Hidden In the Stars

The month between the second and final task of the Chunin Exams was rather calm, on most sides.

For most of it, Konoha was in a festive mood, as there were a great deal many foreign nobles touring the village since the start of the exam, as well as foreign ninja who were getting themselves acquainted with Konoha. It was true that quite a few returned to their villages, but many remained in the village to await the final exam.

It would be quite an event, after all.

In the festival, few took notice of the rather unique party that was the Wolkenritter and their mistress observing the festivities. Naruko was at the head of the group, pulling Vita by the hand as she ran from stand to stand, pointing out all sorts of crafts and arts stands as well as both foreign and familiar cuisine, both expressing her interest in trying it as well as her awe at some of the more produced foods.

"Hey, look! That looks just like the old man's hat!" Naruko said, pointing at a stand that had imitation ninja gear, as well as some of the more iconic outfits, such as the legendary fourth Hokage's white coat, or the Sandaime's samurai-inspired helmet. There was obviously a set of imitation Hokage robes along with the hat. "I wanna buy it!"

And so she did. It was actually quite expensive, but Naruko evidently liked the hat enough to sink quite a few ryou into it. Vita winced, however, when Naruko looked somewhat forlorn for a second before shaking her head. "Come on, there's lots of fun games to play!"

"You don't need to pull," Vita said, rolling her eyes as she let her mistress drag her around. Best not to let anything get you down, since if you let your mood drop, you'll make the mood of the entire party drop.

Naruko pulled Vita along nonetheless, laughing as she approached a stand that sold weird drinks, not all of which were alcoholic in nature. Naruko was curious about what her knights would be like drunk, but they all refused to drink alcoholic beverages. Of course, Naruko never really gave up trying to get them drunk. "You'll all be drunk one day, and I will be there to watch you all do all sorts of stupid things, and then I'm going to laugh!"

"What makes you think you won't be drunk, too?" Vita asked, raising an eyebrow. "You'd do all sorts of dumb things, too!"

"I said I'd be there, not that I'd be sober," Naruko replied, shrugging. "Anyway… we should all order something to drink! I just got my stipend for this month, so go crazy!"

"We've got our own money, Mistress, you don't need to spend it on us," Zafira said, interrupting Naruko and Vita's chat. "We've been working so—"

Naruko rolled her eyes. "You will do as I say, and accept my generosity," Naruko said, deadpan. "So don't try to wiggle your way out of it."

"Well, that was… not unexpected," Shamal said, an amused smile on her face.

"I suppose we might as well," Signum said. "It's pointless to oppose our mistress when she's like this."

"That is true," Zafira admitted, shaking his head with a fond smile. "Very well, then."

"Let's get something to drink!" Naruko said, grinning. It did take a little while, as there were several people ahead of them in line. Naruko was disappointed when they refused the more elaborate alcoholic drinks, instead all of them choosing to buy fruit smoothies. Sure, they were all delicious (and Naruko had of course tried them all within a short time), but it wasn't funny if they weren't getting drunk and doing all sorts of stupid things…

Naruko, of course, was walking backwards and giving her disappointed stare to the knights as they continued to walk through the festival. Instead of looking properly chastising, however, she only managed to look adorable, and the smile tugging at the side of her lips every time they looked at her certainly didn't help.

"Oh, hey! Isn't that… It is! Hiya, Naruko-chan!"

Naruko blinked, turning around. "Oh! Kiba-kun, Sasuke-kun, Sakura-chan!" Naruko yelled, grinning widely and waving her hand at the genin team on the other side of the street.

All three of them were, oddly enough, wearing yukatas. Though they did look good in them, Naruko wondered if they had switched color schemes or something. Sakura was wearing blue and white, Sasuke was wearing gray and tan and Kiba was wearing red. Even Akamaru was wearing a bright red collar instead of his usually naked neck.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruko asked.

"Well, these two were training for the chunin exams," Kiba said, gesturing towards Sakura and Sasuke, "but I managed to convince them to come over here during at least one of our holidays," he added.

"You mean Anko-sensei forced us to take a break," Sakura said, glaring at Kiba. "Anyway, what brings you here?"

"We've been visiting the fair every weekend," Naruko replied. "I haven't seen you guys in forever! How have you been?"

"In a lot of pain," Kiba said, moaning. "Anko-sensei's brutal, and she only gets worse every day!"

Sasuke shuddered. "It's… working, I guess," he added.

"At least I get some free time since I'm studying medicine and I need time for that," Sakura said, shuddering herself. "I don't know how you two can go all eight hours…"

"So you're gonna become a medic like Shamal?" Naruko asked, tilting her head.

"Well… I'll try," Sakura said. "Anyway, how have YOU been? We haven't seen you, either!"

"Bored! A lot! Everyone's been working so hard, that I've been really lonely and without anybody to play with," Naruko said, pouting and turning around to glare at the knights, who looked a bit contrite. "But I'm sure that's boring, too, so why don't you tell me what you've been doing for training?"

"So many snakes… why did it have to be snakes!?

Vita blinked. "Okay, now I'm interested…" she admitted.

"I saw someone investigating the corpses of the creatures I'd slain," Zafira telepathically commented, his eyes closed.

"It was a given they'd pick up on us, eventually," Shamal replied, smiling as Naruko laughed at the explanation given for how Anko motivated her students to run past the limits of their legs.

Zafira frowned. "My apologies. I should've been more discreet," he admitted. "If I hadn't killed them, then—"

"It's no use lamenting now. It's unimportant, at any rate. We've had much time to work with, and the book is almost complete," Signum stated, looking less concerned and more supportive. "If worst comes to worst… Naruko-chan can always reabsorb us. That should be enough to complete the book."

"That is no good. I… won't accept that. Not if it means leaving Naruko alone!" Vita replied. "We'll just have to step up our gathering rate… I don't think they know where exactly we are, anyway. All we have to do is be a lot more covert! That's all!"

"And I am fairly certain she would not take that option, even if her life depended on it," Zafira said, solemnly.

"Then we will have to fight. If the worst comes to worst, the bureau will provide us with the last few pages we need."

***

As the Wolkenritter discussed their situation, others discussed their own.

A tall woman with strikingly green hair, wearing a blue military uniform, looked over a star chart on a floating screen. It zoomed in several times, until there were a few systems instead of hundreds on it. Several systems were lit up in bright red, and she frowned.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense," she muttered. "There doesn't seem to be a clear pattern to their hunting… They are definitely somewhere in this quadrant, but…"

"Sir, they might be aware that they could be tracked if they hunted around a radius of their base, so they might be deliberately hunting in an otherwise illogical pattern," one of the bridge crew replied.

The woman nodded. "We'll have to monitor the entire quadrant as best as we can. We might need to ask for backup."

"On it, Admiral!"