I've been a neglectant author and I apologize. I ish very very very sorry.

Anyways I know its January and this is very very very out of season, but I can't help dreaming about the sun and sand while waiting for a snow day...?

Note: I don't own Naruto

Please Read and Review (Sai's abs are watching...they are ALWAYS watching...)

i hope the ending's okay...

The Land of Sun and Beaches

By Hammy Uchiha

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know, that's just how he said it to me, he specifically said: 'We're going to camp at the beach,'" replied Ino. Sakura shook her head, why would anyone want to camp on a beach?! But then again this was Lee they were talking about. The pink hair kunoichi was looking skeptically at Ino. Her friend in the green tank top was giving her the same look of confusion.

"All of us?"

"ALL of us, the twelve of us from the Chunnin Exams plus Sai that makes thirteen," replied Ino.

"I'm guessing you're telling me because you want me to help you spread the word, right?" asked Sakura looking up into the blue sky; Ino wouldn't just randomly tell her stuff without a purpose. No wait, she would tell me stuff for no reason. Ino nodded, her long blonde ponytail bouncing up and down against her back.

"Well I'll take my team and you can take yours and then I'll go let Team 8 know," said Sakura which she knew was exactly what Ino wanted to hear.

"You since we're all going you know who's going to be there right…?"

"Sasuke?"

"SAI!!" corrected Ino. "A whole four days with Sai!"

Sakura shook her head as she left Ino and went out into the hot July day. Four days with Sai? Can I handle that?

"Hey Sai," she called as she entered the garden where he sat painting. She hoped she hadn't disturbed him, but with Sai it was hard to tell.

"Sakura," he answered not looking at her and still fully into his painting.

"Lee invited us on a short vacation to the Land of Sun and Beaches," said Sakura.

"Sun and Beaches?"

"Yeah and if your brother doesn't come willingly I'll pay you five bucks to bribe, drag, blackmail and or threaten Sasuke to come along," said Sakura quietly slipping Sai the money. Sai sniffed it before nodding.

"Can do, hag,"

"Watch yourself before I have to teach you to respect," shot back Sakura walking off. Next she talked to Naruto who eagerly agreed. Last on her list was the ever hostile Sasuke.

She approached with caution the training grounds the Uchiha had staked out as his own, bearing with her a peace offering of a can of juice.

"What crap do you have to bug me with today?" he accused as she approached him cautiously. Ever since he had returned to the village, many had learned that Sasuke was the wrong person to take lightly.

"Why don't you take a break a minute?" asked Sakura offering him the cold can of juice, either he would take it and listen to what she had to say or he would reject it and Sai would have to use force. The dark haired boy turned to face her and wasn't scowling which she took to be a good sign. He fell back exhaustedly to the ground where he sat waiting for the can of juice. She tossed it to him and sat down as well. Things were going surprisingly well; she must have caught him on a good day.

"What is it?" he asked opening the can and taking a drink, his onyx eyes fixed on her in expectation.

"Lee got us four days off and we're going to the Land of Sun and Beaches," said Sakura. Sasuke closed his eyes and swallowed.

"Sai's going?" he asked opening his eyes. Sakura nodded.

"Count me out," he answered finishing off the juice and crushing the can in his hand.

"Sasuke," she protested but he was already up.

"Without all your crap I'd get a lot more done," he told her as she was about to speak. "Don't you have something else to do?"

Sakura got up and walked off, several times she looked over her shoulder, but the Uchiha didn't look back after her.

"Sasuke…" she whispered sadly under her breath, she didn't want to have Sai resort to such cruelties as bribery or blackmail.

"Hey! Sakura…!"

Sakura turned around, Sasuke was looking after her. He shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"I mean…if it really means that much to you…I guess I could go…" he said quietly.

"I would like that," she said with a smile.

"But no more crap, alright?" he said smirking.

"Right, unless it's necessary," replied Sakura.

"It's always necessary, isn't it," he muttered turning around.

"Yes!" cheered Sakura silently as she headed back to reclaim her five dollars from Sai.

