Ashley let out a long sigh. He was late again and her limbs were cramping. The pine tree which she was perched on was thick and green, no one below would see her unless the came up themselves. Ashley rubbed her shoulder in a feeble attempt ease the pain.
"Are you sore?" A voice came from behind her. Even though Ashley could tell who it was by the playful tone she still jumped down from her branch and when she landed she went into a fighting stance. A boy jumped down in front of her. He held up his hands in peace.
"Aw… are you going to attack me?" He said with a big, playful smile as if to taunt her into actually doing such a thing. Ashley glared at him watching him wince under her eyes. "If looks could kill…." He mumbled under his breath. Ashley stood up and ignored the comment.
"You've been hanging around with Kakashi-sensei way too much…." she said with a smirk. Ashley pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it. The boy groaned.
"Stop
your whining." Ashley handed it to him and he read the first few
lines, crumpled it up, and stuffed it in his mouth.
"Raven!"
Ashley shouted at him. "That was our mission details!" She leaped
forward in alarm. "Ewwwwww! Gross!" Raven had stopped her dead in
her tracks as he held the chewed up paper in front of her face. She
turned away and behind her, Raven threw the paper at her. Ashley spun
around and threw a kunai at the paper ball, pinning it to a tree.
Once again, Ashley glared at Raven and all she got in return was a
smile that seemed to engulf his face.
"I guess we don't have to go on the mission now." Raven snuck a quick glance up at her face. To his surprise to see she was smiling. "What's with you?" He asked.
"What? Oh! Am I doing something odd again?" She said with false concern.
"Lets see… you usually argue and curse if I do something like that so why not this time, huh?"
"No reason. Beside the fact that Tsunda herself wrote on the bottom that if we completed this mission then we would have a free trip to the hidden snow country and it would probably be an awesome vacation spot." Ashley let out a fake sigh. "But you just ripped up our mission details. And I was so looking forward to a two week vacation."
Raven let out a groan. He hated it when this happen. Ashley always seemed to have the upper hand in these situations. Raven looked longingly at the wad of paper pinned to the tree. Two weeks vacation. Both of them were already sore and tired from the previous seven missions they had completed. The Hokage defiantly kept them busy with work. Ashley was probably worse then the rest, considering her job was bigger then the rest of their team.
Her natural tracking talents made her a great scout, her healing abilities from studying with Tsunda made her a medic of no comparison, and she also had recently gain the horrible task of "disposing" of their targets. Raven shook his head. She also worked part time at the local hospital and taught others in the medical arts.
He, on the other hand, helped the Hokage and was her personal assistant. From fetching the morning news paper and her coffee to sorting important legal papers.
"I'm sorry. Am I interrupting?" A black figure walked from behind a tree.
"Sasuke!" Ashley smiled brightly at the arrival of the boy. His black hair was cut short and he wore a cold glare. Raven groaned. The one person he really hated had to show up now.
"Ashley, you shouldn't be out here alone, with him." Sasuke stared pointedly at Raven. "It's not exactly safe." Raven let out a small growl. "Since he can't even take care of himself, let alone others."
"Oh, shut up. You think you're so cool with your stupid bloodline." Raven hissed. The two boys glared at one another. Ashley could almost feel the hatred settle in the air. She laughed aloud at the two of them.
"When the two of you start butting antlers call me and I'll bring my camera." Ashley walked away in the same direction both Sasuke and Raven had come from.
Ashley flicked on the light to her apartment and sighed. "Alone at last." She didn't really say it in relief. She laughed at the thought of Sasuke and Raven after she left. They would probably head back, arguing the entire way back from the outer forest. Those two would never get along in a million years.
Actually, Ashley had to admit that if they started getting along all of a sudden she would be very scared.
"Damn. Why'd you have to come and butt in?" Raven growled at Sasuke. Sasuke ignored the fuming team member and walked away in the same direction Ashley went. Raven silently fallowed him through the dense forest.
It was a well known fact that him and Sasuke didn't get along at all. They were always fighting and never agreed on anything. Ashley was friends with both of the boys and just laughed it off when they began to argue. Raven also knew it probably sucked for her to be in the middle of the war between him and Sasuke.