laughing so very hard.

She was standing in front of another cozy business establishment, looking up at a sign that read, “Tokoro’s Famous Bar Tavern~”, doubled over, and appeared to be the only person who thought the rampant puns were just hilarious.

Once inside and sitting comfortably at the bar waiting for a drink, she cast her eyes over the sparsely populated tavern, but didn’t have to turn her head to know who was in the shadows of the far corner.

And very nearly shouted an obscenity, but quickly silenced herself and hide her face with a carefully placed hand supporting her face. When the tavernkeeper returned with her tea, he was a mite perplexed, but smiled and set the cup in front of her. He took to cleaning a tumbler not far from her.

A fierce, predatory chakra signature was emanating from that corner, deep as the sea, and just as terrifying.

Oh HELL, she thought to herself. You know I'd walk into the one tavern with Hoshigaki Kisame hiding in the corner. And naturally, Itachi's gonna be with him...

She casually scootched her barstool forward, and casually let her gaze sweep the corner.

There he was, one Hoshigaki Kisame....alone, in the corner booth, completely entranced with the sake bottle in front of him.

Well, that was unexpected. Why is he alone? What are they doing here, of all places? ....are they after Naruto? or....

"So," the tavernkeeper said to her. "Passin' through?"

"Eh?" MG-chan snapped out of her thoughtful silence. "Oh, yes, me and some friends."

"Ah, headin' up to the Stone country for the festival," he nodded sagely.

She nodded. MG-chan could feel a small spark of chakra from the corner; Kisame was paying attention. Well, I suppose he's here for the same reason I came. Oh, how the tables turn...

"Uh-hmm. Got some family up there, and they invited us up."

"Long trip."

"Yeah, but I never was one to pass up a good party."

"Hah! Sounds like some ninjas I heard about from the Leaf," the tavernkeeper laughed. "I heard they party, all the time, everywhere they can. Especially in the homes of ninja they don't like. I heard the entire Leaf village was covered in toilet paper in retaliation once."

"Oh, really?" MG-chan tried to smile innocently.

"Hey, your symbol, you're from Leaf! You know if it's true?"

Another spark of chakra.

"Well, the village was toilet papered once... I helped clean it up. So, that much is true..." I helped clean it because I helped to cause it but whatever.

"Bet that was a hassle. Don't see why young people can't control themselves these days... But at least this time of year, everyone goes to Stone to have fun. None of the rest of us have to clean up the mess afterwards."

MG-chan let the tavernkeeper ramble. Afterall, the less Kisame heard from her, the better. She was swinging on the hope that after their first brief encounter, he wouldn't be able to recognize her voice.

"Yup, we've had alot of traveler's passin' through the last few days. Most of my regulars are stayin' home cause of them; they're rowdy, ya know, that festival crowd. Hey, listen 'ere..."

He leaned towards her and cupped his hand around his mouth.

"All kinds of ninja have been comin' through to Stone, so watch your step at the festival. That blue guy in the corner, with the scratched mist symbol? Goin' there too, I reckon, from what he said. Dangerous lookin' guy."

"....aren't you gonna get a look at him?" the tavernkeeper said when MG-chan didn't turn to look.

"I don't have to," she said as quietly as she could, with the tavernkeeper having to lean in more to hear her. "I know him, and he's more dangerous than you think. Don't start anything with him. I need to leave before he recognizes me, and picks a fight."

The tavernkeeper gulped and nodded.

"So what do I owe you?" MG-chan chirped.

After casually paying for her tea, MG-chan strolled out of the tavern, and around the corner, but doubled back on the rooftops when she was out of sight of the tavern.

She dropped into the ally and, supressign her chakra signature as much as she could, found a window with which to watch Kisame.

He was still there, alone, slowly nursing that bottle of sake. It was a only a few minutes later when Itachi finally joined him. MG-chan saw Kisame's lips move, no doubt telling him about a Leaf ninja that had come in and quickly gone. Itachi said little in reply. Kisame seemed surprised.

Oooooh dang. I should've thought... Kisame would tell Itachi what he'd missed, and Itachi'd recognize me from the description...

Kisame grinned and moved to get up, but Itachi shook his head. Kisame took his seat again.

They're not coming after me?....

Itachi's lips moved again, and MG-chan could swear she almost heard his voice in her head.

We know where she will be. We can find her at the festival.

And she could hear Kisame's answer in the snarling of his lips.

We'll see her and her little friends there then. Maybe we can have some fun with them.

MG-chan saw Kisame's eyes flicker towards where she was hiding, and bolted away towards the Motel Inn. She didn't stop running until she was leaning against the bathroom door of her , Mitsune and Kitkat's room.

It was empty. All she could hear where her heavy breaths. Itachi and Kisame hasn't followed her.

"Well," she said to herself when her breathing had evened out. "I guess we'll be seeing Red Eye and the Shark-nin at the festival. But Itachi and Kisame on their best behavior... Should be a laugh, till they try to gouge out my eyes. We'll just have to get outta there as quick and quiet as we can. No big deal."

She let silence hang in the air for a moment.

"Well, not yet, anyway."

She threw herself onto the couch to wait for Mitsune and Kitkat to return, to tell them her harrowing tale.

MG-chan was pacing the length their room with a kind of focus and fury truly unlike her.

When Mitsune walked in, there was almost a rut worn into the carpet.

"MG-chan!" Mitsune exclaimed.

