3: Let the Games Begin

The sun was two-thirds of the way through its daily trek in the sky by the time everyone was out of the plane with as much luggage as they could salvage. As they sat on the beach resting their wounded bodies, they watched the plane finish getting dragged out to the depths of the ocean while each of the unconscious survivors woke up starting with the blonde sister of the redhead. She immediately sat up, her eyes searching desperately until they landed on her brother sitting within arm's reach to her left. With a sigh of relief, she turned her attention to what he and everyone else was staring at and saw a half-swallowed plane inching its way under the water. Her aching muscles, various wounds and the disaster in front of her caused the pieces to fall into place and she stayed silent, realizing that if these eight people were the only survivors then quite a few dead were getting a burial at sea right now. The thought set off a dull throbbing in her chest.

Hanabi was the next to wake up, silent tears sliding down her cheeks when she didn't see her sister amongst the survivors. Her head whirled as regrets, pain, and an overwhelming loneliness overtook her. Then a warm hand rested over hers and she ripped her gaze from the sinking wreckage to see kind cerulean gazing back at her.

"Are you Hanabi Hyūga?" The blonde man sitting next to her asked and she nodded slowly, not trusting herself enough to speak. He smiled gently. "Your sister- Hinata, is looking for help. She's just fine." Relief flooded through the twelve-year-old and she couldn't stop herself from wrapping her arms around the odd stranger, burying her face into the side of his chest. The tears didn't stop, on the contrary, they started falling faster, but these new tears were of happiness and she squeezed him tighter. He hesitated for only an instant before curling his right arm around her and leaning slightly back on his left as his eyes returned to the plane. His hand rubbed gentle soothing circles on her back.

Sasuke had been slowly returning to consciousness, his aches and pains gently pulling him from his slumber, when a screech of, "What the hell!?" ripped him to awareness and immediately turned his mood sour. He sat up in irritation, his various injuries making themselves known while his eyes turned crimson with three black tomoes swirling in the scarlet pools. His mind immediately processed the situation and came to terms with his predicament, his eyes making the matter far simpler than it seemed to be for the pink-haired banshee whom he realized was the one who'd woken him. Now aware of the basic situation, his eyes returned to their original onyx and he directed an absolutely livid glare at the girl.

"Shut up." His order was monotone but still came out sounding somehow irritated. The girl whipped around to glare at him, ignoring how everyone else was staring incredulously at her (excluding Hanabi who'd exhausted herself and had tiredly gone back to snuggling into Naruto's side after ascertaining that some girl was just being stupid and there was no danger).

The pinkette's angry gaze landed on the perpetrator, only to discover he was an angel. Perfect pale skin, soft pink lips, slightly shaggy and unkempt damp obsidian hair that framed his face and went a little past the nape of his neck in the back. Was he a god? He looked thin but strong, even if his midnight blue button-up sweater was soaked and his white shorts were, on top of also being wet, stained in various places. This guy just exuded an aura of mystery and beauty. A diamond in the rough if she ever saw one. A moment later she recognized him as Sasuke Uchiha, a man often seen on TV with his older brother... Izumi? Itami? Whatever. The important part of this revelation was that he was not only handsome but also rich and notoriously single.

She immediately turned her expression into that of shy curiosity. "O-Oh, sorry." She threw in a little stutter. "Would you mind telling me what happened? How did we get here?" Her attention turned to the sand surrounding her... Ew. Her light pink sundress was ripped at the hems and covered in sand, which was just a really dry form of dirt, which was just... Ew, times two. There went any good first impressions she might have made with her body. She may have looked like a Neanderthal, but she had to believe her beauty could shine through.

"The plane we were all on crashed." She begrudgingly turned her attention to a blonde guy a few feet to the right and in front of her, with what looked like (but was hard to really know for sure at that angle) a little girl curled up by his side. At his answer, she shifted her focus to the drowning plane. Why were they just sitting there watching the plane sink into the ocean? And where were all the other... Oh god...

Silence prevailed once again, even as Hinata and Kiba made their way back to the survivors. The girl sat on the opposite side of her sleeping sister, and Kiba crouched thuggishly (a bit like a catcher behind home plate) down next to a certain pinkette, who may have taken offense to his assuming he could sit next to her if she wasn't so completely horrified and shocked at the odd "funeral" taking place before her eyes.

When the last of the plane had been taken out to sea, the silence lasted for another few seconds before Kiba spoke up.

