Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto - this should be pretty damn obvious to anyone really...

And I'm not really sure where this story is going to go...I'm just suffering from weird sleeping patterns lately and there's not that many things I can do at 3:30am on a Monday morning! So send me useful suggestions and comments and go easy on the flames – constructive criticisms only ne? Just don't read if you don't like this story!

It basically starts while the rookie twelve boys (bar Shino) have gone to retrieve Sasuke (who in my opinion is a complete prick and if we were going for angsty and stuff, we'd just go straight to Itachi [who's taller...and hotter!] Hahaha! But that bias won't be written in...much...!)! And yea, there will be occasional phrases and stuff written in Japanese, simply coz it sounds more natural sometimes – let me know if translations should be provided at the bottom, coz otherwise I'm just going to not bother with them.

Anyways! Hajimete!

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"Naruto-kun...When will you come back to me?" Hinata wondered with unease as she sat below a tree in front of the gates to Konoha. She activated her Byakugan as she stared into the distance for the fiftieth time that day, silently praying for a glimpse of the blonde loudmouth. "Onegai...kaeru..."

High up on a branch of that same tree, Sakura too stared into the distance, hoping for any sign, shadow or movement that her team mates were alive, and coming back. Sasuke...I knew you would go, no matter what I said...but Naruto will bring you back...zettai...

"They'll be back. All of them. After all, MY team mates are there, and nothing could ever go wrong as long as Shika's leading." An overly confident and cheerful voice pierced the air.

"Ino..." Sakura looked down to see her best friend grinning at them with a cheeriness that almost hid the worry in her eyes.

Hinata deactivated her Byakugan and turned to greet Ino. "Ohayo Ino-san. You came to wait for your team mates too?"

"Well, there's not much else I can do nowadays except for working at the flower shop. And there's just something different today. I just can't seem to concentrate on anything, and my feet just kinda brought me here. So here I am."

"This is all my fault. If only I stopped Sasuke-kun, then the others wouldn't have had to go." Sakura's eyes started to well up with tears at the memory of her last meeting with Sasuke. The night he left. The night she finally told him she loved him. Not the usual casual declarations of affections, but the night when she declared it with her heart and soul, and the night that he finally really heard her.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." A high voice signaled the arrival of yet another kuniochi. "That Sasuke baka would've left no matter what. I just hope Lee was too late to run into any trouble."

Sakura's heart sank even further at Ten Ten's mention of Lee. Hinata had told her how she had been at the hospital visiting Shino the other day when there had suddenly been an uproar at the hospital upon discovery that Lee had disappeared. It hadn't taken a genius to figure out where he had gone. Lee had always strived to be on par with everyone else that was known as the rookie twelve, so it had been no surprise that he had rushed after the other boys the second his operation was over.

Ino's grin slipped as she thought of Lee as well. She remembered seeing the taijutsu specialist immediately after his admittance into hospital following the chuunin preliminaries. She doubted she would ever forget the sight of the severely injured bowl cut boy doing push ups.

"Ano...I'm sure Lee-san...will be alright. After all, Naruto went with that group and so did Neji nii-san, and they are both very strong. So maybe the fighting...was already over by the time Lee-san joined them." Hinata offered timidly. She didn't really know what to say, but she could feel that the feelings of the other three girls were just like hers. Worry for team mates, worry for comrades, and just hidden under the surface, worry for a deeply precious loved one. Waiting like this was so painful. The uncertainty of not knowing whether they were alive or dead and when they would return left the four girls completely unsettled, just when Orochimaru and the Sound shinobi had been driven out of Konoha and peace and normality was returning to the village.

"I'm sure you're right." Ino smiled, sitting next to Hinata as Ten Ten leapt onto a branch near Sakura and leaned against the tree trunk.

"I hate waiting like this. Shikamaru should have taken us too. I mean, it's not like we couldn't have handled it." Ten Ten remarked. Frankly, she had been more than a little insulted that Shikamaru had not approached her. Her annoyance had been further provoked by the fact that she had had to watch Neji walk away from her without being able to do anything about it.

