AN: Hey everyone, Anonymous here!

I know everyone's pretty anxious for my next chapter of Dino-Knights, so good news! It should be finished quite soon, within the week if all goes well.

But for now, tide yourselves over with my first reading fic, done with permission of CuriousKitsune654.

So, without further ado, lets get it started!

Disclaimer: I don't own Star vs the forces of evil or Naruto in any way, shape or form. Curiosity Broke The Scissors belongs to CuriousKitsune654

Reading Curiosity Broke the Scissors

-Chapter 1-

Inside what appeared to be an ancient musty library, a flaming portal popped into existence that several individuals quickly stepped out of.

The first of them was known as Hekapoo, a pale skinned demonic looking woman with a lax grin on her face, wearing an orange/red ballgown and had a ball of fire floating between the two yellow horns sticking out of her red hair.

The second was Star Butterfly, an excited looking blonde girl with heart marks on her cheeks, that was looking all around the room in awe. Her clothing consisted of a mixture of different colours that made her look like a walking rainbow.

The next person out was Marco Diaz, a Latin-American boy wearing a red hoodie who was also looking around curiously but with a guarded edge, as if expecting something to come out and attack them at any moment. After him came Tom, a chill looking demonic teen boy with a third eye on his forehead, small horns on either side of his head, and slightly purple skin that gave him a sickly appearance.

And last but certainly not least was Kelly, a dark-skinned girl with extremely long aquamarine hair held back by a pink hair tie wearing a white/pink striped shirt and hefting a huge broadsword like it was a toothpick.

"So, this is the super amazing place you wanted to show us Lady Hekapoo?" Star asked as the group finished taking in their surroundings.

"Yep, welcome to the Dimensional Library, where you can find books from or about almost every dimension you can imagine." Hekapoo said in a joking dramatic tone while gesturing towards the never-ending rows of books. "Though don't bother looking up your own since it'll only show it from your perspective."

"Really? Why's that H-poo?" Marco asked as he walked up to the flaming redhead, not even flinching when she smacked the back of his head, singeing his hair a bit.

"Security and privacy reasons, now come on, I still have one last thing to show you guys." Hekapoo said before walking down a seemingly random hallway with the rest of the group in tow.

As they walked Star, Tom, and Kelly pulled random books off the shelves and peered into them curiously. Star sighed happily, as hers was about a mermaid falling in love with a prince and getting married while Tom tossed his back with a dull look as it was like a children's book on the adventures of a talking pickle superhero.

Meanwhile, Kelly dropped hers with a face that matched her hair, the pages of her book covered in gruesome images that would make the even the strongest stomach uneasy.

"Like I said, any story imaginable, so be careful what you read." Hekapoo drawled with smirk at seeing the greenette's reaction.

"I'll… take that under advisement." Kelly replied weakly, gulping down the bile building in her throat as she flipped the book closed with her foot.

"So why did you bring us here H-poo? Last I checked, you're not one to do something like this unless you have something to benefit from it." Marco said, once again ignoring the slap he got when he called the woman H-poo.

"Meh, normally you would be right about that, but honestly I'm just been bored out of my skull lately." Hekapoo admitted with a shrug. "There's been absolutely no incidents that require my attention for weeks now, so I've been coming here to pass the time and ended up finding something I think you guys would be interested in. Well, mostly you and Star, but since those two were with you already I figured might as well let them tag along."

"Well don't I feel real appreciated." Tom said sarcastically while Kelly just smiled somewhat awkwardly. "So, could you tell us what it is you found exactly, or are we just gonna have to keep following you towards the devil only knows?"

"Oh, relax you drama queen, we're already here." Hekapoo said as they rounded a corner, revealing a small theatre-like area with an old-fashioned projection screen, several plush chairs, a minifridge, and a large plain leather book set upon a podium. "Say hello to the group reading area."

"Oooh, this place is nice." Star said while flopping into one of the chairs, sighing as she sank into its soft padding. "So comfy."

