"Tazora, ugh this is such a drag. Tazora we are leaving." Shikamaru sighed, shoving a hand behind his head, right under his pony-tail. Akamaru jumped up on the couch, putting his paws on the side of it and began licking my face. I groaned, not wanting to wake up. I opened my eyes to look at my friend. He was standing there, slouching as always, but now wearing swimming trunks and had a towel around his neck.

"Get off me, pooch." I grumbled, pushing the huge dog down. "Why are you agreeing to pet sit him, Shikamaru?" I asked, sitting up and stretching. Shikamaru shrugged, and his girlfriend, Temari stormed in.

"Dang, guys! Naruto and Sakura are already at the beach, and Tenten and Neji just called and said if we wanted a ride we would have to hurry." Temari said, shaking her cell phone at us. Shikamaru sighed, and put a hand to his forehead. I smiled at him, and laughed.

"Temari, what happened to that bathing suit me and Sakura picked out for you?" I asked, looking at the one piece with the skirt that Temari was wearing. She just blushed and muttered something murderous and said something that sounded like 'burned it'. I laughed, shrugging. Shikamaru put a leash on Akamaru and led us out of the door.

"It was a drag, but Kiba can't take him on this...oh i don't know what you would call it.." Shikamaru grumbled. Just as he locked the door, Tenten and Neji pulled up in a minivan. Hinata got out of the car and opened the back door to put Akamaru in. Tenten got out to let Shikamaru in the passenger's seat, then climbed in beside me and Temari. Tenten leaned forward between Neji and Shikamaru as Neji started to drive, and started messing with the radio dial. "Jeez, Tenten, if you were gonna do that, I would've let you sit up here!" Shikamaru said, leaning against the window to let Tenten have room to do her business. Tenten smiled at him, and kept searching through the stations.

Between the car smelling like dog breath, Tenten changing the station every five seconds, Temari and Neji arguring about directions, and Shikarmaru shaking his head and complaining, I was getting a headache, and was relived when Naruto's jeep came into view. We all unloaded, and Akamaru just lept over the seat and out of the car. Naruto sat with a sand castle between his legs, and was patting the bottom side of the upturned bucket. I laughed when i saw him; he looked like a three year old. Sakura sat up from lying on a towel, and called out to us, standing and running over with her flip-flops on.

"Hey guys!" Sakura exclaimed, tying a skirt-like thing over the red swirled bathing suit bottoms. She pulled out her sunglasses, and hugged us all in turn. When she gave Shikamaru a hug, he went limp and looked away, like she was trying to kill him. Sakura shook her head. "Temari, I'm disappointed. That bathing suit is better then the one we picked!" she exclaimed, giving Temari yet another hug.

We walked over to the beach. Naruto waved, but wouldn't move from his spot. He kept poking at the sand castle and worried over it like it was a baby that he was in charge of. Soon after, Kankuro showed up and we started to play in the water. Even though there were more girls then boys, the girls ended up being dunked more then the boys. Naruto abandoned his sand castle and came and joined in the fun.

As I ran off to save Hinata from Naruto, I was showered with freezing cold water. "AAAAAAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" i screamed. I swung around to see a Naruto clone. I punched his face in, and the clone exploded in a spurt of water. We keep 'playing' for a while, then finally somone knocked down Naruto's silly sand castle. We came out to eat, and dry off. Sakura handed out little sub sandwiches, and Tenten handed out pop.

I sat down, pulling Hinata down beside me. Naruto ran off to his jeep to get a radio and his guitar, and soon everyone was drinking and eating and laughing. Suddenly a ripping noise was heard, and a motorcycle pulled into view. Naruto's music stopped momentarily, then realizing it was Gaara, started playing again. Gaara took off his helmet, and momentarily stood off before walking over and sitting a little off from the group. Kankuro scooted over so Gaara could sit beside him, but Gaara just stood.

"I'm gonna wander." he said quietly then walked off down the beach. Temari sighed, taking a drink from her soda.

"Why does he show up is he isn't going to stay?" she asked to no one in particular, just voicing what was on everyone's minds.

"eh, he just comes to make us happy." Kankuro said, biting into a sandwich.

"You guys give him a hard time." Sakura said, but then sat down and took Naruto's guitar. Naruto stood and grabbed Akamaru's leash.

"How 'bout it big guy? Your the size of a whale; you should be able to pull me on the beach, eh?" Akamaru whimpered, but headed towards the waves. "Yea-h!" Naruto yelled, emphasizing the 'h'. Naruto grabbed onto the leash then dived into the waves. Akamaru barked the sped off. I jumped up and rand to the water's edge.

"Go Naruto!" I yelled, watching him skid over the waves. He 'turned' to face me, and with his eyes slits, waved one handed. Soon everyone had joined me on the water's edge, and started screaming like crazy. Hinata tapped her fingers together worriedly, until Kankuro threw her over his shoulder and threw her into the water. I helped Hinata, kicked Kankuro in the shins, then turned back to watching Naruto. We watched him til we couldn't see him anymore, then we heard him shout,

"Whoa!" We all glanced nervously at each other, then ran off down the beach to the sound of the cry.

(Gaara)

Gaara spun around, turning to see who had joined him. Naruto stood there, his mouth hanging open. Akamaru bounded up beside him. "Where the hell did that come from?" Naruto yelled as loudly as he possibly could. Gaara shrugged, not wanting to explain the simple process to Naruto.

"I thought our friends would enjoy it." Gaara said simply. Naruto just stood there with his mouth wide open still, his eyes narrowing. Soon Sakura and Tazora and Temari showed up; out of breath, and the others were coming up behind them.

"Gaara, since when did you make sand castles?" asked Kankuro. Gaara just turned to face it, with his back to his friends. Suddenly Naruto was no where. Then he was everywhere. A cacophony of,

"OMG, Gaara!", "This is totally awesome!", Believe it! He made it like a real castle!" and "This is so cool!" filled the air as Naruto's shadow clones explored the castle.

Tazora's eyes grew wide. "That's amazing, Gaara!" she shouted. Tenten and Kankuro raced off to explore the insides.