(This is basically just a chapter of some random events that happen before the finals. Also included in this chapter are my final additions of other fan-characters. Please welcome Jami and Tai (property of CupidStunt) and Selina (property of LadyChaos.)

“Whoo-Hoo! This calls for a celebration!” Akara said, pumping her fists into the air and walking over to where Kaori and Keiko were standing, each eyeing the other nervously and wondering how they were supposed to act now that they knew they would be facing each other soon.
“I don’t know, Akara. Unlike you, the rest of us are pretty tired.” Kaori answered with a small smile, “Maybe tomorrow?”
“Oh come on. Please? You know Ki-Chan isn’t going to let up until we do. Plus, we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting your new friend.” Kaori sighed, blowing a strand of honey-streaked hair out of her face.
“But if we do it tomorrow, Selina, Tai, and Jami might be back from their mission…”
“Oh, suck it up.” Akara said with a grin, hitting the side of Kaori’s head lightly with a fist, “Besides, you’re going to want to talk to Jami alooooonnneee…”Kaori glared as her friend continued, “And Selina is probably going to try and kill that guy who put Sasuke in the hospital. Sounds like a busy day.” Kaori glared for a minute longer and then slumped over.
“Fine. Just…shut up about Jami.” Akara grinned at Keiko and gave her a victory sign.
“One down. I don’t have to convince you, too, do I?” Keiko blinked at being talked to, but shook her head with a small smile, “Well, that’s it then! To the Ramen Shop!”
******
Kaori and Akara bickered happily as they walked, reminding Keiko, who wasn’t saying anything as she still wasn’t sure what to think of the confident Akara, of the walk home with Tsuki and Kaori the night before. Within a few minutes, the ramen shop came into view, as did a group of girls who immediately set upon hugging the three of them.
“How long have you guys been waiting?” Kaori asked, laughing as she pushed Kristen off of her.
“We knew Akara would want to take you guys out. And…it was Ki-Chan’s idea.” Tsuki said, “We’ve been here since we were released.” Kristen had now made it to Keiko and was looking her up and down.
“You want a hug?” She asked, uncertain.
“Um…no thanks. I’ll pass.” Keiko said, backing up.
“Too bad!” Every girl around her rushed into hug the bright red girl.
“By the way, my name is Kristen. But you can call me Ki-Chan. Almost everyone does.” Kristen said, “Who are you?”
“Oh…my name is Keiko. Keiko Ookami.” Keiko answered, looking at her feet.
“Oops. I was so busy annoying Kaori-Chan I forgot to introduce myself!” Akara said, “The name’s Akara.” Keiko shook her hand. Kristen, who it seemed to Keiko was even more hyper than Rock Lee, had already moved on, bouncing up and down in front of Kaori.
“Kaori, your technique is absolutely AMAZING!”
“Shh, Ki-Chan.” Kaori said good-naturedly, “Keiko and I are facing each other in a month and I don’t want her to figure out how to beat me.”
“Lucky Kristen she even got to see it,” Tsuki grumbled, “She won’t even let her teammates know what she’s doing.”
“Wait…”Jackera said, “Did you just say a MONTH?”
“Yep.” Akara answered, “We’re supposed to use the month to “rest up and develop new techniques.” She used her fingers as quotation marks, “Whatever. I’ll just use my demon’s blade and cut through that sound thing of his and then where will he be? It’s not like he’s going to be able to beat me.” Akara said this in a matter-of-fact tone. It was a fact, not gloating.
“You all seem….very nice.” Keiko said.
“Yep, perfectly pleasant people, Ki-Chan and Akara-Chan.” Kaori said, “Well, Ki-Chan can’t sit still for more than three minutes and some times Akara goes crazy for blood, but other than that…What?” She laughed at the expressions on the two girl’s faces, “Just joking!”
The ramen was inhaled by all of the girls, who spent an enjoyable night talking with their friends and hugging Keiko when they realized how much she hated that. When it was over, Keiko stumbled home and went straight to bed.
******
When she woke up, it was nearly noon. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. As Keiko made a habit of getting up by eight at the latest each morning, it was incredibly late. Once he realized she was up, Balki immediately started to lecture her on the meaning of “feeding time”. She gave him the evil eye and fed him before getting up, showering, and doing her laundry.
Finally she sat down to breakfast. As she spooned bit of marshmallow-y cereal into her mouth, Balki walked over and began to talk to her.
“So…what’s the plan?”
“I don’t know,” Keiko said between mouthfuls, “The problem is that Kaori has incredible skill at water-jutsu. My elemental jutsu is fire, like most Ookami. That right there gives her a distinct edge.”
“True.” Balki conceded, “And we don’t have time to teach you a bunch of electricity jutsu. What we need to do is find a fire jutsu powerful enough to counteract the effects of water.” Keiko nodded as she cleaned up her bowl.