"Of course they are, considering they cost three hundred gold coins apiece." Hekapoo said proudly as she grabbed the book off the podium and took a seat of her own before turning her attention to Marco, Tom, and Kelly. "What are you dum-dums waiting for, an invitation?"

Taking the not-so-subtle hint, the trio quickly found a seat and got themselves comfortable. Tom took the chair next to Star. Meanwhile, Marco and Kelly took the loveseat that was next to Hekapoo, who promptly dropped the book she was holding onto the hoodie-wearing boy's lap.

"'Curiosity Broke the Scissors, by The Curious Kitsune'?" Marco read aloud with a raised brow before turning towards the flaming redhead. "Is this why you brought us here? To read a book together?"

"Nope, you'll be reading, the rest of us will be watching." Hekapoo explained with a lazy grin while gesturing to the projection screen, which now showed the same title that Marco had just read.

"…I would ask, but it'd probably just give me a headache wouldn't it?"

"Yep."

"Whatever, you guys want to do this?" Marco asked while looking to the rest of his friends.

"Might as well, I don't have anything planned for today." Kelly said with a shrug.

"If Starship's up for it then so am I." Tom stated.

"Mpghphgoidgj!" Star mumbled through a mouthful of popcorn that she'd magicked into existence, an excited look on her face as she stared at the screen with anticipation.

With the decision unanimous, Marco flipped the book open to the first page. "Chapter one…"

"Star, I don't think this is a good idea." A teen boy with brown hair wearing a bright red hoodie said nervously.

"Hey! That's Marco!" Star exclaimed with wide eyes as she dropped the popcorn in her hands and pointed towards the screen, Kelly and Tom sharing her shocked expression while Marco only looked mildly surprised.

"So that's why you wanted us to read this? It's about us?" The hooded boy asked as he glanced at the flaming redhead, who shrug while casually sipping at a large glass mug she'd pulled out of a small portal.

"Pretty much, figured you guys would want in after I read the first chapter."

"Marco! Read! Now!" Star yelled impatiently.

"You weren't wrong." Marco said somewhat dully while Hekapoo giggled.

"You heard Glossaryck, Locked Dimensions are locked for a reason."

"Locked Dimensions?" Tom asked with a raised brow.

"It'll explain in a second." Hekapoo stated, getting a nod from the demonic teen.

"And that just makes me want to see them more Marco!" A blonde teen girl with heart marks on her cheeks and a red devil horn hairband exclaimed excitedly, her arms flailing around with a wand that looked like something you'd find in a magical girl anime and an ornate pair of scissors clasped in either hand. "Just imagine all the amazing things we'll get to see and awesome adventures we'll get to have!"

'That's Star alright.' Marco, Tom, and Kelly thought with identical smirks while the princess in question danced in her seat excitedly.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! It's actually me! This is so cool!"

"Star! Calm down please," Marco said while giving his friend a slightly stern look. "I can't read the story if you keep cutting me off every five seconds."

His words did the trick as Star suddenly went still in her seat, her eyes locked on the screen as she shook with barely contained excitement.

Knowing that he had maybe two minutes before the next inevitable outburst, Marco quickly resumed reading.

These two were Marco Diaz, a Latino-American boy who tended to be overly cautious and a bit of a neat freak, and Star Butterfly, an energetic princess from another dimension who'd been living with Marco's family for the last few days as an exchange student while she learned to control the power of her wand.

During that time, Marco had to deal with some of the craziest and oddest situations in his life. A prominent example being when one of Star's friends Pony Head, a literal floating unicorn head, visited with the intention of having one last blowout before being sent to a reform school.

Marco couldn't help the grin that spread across his lips at reading those paragraphs. 'Man, it feels like so long ago since then.' He thought as the memory of his first few adventures with Star passed through his mind.

Of course for him it was a really long time ago, given he'd spent sixteen years in the span of eight minutes chasing Hekapoo through her personal dimension, along a few various others she'd dumped him into in order to earn his own dimensional scissors. But let's not argue semantics.

Afterwards, the bodiless horse left Star with the scissors the girl was currently holding, which were capable of cutting open portals to other dimensions… no, seriously.