"But then we would have been staring at their backs anyway. Like it or not, all of them are pretty protective of us. We would've just been an extra burden on them." At Sakura's words, the girls fell silent as they remembered how much their male team mates would put their lives on the line to protect them and cover for them.

"Maybe we should train harder. If we were obviously as strong as them, then maybe they wouldn't be so protective." Ino suggested. She had never been one to take things like this lying down. Sure she liked that Shikamaru and Chouji always looked out for her, and it wasn't like she really wanted to go after Sasuke, but still, at this point in time, she preferred anything to waiting helplessly like this.

"That's a great idea! We all have different specialties, so we should train together!" Ten Ten latched onto this idea with great enthusiasm as Hinata nodded her agreement.

"You thought up a good idea for once Ino-pig!"

"Hah! You've just been so obsessed with Sasuke that you didn't notice other people's intelligence Forehead-girl!"

Sakura froze upon hearing Sasuke's name. She didn't know what to feel anymore. On one hand, she knew she loved Sasuke, loved him in a way that she would never love anyone else. But on the other, Sasuke had thrown away everything, rejected the village, rejected his team mates and everyone else, just so that he could go to Orochimaru and gain more power. Did loving Sasuke mean betraying everything and everyone else that she loved? She wanted to believe that he had been forced to find Orochimaru, that he had left against his will, but she knew that was a lie. She remembered when Orochimaru had given Sasuke the cursed seal and she had known before anyone that the day would come when Sasuke would abandon everything for that power. She had been forewarned, but she had hoped against hope that Sasuke would fight against that temptation. And her hopes had been dashed. Maybe I really don't mean anything to him. Does loving him mean that I will always be the one watching his back helplessly as he walks away from me?

Ino could have kicked herself for mentioning Sasuke. The bastard. Ino had long believed that she was in love with Sasuke, but his departure had opened her eyes. Sasuke wasn't cool and mysterious, he was simply a selfish jerk who was too conceited and self absorbed to think about anyone else. It wasn't that he kept to himself, it was more that he didn't even SEE anyone else. And that annoyed Ino. Firstly it annoyed her that he wasn't falling over her feet to begin with, but mostly, it annoyed her that Shikamaru and Chouji had to be dragged into his miserable affairs. And, if Ino were entirely honest with herself, she would have to admit that she was also minutely annoyed at the devastating effect Sasuke's betrayal had on Sakura. Despite all her supposed hatred of Sakura, Ino really did consider Sakura her best friend, and it pained her to see Sakura so outright depressed.

"I think I need the extra training." Hinata suddenly said, unknowingly breaking the brewing tension.

"You fought well in the Chuunin preliminaries against Neji you know." Ten Ten responded.

"But that's only because...Naruto-kun...was watching me." Hinata's voice trailed off in a whisper. The comment wasn't missed by the other three girls.

"What's the attraction with that hyperactive blonde dumbass anyway?" Ino jumped on the opportunity to avoid thinking about Sasuke and Sakura.

Hinata's face turned a shade of crimson so rapidly that Ino couldn't stop the large grin breaking over her own face as she nudged the heavily blushing Hyuuga. "Well?"

"Ano..." Hinata unconsciously started tapping her index fingers together. "He's...well..."

"Damn loud. And a bit slow on the uptake." Ten Ten interrupted.

"No! That's not it at all!" Hinata burst out. "I mean, yes he's loud, but that's just so people will take notice of him, and he wouldn't have to do that if people in the village weren't so cold to him. Which doesn't really make sense to begin with because he's such a kind person. And he's really determined, and he is smart when he has to be, and whenever he's around, I always feel like I should do my best, and that I can be strong too." Hinata stopped as she looked around and realized that the other girls were grinning widely at her. "What? What?" Hinata started feeling a sense of foreboding as the grins widened even further with hints of something, almost, catlike.

"He does have that ability doesn't he? To make people want to do their best." Sakura added, her down mood vanishing at the thought of Hinata and Naruto.

"And he is determined. I must say that he's surprised me every time I've seen him fight. He even managed to beat Neji." Ten Ten was smirking in a very Neji-like way.