They left at dawn for the Land of Sun and Beaches and all together they were quite the massive group. Lee was at the head of them and led them forward and onward to their vacation. Sai wandered among the group making the acquaintances of several people he had never met before. He would have tried to cause Sasuke more pain than he already did just by being there if it hadn't been for Sakura who gave him back the five dollars to leave Sasuke alone. Sasuke upped that bid to twenty dollars if Sai would leave him be for the full day.

As the sun was going down on the day they arrived at last at the ocean to catch to the sunset reflecting off the gleaming water. Sai did a quick sketch of it and committed the colors to memory for a later date. It took the kunoichi several minutes to set up their tent, Neji's group two minutes less then them and the other group consisting of Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, Kiba and Lee a good twenty minutes after Naruto and Sai fought over who would nail in the stakes and Sai tripped Sasuke for no apparent reason.

It was pitiful to watch and Shikamaru proposed they all go to bed early so they wouldn't have to. Shino thought that idea was good and he went to bed as well. Chouji stuck around for the small meal Neji cooked up for them. He, Neji and the four ladies ate around a small fire and tried to ignore the loud shouts and curses coming from the jumble of boys fighting the tent.

In eventuality they set it up finally after Neji and Chouji had turned in and Sakura was the last one up. She gave Sasuke a plate of food she was saving for him and went to bed. The older Uchiha took his prize and perched atop a rock out of easy snatching distance from his tent mates. Naruto heated up his ramen and Sai insisted on several times trying to steal Sasuke's food, but he was fighting an uphill fight. Sasuke shoved his younger twin back off the rock.

"Get your own," he snapped at Sai who had to try at least two more times before giving up.

At last when all had been fed and the fire had been put out and all were snug in their tents, left with the scent of Sai's feet in Naruto's tent, at last everything was silent except the soft chirping of distant crickets.

"Sasuke-niisan…?"

"Shut up and go to sleep Sai."

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Hinata was thrown awake by the sound of Naruto shouting. She frantically shook Sakura's shoulder.

"Sakura, something's wrong, we should get up and go check," she said quietly.

"Shannaro," grumbled Sakura rolling over. "It's only Naruto-baka,"

"Ino!"

"I'm sleeping, wake me up if Sai's in trouble," groaned Ino. Hinata turned and shook Tenten but there was no hope for those who want to wake Tenten. Hinata scrambled out of the tent in her tanktop and shorts and stumbled across the sand towards Naruto's tent, just as Sasuke emerged looking bored. Hinata came to a halt blushing.

"S…Sasuke-kun," she choked, "Is everything alright…in there?" she asked as there came a particularly loud cry.

"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!"

"Yeah, it's just Naruto-baka," answered Sasuke with a yawn, he sleepily scratched his hair. "Like an idiot he didn't shake his clothes before putting them on and there were some crabs hidden in them," said Sasuke. He shot Hinata a sidelong look that made her skin crawl. "If you ask me it was Sai who put them there, crabs just don't randomly appear in closed up tents."

At that moment out of the tent came Sai grinning and generally looking like the guilty fool he was.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, niisan," he greeted Sasuke.

"Speak of the devil," coughed Sasuke.

"NOOOO!!! It's attacked me!!" cried Lee from within. "With the power of youth I banish you from the tent!" yelled Lee. A whine came from Akamaru.

"Don't throw them at us!" cried Kiba.

Sai looked with a grin from his older twin brother to Hinata.

"Good morning, Kitty-chan," he said to her. That really made Hinata's skin crawl and she leapt behind Sasuke for protection. She noticed it before Sasuke did.

"CRAB!!!" she cried, too late to save him.

"AGHH!!" The older Uchiha fell to the ground as the crab took a hold of his ankle. "GET IT OFF!!! SAI!!! I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!!" he yelled as Sai proceeded to laugh his head off and Hinata looked anxiously from the crab, who didn't look as though it was going to let go anytime soon, and Sasuke crying in pain on the sand.

"Sai do something," she said to the younger Uchiha who was still laughing.

"What's all this racket?" demanded Tenten appearing from nowhere, she appeared to have just woken up. Ino and Sakura were watching in fear from the tent. Two accusing fingers from Hinata and Sasuke pointed to the villain. Sai took one look at the enraged Tenten and ran.

By the time breakfast had been made Sai was black and blue, Sasuke had a bandage around his ankle and Lee, Kiba and Naruto were all suffering from the crab attack. As they sat finishing their breakfast a shadow was cast over them. All turned to see…

None other than the sand siblings.