"In case anyone's interested, we're fucked." He half-sighed and rolled his eyes at the shocked look on the pink-haired chicks face in response to his language.

"Why do you say that? I mean, the situation is... bad... but-" Ino spoke up while Chōji wrapped an arm around her waist, wondering how truly terrible what the man said meant it really was.

"Akamaru's sayin' he can't pick out any human scents besides ours. This islands probably uninhaberated." The pinkette raised a half-amused, half-questioning-his-sanity eyebrow.

"Do you mean, uninhabited?"

"Whatever." He shrugged it off and turned his attention to Naruto. The blonde seemed to be the one people were turning to earlier and he wanted to see what the want-to-be leader would have to say about this. "So-"

"Who the hell is Akamaru?" He rolled his eyes and glanced back at little miss hot shit, pink-haired banshee.

"My dog. Hinata here," he gestured blandly to the pale girl, "found us a place to squat for the night, and Akamaru's back there waiting for us now." Hinata blushed and looked away.

"I-I-I only t-tr-tripped a-a-and-"

"She fell into a nice little hidden cave network we can use for now. It'll be better than sleeping out on the sand and there's a hot spring so-"

"Well, what are we still doing here?" Little miss loud and obnoxious interrupted. "Let's go. Lead the way." Damn, it was like the girl didn't know how to keep her trap shut.

"We need to take the luggage with us." The redheads' sister spoke up. "If it rains or the tide comes in too far or-"

"That's going to be a lot to carry." The pinkette interrupted with a sigh, watching in stunned silence a moment later as the redhead began picking up as many suitcases and sopping wet travel bags as he could before she even finished speaking. Naruto gently moved Hanabi off of himself and slowly moved her onto his back without waking her. When she was secure he grabbed a couple bags himself before following suit, Kiba already standing and leading the way.

A few minutes later had everyone carrying something, even the banshee had a couple suitcases.

"You look kind of familiar, what's your name?" Naruto spoke up, his attention focused on the redhead's sister who was walking next to him.

"Temari." She gave a slight grin when he smiled.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Naruto." His smile grew wider. "So what do you do? I mean, job wise. Er- Or are you still in school- I mean-" She turned her attention back to the sandy ground, focusing on not tripping over tufts of grass or tree roots.

"I'm the Kazekage's top advisor." His eyes widened fractionally at the revelation.

"Wow, and I'm just on a school field trip."

"Didn't school let out for summer a while ago?" Her gaze returned to him in confusion.

"Yeah, it was a summer thing. I'm graduating next year so this was actually my last chance to join in on the fun." He chuckled to himself but explained when the girl gave him an odd look. "My first ever school trip and I end up in a plane crash in the middle of nowhere, I must have the shittiest luck." He chuckled again and she joined in with a slight giggle of her own.

"Who's this then, your sister?" She asked, gesturing to Hanabi (who was still sound asleep on his back) after another moment of silence and almost tripping over a tree root.

"Nah. This is Hanabi Hyūga, Hinata Hyūga's little sister." He nodded toward the midnight-blue-haired girl trailing behind everyone else. She glanced up at him when he introduced her before returning her gaze to the ground, hefting the strap of a bag into a better position on her shoulder. This, of course, brought to his attention that everyone was listening to their conversation. "Right," He spoke a little louder, now aware of the attention on him. "we should probably all introduce ourse-" His gaze was brought to the pinkette, who interrupted, jumping on the chance to get a certain Uchiha's attention.

"I'm Sakura Haruno." She smiled. "I'm in training to become a healer so-"

"Chōji!" Naruto interrupted, returning the favor. "Chōji's leg is hurt. D'ya think you can help him?" She raised an eyebrow and gave him an annoyed look. Like asking her to actually use her skills to help people was a massive imposition. Then she glanced at Sasuke standing a few feet behind her and realized this would be a great time to show off.

"Of course." She smiled and walked over to the man. Dropping the two light bags of luggage she carried, she inspected the wound through the tear in his pants and quickly coated her hands in green chakra before easily healing the gash on his thigh into little more than a pink scar. Chōji sighed in relief as the pain vanished. You see that Sasuke, Sakura internally bragged. Aren't I the best?! Sasuke shuttered minutely with the feeling that someone had just walked over his grave. The tingling in his spine just felt creepy.

"Thank you." Chōji smiled and Sakura grinned back before picking up her bags again. The group kept moving and the introductions continued.