"Which I heard was because he vowed to avenge you, Hinata-chan." Ino couldn't resist. The affection Hinata had for Naruto was just so obvious. It was just so unbelievably cute. It was also unbelievably annoying given that the blond haired blue eyed boy in question obviously had no clue.

Hinata chewed on her lip and continued to tap her index fingers nervously. It had suddenly occurred to her that she was in the presence of extremely extroverted and confident girls who would never have trouble talking to the boy they liked. She was also unaccustomed to the attention that was suddenly being focused on her. For as long as she could remember, she had always been the one pushed aside and ignored. While she had hated that, she had grown to hate having attention focused on her even more, since it was usually to point out her weakness and generally had no good consequences. She was comfortable just having her team mates and she realized too that this was her first time being part of a group of girls like this. To be able to just talk without feeling pressured to be the heiress of the Hyuuga clan. She was awoken from her thoughts by Ten Ten's voice.

"I would be so head over heels if some guy did that for me. I mean, not that I want guys to be fighting over me but still, it's kinda sweet."

"So maybe on some level Naruto is already in love with Hinata-chan too?" Ino thought, her mind racing with the cutest possibilities. [A/N: Let's face it, Naruto and Hinata together could not possibly be anything except so cute and sweet it'd make your tooth ache]

"Ehhhh?!" Hinata squeaked, feeling her face heating up even more.

"Well, maybe. But he's pretty dense when it comes to these things I think." Sakura recalled the numerous times she had had to literally beat things through Naruto's thick skill.

"So maybe we just need to make his subconscious love for Hinata-chan come to the surface!" Ten Ten was not usually one to make such trivial girl talk, she had high ambitions and this kind of thing wasn't normally her thing, but still, anything to keep her mind off Neji, and Lee, but mainly Neji.

"He obviously already takes notice of you Hinata-chan" Ino leaned against Hinata "so now all you need to do is to let him know how you feel!".

"But..ano...I don't think...he...I..."

"I wonder if all guys are as dumb as Naruto about stuff like this." Ten Ten suddenly remarked. Her thoughts had gotten stuck on Neji. It was silly really, Neji had never shown much interest in her, but for some reason, Ten Ten felt something different around him. Something that she didn't feel towards anyone else. At first she had thought it was just camaraderie for a team mate, but she realized that while she always treated Lee like a little brother that required taking care of, she had always admired Neji in a way that made her heart beat just that little bit faster. Maybe it was because despite his coolness and arrogance and even his old stupid attitude that everything was pre-destined in life, Neji would occasionally have the tiniest actions or words that would let you know that he cared, and those were enough for Ten Ten. While Ten Ten was pretty tough in general, she was at her gentlest around Neji. Maybe because she could sense that by being tough around Neji would simply make him maintain his guard around her. And she didn't want that. She wanted him to open up to her.

"Maybe. I mean, Shikamaru's a genius, but if some girl liked him, I'm not sure he'd be able to spot it."

"Shikamaru hey? Ino-pig, something going on that you're not telling us?" Sakura had picked up on just the slightest wisp of longing in Ino's voice and this was too good to let go.

"'Course not Forehead-girl! I just mentioned Shikamaru because he's the smartest guy we know!" Ino snapped back as it became her turn to turn a bright shade of crimson. Hinata peeked at Ino and noticed with some fascination what it looked like to have someone else blush so hotly. Ino would rather die than admit what had hit her like a 50 ton stack of fudge the instant Shikamaru had told her that he was going. She didn't want him to leave her. It was so naïve, but in a way, the thought of him leaving her side had never really crossed her mind. She had never been without him really, and to be honest, she never wanted to be without him. Of course, she had never noticed this until he was about to leave. And then, she couldn't stop him. All she could do was watch his back helplessly as he walked away from her.

And so the day passed, as the four kuniochis of Konoha sat chatting in a tree in front of the village gates waiting for their precious people to return.

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OKies, this is ridiculously long and now the sun's come up, so about time for me to catch a few hours of zzzz's! Mata-ne!