A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews as always! As for the reviews, I wasn't sure before and I'm still not sure about using the reply button. But I figure I should start (even though, like, only four people have ever replied to my reviews) unless you'd rather me not? Anyway, yeah, I'm not French and, although, I like French toast best of the three, I'm going to try my best not to show any bias because, you know, this topic is so important and all, I must be impartial.
"Naruto," Sakura finally managed to free herself from the blonde boy's death grip on her wrist. Standing still, she folded her arms and glared at him. Sensing Sakura's intense gaze, Naruto halted, turned towards her and offered her a sheepish grin.
"I know what you're thinking, Sakura-chan, but I swear we're not lost. I know exactly where we are."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you don't hear that often. We're lost, Naruto-kun! How did you manage to get us lost?"
"Well, it's not just my fault!" Naruto exclaimed defensively, before clamping his hand over his mouth. "Oops," his sheepish grin from before reappeared, only more even more sheepish.
Sakura threw her arms up in the air, frustrated. "I knew it! I knew it! We're lost." She found the nearest tree, which wasn't hard as trees were everywhere, and slumped against it. "We got lost….trying to find a grove of sap trees of all things."
"Well, not just any sap trees," Naruto started to point out, before Sakura's glare shut him up.
"I really don't want to hear it," she told him. "I was so looking forward to being able to finally try and find Sasuke-kun." Suddenly, Sakura's face changed from one of despair to determination; Naruto marveled at how her just bringing up Sasuke's name changed her whole demeanor. It was pretty cute, he thought. A bit annoying it was Sasuke and not him, but he could overlook that detail for the time being. He doubted Sasuke had changed too much in the time they'd been apart; well, at least with his attitude towards fangirlish crushes. At least, Naruto hoped he hadn't. Dropping her sweet ninja backpack with sweet ninja tools on the ground,Sakura began to rummage frantically through it.
"What are you looking for?" Naruto asked, curiously, dropping his own ninja backpack on the ground and pulling stuff out of it. After a few moments, Sakura stopped her rummaging and stared at Naruto incredulously.
"You had a mini ramen bar in your backpack!" She exclaimed. Naruto was sitting at a miniature table that was very reminiscent of a bar with four bowls built into it and he had different flavored ramen in each one. Slurping his ramen, he looked at her surprised by her stupor at his little bar.
"Uhm, yeah," he nodded, trying not to make the situation even more awkward.
"What the? How on!" Sakura was rendered speechless as she continued staring at him. Normally, Naruto might enjoy this type of attention, but being stared at like he was an exhibit at a museum wasn't something he was entirely comfortable with. He wondered if this was akin to what Sasuke felt when the girls openly drooled over him. Maybe that's why he never responded. Glancing around, hoping Sakura would go back to rummaging in her sack, Naruto said nothing. When she didn't, Naruto burst into laughter that was somewhere between amused and awkward.
"I ordered it online," he explained. "The internet."
"The internet gave you a mini ramen bar?" Sakura was beyond confused now.
"No, no, I had to pay for it. It folds up so it fits in backpacks like ours, see?" Naruto began folding his ramen bar up. Sakura's jaw dropped even more, before she finally collected her senses and shook her head.
"Okay, anyway," she dug through her sack a little more before pulling out something. "This," she proudly showed Naruto, "will help us out a little."
Naruto stared at her dubiously. "It's a twig...that's silver," He commented, obviously not convinced it would help them.
Sakura looked at the silver twig-like thing in her hands, "Well, yes. Sorta. But when you lift it up, it blinks rapidly and silver light shoots high up into the air. It can only be seen by the person with the other silver twig!" She whipped out the one and presented it to Naruto as a game show host would present a prize to the winning contestant. Naruto stared at it incomprehensively.
"I don't get it," he said flat-out.
Sighing, Sakura grabbed Naruto's hand, which he didn't protest to, and planted the silver thing in his hand firmly. "Hold on to that," she instructed. "This way, we can cover more ground. There are so many trees everywhere; one of them is bound to be the grove we're looking for."
Naruto stared at her in disbelief for a full two minutes before finding his voice, "You want to split up?"
"Sort of!" Sakura looked somewhat offended that Naruto looked so horrified at her idea. "We won't go far and we'll have these," she waved her silver twig thing in the air.
"You want to split up?"
Frowning slightly, Sakura nodded. "Well, yeah! It's going to take us forever to find that grove and maybe you haven't noticed, but the sun's not out anymore!"
"You want to split up?"
Sakura looked incensed now and was on the verge of hefting up her ninja sack and throwing it hard at Naruto. "We have these and we won't be far from each other at all," Sakura pointed out again.
