Moonlit Tears (a Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 54

~3rd Person POV~

The next morning, Akemi and Hotaru burst into Kurai and Hideaki's room. By this time, both kids have gotten used to these kinds of intrusions. As such, instead of throwing the kunoichi or trying to knife them, Kurai just rolls over.

She groans when sunlight floods the room from the curtains covering the windows being yanked apart by the two kunoichi. Hideaki just grunts, stuffing his head underneath his pillow.

"Rise and shine, you sleepy heads!" Akemi chirps, already wide awake.

To the side of the room, Hotaru covers a yawn as she leans against the desk perpendicular to the window. Neither of the still sleepy kids reply, so Akemi takes matters into her own hands.

She starts poking the lump on the bed closest to her, which unfortunately, contained Kurai.

"Come one, get up!' Akemi whines, poking the lump faster and harder, until the covers go flying, revealing a pissed off Kurai. She jerks up into a sitting position, glaring at Akemi with bloodshot eyes, her hair sticking up in a way that's reminiscent of a lion's mane.

"Will you cut that out?!" She snarls at Akemi, grumpy from being woken up in such a manner.

But Akemi cheerfully ignores her, poking Kurai's cheek as she cooes, "Aw, is someone a wittle grumpy today?"

This time, Kurai snaps and swipes at Akemi, growling furiously. But the kunoichi skips back out of her reach, laughing. Unbalanced from leaning over too far, Kurai flails before toppling out of her bed with a thump.

Amid the laughter of the others, Hideaki's head sleepily peeps out over the edge of his bed as he asks, "Mm, what's going on?"

Ignoring the highly irritated Kurai, who's rubbing her head and angrily mumbling to herself, Akemi cheerfully replies, "Oh, just making sure you both are up and getting ready for the festival today!"

Then she freezes, sensing a killing intent so strong, it's visible in the morning air. She glances down, paling when she sees Kurai glaring at her, a dark aura pouring from her form.

"Akemi..." Kurai grits out. "You're dead!"

Said kunoichi shrieks in fright and flees the room, the angry girl right behind her, their footsteps swiftly fading. Hotaru and Hideaki stare after the two and sigh.

"Those two are too noisy in the morning." Hotaru grumbles. Hideaki nods, wholeheartedly agreeing with her.

After a few minutes, Kurai stomps through the door frame and silently gets ready, still fuming. Hideaki and Hotaru exchange glances with one another before Hotaru takes her leave.

"We'll leave for the square after breakfast, so have everything ready." She tells the two youngsters.

Kurai grunts her assent, gathering her clothes for a shower.

~~~~~~~~~~

Once both Hideaki and Kurai are dressed, they head out for a quick breakfast. From there, they walk to the square with Hotaru and Akemi to help prepare for that night. There they meet up with the others: Safaia, Kuma and Nezumi, and many other ninja.

Everyone in Kurai's group greets them, and Safaia, Kuma and Nezumi join them. All of the adults switch off, showing Hideaki and Kurai how to set up the stalls and bases, while the others work on perfecting their bases. Thus, all are busy the rest of the morning setting up stalls, bases for their ice masterpieces, and placing multi-colored lights in strategic places in and around them.

After that, all of the participants of the festival head back for lunch, and get ready for the night. Soon it's time for everyone to head out, and all bundle up in warm clothes and ninja gear. Over lunch, everyone in the party agrees to gather in the foyer of the palace before heading out.