"Be honest with me H-poo, you chose to make dimensional scissors as actual scissors for laughs, didn't you?" Marco asked, unable to stop himself from rolling his eyes when Hekapoo nodded her head.

"Several hundred years and it's still funny as hell watching people's reactions when they see my beauties at work for the first time." Hekapoo giggled while one of her arms popped out of a portal behind Marco and smacked the back of his head.

Anyway, being the curious and excitable girl she was, Star quickly learned everything that she could about the handy tool, and stumbled upon an interesting related subject, Locked Dimensions. These were dimensions that almost all form of dimensional travel was blocked, whether it be from a naturally occurring phenomenon or intentionally sealed off because of the dangers they held.

"Ahhh, that makes sense," Tom said upon hearing the explanation, "Five bucks says Starship's gonna try to go to one of those."

"Oh please Tom, we all know that's a sucker's bet," Marco rebuffed his friend with a scoff. "Twenty says her attempt ends in an explosion."

"I'll take that action, thirty says she succeeds with only a few minor issues."

"I'm with Marco, but I say that she summons a monster." Kelly added.

"Come on guys, I'm wasn't that bad." Star said with a huff.

"Star, the very first thing you did after we met was turn a butterfly into a monster that abducted a student and set half the school on fire. You were that bad." Marco retorted flatly, making his friend pout while he, Tom, and Kelly handed a few bills to Hekapoo who was sudden dressed like a professional bookie.

And naturally, Star wanted to go to one of these places almost immediately after learning about them, despite the numerous warnings and people saying that it was an extremely bad idea.

"You never were one to walk down the beaten path." Marco said with a chuckle while Star smiled sheepishly.

"How do you even plan to do this? Everything you found on Locked Dimensions said that Dimensional Scissors don't work on them at all." Marco stated, before sighing as Star wiggled her wand in front of his face. "Of course you're gonna use your wand."

"Double my bet." Marco and Kelly said at the same time while handing Hekapoo more money.

"Yep, if I channel the magic from it into the scissors, then it should boost them enough to work." The princess said while carelessly twirling the two magical items in her hands.

'Or it'll cause a huge disastrous mess that we'll have to spend all day cleaning up… again.' Marco thought with a grimace.

"That was pretty much our routine for those first few weeks, wasn't it?" Marco asked cheekily while Star huffed again with a small embarrassed blush, unable to deny his point.

"Fine, but why are we doing it in my room? I just finished cleaning in here." He said while gesturing to the tidy bedroom they were currently standing in.

"Sorry Marco but the laser puppies are napping in mine right now and I don't want to disturb them. Now stop worrying so much, I'll be careful." Star said, shrugging off the boy's concerns as she held her arms out in front of her and pressed the top of the wand against the scissor blades while Marco dived for cover.

…

…

*Bzzt-poof* "Perfect!"

Slowly peaking out from his cover, Marco was greeted by the site of Star grinning as she held up the Dimensional Scissors which now gave off a soft pink glow. Looking around the room, he was honestly amazed to find it completely unharmed.

"…That was surprisingly anticlimactic." The hoodie wearing boy couldn't help but say as he fully stood up.

"Yeah, this is usually the part where everything goes crazy and I start fearing for my life." Marco agreed with his other, surprised at the lack of flamboyant results.

"Looks like you're finally starting to get a hand on your magi-"

"Alright, let's give these a try!" Star cut him off as she jabbed the scissors in front of her and snipped the very air, causing a small cut to appear.

*KRAKACHZZZT*

"I spoke too soon!" Marco yelled as chaos erupted throughout the room.

"There it is."

Lightning arced all over the place, igniting multiple things aflame and leaving dark scorch marks, powerful winds blew around practically everything not nailed to the floor, and random areas of the room were suddenly frozen over.

"Unstable dimensional rifts, never a pretty sight." Hekapoo said seriously with Marco nodding in agreement. Both had seen their fair share of such, the former since it was her job to handle such issue and latter during his sixteen-year hunt for the former.