"They're twigs!" Naruto exclaimed staring at his doubtfully.
"Look, I'm just going to run over there," she pointed towards a certain direction. The trees around them were dense, so if they weren't right by each other, they could easily lose each other in the trees. Of course, they could sense each other with their awesome ninja skills, but neither Sakura nor Naruto were so great at that to the point where they could pinpoint the other person exactly, which was why Sakura was anxious to use her neat tools that she had never used before. "Now, I'm going to test this out," she explained waving her silver twig thing at Naruto, "so let me know if its working, okay?"
Nodding numbly, still not too thrilled at the idea of splitting up; after all, safety in numbers and he didn't want to be apart from Sakura-chan for no longer than one nano-second. Sakura ran off into the trees. Moments later, a silver beam of light appeared before Naruto.
"Okay!" He shouted as loudly as he could. "It's working!" The silver beam disappeared and he frowned. "Wait! No, it's not!" The light appeared again. "It's working again!" It vanished and, confusedly, he exclaimed, "It stopped again!" Sakura walked back over to him, an odd mix of amusement, frustration, and anger on her face.
"Well," she paused. "I'm not going to say it." She shook her head in bemusement. "But," she frowned at him. "Any reason you felt possessed to SCREAM TO THE WHOLE WORLD?" She yelled even more loudly than he had been. Naruto jumped at her sudden rise in tone and stared at her bewildered, eyes wider than she had ever seen them.
"Whoa, Sakura-chan! That's some voice!" He gasped. "You could wake the dead with that thing." Sakura looked insulted was about to respond before something caught them both completely off guard.
Sudden laughter echoed around them, before stopping abruptly after a moment. Sakura and Naruto both stared at each other.
"What was that?" Sakura demanded. Naruto stared at her, mouth agape.
"You really did wake the dead!" He accused her.
"What? That's impossible!" Sakura insisted, trying to sound more confident than she felt. That really wasn't possible….was it? She worried, glancing around frantically. Naruto sent furtive glances in every direction, half expecting zombies to jump out of nowhere and feast on his brain.
-
Neji stared at Sakura and Naruto, trying not to look too amused, but, really, it couldn't get any better than this, he thought. They thought he was some kind of ghost! It helped that he was so awesome he could completely mask his presence from anyone. He laughed again and the two looked even more tense. He wondered if it was really so hard for them to figure out that it was he who was laughing, then realized that he had never really genuinely laughed around them, let alone anyone else. His laugh sounding somewhat sinister in nature probably did not help matters, either, he figured. Well, it amused him to no end, so who cared, really?
-
More eerie laughter filled Sakura and Naruto's ears. Sakura flung her twig thing on the ground and clutched Naruto's hand. "L-let's forget about splitting up," she whispered, glancing around the trees, wondering what was hiding behind them. She couldn't sense anything which only made Naruto's theory of the dead make more sense. At least in her panicked mind it seemed to make sense. If she had really stopped to rationalize it, she would've found the whole thing completely ridiculous, but fear and panic tend to render most normalpeople of most or all their logic and Sakura was no exception.
Under normal circumstances, Naruto would have enjoyed having Sakura clutch desperately at his hand, but, right now, he wasn't so sure he wanted a girl attached to him that was capable of waking the dead with just her voice. If Naruto had stopped to rationalize the situation, he would've come to the same conclusion; Sakura's loud voice could wake the dead and zombies were hiding behind every tree that he could see.
"Okay," Naruto whispered uncertainly. "I read on the internet somewhere that if you stick a stake through a zombie's heart, they'll drop dead."
"They have hearts?" Sakura whispered back, confused. "They're dead. Or were. Or are. Undead."
"Oh, yeah," Naruto sounded disappointed. "Maybe that was something else. Maybe it was….throwing salt over your shoulder?"
"What?" Sakura demanded, before shrugging. "Worth a try, I guess. You have salt in that backpack of yours?"
"No, I was hoping you do."
"No," Sakura shook her head. "What should we do?"
Naruto was about to respond with another stupidly incredibly useless idea that would not help them in the least when a whirlwind of motion blasted onto the scene causing Sakura and Naruto to both shriek like little girls. Without thinking they both flung their arms around each other and clung to the other for dear life completely oblivious to the physical contact.
"What are you doing with MY Sakura-chan?" a voice shrieked at them, more specifically, at Naruto. Naruto's head shot up at Lee's voice. Lee looked appalled and told them as much, too. "I am appalled," he told them, giving them a look of complete and utter disapproval.
She was so much in shock that Lee's words didn't quite register in Sakura's mind and it took her more than a couple minutes to realize she was entangled with Naruto. Making an unpleasant face she pulled away. "I'm so relieved," she started to tell Lee just how relieved she was he wasn't a ghost or some other undead creature when he cut in.
