Chapter 3

I don't own Naruto. It is the property of Masashi Kishimoto.

I stared at the kids. Sasuke was slowly nibbling on the meat and looking at me suspiciously, like I had poisoned it. Naruto was scarfing down his food so fast that I would be surprised if I wasn't broke by the time we left this restaurant. And Sakura...well, I had no words. She had so little on her plate that I wondered how she was still conscious. She was also staring longingly at the rest of the food before looking at Sasuke and blushing. I finally got fed up and started piling up things on her plate. She stared at me, dumbfounded.

"Um-"

"Rei-sensei."

"Rei-sensei, I'm fine with this amount." She smiled faintly.

"Kunoichi aren't supposed to go on diets." She looked shocked."Proper food gives you energy which you need on missions. You will only become a liability to your team and you will make them fail the mission if you just suddenly faint."

She tried to protest but I gave her the Chiding Motherly Glare™. Sakura withered under it and started eating the food I put on her plate.

I looked at the others and saw Naruto eating faster than ever, without a care in the world. I smirked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Better than ramen, huh?"

Naruto looked at me with betrayal in his eyes."Never, sensei! The Ramen Gods will always prevail, dattebayo!"

He narrowed his eyes."Besides, how do you know that I like ramen?"

I tried not to let my panic show and folded my hands primly in my lap.

"A Jounin knows everything," I tapped the side of my forehead," and sees everything." I nodded sagely.

Naruto looked sufficiently creeped out, but a snarky voice interrupted me,

"I thought those were the Hyuuga?"

My head snapped towards Sasuke in shock. There was a hint of a smirk on his usually angsty face, so little that I wasn't sure it was him who had spoken.

But I wasn't going to be defeated by a child.

"You can speak, little duckling?" I grinned."That's great!"

There was hope in my heart as we left the store, that the team was going to a be little closer than before.

It was nighttime and my neighbour was not back yet. I jumped from roof to roof already knowing where he would be.

I stopped right on the outskirts of Training Ground Three and there he was, a shadowed figure in front of the memorial stone.

I knew he knew that I was there and he knew I knew too.

"Maybe I should just fail them. Kami knows my bad luck kills everyone around me." His voice was raspy.

I fidgeted, distinctly uncomfortable. What was I supposed to tell him? It's not your fault? 'Cause as far as I knew about his life, it was all completely his fault. I mean, he indirectly killed his father with his hate, hesitated to save Rin which caused the fake-death of Obito, which caused the death of his sensei and big-sister figure.

Wow, I sound like a bitch.

I, instead, opted to smile at him.

"I'm still alive." I pointed to myself.

His laugh was slightly hysterical. "So what? Should I wait for you to die too?"

Ah, this was something I could work with.

I glared at him sharply. "Are you implying that I am not strong enough to stay alive?"

The last time he had said something like that had been a lot ruder and I had(to retaliate) replaced his precious Icha Icha copies with spoofs of the original. He had spent the whole day feverishly flipping through their pages.

He hastily backtracked(Good, he learnt from his mistakes)."N-no, it's just that people around me-"

Urgh, this was my sappy talk limit for the day. And I was feeling sleepy.

"Just fucking get to bed already!" A little insensitive, I know, but this was exactly how I had dealt with Kakashi in the past.

A slow smile spread across his face. " Good ol' Koneko-chan, huh?"

"Shut up," I grumbled.

I forgot to put this in the last chapter. So. Um. Ta-da?

Koneko - Kitten

And forgive me if my writing style is a little choppy. I'm learning.