Yay! Most of my stories before this were short, lacking, and rushed in some aspects. I know I enjoy reading ones that linger, are well-developed, and the author cares to explain things well. I hope this can improve my writing a little more. But hey, I need reviewers like you to help! I won't hurt you if you criticize me, but if it is not constructive in any way, I probably will mention you in my review corner with a sarcastic comment. Be prepared. Lol. I'm usually nice, but when it comes to writing or…especially…drawing I'm sensitive. My friends definitely know that well.

Disclaimer: Naruto does…not belong to me.

Survivor

Chapter 1

S u b t l e H i n t s

"Ewww! What am I doing here?" somebody whined and Sakura looked to the person next to her. "Sakura-chan, look at this!" she pointed to the wad of gum stuck to the side of the brown, leather seat. "Major grossness," Ino made a revolted face and attempted to clear away the sticky, pink wad with a napkin from the paper bag in the middle of them.

Sakura suddenly remembered why they were here and turned around to lock eyes with Tenten and Hinata. Tenten played with the bubblegum in her mouth, stretching it and then twirling it around her finger. Hinata looked like she had been reading, but had fallen asleep in the process.

Sakura smiled at them but turned back around and groaned, "Why did I even take this job in the first place?" She looked at Ino who was unrolling another pastry from its paper wrapper.

"Simple, it pays well, we get to leave our parents for a while, and oodles of hot boys," Ino paused. "At least that's why I'm here."

"Hm." Sakura said in agreement and remembered the book in her lap that she had been reading before she fell asleep.

Ino was in the middle of biting down on her treat, covered in icing and sugar, when a wad of paper collided with her head. She dropped the pastry on the floor and gaped at it. The chocolate-brown icing had smeared on the floor and sugar covered her lap and lightly dusted the seat. She bit down her lip and her eyes grew wide and watery.

"That was my last one," she pouted then snarled. "Alright, who the fuck thinks it's funny to keep hitting me in the fucking head!?" she was standing and facing towards the back of the bus, confused and scared faces staring back at her.

"Ino! Language, there are children present," Tenten wagged a finger in Ino's face.

"Oh yeah," Ino sighed. "Erase what I just said from your minds. Alright, who the freak thinks it's funny to keep hitting me in the 'effing head!?" she rephrased.

"Oh, nice Ino," Sakura giggled. "That makes it all better."

When no one answered Ino, probably because she grabbed a random boy, who was about twelve years old, and shook him, Ino decided to give up and slouched slowly back down into the seat and crossed her arms and pouted again. (a/n. Woah, the longest run-on sentence I think I've written. Lol, excuse the –counts-…4 'ands')

Sakura looked into the white paper bag from the bakery that was situated in between them. "You already ate all the chocolate ones?" Sakura sighed and fished through the assorted goods until she came to suama and a strawberry tart. She took both out and proceeded to nibble on each occasionally.

"Chocolate is my favorite," Ino rubbed her stomach with one hand and randomly grabbed something else from the bag with the other. She handed Tenten, whose head peeked over the seat just enough so that she could cough a hint, a random wad of paper and threw something over the seat to Hinata who stirred.

The bus lurched to a stop again.

"Damn kids just don't stop coming, do they?" Ino muttered so only the four of them could hear.

Three girls and two boys walked on, each carrying some form of a duffel bag.

"Sakura-chan!" one boy called and stopped abruptly which caused the four people behind him to slide into each other.

Sakura and Ino were focusing on the boy behind Naruto. Tall, dark hair covering his obsidian-colored eyes, he had his hands in his pockets and was rolling his eyes because the girl next to him had bumped into him. She was cooing an apology and shaking her chest into his elbow, looking so sincere. Naruto snapped his fingers in Sakura's face and waved his hand a couple of times, but Sakura didn't look at him until the girl and her two friends walked away, swinging their hips oh so cheerily and rolling their eyes and boys trying to pick them up.

"Oh, sorry, Naruto-kun," Sakura dipped her head in apology. "Something caught my eye."

"You mean Sasuke-teme's ugly face," Naruto laughed at his one joke and pointed to the boy behind him. When no one laughed, he brushed it off and continued like he hadn't said anything, "I haven't seen you in weeks! Why are you here?"

"I applied for a camp counseling position here," Sakura practiced saying the mysterious boy's name in her head, not paying attention to much else.

"Ai, me too, Sakura-chan!" Naruto squealed. "This is the teme, Sasuke, by the way," Naruto said after noticing Sakura's intent gaze. (a/n. Naruto does say 'Ai' right here, not 'Hai' meaning yes. He is agreeing, not saying yes.)

"Hn." Sasuke looked at the girls and then looked away again.

"Ho-la!" Ino dived in. (a/n. This sounds so much like me, except when it comes to boys. Lol.)

"H-hello," stuttered Hinata.

"Hiya," Tenten continued flipping through the pages of her magazine.

"Nice to meet you, Sasuke-kun," Sakura accented the suffix in secret hope that he would notice her more than her friends.

Naruto waved to some friends he saw towards the back of the nearly crowded bus and said goodbye to Sakura and her friends. Sasuke sauntered after him, glancing back through the corner of his eye and stopping in front of Sakura. Sakura's heart pounded as she stared up at his gorgeous face. He grabbed the strawberry tart from her lap and smirked at her.

"See you later," he paused as his smirk grew wider. "Sakura-chan."