"Remember that one that engulfed an entire mountain range in the Quasi Swamp Dimension?" The hooded boy asked with a nostalgic smile

"Yeah, you took out six of my clones at once while they were distracted by it… good times."

Meanwhile, in the exact centre of all this, Star firmly stood her ground as she struggled to continue cutting. With each snip of the scissors, the portal grew larger, but the destruction happening around her got steadily worse.

The temperature in the room skyrocketed, melting all the ice and causing the two to sweat profusely, before plummeting just as rapidly. Then, hot steaming water started pouring from growing tear, soaking the floor and causing the forming ice to crackle and hiss from the sudden warmth.

"Uh, how is she not getting hurt by all that?" Kelly asked in confusion as they watched the various hazards somehow miss Star despite being at point blank range.

"Protection charms. They activate automatically for whoever's wielding the scissors whilst they are being used, just in case something like this happens and will prevent most forms of harm," Hekapoo stated before pausing to take a long draught of her beverage. "I may be a lax and laidback kinda gal, but I put the whole nine yards into each pair of scissors I make."

"Y-You need t-to s-s-stop Star!" Marco yelled with chattering teeth, clinging to his bedframe for dear life as his body was jerked around in the air like a ragdoll. "This i-is getting t-too f-far out o-o-of hand!"

"Unfortunately, other Marco doesn't have any of that protection whatsoever." Hekapoo said as said boy, Kelly, and Tom gained worried looks. Star was concerned as well, but her face also held guilt as she watched her friend's counterpart flail around as he narrowly avoided getting killed.

'Am I really that reckless?' Normally she wouldn't think to much about the danger she and Marco got in, mostly because of the excitement and adrenaline flowing through her at the time. Now that she was looking at the results of her other's actions from an outside perspective though, it was making her consider all the shenanigans she and her bestie had gotten into since they'd met.

Sure, Marco could take care of himself pretty well thanks to his karate training and now sixteen years of combat experience but even then, the vast majority of their adventures ended with them coming out on top by the skin of their teeth.

'Hmmm, I should probably get Marco an apology gift for all of that.' "Star thought with a frown that quickly turned into a smile as her cheek marks turned into lightbulbs. 'Oh! I know! I'll get him that new collar he'd been wanting for Nachos!'

"Just a little bit longer! It's almost finished!" Star yelled back, the hearts on her cheeks having turned into tick marks as she tried to make the last cut, only for the scissors to refuse to budge. Gritting her teeth, the princess dropped her wand so that she could grip the cutting tool's handles with both hands and squeeze them with all her might.

"It's always that last step that makes you really work for it." Kelly said wisely, getting nods of agreement all around.

"S-Star!" The hooded boy screamed as a bolt narrowly missed turning him into an extra crispy fried teenager.

"Hold on Marco!" Star's hands trembled violently and sweat practically showered from her brow, but a wide grin spread across her lips once she started to feel the scissors close. "I'm… almost… THERE!"

With one last grunt of effort, the magic paper cutter finally sliced through the fabric of reality and the portal stabilized, turning into a blackhole-like vortex that lazily spun in the air.

"Ha! Looks like I win!" Tom exclaimed while holding his hand out towards Hekapoo. However, instead of handing him the money, she simply wagged her finger with a knowing grin

"Not so fast Hellboy jr, give it one more paragraph." The flaming redhead said, making the Demonic prince sigh and slink back into his seat.

"Yes! It worked! It worked!" Star cheered happily as everything settled down. "I told you it would work Marco! Now come on, I can't wait too-" *Crackle*

The blonde girl stopped midsentence as an odd cracking sound reached her ears. Following the sound to its source, her eyes widened in shock as she watched glowing fractures rapidly spread across the blades of the Dimensional Scissors in her hands.

'Oh no…' Marco thought nervously as his eyes flickered towards Hekapoo, who he could tell was quite upset despite her calm appearance. To most she would appear the same as normal, but he'd learned all her little tells whilst hunting her and her clones. The flame atop her head was a slighter redder colour than normal, her eyes had narrowed a little with the left one twitching almost unnoticeably, and she was repeatedly tapping the middle finger of her free hand against her armrest leaving a small scorch mark.

