Aligning the Stars

Attack of the Poppies!

Last Time:

"Yeah, but Marco is someone to be careful of with his blue fox's illusion abilities." warned Naruko as they finished their meals and got ready for the next day.

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"Ouch!" Kiba yelped as he recoiled away from an orange flower that actually bit his hand. The shock at being bitten by a flower was quickly overcome by anger as the flower started bouncing up and down in a mocking way before sinking into the ground. "Oh now it's personal! Akamaru, start digging! We'll get these stupid flowers at the roots!" The canine marked in agreement and started digging furiously.

Shikamaru yawned as he watched the dog dig, "Damn ... this is earlier than I'm used to."

"I didn't know you were used to waking up at all." Naruko teased earning snickers from the others and a half hearted glare from Shikamaru. "Snapping poppies, are ... sleepy around this time so I hoped they'd be easier to catch ... guess I was wrong." Naruko sweat dropped as a flower nailed Kiba right between the eyes with a pebble. Akamaru actually disappeared into the really deep ditch he was digging.

Kiba smirked as he saw several flowers start popping up out of the ground and running on their roots as Akamaru nicked their roots from below. Three bubbles from Naruko's hands flew at the retreating flowers and managed to trap two orange ones and a pink. Since only the orange ones were needed Naruko let the pink one go ... very quickly because it did try to snap at her before it ran away on its roots and burrowed back into the earth. The orange flowers were quickly put into a jar and stashed away into the blonde's bag.

"Ha, take that! OW!" Kiba yelped again as a blue flower bit his leg. "Akamaru get in the trees!" The dog nodded and jumped out of his ditch for the trees.

Gaara winced as a purple flower bit down on his toe, "Damn, everyone up!" The ninjas leapt up and stared down at the pissed off flowers with Naruko. It was pretty clear that the flowers were cursing at them even if they couldn't understand them.

"Attacked by a flower, my jonin career is over ... at least the last beautiful creature that beat me up wasn't bloodthirsty or mean." said Neji as he checked his feet for bite marks. Ninja sandals were not a good idea ...

"Beautiful creature? Who do you mean, Neji?" asked Naruko curiously. Did Neji like someone?

A startled Neji blushed, "Oh ummm nothing, where to next?" He asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject as he looked away shyly. He didn't realize he said that out loud!

Naruko pouted, but relented anyway, "I think we could go down lower and see if and cloud of Puffs can be found."

"Cloud? A group of Puffs is called a cloud?" Shino asked.

"Yes, it's a little funny cause they can be mistaken for clouds ... or cotton candy, just far more dangerous." warned Naruko as they all began jumping through the trees.

"Please tell us that not all puffs are like Pora." said a worried Tenten who vividly remembers the pink furball's explosive power.

"No actually ... umm I think Pora was unique." The ninjas breathed a sigh of relief and wondered if this will be easier then. "Most puffs have dangerous wind and lightning abilities not fire like Pora." Any relief they had went out the window ...

It took a little while to find a place where a cloud of puffs would be. The creatures are usually found in mountain valleys high up. They were already close to the top when they found the poppies and now they were about halfway down the mountain when they found a valley. Now they are just exploring. Mists and fogs were common here apparently so it made finding a 'cloud' kind of tricky, but after a couple hours they stopped for lunch and a strange fluffy thing floated towards them ... against the wind.