"I'm Naruto. As far as I can tell I was the first one to get out of there, so if you've got any questions..." He shrugged. "I doubt I can answer them, but I can at least fill you in on what I do know, ya' know." There was a moment of silence before the next person got her courage up enough to speak.

"I-I'm Hinata H-Hyūga, and th-th-this is my l-little sister H-Hanabi." She gestured to her sister before lowering her gaze to try and hide her blush. Everyone already knew her name now that she thought about it, as well as Hanabi's, due to Kiba calling her by her name earlier and everyone overhearing both their names from Naruto just now. This realization caused her blush to worsen as she fretted over it.

"Temari." The dirty-blonde-haired girl spoke while tying her frizzy hair up into four spiky buns with the two hair ties she kept on each wrist. The heavy luggage she carried on each shoulder weighed her down, the straps creating an X on her chest and making her large breasts that much more prominent.

"Gaara." Her red-haired brother spoke next.

"Shikamaru Nara." He yawned, not at all interesting in actually learning everyone's names. Not that he had much of a choice, his intelligence level meant he rarely forgot names.

"I'm Chōji Akimichi and this is my girlfriend Ino Yamanaka." The chubby brunette pointed his chin to the long-haired platinum blonde and she smiled kindly at everyone.

"I'm Kiba Inuzuka." He half-turned back to them with a cheeky grin before continuing to lead them all.

"Sasuke Uchiha." Everyone paused and stared at the teen at the sound of his last name (except Sakura, who smiled kindly, trying to seem ignorant of what his family name meant... and Naruto, but he was actually ignorant about stuff like that). The Uchiha family owned private police forces all over the world and trained them rigorously. They were the reason peace somewhat existed within the nations. He was like a celebrity...

"...Well then, nice to meet you all." Naruto sighed as he looked at all the luggage the group carried that he'd have to sort through, and the people he had to find a way to help. Everyone was littered with bruises and scrapes here and there, Sakura would have her work cut out for her when they got to the caves. Chōji's injury had looked the worst, so at least that was taken care of. Well, everyone except Gaara was hurt, which was unsettling, to say the least.

.x.X.x.

The caves were perfect. They were only about a ten-minute walk from the beach and were surrounded by lush greenery that hid them from predators. The large entrance was tall enough that no one had to bend down to get through it and it was covered by green, leafy vines that hung to the dark dirt of the ground in front of it. If Hinata hadn't accidentally tripped into it, they would never have discovered it in the first place. A fact that made the girl blush madly whenever it was brought up and that no one would ever let her forget.

Inside the massive, tree-covered hill that would house them, the somewhat rounded cave grew to be at least twelve feet tall at its center and about thirty feet around, with a few natural stone and tree root columns spaced out to help support its structure. Sixteen small alcoves surrounded the big center area, all about a third of its size. Their entrances went from about five feet tall at the smallest to seven feet tall at the largest. The large opening across from the main entrance was actually a tunnel that exited to a fairly large hot spring. The hill that contained the caves sloped down into a valley at the back that looked something like a bowl with water at its center and huge, grassy natural walls that were high enough to block the view of the surrounding area and curled slightly back over themselves at the top.

All of the luggage was set out in the middle of the main cave and Naruto immediately got to work on sorting them. This, of course, caused everyone else to join in as well. Whether this was because they honestly wanted to help or because they were desperate to find their own bags, was anyone's guess. Naruto etched out everyone's names in the thin layer of dirt covering the rock floor and if a bag had the name of anyone on the list on it, the person who found it either handed it to them or called out to them so they could come collect it. The tired bedraggled survivors work in exhausted silence, with each at one point or another finding their way to Sakura so she could heal them. A few of the more perceptive people had a suspicion that she was only helping them because it meant she got out of doing any real manual labor. Then again, she was helping either way, so they couldn't complain.

Naruto was as respectful as possible, trying only to find anything that might be vitally necessary for their survival over the next few days and leaving everything else alone. Going through the property of the dead made his stomach turn, but he'd feel worse if Sasuke got a sunburn or Chōji got an infection and there had been something here that could've prevented the possible problems. Of course, sunscreen wasn't hard to find, and he also found some bathing supplies like soap and shampoo and whatnot, as well as a few prescriptions he couldn't pronounce let alone read the names of, but for every good thing he found, there was a morbidly sad thing. A family photo, a baby shower gift, a get well card. It was as if the luggage turned into people, families, right before his eyes. Families that were now broken and probably had no idea. No clue that their granddad or daughter or brother or mother was never coming home.