Of course, the fact that her drink had evaporated and the cup that had been holding it was rapidly turning into a blob of molten glass in her grasp was a pretty good give away as well.

Snapping her gaze back to the portal before her, the colour rapidly drained from Star's face and her cheek marks turned into hazard signs as similar cracks were spreading across it as well. Realizing what was about to happen, she turned towards Marco and reached out towards him.

Then everything went white.

Star, Kelly, and Tom were on the edges of their seats as their seats as they stared at the screen expectantly, worry and nervousness on their faces. Sure they knew this wasn't actually Star, at least for them, it was still rather nerve racking to see her doppelganger in danger like this.

…

"…uhg," A weak groan escaped Marco's lips as the world around him slowly came back into focus and numbly took in the sight of his destroyed bedroom from the floor he lay on. As his brain kicked back into gear though, his shock swiftly turned to worry for his friend as he looked to where she had been and saw nothing but shards of broken metal laying on the floor. "…St-Star…"

Marco didn't even notice as Hekapoo wordlessly deposited the money on his lap, his attention was focused solely on the book he was reading.

Breaking into a heavy coughing fit, the boy tried to sit up only to find himself pinned from the shoulders down under the burnt remains of his bed. Not deterred in the slightest, he wiggled around as much as he could to try and get free.

"Yeah, not gonna happen." Marco admitted quietly with a grumble. His bedframe was solid oak, no way was his other gonna be able to move it in his current condition.

After several minutes of useless struggling, Marco froze as a swirling circle of fire suddenly appeared right at the epicentre of the explosion. Thinking that there was about to be another blast, the hooded teen braced himself as best he could, only to once more be caught by surprise as a lovely woman with pale skin, long red hair, and two horns sticking out of her head wearing an orange ball gown and a black tiara with a small flame floating above it stepped out.

"I've always known how to make an entrance." Hekapoo said jokingly, though with a slightly irritated edge in her tone.

She looked around most of the devastated bedroom with a mask of neutrality on her face that only broke when she saw the metal pieces on the floor. With a deep frown on her face, she bent over and scooped up several of the scissor fragments with her hand.

Straightening back up, the demonic looking woman stared at the shards sternly for several moments before suddenly jerking her head to the side, so she was looking straight at Marco with a powerful glare as the fire above her head flared. "Tell me boy, who's the dumbass that fucked with things they shouldn't have?"

That sentence actually managed to snap Star, Kelly, and Tom out of their worry as they looked from the on-screen Hekapoo to theirs with stunned faces.

"…What?" The dimensional travel enforcer asked with a raised brow after this went on for a full minute.

"Sorry, it's just hard to imagine you of all people swearing or looking so angry." Kelly said, being the first to recover from her surprise. "You're always just so… chill."

"Like I said, I put a ton of effort into each pair of scissors I make, with every single pair personally made by my own hands for a specific individual. Let's see you be 'chill' after seeing something you worked so hard on be destroyed because a foolish princess got too curious for her own good." Hekapoo replied sourly, making said princess gulp nervously before ducking behind her bestie for safety.

"Marco… please keep reading."

-Meanwhile-

"Ah, this is just what I needed after all those stupid D-ranks." A boy with spikey blonde hair and three whisker-like marks on either cheek said as he sunk into the warm soothing water of a hot-spring with nothing on but a towel around his waist.

"What the heck? Who's this guy?" Tom demanded as the screen switched to a completely different an unknown person.

"Maybe someone from the dimension Star was trying to go to." Kelly suggested with a slight blush on her face at seeing a boy mostly naked, even in the important bits were covered by water. "It'll probably explain it soon so just try to be patient."

This was Naruto Uzumaki, number one hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja of the village of Konohagakure and Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

'Power of Human Sacrifice?' Marco thought with a raised brow, knowing a bit of Japanese thanks to some extra credit classes he'd taken, wondering what the book meant by that.

