A/N: yay new chappie(: I've noticed the ammounts of reviews this fic has been getting (-none-) compared to the ammount of hits. Let's just say theres a huge difference. I'm worried, do people not like it?
Anddd anyways, I've narrowed down the possible pairings. I'm thinking to put Layuki with Gaara...and I might be able to but her with Kiba too. Theres also a teensy weeny chance I might make this a Neji x OC. But I think I like Neji x Tenten too much to do that. I would really appreciate some opinions:D
Oh andddd I kind of need a beta. So anyone who could to that please let me know!
Disclaimer: I wish I owned. I wish I did I really do. But I don't. So sad.
When Neji reached the surface, he gasped for breath, and then a pair of pale hands helped him out of the water.
"God, Neji, you scared me. I thought you two were never coming out," Tenten paused, "where's Layuki?"
Neji, who was sitting on the bank wringing out his hair, looked at the spot where he had come up about half a minute earlier and only saw bubbles.
"Do you think she can swim?" Tenten asked, worried.
"If she couldn't then she would have drowned already." He answered.
"I'm worried, should I got get her? Or maybe you should, seeing as you're already wet,"
"Don't waste your energy worrying, help is coming." He said, standing up. Tenten followed the suit, sighing. She didn't even bother trying to figure out what he meant. That boy was always speaking in riddles.
Then, three figures came out of the woods; Abaurame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba with Akamaru in his jacket.
Hinata gasped, "Neji-nii!" What really surprised her though, wasn't seeing her cousin, but all the cuts an bruised he had.
"Let's go Tenten," He said coldly walking away. He limped a couple steps, and Tenten came over to help him. Together they walked out of the clearing.
Then Akamaru jumped out of Kiba's jacket and started sniffing the ground. When he reached the side of the stream he barked and the three genin walked over.
"What is it boy?" Kiba asked, getting down on his knees.
Then Hinata noticed the bubbles that were coming up. She gasped again, "S-someone's down t-there!"
The three teammates were desperately thinking of what to do.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Layuki was swearing with all the words she knew. Bubbles were escaping from her mouth and she was desperately feeling for her weapons pouch. Swearing some more she realized that it must have fallen off when she fell into the water. As if on cue, she spotted her pouch lying at the bottom of the stream beside her, but just out of her grasp.
She felt her head getting dizzy and her already blurry vision blurring even more. Her Hirukagan had long deactivated. She refused to die like this. Grabbing on to the seaweed, she tried to break it, but her strength wouldn't come.
Suddenly, a hand holding a kunai came down and cut the seaweed, setting her free. But Layuki found that she didn't even have the strength to kick, she felt like daggers were being shot at her lungs.
A strong arm snaked around her waist and pulled her toward the surface. She didn't even realize how deep she was, nine feet, maybe ten.
She was thrown onto the ground, coughing and sputtering. Behind her, she could hear her saviour panting and muttering 'baka'.
Layuki fell silent, eyes opened wide. She knew that voice. Turning around she saw Kiba sitting beside the stream with only his pants on. He was soaked and his shirt and jacket were dry and in a messy pile a few feet away from him. The read marks on his cheeks were smeared very slightly.
"Not that…I'm not…grateful…but what are you…doing here?" She panted, still trying to catch her breath.
"W-we were t-training j-j-just outs-side the forest, L-layuki-chan, and we h-heard some c-commotion," Layuki turned around again and saw Hinata standing next to the tree that Shino was leaning on. Akamaru was in her arms.
Remembering what happened Layuki said, "Where's Hyuuga? Er, where's Neji?"
Hinata looked really put down at this and so Shino spoke, "Neji-san and Tenten-san left when we came,"
"Right," she said, and turning to Kiba, "Well, thanks. I guess I owe you."
"No problem," He said, gathering up his clothes, "Just wondering, what were you doing?"
Layuki groaned and lay on her back, rubbing her stomach where Neji had hit her last, and she opened her mouth to explain when her teammates suddenly came running towards them.
"Wow. What the hell have you been doing? This is unbelievable, we leave you alone for half a day and you manage to get yourself almost killed!" Kaoru exclaimed, apparently amused.
"We just saw Neji-san come out of the forest being supported by Tenten. She said something about you and water. I'm quite curious actually, you usually don't like the water," Karin said, obviously biting back laughter despite the situation her teammate was in.