"Well, well if it isn't Shikamaru and gang," said Temari pulling down her sunglasses to see that indeed everyone, absolutely everyone, had come. Gaara nodded to Naruto who was waving like an idiot and the third one among them was foreign looking without his purple face paint and bat suit. (Is it a bat suit?)

Before long the ocean was littered with laughing young shinobi, minus several who had stayed ashore, among them Sasuke and Gaara, neither of which looked as though they enjoyed swimming.

"Come on Sasuke!" called Sakura from the shallows where there was a splash battle going on. She shrieked as a wave of water from several Naruto clones hit her. Sasuke didn't move from his spot on the warm sand.

Carefully Gaara was forming the sand under his hands into a great castle and no one disturbed him, except for Sai who wanted to know if he was wearing eyeliner. It was very much the wrong question and Sai got a face full of sand for it.

Shikamaru had fallen asleep on the sand but when he woke up, he found himself buried up to his neck in it. Temari was laughing at him from nearby, just out of head butting reach.

Grumpily Sasuke watched his friends playing in the ocean splashing each other and playing with the beach ball. He felt rather bad that he wasn't out there right beside them, but with Sai out there as well he wasn't sure it was worth the pain. Besides he couldn't shake the feeling that he just didn't mix well with them. So wrapped up was Sasuke that he didn't notice the people sneaking up behind him until it was far too late.

"AGH!! No!! No!!" he cried as Sakura, Naruto, Lee and Sai forcefully dragged him from his spot and towards the ocean. "Stop!" he shouted but they flung him into the water. He hit with a loud splash and floundered to the surface gasping for air.

"You'll pay for that," he warned walking back for the beach.

"You're staying right here!" cried Naruto tackling Sasuke, but one ninja alone could not bring down the mighty Uchiha, it took Sai and Sakura plus Naruto and Lee before the raven haired shinobi was shoved beneath the surface of the water. He grabbed at ankles dragging people down into the depths and then swam for the shore. Ino tackled him this time and then came Hinata and Neji and giant Akamaru. Sasuke burst to the surface panting as Sakura splashed water at him.

"You wouldn't!" he cried as she did again.

"I just did," she replied laughing. The raven haired boy finally broke out laughing and splashed her back.

Gaara shook his head from the sidelines. Such a weak will… His grand castle was nearing completion and quite a magnificent castle it was…was…would have been…

A great wave rolled in through the shore sweeping the shinobi in the water with it and it swept through Gaara's sand castle and loosened the sand to free Shikamaru.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!" cried Gaara at the ruin of the castle he had worked so hard to build.

"It's okay Gaara," said Temari trying to soothe her little brother's fears.

"NOO!!! It isn't okay, I must get reveng…"

Sasuke dumped a bucket of water of him. Gaara stopped in mid sentence sitting in the sand amongst the ruins of his castle. Suddenly everything was very silent. Slowly Gaara turned his pale blue green eyes on Sasuke who was still guiltily holding the bucket. He leapt up and chased Sasuke all the way back out into the water and even a ways after that before Gaara realized that he was swimming. Sasuke was still a ways away treading water safely out of Gaara's reach.

"I can swim!" he cried and then tried to move forward, he had never gotten in a pool his entire life and the only thing keeping him afloat before was his rage. This quickly became evident as he floundered in the cruel sea. "I can't swim!" he cried as he began to sink. The shore was too far away for anyone to see the sinking sand nin which left only Sasuke.

"Crap, why is it always me?" he muttered before diving after Gaara.

When Gaara came to it was dark and there was a blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he was lying in front of a blazing fire. And over the fire people were cooking hotdogs and Sai had skipped the main course and gone straight to dessert as he burnt marshmallow after marshmallow. Sasuke was yelling at Sai to stop wasting the marshmallows because he wanted some and Naruto was yelling at Sasuke to move his fat ass so he could cook his dinner. Sakura had somehow managed to squeeze between the two and was contentedly cooking her hotdog. Sai was then complaining to all who would listen that hot dogs looked too much like something else, though Gaara didn't catch what and wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Hey Gaara, you okay?" asked the motherly voice of his older sister. Gaara turned around to face his sister.