"Ooooh, he's a ninja? Like those mutant turtles in that cartoon you showed me?" Star asked excitedly, snapping Marco from his thoughts as a chuckle escaped his lips.

"Maybe Star, but it is a different dimension, so Ninja might mean something else for them." Marco said getting the girl to calm down a little.

He had just finished up several D-rank missions (aka chores for lazy civilians) with his team and was now enjoying soak in one of Konoha's hot-spring spas.

After a few minutes of nothing but silence though, a bored sigh escaped the boy's lips as he glanced around the empty spring. "Man, I can't believe they all bailed on me."

He was supposed to be hanging out with a few of his guy friends, Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, and Kiba, along with their sensei Kakashi and Asuma so that they could chat about how their first week as official ninja had been going. It was a little thing that they had come up with to celebrate fully graduating from the academy.

"That sounds pretty fun. Why wouldn't his friends show up?" Star asked with a titled head, unable to understand such a thing.

"I'm sure they had good reasons." Tom said assuringly.

Unfortunately, Choji ended up going to an eating contest instead with Asuma and Shikamaru tagging along to make sure he didn't go overboard… and to probably take a nap in the latter's case. Shino's hive got the bug equivalent of the common cold, so the quiet boy was on bedrest for the next few days.

Kiba was at home nursing his pride and face from the beatdown he got when he made a bad joke about his sister without realizing she was right behind him. Hell, even his teammate Sasuke was missing, but that was rather expected since unless it was training, brooding, or tomatoes, the emo was having nothing to do with it.

Kakashi was simply too lazy to even bother coming, enough said.

"…scratch that, some of them had good reasons." Tom corrected himself awkwardly.

"Is it just me or does this book make it seem like we should know these guys already?" Kelly asked, getting everyone to turn their attention towards her.

"Yeah actually, they did just list them off without giving much context to them." Marco said as he went over the paragraph again before Hekapoo reached over and flipped all the way to the end of the book.

"That's because all the character information is at the back of the book, see." She said while stopping at a pair of pages that held Marco and Star's pictures along with some basic information such as personality type, immediate family, affiliations, and a short overview.

"Ah, thanks Hekapoo." Marco said as he started to read them, only to be cut off once more when the fiery redhead forcefully flipped the pages back to where they were.

"You can indulge your curiosity when the chapters over, now get back to reading." She stated before retaking her seat, a brand-new mug in hand.

Not one to be deterred though, and not wanting to have wasted the money he spent to be here, Naruto kept trying to enjoy himself, letting the mineral rich hot water soak away the stress and soreness in his muscles. It wasn't easy however, as the splashing and yelling coming over the divider from the women's side kept reminding him how he wasn't getting to hang out with his friends like planned.

"Ooooh…" Marco and Tom hissed sympathetically, talk about rubbing salt into the wound.

"Oh who am I kidding, this blows." He said with another sigh, sending the dividing wall a jealous look before sinking further into the water, somehow missing the pale lavender eye that was staring at him through a small hole.

'Poor Naruto-kun,' The owner of said eye, a lovely young girl with short dark blue hair, thought with a sad look. Her name was Hinata Hyuga, a shy kind girl and member of the highly respected Hyuga clan.

Both Tom and Marco blushed as Hinata's mostly nude form popped up on screen, the only thing protecting her modesty being the water and a towel that barely managed to cover her developed chest. Meanwhile Kelly gained a jealous look as she looked from the bluenette's already well-developed chest and her own.

"She seems nice," Star said, not at all phased at all by Hinata's lack of dress while Hekapoo was busy taking photos of the former three's reactions.

Hearing more yelling coming from behind her, the bluenette briefly stopped her peep- er, checking up on Naruto to look back, where a girl with pink hair and another with platinum blonde yelled at each-other while a red-eyed raven-haired woman held them apart with a dull look.

"Sasuke-kun is mine Ino-pig!"

"No way forehead! He loves me!"

"Like hell he does!"

"Oh god, people actually act like that?" Kelly asked in disbelief at seeing the two girls fighting over a boy's love. "I thought that was just some stupid TV trope."