He let out a sigh as the pile slowly got smaller and smaller. At some point, Hinata had taken to putting the luggage they'd already gone through into the smallest cavern of them all located next to the hot spring tunnel. He gave her a small thankful smile, which she returned with an odd sort of concerned yet still perpetually embarrassed look.

She'd seen him smile in thanks, but his eyes seemed to almost gloss over her, like he wasn't really looking at her. Actually, now that she was paying attention, he didn't seem to really be looking at what he was doing either. She felt her own muscles aching and it felt like each individual muscle had its very own weight tied to it. If she felt like this, when she hadn't done much but walk around since the crash and had only now really begun moving things, Naruto must have been dead on his feet. In fact, now that she thought about it, he hadn't taken a break to see Sakura like everyone else. She glanced around, finally taking in everyone there as a whole. They all looked exhausted, but none of them seemed to be as weighed down as Naruto was. What was he thinking about? What was he feeling? She caught the redhead, Gaara, glancing at Naruto, and she could've sworn she saw a hint of concern in his eyes. Now that she was looking for it, Shikamaru's eyes also kept flickering to the blonde periodically. She didn't understand, but she knew they must have noticed and probably understood whatever was really wrong with him.

That's when Shikamaru lazily walked over and squatted next to Naruto. The blonde barely even seemed to notice him, his cloudy focus staying squarely on the task at hand. "They're dead, and it sucks, but we can't get caught up in that right now." As Hinata felt her blood run cold at realizing simultaneously what was wrong with Naruto and what a completely morbid and cruel thing none of the others seemed to get that they were doing, Naruto simply nodded with a sigh. "Troublesome," Shikamaru all but groaned before continuing after a short pause while eyeing a specific and rare commodity tucked amongst the rest of the stuff. "I'm going to grab one of those sleeping bags and head out to the beach after a quick dip in the hot spring. Someone needs to stay out there and keep a lookout, and it might as well be me." He didn't wait for a response before standing, but both Shikamaru and the eavesdropping Hinata heard the quiet thank you leave the blonde's lips as the Nara walked away.

.x.X.x.

Once Sasuke had found his luggage and halfheartedly helped sort some bags until they'd completed the task, he started checking out each individual cavern in the large cave network until he realized that they were pretty much all the same. The only real differences were the sizes and proximities to the caves around them. He glanced around and spotted a couple that were a little further away from the others, then checked inside one to see there was a nice amount of space there. Not as big as his room back home, but he'd only be here for a night or two at most so it'd be fine. Throwing his stuff in, he turned and noticed everyone had seemed to take his action as permission to do the same. That's when he spotted Sakura heading straight for him. He remembered there was one cave that was fairly close to his and instinctively looked around for an excuse- for help- for anything that would keep her from trying to move in next to him. He had enough calculating gold diggers to deal with back home, he didn't need one here, no matter how short the time he'd have to deal with her was. That's when his eyes locked on to golden wisps of what would be his salvation.

Naruto looked dead tired as he slowly made his way to the same cave Sakura was after. Why he chose that cave or how the timing could've been so perfect was what Sasuke assumed to be an act of God. Seems the big man upstairs didn't like Sakura either. The only problem was, while Sakura was happily strolling towards him, an almost skip in her step, Naruto was dragging his feet, unaware that his actions caused poor Sasuke's inner three-year-old to start screaming and pounding his wee little fists on the floor.

"Hello, Sakura." It took a monumental amount of effort not to clench his teeth while speaking to the girl. She seemed surprised at his calling her out, but shrugged it off with a smile.

"Oh, hi Sasuke. Have you chosen your area for the night yet?" Just a few more seconds of this little distraction and Naruto would reach his goal.

"Hn." He nodded slightly, trying the avoid having to speak with her more than was absolutely necessary. He glanced slightly over his shoulder to see Shikamaru (who was now bathed and ready to head out with a little red backpack full of supplies in case something happened and a sleeping bag slung over his shoulder) stop and start talking to Naruto. Damn it!

"Well, I was just looking for a spot myself. I thought maybe the one by the entrance might be nice..." Sasuke took a few steps past her and then looked back, as if asking her to join him. His chosen cave was next to the one by the entrance and he needed to get her attention away from it. She turned gullibly and followed without question.