“To the library!” She shouted with a grin. Balki gave her a smile.
“What wonders friends can do for your attitude.” He chuckled to himself.
******
“Hey Keiko!” Keiko looked up as Akara was walking up to her, “You’ve been here for the past three hours. Isn’t it about time you did something else? Like, I don’t know, PRACTICE what you’re reading?”
“That sounded only slightly stalker-ish.” Keiko answered, annoyed that she had been interrupted and double annoyed she couldn’t find anything that seemed to work for her.
“That’s me!” Akara said with a smile.
“Anyway, I thought you weren’t going to practice. What are you doing here?” Keiko asked, closing the last book in a huge stack and pushing her chair away.
“I never said I wasn’t going to practice. I just said I was going to beat that guy’s butt either way.” Akara said, “Anyways, Ki-Chan went off to get flowers or something for someone and I can’t find Jackerah.”
“What about Kaori?”
“What, are you saying you don’t want me hanging around you?” Akara teased, “I know where she is. That’s why I came by. This guy she has a huge crush on is coming back. Want to go harass her?”
******
Teasing people for crushes wasn’t something Keiko normally did. But, like the night before with Kaori, Akara had worn Keiko down until she came. Keiko still wasn’t sure what to think of gaining a group of friends. It seemed way too easy. Nevertheless, she followed Akara down to the gates, where, sure enough, Kaori was standing and looking slightly nervous.
“Why are we doing this again?” Keiko asked
“Because it’s fun. And because you need a life.” Akara answered.
“What are you doing here, Akara?” Kaori asked, looking weary.
“What, no hello for Keiko?” Akara asked, “And I’m here to greet some friends. Just because you and Jami are becoming an item-”
“We are NOT an item!” Kaori said with a growl.
“Sure, sure, whatever. Anyway, just because of that does not mean the rest of us cannot happily say hello to him and Selina.” Kaori rolled her eyes.
“Fine. Do whatever it is you came to do. I don’t care.” The gate began to open, slowly at first and then quickening as three teenagers walked in.
“Jami!” Kaori said, racing over to the boy on the left. The boy was wearing heavy eye-liner and, unusually for a ninja although it didn’t seem that way for this particular team, had a triple-pierced ear and an eyebrow ring.
“Hi Kaori. You look well.” He answered, reddish eyes lighting up with his smile.
“Yep. I made the Chunnin finals!” Kaori answered.
“Congratulations.” He answered, “Too bad our mission ended up being longer than we though, or we could have joined too.”
“Oh, just kiss her already!” The other boy answered, looking peeved. This one had several parts of his ear pierced as well and had long spiked black hair.
“Oh, leave them alone!” This time it was the girl who shouted. She was one of the more unusual ninja Keiko had seen. She had long purple hair and bright yellow eyes, but the most striking part of her where the brown cat-like ears that poked out of her hair where normal ears would be, and a brown tail ending in a purple tuft and a golden ring sticking out from behind her.
“Good to see you, too, Selina.” Kaori said. Akara nodded.
“Hey guy’s, this is our new friend Keiko.” She gestured at Keiko who was watching the gathering, feeling slightly out of place as usual.
“My name is Jami. Any friend of Kaori is a friend of mine.” The first boy said. Kaori blushed.
“I’m going home.” The second boy said without another word. The first girl sighed.
“That’s Tai. Don’t mind him, he’s a brat.” She walked up to Keiko, “The name is Selina. Nice to meet you.”
“Uh…same here.” Keiko said. This team, she though, is insane. Selina gave her a wink and then looked around the area.
“Looking for someone?” Keiko asked, slightly confused.
“Yeah…he told me he would meet me here…” Akara and Kaori looked at each other and then winced.
“Um…yeah. About that…” Akara began
“He’s sort of in critical condition at the hospital…” Kaori finished.
“WHAT? WHO DID IT?! I’LL KILL HIM!” Selina screamed.
“Calm down. Tsuki-Chan was watching him for awhile, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind a break.”
“I’m going to see him.” Selina said, “But I’m still going to kill whoever did it to him. Have fun with Kaori, Jami!” And with that, she raced off. Jami and Kaori stared at Akara and Keiko who were just looking at each other. Jami cleared his throat, which seemed to bring Akara back to the present.
“Darn.” Akara said, “She and Tai totally ruined our harassing chances.” Kaori blushed again, “Whatever. You two have fun. As for me, I’d better get to Selina damage control before she accidentally kills Tsuki in attempt to get her to tell who beat up Sasuke.”
“That’s…probably a really good idea.” Jami said.
“Coming, Keiko?” Without waiting for an answer, she sped off after the cat-girl. Keiko sighed and took off running, ‘And I’m the one people think is crazy.’