Disclaimer: This is our first fanfic and a collaboration story (between Xx.anime-fanatic.xX and crimsonrose88)
We do not own Naruto
Tenten leapt from tree to tree around the training grounds, throwing various projectiles at her sparring partner Neji Hyuuga, trying to find a weak spot in his defence.
"Hakkesho Kaiten!" Neji Hyuuga spun around as kunais and shurikens of sorts bounced off his perfect defence. Tenten, using Neji's distraction to her advantage, hid in a tree to catch her breath. 'Darn, he's way too good! I can't even manage a single hit." she thought. Her previous training sessions with Lee had greatly increased her attack speed, but it was hardly helpful in this situation, with Neji's Byakugan. "Byakugan. Damn!" Tenten turned as she felt a presence behind her. Neji stood there smirking, holding out a hand, palm up.
"Jūken!" Tenten raised a kunai in defence, but the force of his attack sent her reeling backwards. She stumbled and lost her balance, falling to the ground. Neji jumped lightly from the tree, landing a few feet away from her. He picked up four kunai that were lying on the ground; as Tenten got up slowly, he threw the kunai at her pinning her to a tree.
"I win." Neji said, still smirking.
"Hmph!" Tenten replied. Neji pulled the kunai free from Tenten's clothing, and helped her pick up her weapons.
"Geez Neji, it was a training session. TRAINING SESSION! You didn't have to use the Gentle fist on me," Tenten complained. The Hyuuga prodigy decided that it was best to just apologize and not provoke the weapons mistress any further.
"Gomen. Why don't we head to Ichiraku's for dinner, my treat? We have to meet Naruto and the others there anyways." suggested Neji hastily. His team mate perked up and agreed.
"Heh, free meal from Neji! He's so predictable." Tenten thought, smiling slightly as they headed together to Ichiraku's.
At Ichiraku….
"G-go for i-it, Nar-Naruto-kun! D-do you-your b-best!" Hinata quietly cheered.
"Ya! Go Chouji! Beat that shrimp's ass!" Ino roared.
Naruto and Chouji were having an eat-off with ramen at Ichiraku; the rest of the group (Kiba, Lee, Sakura, Iruka, etc) were watching and cheering them on, or doing their own things (ie in Shikamaru's case, sleeping)
"One more old man!" Naruto yelled.
"Mmph! Here too!" Chouji soon followed.
"Another one? Seriously, you guys will clean out my restaurant soon if you keep this up. It's already the 39th and 41st bowls!" The old man shook his head and went to get some more ramen, smiling at their energy. "You guys better pay up for all this!" he shouted.
"Oh shit." Naruto blinked, forgetting about the bill, then smiled. "No problem! Put it on Iruka-sensei's tab!"
Iruka blanked and fractically searched for someone else. When it was just him and Naruto, he was okay with it, but adding Chouji, and an eating contest…way out of boundaries of his budget. He saw Shikamaru sleeping on the table at the far end of the table. "Ah! Shikamaru will pay for it!"
"Huh? What?" Shikamaru said, waking up after hearing his name.
"Cool Shika-kun! I hope you're wallet's got enough money!" Ino shouted in his ear.
"Ugh, Troublesome woman. I have no idea what you're talking about. Tch. How troublesome."
Without knowing the full extent of the damage his wallet was about to take, he just nodded at Iruka and went outside to gaze at the clouds.
"Geez, Shika-kun…" Ino chased after, trying to get him to go back. Iruka just shrugged. In any case, Shikamaru was still going to pay the bill.
(In case if anyone was wondering, when Neji and Tenten srrived at Ichiraku's they saw the two gluttonous boys practically inhaling ramen and decided that it would be best if they remained unnoticed. They slipped in beside Sakura who seemed depressed for some reason and ordered their food.)
The rest of the gang had been invited to a celebratory ramen party for reasons unknown (courtesy of Naruto), and just laughed at the two and went back to watching Naruto and Chouji. They were having a fun time, packing Ichiraku's little stall to the extent where Ayame (one of the workers) had had to pull out some extra table and chairs outside for their other customers.
Lee had decided to join in the eating contest a while back when Naruto had been on his tenth bowl, saying "I SHALL EAT MORE THAN THE TWO OF YOU COMBINED! MY YOUTHFUL TRAINING WILL GET ME FARTHER THAN EITHER OF YOU! IF I DO NOT WIN, I SHALL RUN AROUND THE TOWN 20 TIMES WITH MY FEET TIED TOGETHER!" But when he was on his 5th bowl, Lee had given up.