The Sannin stopped and gave her fellow ninja all the attention she could muster away from her recent encounter.

"I'm not sure what it was, but I felt a very strong chakra signature twice this evening."

After a few moments of thought, MG-chan replied. "That sounds about right. I can explain it."

Mitsune eyed MG-chan suspiciously.

"...It wasn't me. Honest. We'll just wait for your sister to finish bathing Cute."

"Bathing...Cute?"

"Yup. She's giving Cute a bubble bath in the bathroom sink. "Bout the most adorable thing I've even seen."

Mitsune went over to the bathroom, knocked, and found the door open. It swung further into the small bathroom to reveal KitKat perched in the countertop, covered in suds, with cute i a sink full of bubbles, bouncing and scampering about.

"...D'aaaaaawwww!" Mitsune cooed.

A few minutes later, the three ninja (with one towel wrapped squirrel in a lap), were settled onto their beds, or in MG-chan's case, her beloved couch, and ready to discuss the evening's events.

"So, MG-chan, what were those chakra signatures?" Mitsune asked, anxious to finally hear the answer.

"...well, you remember when we tossed around the notion that the Akatsuki might show up to the festival?"

"....yes?" Mitsune squeaked, her face darkening. Kitkat looked a little afraid.

MG-chan relayed the events that transpired at the Bar Tavern, and what she witnessed from the outside looking in.

After her tale, both sister's eyes were wide and saucer-like.

"Um...what...now?" Kitkat asked. "I mean...they...we..."

"Kat has a point," Mitsune said. "What do we do now? They could set a trap for us..."

Kitkat immediately envisioned the entirety of the Akatsuki leaping down upon them from a building, wearing yukatas and eating festival snacks.

Mitsune envisioned the entirety of the Akatsuki attacking them in their sleep, and then going out to party some more.

MG-chan pictured the Akatsuki sweeping them each into a dance, and then covertly trying to kidnap them.

"Well, first things first," MG-chan said, "We should contact Tsunade-sama about this. I can send a messenger Pengu. Then...well, I suppose we stay on track until we get further orders."

Kitkat's brow furrowed. "MG-chan. Itachi and Kisame know where we are and where we're going and probably how we're getting there. I don't think we should keep going this way."

Mitsune moved to sit next to her sister and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "It's dangerous, Kitkat, but...Konoha needs the exposure. And MG-chan heard, well, saw, Itachi tell Kisame they'd try for us at the festival."

MG-chan added, "If ya know where and when the fish are gonna be biting, there's no point wastin' your bait somewhere and sometime else."

"We can go off the main road, and take a straighter route through the..."wilderness" too. And once we hear back from Tsunade-sama, we can take her orders."

"Alright," Kitkat said, scratching Cute absently. "I know we'll be alright if we work together."

"That's the spirit!" Mg-chan cheered. "I'll get a message done up, and send it off, and then we'll plan out a new course!"

Mitsune and Kitkat set to drawing out a new route. MG-chan scribbled away a message for Tsunade. After about fifteen minutes, MG-chan summoned a messenger pengu, and set him running off to Konoha with their report scroll.

"He should make it by...noon, maybe mid afternoon," MG-chan told the sister-nins. "He's one of the fastest."

"Great!" Kitkat chirped. "And we've got a new route to Stone!"

"It goes almost straight west. We'll go through the tip of River country, then through some of this little one, and we'll be there. Itll be alot quicker than taking the main roads. We'll just have to be careful to not get lost."

"Sounds good," Mg-chan nodded. "I'll leave the navigation to you two."

"We should get some rest," Mitsune said. "It's starting to get really late."

The other two nins agreed, and they all tucked themselves in, and went to sleep.

The next morning, they checked out, picked up breakfast at a foodstand, and set off on their new route.

"If anything else happens," MG-chan proclaimed, "I will personally see to it that Tsunade buys us each dango for three weeks."

"Hey you two," MG-chan called to Mitsune and Kiyo. "I think I just figured out why chuunin are called journeyman ninjas."

"They get all the travelling grunt work?" Mitsune asked, with a knowing hint in her voice.

"With only a slight increase in pay and a semi-important title to comfort them on the long and lonely road?" Kitkat chimed in.

"Exactly!"

"It's a ninja conspiracy!" Kitkat exclaimed.

"No wonder people want to make jounin so fast," Mitsune mused.

All things considered, morale was pretty high. They were walking briskly through rather bug infested territory and none of them had yet succumbed to furious scratching, yelling, or any other extreme reaction.

Until midday when the messenger pengu returned. This earned the excited whoops of all the ninja, along with squeaks of approval from Cute.

The pengu poofed back to its home of ice as MG-chan unrolled the scroll and began to read.

"Stay the course, I'm sending reinforcements...."

MG-chan gazed blankly at the message, and then checked the back. Blank.

The sister-nins faces fell.

"...y'all know what, she's buying us dango for three weeks anyway," MG-chan grumbled and stashed the scroll away in her backpack. "....but if we keep going, we can make it to Stone before evening."

They sighed collectively, and continued their trek.

A few itchy, bug infested hours later, they stood outside an inn a short distance from the loud hustle and bustle of the Stone capital.

"Well," MG-chan sighed, happy to finally be away from the bugs. "I say we rest up tonight, and uh....maybe go shopping for tights or longer yukata tomorrow. We've still got two days till the festival, so we might....not look like we tramped through hills of needles to get here come party time."