Layuki groaned again, "and I don't like water even more now,"
The twins cracked a grin. "Can you stand?" Karin asked, helping her friend up, "We know the attacks Neji-san use aren't exactly harmless,"
As soon as Layuki let go of her, she almost fell to the ground again, but Kiba caught her.
"My hero," She said sarcastically. Kiba smirked.
"Here I'll carry you to your place, get on my back," Kaoru said, crouching down.
"No thank you. I can walk," Layuki tried taking a couple steps but she kept tripping. After a couple minutes she gave up and clambered onto Kaoru's back."
"Thanks so much for helping her. I'm actually surprised she's not injured worse. Her attitude will probably get her killed someday," Karin said to squad 8. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
After they were out of hearing distance, Layuki said, "Looks like someone has a crush," She said, in that annoying taunting voice that she does so well.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Karin said, but her face was a bright crimson colour.
"Just because your brother is stupid didn't notice it doesn't mean I didn't. When you said good-bye, you said 'I'll see you tomorrow' instead of 'we'll see you tomorrow' when we were standing right next to you. That means that what you were saying was directed to one them. Since doubt, wait, uhm since I hope you're not attracted to Hinata, then it's either Shino or Kiba. So, which one?" Layuki said, grinning mischievously from her position on Kaoru's back.
"You know what? That actually makes sense," Kaoru said. "So Karin, who is it."
Karin's face turned even redder. Layuki took this as a chance to taunt her friend even more. "Come on! You can tell us we won't insult you. So is it Bug Boy or Dog Boy?"
Karin glared at her, "You have the Hirukagan, figure it out for yourself."
"Well, I would, but I'm kind of crippled right now in case you haven't noticed," She sighed, dramatically.
"I'm not telling you."
"Fine, be that way."
"Fine, I will."
Kaoru shook his head. Girls were so confusing.
Another ten minutes and they had reached Layuki's apartment. They had a short argument of whether Layuki could get up the stairs on her own, and when they found out she couldn't, they had an argument on whether or not she needed to go to the hospital.
"I'm perfectly fine! I just need some rest and I'll be as good as new," Layuki argued, "besides, you know I hate the hospital! It's so clean, it's scary."
Karin looked doubtful. Layuki gave a small smile; she knew Karin wanted to be a medical-nin one day and she was just trying to help. "Wait, you know what, I'm hungry, let's go get some grub."
"Actually, I'm kind of hungry too," Kaoru said, giving a pleading look toward his sister. Karin threw her arms in the air exasperatedly, and started walking to the food shops, muttering something about always being hungry. So Layuki got on Kaoru's back once more and they followed their teammate.
"This is insane," Squad 9 stood there gaping at the two people in Ichiraku Ramen. On one side of the booth, Uzumaki Naruto was slurping away at his ramen and on the other side Akimichi Chouji was on the other side doing the same thing. Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino were sitting in the middle, looking utterly disgusted. What was more was that both the boys had bowls stacked extremely high. Sakura and Sasuke seemed to have made a sensible decision and were nowhere in sight.
"Erm, let's go to the barbeque shop, Ino, Shikamaru, do you want to come?" Karin suggested. Shikamaru and Ino were at the door of the shop before Kaoru, or Karin had even turned around. Layuki of course was on Kaoru's back and had no need to turn around.
"What did you do this time?" Ino asked, as the five were waiting for their food, "I mean, you can't even walk!"
"How do you know I can't walk? He could be just carrying me because he wants to, right Kaoru-kun?" Layuki said, tuning to Kaoru and giving Ino a sideways glance at the same time. She saw her stiffen up and look away. Then she saw Kaoru raise an eyebrow; to her behaviour or to Ino's she didn't know.
"Quit being so troublesome," Shikamaru said, not even looking up at her.
Layuki turned forward and shrugged, "Did I ever mention that I hate Neji?" She said, twirling her straw around in her drink.
"You're either really brave or really stupid. Me, I'm going with the really stupid part. Did it even occur to you that Neji's a damn prodigy?" Ino said, sternly, but Layuki could tell she was hiding a smile.
"Well, I could secretly be a prodigy too!"
"Actually, if you went to class once in a while, you probably could be," Karin added, thoughtfully.
"See! There's proof that I could be a prodigy," It looked like the argument would have continued, if their food had not come. So squad 9 bid farewell to Shikamaru and Ino and wished them good luck tomorrow. Then each of them went their separate ways, all excited and somewhat worried about the exams the next day.
So there's chappie 4! Thanks for reading!! Reviews are highly appreciated!!!
fanny-kun