Three's A Crowd!
Chapter One
A/N Hello, welcome to my first NaruIno fanficcie (so sorry if it's crud)!!! A pairing that needs more love! Anyway, hope you like it, and if you're wondering why I chose Neji to be the gooseberry well…I don't know why, so nyeh, enjoy!
Oh and Naruto and the gang are about 18-19ish, so yah.
OOOOOOOOOO
A beautiful sunset had materialized above the village hidden in the leaves, a pair of cerulean eyes met sparkling emerald ones, a woman with tendrils of light pink hair stood before him. Naruto was mesmerised by her beauty, slowly she opened her soft lips to speak.
"Naruto I-"
beep beep…
"You what?"
beep beep…
"I said I-"
beep beep
…
BEEP BEEP
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Naruto shot out of bed in a panic, before realising where that torturous sound was coming from, sluggishly he shuffled over to his alarm clock to turn the blasted thing off. The time read 6:00AM
"Ugh, just a dream again." The blonde's once wide eyes seemed half asleep again, after getting rid of the bleeping and finding out that Sakura wasn't really going to confess her love to him, the day suddenly didn't seem so important. He wiped his eyes as the sun glared in through the window, he wasn't keen on this time of year when the sun would rise so early; he really needed to invest in some curtains.
The Uzumaki sauntered into the kitchen, managing to avoid all of the mess that cluttered up his floor, it was as if he knew where every piece of junk was and could dodge it blindly. He opened up the fridge, only to find some gone off milk and well…nothing else. Sighing he closed the door again, the calendar on the door suddenly caught his attention.
Today's date had been circled; curiously he lifted a brow, trying to remember what was so important.
"Ah!! The mission!!" Once again his eyes beamed, he was excited to be having a mission again; it had been so long. He was due at the Hokage's office this morning to get the mission briefing, but it already looked like he was going to be late. At an amazing pace, the teen managed to get washed and dressed before packing his belongings and leaving. Naruto had gotten into the habit at leaving at the last minute, he never got into a panic about it though; after having so many missions with Kakashi teaching them, Naruto was actually quite prompt in comparison.
The village was blissfully quiet that morning, shops hadn't opened up yet so there wasn't all that hustle and bustle, infact, the only other person out was another blonde he was all too familiar with.
"Ino?" Naruto called over, making sure he wasn't still half asleep and it was actually who he thought it was. As soon as she turned, she quirked a brow right back at him.
"Naruto? What are you doing up at this hour?" She inquired as Naruto made his way over to the purple-clad ninja.
"Heehee, I've got a mission!" He told her enthusiastically. Suddenly she narrowed her eyes at the other blonde as he strode quite casually beside her with his hands resting on the back of his head.
"Oh great, don't tell me you're going to be on the same mission as me…" The blonde sighed, dipping her head so that she was staring at the cobbles.
"Hey! What's wrong with working with me!!" Naruto asked defiantly, he glared at the Yamanaka girl, who did she think she was anyway?
"Ugh, nothing I guess, its just…well you don't really have a good record of not screwing up…"
From then on, the conversation was more like an argument, Ino bad-mouthing Naruto, and him bad-mouthing her. In the end all the two of them wanted was a mission away from a mundane lifestyle and a little more money in their pockets, but nevertheless, it didn't mean they wanted to achieve those goals on the same team.
At that moment, Naruto couldn't understand why everyone compared Sakura to this…girl. Sakura was beautiful, charming and um, perhaps a little brash. And Ino…Ino was just brash.
Finally the two of them had made their way to the Hokage's office, they climbed the stairwell before entering the small room where Tsunade could always be found pretending to work. The Hokage looked up at the two new arrivals, as they turned to Tsunade and…
Neji?
"So nice of you to join us at last," Tsunade commented before her eyes darted to the clock in the room, Ino and Naruto shot each other a glance, inwardly blaming the other for their late arrival.
