Looping, oh the fun! (Naruto)

Ch21 Getting Ready

Within a day, the entire Konoha had heard about Nakamura Tenzoi's magic trick. Seito was glad that now there would be no more fan mails taking up his office's space, but some people weren't so glad...

"Report," an ANBU wearing a fox mask said to Sarutobi. "No information had been found about Nakamura Tenzoi himself. But he seemed to have developed a jutsu that allows people to teleport items directly to him."

"A space jutsu?" Sarutobi wondered.

"Perhaps. According to the rumors, you must hold the item to your eye level, then say 'I want to send [item name] to Nakamura Tenzoi'. Then, the item would disappear in a silver flash."

"Hm...," Sarutobi blew on his pipe, his brows furrowed into a frown. "This man is just getting more and more interesting. He continues to develop incredibly useful jutsus that can benefit Konoha very much if it's put to good use. Continue to keep an eye on any news related to this man."

"Yes sir," ANBU Fox hesitated, then said, "do you think the 'hidden messages' are worth looking into?"

Sarutobi thought for a while, then replied, "no...I believe it's just Seito's way of increasing their newspaper's sales, and apparently, it had worked. It's nothing to fret about."

The next few days seemed to past by very quickly for Naruto and Sasuke. They would wake up, go on a D-ranked mission, return in the afternoon and send a poem to Konoha Publisher to be published the next day, then practice singing and playing their instruments. So far, with the help of the Fairyland Queen's magic gem, their singing skills had greatly increased. If before using the gem, they could only sing up to three octaves, then after using the gem, they could sing up to five octaves. Their vocal control was much better too, for they could easily and quickly switch between high and low pitch without singing off tune or cracking their voice.

All that's left was to make sure that they could sing and play the instruments (with the gem's help) simultaneously without making mistakes. Everything else had been prepared a week ago. They already had in mind what song they would sing and when they would perform their first song. Now they were just waiting for the day to come, and for their popularity to reach the climax.

One thing they were worried about was the consequences of entering that detective novel into the contest. Sure, they had absolute confidence that that novel could win them first place without doubt, but they couldn't promise the readers to response positively to the story. After all...they themselves had almost ripped the book in rage when they first read it during that loop where they woke up on the other side of the fourth wall.

"Are you sure this will turn out alright?" Naruto asked tentatively. "What if our fans start hating us after we published this novel? Especially since the novel will be published before our first concert. We can't hold a concert with no fans backing us up!"

Sasuke, who was memorizing lyrics, paused for a second before replying, "I hope it will work. If not, we'll have to rely on our first song to gain back these lost fans. And seeing the song we have chosen, I'm pretty sure they will have a change of heart after listening to it."

"I hope your plan was shatterproof."

"It is."

On the table were all the poems Nakamura Tenzoi had ever written, with the Evil series separated from the others. A set of keen eyes scrutinized the lines like a hawk watching its prey. Nine poems had already been published; yet, Shikamaru still hadn't found any lead on the hidden messages. He was beginning to doubt whether there were hidden messages in the first place. He had heard the messages from Sakura, who had no reason to lie to him about it, so there must be hidden messages.

Where were they? Was he missing something? Was he not thinking in the correct direction?

Suddenly, his eyes caught onto something.

"Ahhh...it's time for you to go to sleep." This was the first line of the 5th poem, "Gift From The Princess Who Brought Sleep," a poem about the sin Sloth.

"Now, shall we dance?" The first line of the 6th poem, "The Lunacy of Duke Venomania"; the sin was Lust.

"I will eat them all." 7th poem, "Evil Food Eater Conchita"; the sin was Gluttony.

"Now, let the trial begin." 8th poem, "Judgment of Corruption"; the sin was Greed.

"Sinful man... Repent now!" 9th poem, "Muzzle of Nemesis"; the sin was Wrath.

All of these five poems started with a quote, while the Evil series doesn't, except "Regret Message", which started with Rin's saying, "Is this really worth your time? This can't possibly make your wish come true." Was the quotes a clue? If so, shouldn't all the poems start with a quote? Why was "Regret Message" the exception in the Evil series?

"Now..." Shikamaru muttered. The 6th and 8th both started with the word "Now", and the last words of the 7th and 9th poem, "all" and "now", rhymes. Could this also be a clue of some sorts?

He snorted; maybe he's thinking too far into this. Let's go back to the beginning. Shikamaru eyed the arrangement of the sins. Pride, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, then Wrath. The only one left was Envy, which the poem of should be posted tomorrow.

Sighing, Shikamaru leaned back and thought, I'll need to wait for more poems to be posted before I can deduce anything. Or at least until all the sins have appeared.