Chapter 4

I felt so bad for my father's team as we walked over to the meeting place. He told them to meet us at the bridge super early in the morning, just to have us show up at noon. They looked exhausted. "Kakashi sensei, soon we're not going to take any of your meeting times seriously," an even tired and emotionless Sasuke said. My father just rolled his eyes at Sasuke, and we headed out. They had already picked up the scroll we were delivering and everything.

We walked silently, since everyone was either tired or content with it being quiet. After a bit, Naruto finally woke up and his ever constant chatter began. Sakura woke up a little bit later and started her flirting with Sasuke, who was completely uninterested, and I just talked to Naruto somewhat. Sometimes he would be so caught up in what he was saying, he would accidently talk over me, and then feel bad about it after. "Are you going to be taking the chunin exams with us?" he asked as he bounced along

"I don't know. I have to take some sort of exam soon, to see what rank I am. If they consider me a genin, then probably," I said, trying to not look at my father, who was reading his trashy book while walking.

"Oh, well then you probably won't be. You're such a good ninja, you're probably like a jounin or something," he said with his ever constant grin.

"Thanks Naruto," I mumbled, unsure if he heard me since he started talking about something completely different.

"So what do you do for fun? Do you have anything you like to do?" he said, as if he were going through a 'get to know you' chart in his head.

"I like to read, and use to like to sing," I said back. His face lit up even more, if that were even possible.

"Sing something for us!" he cheered. I could feel myself turn extremely red.

"I don't think that's a very good idea," I whispered. Instantly his smile went away. He could see that was touchy.

"Oh, sorry. Well I like eating ramen for fun, and practicing. I'm going to be hokage one day, you know!" he said, bouncing back quickly from that awkward moment. "I'm going to prove to everyone that I'm not useless!"

I could understand the feeling of wanting to prove yourself. I wanted to prove myself to my father, who constantly turned a blind eye to me. "I'm sure you'll show everyone Naruto."

"Not if he keeps on the trail he's paving. For now he's just an annoying loser," Sasuke said.

"Yea Ayame. Naruto is just a slacker. He can't do anything right," Sakura added. Naruto just tried hard to ignore them, but I could tell it was getting to him.

"I don't think he's a slacker, or a loser. If you want to be a good team, you shouldn't be saying that about your teammates," I said flatly. I could feel Sakura's awkwardness, having to decide whether to side with me or her crush. Naruto's grin bounced back fully.

"See! I'm not a loser! If Sensei's daughter says that I'm not then it must be true!" He cheered. I was just glad he was happy, whether his reasoning made sense or not didn't matter.

We walked all through the day, and didn't stop until it was starting to get dark. "We'll set up camp here I guess," Father said, putting his pack down. Sakura and I started setting up our tent while Naruto and Sasuke fought over who would set up their tent and who'd make the fire. My father was still just sitting there, reading his book, not really concerned at all. By the time our tent was set up, Naruto got stuck rubbing sticks together and Sasuke was trying to not look like an idiot as he wrestled the boys' tent. I sat down next to Naruto and watched his fruitless attempts.

"Do you need some help?" I asked, watching his face becoming red with anger at the sticks. He shook his head though and continued rubbing them together in the stack of wood. I quietly did a fire jutsu that made them catch fire.

"YEAAAAAAAAAAA! LOOK AT THAT SASUKE! I GOT IT BEFORE YOU FINISHED THE TENT!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Everyone but I shot him a glare.

"Naruto, you're awfully loud for a ninja. Be quiet unless you want to draw attention to yourself," Sakura mumbled as she sat next to me. I was just thankful we had a fire. Even though it was only mid October, it was cold at night. I didn't really think of packing warm clothes, which I'm starting to regret. Naruto let out a giant yawn.

"I'm going to hit the sack…. Oh wait, the heir to the Uchiha clan is still not able to defeat our tent!" He called over in Sasuke's direction. Father sighed, and got up to help the kid with the tent. I tucked my knees under my extremely loose shirt, trying to keep my legs warm. Why did I wear shorts today? Sakura must've been cold too, because she headed off to the tent. I just stayed near the fire, as if thinking about being warm would make me warmer. Suddenly I felt something around my shoulders. I turned around to see Naruto with the jacket of his jumpsuit off, now wrapped around me. I was sooooo warm and cozy. "You can hang onto that tonight Ayame. You look a lot colder than I am." It's a good thing we were just by firelight, so he couldn't see how badly I was blushing.