After Naruto's 50th bowl, he hesitated as the old man placed another automatically in front of him. "I never thought I'd say this, but I don't think I can eat any more ramen."
"N-no! Naruto-to-kun! Y-you can d-do it!" Hinata cried encouragingly.
Lee jumped up at once. He had already finished his laps around the village (amazing feat, really!) "No Naruto! You must not give up! Find your power of youth and use it! YOUR YOUTH WILL ALWAYS LET YOU WIN OVER ANY OBSTACLE!" Lee's eyes turned starry and he looked like he was about to rant on about the power of youth.
Neji looked up and wondered what he had done to deserve such a teammate. "Please make him stop. I really don't need to hear more of his 'power of youth' lectures to mess up my dinner; I get enough of it when we train together as it is."
"Really?" Kiba asked curiously. "So that's why you and Tenten always go off to train on your own. And there I was thinking you had other reasons as well."
"Tch." Neji turned away and continued eating his ramen to hide his slight blush.
Kiba smirked at Neji's apparent shyness. He knew. In fact, just about everyone at Ichiraku's knew. Except Naruto. He was too dense and probably wouldn't have grasped that fact even if a bird flew at him with a rock which stated that Tenten and Neji were crushing on each other.
Meanwhile, Lee had started to glow with his passion for youth. "—BECAUSE GAI-SENSEI ALWAYS SAY TO BE YOUTHFU—" Tenten quickly grabbed some of Naruto's ramen and stuffed it in Lee's mouth. She heard Neji sigh in relief and smiled to herself.
"My ramen! Nobody touches my ramen!" Naruto suddenly decided he had more space for ramen and continued to slurp it at an alarming pace.
"Sorry man. I thought you were done. Chouji is." That was true, Couji had given up on the 49th bowl and was now eating chips (he has another stomach for those) beside Ino who had given up on Shikamaru.
"Nnone boushes mm mammemm" Naruto repeated while eating his ramen.
"Naruto, chill. Eat and swallow, then talk," Sakura chided him. Naruto nodded at her, then continued on devouring his beloved ramen. Sakura sighed and decided to take a walk, to get her growing headache from all the noise. She paid for her ramen, and with a smile to the old man, left quietly.
The night was pleasant. Its warm breeze blew Sakura's pink hair softly and strands of it lingered on her face before being brushed back by her hand. She wandered around the village, deciding that she didn't feel like going home yet despite the late hour. She took a detour past the academy, and as she looked at the training grounds and dark windows, she remembered when she had first become a part of Team 7. Naruto, Kakashi, her, and.Sasuke. A team which stuck together and worked in sync with each other (in her eyes), to complete any mission. A team which could always have fun together, doing just about anything. Sakura sighed again, lost in the memories which she could never get back. She absentmindedly sat down on a bench to rest her feet, before realizing that it was the same bench Sasuke had left her 2 years ago, when he left Konoha in his quest for more power.
She sighed. "That's right, today was the day he left wasn't it?" She looked up at the starry skies and let her memories wash over her.
At Ichiraku's.
After finishing the last bowl of ramen, Naruto really decided that he couldn't take anymore. He saw Sakura leaving and wanted to call out to her to stop. He knew she wasn't feeling alright. He wasn't as big of an idiot as everyone thought. He knew. Knew that today was the anniversary of Sasuke's departure from Konoha. That was why he had called everyone together, to try to get her mind of the unhappiness. He reached out, trying to call to her, to tell her to come back.
"Sakura-chan…" he called weakly. But it was to no avail. His eyelids were getting heavy; his hand dropped and his head lolled over. A few seconds later, Naruto was deeply asleep; the result of an over full stomach. His limp body slipped off his chair, and he fell heavily on top of Akamaru, who was dozing at the foot of Kiba's chair. Akamaru woke with a start and gave an extremely loud bark which caused everyone to jump. He struggled out from under Naruto's heavy body and began to attack him, as punishment for his rude awakening, and for him almost being killed by the idiot. Everyone (except Shikamaru who was still asleep) watched the sleeping Naruto being pummeled by Akamaru. However, after a few minutes Kiba decided that Naruto had been punished enough, and called off Akamaru. Akamaru let out one last growl before jumping into Kiba's lap to sleep safely. As the last laughs died away, the group was once again dropping off to lala-land.
"Tch, kids these days." The old man grumbled. I guess they'll just have to pay up in the morning. He said as he looked at everyone sprawled across his ramen booth.
Alright, that's the prologue to our story! Hope everyone's enjoyed it!
Now please click the lil' review button. It would make us ever so happy! Oh, and constructive criticism is very much appreciated!