Sakura gaped, first at the retreating back and then at the empty spot on the napkin on her lap. Ino, who hadn't noticed anything strange, gaped at the new 'meat' too and pretended to fan herself. Tenten nodded in agreement, but looked at her sports magazine again while Hinata fiddled with her fingers.

"My strawberry tart!" Sakura shrieked at the top of her lungs so that most of the bus looked at her.

"I call dibs!" Ino shrieked even louder.

"You two can fight over that guy, I don't personally want him," Tenten sat up and looked behind her towards the guys. "But their friends are cute."

"Hinata, you should go after that one with the eyes like yours and the long hair," Ino whispered.

"Ino-chan, that's her cousin," Sakura said slowly.

Hinata had fainted already at the thought.

Shortly after they arrived, Tsunade-sama led the girls and boys to their correct cabins. Camp counselors were instructed to wait in the main house where meetings and such took place. Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Hinata all sat on the same bench while the boys sat behind them.

Sakura turned around to talk to Naruto, but met the face of Sasuke instead. She clicked her tongue and continued looking across the aisle. Luckily, Naruto wasn't too far away and she could easily talk to him. She looked at each of the boys. Sasuke-tart-stealer, a laid-back boy with spiked-pineapple hair, Naruto, pretty-boy with long hair and pearl-colored eyes, and an enthusiastic boy during push-ups.

Tsunade appeared shortly afterwards and addressed all of them, one-by-one. "Welcome, Sakura-chan, Ino-chan, Tenten-chan, and Hinata-chan. Welcome also, Uchiha-kun, Shikamaru-kun, Naruto-kun, Hyuuga-kun, and Lee-kun." She said politely.

Sakura raised her eyebrow at the 'Uchiha-kun' instead of 'Sasuke-kun' and she turned around to face him. "Uchiha-kun," she whispered and smiled teasingly.

"Sa-ku-ra-chan," he still accented the suffix, but even more the individual syllables of her first name.

Tsunade cleared her throat and proceeded. "You each will lead a cabin of campers. Each cabin consists of five to ten kids, ages 10-15. Cabins are mixed which means you will have boys and girls. You simple must guide through the camp activities assigned everyday, I will hand out the list momentarily," Tsunade looked at Ino as she added; "I must add that no romantic interest should be shown between a student and a counselor in public."

"Don't worry," Ino smirked. "I have my eye on somebody else." She waved her fingers and winked at Sasuke who rolled his eyes and 'hn.' ed.

"Good," Tsunade continued. "Well, you four girls will share a cabin, and you five boys will share one as well. You should know that weekends are free days for campers, so you can partake in any activities you want."

"I know what we'll be doing, ne Sakura-chan?" Sasuke leaned forward and whispered into Sakura's ear.

Sakura blushed and subconsciously crossed her legs tightly. Sasuke smirked. (a/n. Sasuke's clearly having fun teasing Sakura-chan, ne?)

"Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" Ino looked over at her best friend.

"Nothing, nothing," Sakura waved it off and laughed nervously, putting a hand behind her head. "I wonder what cabin I'll be taking over, right, Ino-chan?"

Ino shrugged, but scowled when she saw Sasuke smiling at Sakura.

"I'm so going to get him back," Sakura thought over the ways and comebacks that she could use on the Uchiha.

"Get who back?" Tenten asked while unpacking.

"Oh, er, um, I'm just playing a little game with somebody," she added a little laugh when she noticed that Ino was raising a jealous eyebrow at her.

The girls were in their cabin, unpacking and changing into pajamas. Tsunade had already dropped off the list of their cabins and most of the lights were dimmed except for a small lamp in the corner, as not to keep anybody in the neighboring cabins up. Sakura slid off her bunk, below Ino's, and dug through her suitcase duffel for some pajamas. She quickly changed and launched her bag into the corner, contents spilling all over the ground.

"Honesty, Sakura-chan. You are soooo unorganized," Ino said, neatly folding her clothes and packing them into a drawer.

"Enough insults," Tenten had already finished changing and unpacking and was spraying for bugs with Hinata. "I'm going to bed soon. My cabin is doing sports with Neji-kun's cabin," she sighed dreamily and then caught herself. "Goodnight!" she said and scrambled into her bottom bunk's lime green covers.

"Goodnight Sakura-chan, goodnight Ino-chan," Hinata smiled and finished putting her stuff away and clambered into her bed from the ladder, and she pulled the lavender quilt to her chin.

"Goodnight, Sakura-chan," Ino sighed. "I wish I was paired with Sasuke-kun's cabin tomorrow. Who's Shikamaru anyway?" she climbed the ladder and hid herself, head included, under her hot pink sheets and comforter and sighed again.

"Goodnight Tenten-chan, Hinata-chan," she paused. "Goodnight, Ino-chan."

She clicked off the light and suddenly felt a ping of regret. Maybe this Sasuke game shouldn't continue if Ino really wanted him. Sakura had already fought with Ino before, but boys were Ino's hobby and even though she didn't admit it, when Ino fell for somebody, she fell hard.

But Sakura also had thoughts about Ino maybe giving up on Sasuke. As much as she didn't want to hurt any of her friends, this idea seemed a lot more appealing.

Thanks for reading! You can definitely tell I'm trying to subtly hint –cough- to there being a jealous-competition for Sasuke. First, let me say that I enjoyed writing this. If I rushed into the plot or if it was boring, please tell me. But…I had loads of action-packed plans for the next chapter which I'll start tomorrow.

Let me also clear up Sasuke and Sakura's relationship. Sasuke enjoys teasing Sakura; Sakura has slight feelings for Sasuke. Nothing big…yet.