"Hehe, sorry granny." Naruto said sheepishly, causing the Hokage to furrow her brows. "Yo Neji, what are you doing here?" He asked the Hyuuga, who was suddenly looking a little…panicked.
"You're not telling me…these two are going to be on my team."
"Whaa?" Naruto couldn't understand why no-one wanted to have him on their team, the Uzumaki suddenly couldn't keep his cool and aimed his pointing finger at the brunette defensively.
"Hey mister I-don't-need-Naruto's-help! Who was it that beat you in the Chuunin exams huh!? Yeah, take THAT!!"
Soon Neji had turned back to Naruto, responding to his silly game of insults. "That was a long time ago, and besides, which one of us is a Jounin, and which one of us is still a measly genin?"
The fact that he didn't even say that with an expression on his face made Naruto even madder, and here he'd thought the years had changed the Hyuuga. "Yeah well, you may be a jounin but your still a jerk." Naruto mumbled under his breath.
"ANYWAY!" Tsunade slammed her fist on the table (luckily with enough control to not break it) and quickly gained everyone's attention. "I've gathered you all here to give you the mission briefing once more, since Naruto only found out about this mission yesterday he still doesn't know what it involves."
"Wha?! You guys already know?!"
"Well, you were a last resort Naruto." Tsunade told him sternly, which soon caused Ino to smirk. The Hokage noticed it quickly though.
"And you weren't exactly first choice either Ino." That quickly wiped the smirk off of her face.
"Nyeh, nyeh!" Naruto chimed quite happily before Tsunade slammed her fist on the table again, causing a pile of her paperwork to fall onto the floor.
"Can we PLEASE get on with this?" The group finally remained silent, and Tsunade could finally go over the last few details. "As most of you know, Lee and Tenten recently went on a mission to a small village in the land of water, it wasn't an easy mission, but most defiantly not the hardest for ninjas of Lee and Tenten's standards. However, they were due back almost a week ago and haven't returned yet."
"So basically you need us to go and bring them back?" Ino questioned.
"If they have been captured then yes, another possibility is that they may be having trouble and need some reinforcements."
"Maybe they're not so good after all…" Naruto mumbled, causing Neji to give him a cold hard stare, at least Naruto knew then that Neji may have been a jerk at times, but he did care about and had faith in his own team mates. Soon the blonde turned to Neji, waving his arms frantically with a sheepish grin on his face, "Hey, hey it was just a little joke! Ehehehe…"
"Well enough of the joking Naruto, this is serious, and if I have to pull you off this mission I will."
At that moment Naruto finally shut his trap.
"No offence Hokage-sama, but I really don't see the point of a three-man squad when you were quite happy to let Tenten and Lee go off by themselves. In all honestly, I believe this mission will be done a lot faster if I just do it myself."
Naruto was so tempted to have another go at Neji, but then again, he didn't want to be pulled off a mission when he was in desperate need of some extra cash and something interesting to occupy his time. His eyes glanced over to Ino, he wondered why she was being so quiet, usually she was as much of a loud-mouth as he was, and even when Neji questioned their abilities she didn't seem to speak up…
"I understand where your coming from Neji, but I'm afraid if it does turn out to be a kidnapping, I'd rather more of you went; at least that way there's more chance of one of you not being caught and being able to tell us where they're being held."
Ino now glanced over at Neji, she couldn't help wondering why Lee an Tenten had been assigned a mission without him, she'd probably try and worm an answer out of him later, but for now, she just stuck to listening what Tsunade had to say.
"Well, why these two then? I know Naruto was a last resort but I can't see how Ino will be of any help to us."
Instantly, Ino felt an ache in her chest, his words had really hurt her, and she wouldn't stand for it, she was a damn good kunoichi!
"Hey! What wrong with me?!"
"What's not wrong with you?" The brunette answered back, and soon it silenced her, she was so mad but at the same time she couldn't find an answer, she didn't have a good track record…perhaps it wasn't as bad a Naruto's, but at least Naruto had been able to prove himself to Neji in the past. Even now when they slung insults, deep inside both of them had some ounce of respect for the other. But what about her, what made her a good choice for this, for anything!