"Should the girls or the boys bathe first?" It wasn't something he gave a damn about, but it was the only question to pop into his mind. Sakura, on the other hand, was delighted that he wanted to talk out a possible issue with her. If he took charge of the situation he'd be like the temporary leader, and if he talked through problems with her that would make her like his queen, right?

"I think the girls should go first, but it might be best to put it up to a vote." If the Haruno were being honest, she just didn't want to be covered in filth for even a second longer. Especially when Sasuke was around and talking to her.

Unbeknownst to her though, the Uchiha had glanced over his shoulder and seen Shikamaru leaving and Naruto entering the cave next to his with a beat up old orange duffle bag slung over his shoulder.

"Hn." Sasuke nodded at whatever she said and started heading back. The pink-haired medic followed and continued to pester the man for his opinion until he entered his cave. With a huff of annoyance mixed with determination, Sakura turned to enter the cave next to his, only to find a certain blonde there.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her voice tinged with aggravation. It was obvious what he was doing, something she thought he shouldn't be.

"Oh, I was just-"

"This is my... room," the slight pause before she called the small, decrepit cave her room didn't go unnoticed.

"Your stuff isn't here." Naruto had lost much of that special something that he had when he was a kid, but every now and then he would forget himself and the words he would've openly spoken as a child came out. He thought about apologizing but couldn't bring himself to when she had such a snobbishly offended look on her face. She reminded him of the villagers back home. All stuck up and looking down on him. So he shrugged unrepentantly when she paused, waiting for an apology that would never come.

"That-"

"What are you, a stalker?" The girl whipped around at the sound of that mellow voice she knew to be Sasuke's and immediately denied the claim, words falling out of her mouth until she talked herself into a corner, stumbling into the self-imposed promise to choose the dwelling furthest from her crush in order to prove her sanity.

Her actions, though highly regretted by the girl herself, caused a bit of a trend. The girls of the group chose caves on one side of their temporary home, and the boys went for caves on the other. With Naruto on the right-hand side of their shelters entrance and Sasuke next to him, it was decided that Shikamaru would get the next cave over.

After that came Gaara, Chōji, and Kiba in that order in the three caves following the Nara's. The next cave was left empty and the one next to that was the smallest and held all the luggage, which had been separated between what they could use and what they were simply saving for the families of the deceased. Beyond that was the tunnel leading to the hot spring.

Ino and Temari were in the two caves that followed, and Hinata and Hanabi shared the next cave. Which left Sakura, who'd skipped a couple caves beyond theirs and settled for the one on the opposite side of the entrance from Naruto's.

After that was decided and everyone had settled in, they all came out to see that someone had started a fire in the center of their new home. The smoke filtered out of a hole in the roof that they heard odd ruffling noises coming from.

"Gaara's setting up a little awning and tiny wall around that so if it rains the water won't get in." Temari, who'd been working on the fire, explained before anyone got nervous.

"It's not going to rain with how hot it is out there." Sakura furrowed her eyebrows at what she saw as a stupid waste of time.

"It gets colder underground, and the daylight won't last forever." Temari shrugged, trying her best not to get annoyed. She just had to treat the poor idiot girl like one of those snobbish dignitaries who knew nothing about surviving in hot climates. She'd only lost her temper once and punched that one moron, but he was a handsy idiot so that didn't count. She could withstand Sakura's stupidity... Probably.

"We're not gonna be here that long. We'll probably be found pretty quickly considering we've got the Kazekage, his top advisor and an Uchiha with-" Crap, the girl had forgotten she'd been feigning ignorance on the whole Uchiha fame thing. "Er, I mean-" She glanced over at Sasuke to see he'd raised an annoyed eyebrow at her. Well shit.

"Just because there are famous people around doesn't mean we'll be found faster, and the sun's already going down. We'll probably be found tomorrow at best." Temari shrugged, unaware of the pinkette's mistake. Sakura was blushing and Naruto quickly moved the conversation to something else, trying his best to push down his curiosities about how the Uchiha was famous.

"We found a bunch of bath products, so the girls should probably go ahead and bathe." He sighed, scratching the back of his head and feeling his fingers catch on little clumps of dried blood. "We'll all feel better after getting out of these dirty clothes." Thankfully, none of the boys were overly concerned about bathing order, and the girls were happy enough to take first place.

Naruto sighed, God he was tired.