"You think that's bad, you should see the cheerleaders at school whenever a new hot jock pops up. Last time ended with three of them in the hospital." Marco said as he and Star shivered, remembering when that all out cat-fight had broken out.

In order, these three were Sakura, Naruto's teammate and crush, Ino, Sakura's exfriend and love rival, and Kurenai, Hinata's team sensei. Unable to help herself, Hinata rolled her eyes at the sight while going back to discreetly spying on a bored Naruto.

"Eh-hem, and what do you think you're doing."

"EEEP!"

…or at least she thought she'd been discreet.

"Somebody's busted~." Hekapoo said in a sing-song tone, making the rest of the group laugh a bit.

Jumping in surprise at the voice right behind her, Hinata spun around with a heavy blush on her face, before cringing as she found herself being glared at suspiciously by Sakura, while Kurenai looked at her with an odd mixture of amusement and disappointment on her face, and Ino smirked with a gleam in her eye.

"You were trying to peek on Sasuke-kun, weren't you?" Sakura accused while jabbing a finger into the pale eyed girl's developing chest.

"One track mind that one," Kelly said dully.

"Oh please forehead, everyone knows she has a huge crush on Naruto." Ino said while shoving the pinkette back and pulled Hinata into a one-armed hug. "But who knew little miss wallflower Hinata had it in her to try peeping on him. I guess what they say about the quiet ones is true after all."

"What do they say about quiet ones?" Star asked innocently, causing Tom, Kelly, and Marco to blush deeply while Hekapoo broke out into laughter."

"We'll uh… we'll tell you later." Marco told her after a long awkward pause.

At this point, Hinata's face was literally glowing red and steam slowly rose from her ears as she tried to deny everything, only for her words to come out a jumbled stuttering mess.

"Really? She's actually into Naruto-baka?" Sakura asked with a raised brow. "I thought that was just one of those stupid rumours you started up for fun."

"What's baka mean?" Tom asked with scrunched brows. "It sounds like an insult to me."

"It is, Baka has several translations, but the most common are idiot, moron, and retard." Marco said, making the demonic teen frown.

"Hey! I'll have you know that I only deal with authentic gossip." Ino said confidently, her chest puffing out in pride. "Speaking of which, I wonder what the boys are talking about…or how Sasuke looks without his shirt." Her smirk growing, Ino pulled Hinata out of the way as she excitedly took the girl's spot at the hole.

"Boy is she in for a disappointing surprise." Hekapoo said with a snicker.

However, it took exactly .01 seconds for that eagerness to turn to confusion when she saw Naruto by himself, lazily splashing water at a nearby rock. "What the? Naruto's the only one over there."

"Say what?" Squeezing in next to the blonde, Sakura blinked in surprise as she saw the same thing. "The heck? Where is everyone?"

"They're probably still getting undressed." Ino said before she and Sakura shifted in place, so they were looking towards the changing room, hoping to see Sasuke as he walked out.

-Que Fast Forward Sound Effect-

"Where is that coming from?" Marco muttered as said sound affect played while the screen showed thirty seconds of Naruto moving around really fast in a bored manner.

"I… actually don't know." Hekapoo admitted with a shrug.

"…Okay, they aren't here." Ino said as she backed away from the wall after five minutes passed with no signs of anyone coming. "Maybe something came up."

"For everyone but Naruto?" Sakura asked disbelievingly. "They probably just decided to bail at the last minute."

'Sadly that's pretty much what happened.' The group thought with frowns except for Hekapoo. The only ones who had legit excuses for not showing up were Shino and Kiba, while the rest pretty much found anything else to do other then go to the hot-spring.

"Yeah, that's sounds like something they'd do." Ino said with a frown. "I kinda feel bad for Naruto though, I heard he was really looking forward to this."

"Meh, he'll be fine, just buy him some ramen and the idiot will forget all about it." Sakura said while sinking back into the steaming water, not seeing the small angry look Hinata sent her before the shy girl went back to 'checking on' Naruto.