"Hey! Haven't you forgotten something?!" Naruto jumped in, forgetting that he'd been told to shut up countless times.
"What is it?"
"How about the fact that she's the only one of us who knows any medical jutsus?"
Ino stood in shock, her mouth slightly ajar. Half of her felt stupid for not saying that in the first place, and the other half was just surprised that Naruto was sticking up for her after all of the squabbling they'd been doing.
"For once, he's got a good point…" Tsunade agreed, whilst Ino's shocked expression turned into a smile.
"Yeah! Come on Neji, with our help this mission will be a breeze!"
He sighed in defeat.
"Fine."
"Well then, now that's all settled let's not waste anymore time…"
OOOOO
Soon the trio were making their way to the village gates to head out on their journey. Neji was at the front of the pack, his eyes scanning the map in his hands and the area around him, making sure he didn't bump into any of the villagers. As team leader he had insisted on keeping the map and planning their route to the Land of Water, knowing his comrades, one of them would have destroyed the map, whilst the other would probably try and make it into some fancy hat.
Meanwhile Ino and Naruto trailed behind, Naruto was kicking stones as he walked, paying no attention to the surroundings whilst he carelessly got in others' ways. Ino turned to the Uzumaki before clearing her throat to speak to him.
"Hey, how come you stuck up for me back there?" She asked bluntly, she was never the type to beat around the bush, and her curiosity had begun to get the better of her. Naruto turned his attention away from the stones to talk to her.
"Well, what I said was true right? And besides, it'd be pretty boring to spend a whole mission with just Neji." He whispered over to her, making sure their team-leader didn't hear.
Ino wasn't surprised by his answer, but she wasn't offended by the fact that he stuck up for her to cure his boredom either; she probably wouldn't want to spend a mission alone with Neji either. She actually found his remark quite amusing, "Thanks Naruto."
"No problem, Neji was being pretty mean to both of us…"
"Yeah, but at the same time, who can blame him? I'd be a little cranky if my team mates suddenly went missing…"
Naruto's eyes fell to the floor, he hadn't actually thought of it that way, he remembered the immense pain he felt when Sasuke had left, and it only got worse when they failed to bring him back. Looking up ahead Naruto noticed they were finally nearing the gates. His attention focused on Neji, a glint of determination glowed in the teen's eyes. He may not have been able to save Sasuke, but he wouldn't let Neji suffer the same pain of loosing those people dear to him, even when he was an angsty, boring and way-too serious team leader.
The two blondes began to jog in order to catch up to Neji whilst the gates were being opened. The brunette stopped abruptly, causing Naruto to go straight into the back of him. Naruto nursed his bruised nose (even Neji's soft clothing couldn't save Naruto from his sharp shoulder blades) whilst Neji remained still.
"Uhh, why'd you stop?" Ino questioned as Neji turned to the two of them.
"Before we depart, I just want to apologise to you Ino, I don't want there to be a bad atmosphere between us, so if I offended you earlier then I hope you wont hold a grudge against me."
Ino had never really spent much time with Neji, but she was glad that the years had made him a little more polite.
"And Naruto, just be thankful that it's not just the two of us, since I know how much you'd despise that." Once again he began walking, leaving behind a dumbfounded Naruto and a cheerful Ino.
"No way, he heard me say that?"
"Yes I did, so don't try anything funny…I have eyes in the back of my head…"
With that he kept on walking, a bead of sweat trickled down Naruto's forehead. 'Who knew Neji's creepiness could rival Shino's and Yamato's?' Reluctantly Naruto followed with Ino. The kunoichi smiled to herself, maybe this combination wouldn't be so bad after all, there were so many things she didn't know about these two, and she imagined things would get pretty interesting…
OOOOOOOOOO
A/N So-o yeah, that's it for the first chappie, not very interesting but oh well, it'll get better!! Anyways, let me know what you think so far, ja ne for nows!!!