"But..?"

"It was Sasuke, he saved you," she said.

"Oh…" whispered Gaara, he tugged the blanket tighter around his shoulders it was rather cold out since the sun had gone down.

"Here I cooked you up one," said Temari pushing the hotdog in the bun into Gaara's cold hands. Temari then returned to eating her own hotdog in front of Shikamaru who had somehow gotten himself buried in the sand again.

"Cruel woman," growled Shikamaru at her trying to wiggle free, but it was of no use. Finally the crowd moved away from the fire and sat down to eat. By the time they were done Sai had a mess of melted marshmallow, chocolate and graham cracker crumbs all over his face. Even as they all finished, a silence spread over the group as they all stared at the bag of marshmallows. It was nearly empty due to Sai and everyone could tell there wouldn't be enough for everyone. Sasuke edged a small centimeter closer to the edge of the log he was sitting on. Sai licked his lips and Naruto took a single step before all three followed by numerous others leapt at the bag of delicious marshmallows.

Somehow the marshmallows slipped from the hands of the rabid young shinobi and into the fire where the plastic and marshmallows alike were left to burn.

Morning found everyone asleep out on the sand beside a burnt out fire. There was to be a sandcastle contest to make up for the castle of Gaara's that had been destroyed the day before. It began as just several of them building castles and soon became warfare. Here was an "accidentally" thrown bucket of water, there an "accidentally" thrown stone until there was sand throwing and screams and laughter. Even the older Uchiha and Gaara were throwing sand and diving for cover.

Neji and Tenten watched from a distance. They were plotting something, Hinata could tell it. As she retreated to the ocean with several others she kept a close eye on them. They were talking quickly and she didn't like how they were doing it as they kept pointing at the sky. Naruto retreated further as there came an incoming barrage of sand.

"SPLASH THEM OUT!!" he cried rallying those around him. Hinata was forced to forsake her watch on Tenten and Neji and put all her efforts into sending water as return fire. Cries from the opposing team guaranteed their success.

"Don't give in to them!" cried Sakura scooping up a hand full of sand. She was about to fling it when overhead there came thunder.

"Ceasefire!!" called Temari but the sand kept flying.

"Stop!" yelled Ino but the war of sand and water continued on. Another crack of thunder above them sent everyone into panic as it came…in sprinkles at first and then in dreadful pouring. With wails of despair the shinobi fled for the tents. There was barely room enough for all of them. The storm continued for most of the day and finally the ninjas had to venture out into it. The sand siblings had to go. Gaara had donned his rice hat and Temari had out her umbrella as well, Kankuro was good with his bat hat as he had taken the time to change back into his clothes. Still not wearing his facepaint he looked very strange.

"See you guys later!" called bat man waving as they left.

"Bye Shikakins!" called Temari blowing Shikamaru a kiss. Shikamaru groaned and looked away. Gaara nodded with one of his rare smiles and the three from Suna were gone. Not long after the rain stopped, but the sun didn't return. No one really felt like swimming anymore anyways though. Without hardly any change night came down upon them. A fire could not be roused on the damp logs and finally Sasuke had to give it some help. He was then forced to tend the fire the rest of the night. Everyone went to bed early so they could make a good start in the morning. Sakura was the last to go to sleep as Sasuke finally let the fire die on the soggy logs.

"You okay?" she asked him a blanket draped around her shoulders. He let out a sigh and stood up with a yawn.

"I'm fine," he grumbled shivering in the night. Sakura shrugged off her blanket and draped it over his shoulders. He looked to her, she was smiling.

"I'm glad you came," she said softly. He smiled a small smile.

"I'm glad I came too."

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The next morning it was drizzling out but the shinobi made short work of packing up the tents and getting ready to go. They set off after a cold breakfast of leftovers from the night before.

It was late that evening when they at last neared the gate of Konoha.

"Hey Lee," called Sakura catching up with him. "I had a lot of fun, thanks for convincing Tsunade to let us go," she said. Lee gave her a weak smile. "What'd you have to do to convince her anyways?"

Lee grimaced.

"I have to massage her feet for the next six months," he said.

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I'm not sure what I think of that ending, but I've had my fun, now tell me what you think.

Please Review.

-Hammy Uchiha