"Man, if she was any colder then that water would be melting her." Kelly remarked, disliking how dismissive the girl was of the boy's feelings.

"Amazing, such concern for your teammate's wellbeing, it's inspiring." Kurenai said sarcastically, giving the pinkette a disapproving look.

"She's his teammate? Wow, now I'm really starting to feel bad for the guy." Tom said while Marco, Star, and Kelly nodded in agreement.

"That did sound sorta cold Sakura, even if this is Naruto we're talking about." Ino couldn't help but admit.

Sakura shrugged in response, her face not changing. "Maybe a little, but I'm not wrong. I've yet to see something that keeps him down for long."

"That comment is not assuring in the least." Kelly said, since it implied that this Sakura girl was used to seeing her teammate in emotional distress.

Ino nodded, knowing what Sakura was talking about while Kurenai rolled her eyes before looking towards Hinata as the girl shook her arm lightly. "What is it Hinata?"

"T-there's something w-weird happening with N-N-N-Naruto-kun." The bluenette stuttered while suddenly pulling the raven-haired woman to the peeping spot. Surprised by the girl's actions, Kurenai didn't manage to regain her wits until she was already looking through the hole in the wall and saw what Hinata was talking about.

Naruto himself was fine albeit confused and on edge, the reason for such clear as the water around him was roiling madly while emanating a bright aurora of colours.

"Well either someone turned up the heat, or that's Star about to make her grand debut." Marco said jokingly, making said princess giggle while playfully punching his arm.

"What the hell?" Kurenai muttered as her eye narrowed at the sight, before widening as the light started rapidly increasing.

"Get down!" She yelled, grabbing Hinata and tackling the other two girls into the spring.

*BOOOOM*

"Gah!" "Agh!" "What the heck!" "My ears!" Everyone but Hekapoo cried out in surprise as the actual sound of an explosion rang through the air. Said demoness-looking woman had a cheeky grin as she took out the earplugs she'd stuffed into her ears a few seconds earlier.

'Just as funny as I expected.' She thought as she watched the rest of the group rubbing their ears and grumbling from the sudden sound.

A massive explosion shook the area, blowing the walls of the hot-spring to pieces and sending hot water showering everywhere. As the effects of the blast were dying down, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata burst to the surface gasping for breath while Kurenai simply stood up, blood leaking from all their ears.

"W-What was that?!" Sakura screamed out once she finished coughing up the water she'd accidentally swallowed.

"What!?" Ino yelled back, unable to hear what the pinkette was saying.

"And that's why you don't jump in the water when there's an explosion kids, it'll just make it much worse for you." Hekapoo said wisely while pretending to rub a beard she didn't have.

'I learned that the hard way.' Marco thought with a grimace, rubbing his ear as phantom pain pulsed through it. On the second year of his Hekapoo hunt, he'd dived into a lake to avoid an explosive spell she'd fired at him.

A blown-out eardrum and six months of constant ringing in both ears made sure he remembered never to make that same mistake again.

Neither Hinata or Kurenai spoke, the former being too dazed to while the latter knew it was pointless to try since she recognized the pain in her inner ears and the disorientation she felt being caused by ruptured eardrums.

Well, that and they were both boggled by the sight they saw when they looked back towards the origin of the explosion.

Naruto sat in the exact same spot, his face a mask of shock and surprise. He had various minor heat and scald burns across his body and his towel was basically a pile of rags, but other than that he was surprisingly unharmed.

Once again Kelly's cheeks heated up at the site of the mostly naked teen, only this time Star joined her as they could both just see Naruto's 'little Naruto' peeking out from under the mostly ruined towel.

Despite his lack of injuries though, he remained completely immobile and kept his gaze locked forward…

…where an equally shocked looking Star stared right back with her arm outstretched towards her fellow blonde.

…

…

…

"…Hi."

"…Yo."

"Well guys, what do you think?" Hekapoo asked rhetorically as the words 'End of Chapter One' covered the screen.

-End Chapter-

AN: Well, hope you all enjoyed it. If you want to see more, feel free to review, fav and follow.

Until next time, cheerio!