"Yes, I've come to save you from Naruto's advances. I know it must be irritating you so, my love!" Lee made a loving face towards Sakura, hearts in his eyes to complete it. Turning towards Naruto, he gave his friend a sort of apologetic yet determined look. Naruto stared at him in disbelief and Sakura shared a similar expression on her face.
"Your advances are more irritating, Lee-kun!" She told him, then softened up, continuing, "But I am glad it was you and not some ghost."
"Ghost?" Lee looked confused. Naruto and Sakura both opened their mouths to explain but Lee shook his head and put his hands out in order to stop them from speaking. He put his hand to his forehead and hopped around as if searching for anyone that might be spying on them. Satisfied that they were okay, he squatted down in front of them, his face a look of total seriousness. Sakura and Naruto exchanged a confused glance. Lee cleared his throat, "My sources tell me that you're part of the special breakfast team. Is this true?" He gave them an intense penetrating stare.
Naruto and Sakura now exchanged nervous glances. Sakura cleared her throat uncertainly. "Uh, I don't know—I don't know what you're talking about," she tried realizing how pathetic it sounded as each word left her mouth.
"So, they are," Lee said. Naruto and Sakura looked at each other before looking at Lee confused. Lee was obviously talking to someone else. A hooded ominous figure stepped out from the shadows. Naruto, Sakura, and even the still hidden Neji were all shocked.
"Where did he come from?" Naruto demanded, pointing.
"Shino?" Sakura was speechless as well.
"…" Shino simply stared at them. Lee turned towards Shino.
"They are on the special breakfast team Tsuande commissioned." Lee shook his head and looked at Sakura sadly. "Sorry, Sakura-chan, but we cannot allow you to succeed in your mission."
Naruto gasped. "You're part of PHA, too?"
Lee and Shino both shook their heads. "No," Lee explained as gently as he could manage, which might have been easier to do if he hadn't been so impassioned. "We take no part of that. None of those others know what we know. They haven't experienced the wonders of French toast," he declared, his eyes shiny at just the thought of his beloved breakfast. Shino nodded his agreement. Looking at Sakura, he sighed sadly. "Sorry, my love, but even you are second to French toast."
"What?" Sakura bellowed, veins popping up all over the place because she was so beyond insulted. Even Naruto looked insulted.
"You'd put French toast before Sakura-chan? I consider her slightly more important then ramen!"
"Not helping," Sakura muttered, trying to quell her anger. Collecting herself, she forced a fake smile at Lee and Shino. "So, Lee-kun, what is French toast exactly?"
Lee's eyes became sparkly, "It's the best thing ever," he proclaimed.
"I think Shikamaru and Ino would disagree," Naruto muttered.
"Who cares about those waffle people?" Lee practically screamed close to hysterics. Naruto and Sakura both jumped shocked. "It's all about the French toast," he shouted, then clenching his fist with stars in his eyes, announced, "I'm going to go get some right now!" And with that, he was off in a whirlwind of frenetic energy.
Sakura, Naruto, and Shino all stared after him shocked. The still hidden Neji wasn't shocked at all; it had always been of his opinion that Lee obviously had a few screws loose in his brain. He was passionate about French toast—what did that say? Although, in Neji's opinion the whole village had pretty much been shot since Tsunade's little breakfast obsession thing. Everyone was fighting over which syrupy breakfast was best; a few people were even in a sausage biscuit club. Personally, Neji hated all breakfast foods. He liked to eat cold pizza, cheeseburgers, veal, and prime rib for breakfast because he was a freak like that and the Main House members ate things like pancakes, waffles, and French toast for breakfast and he would be cold and dead before he ever at the same meal they were eating.
"So, what's up, Shino?" Naruto smiled, trying to act like everything was normal.
"…"
"So, ah, uhm," Naruto put his hand behind his head, nervously. "You like French toast?"
"Yes."
"What is it?" Sakura asked again.
"…" Shino seemed to consider her question, before answering. "It's from the Hidden French Village."
"What?" Naruto and Sakura both asked simultaneously.
"It's a new community that just sprang up," Shino went on to explain. "French ninja people hang out there and eat French toast. I stole some and it was the best thing I've ever stolen." Shino decided not to mention it was the only thing he'd ever stolen, viewing this pieces of information was useless to his cause.
"Uh, yeah, okay," Sakura tried not rolling her eyes. "We'll have to check it out sometime."
"Village isn't hard to miss, there's a huge tower jutting out from it," Shino told them.
Naruto and Sakura nodded their heads, smiling. "Oh, okay, great, thanks, Shino!" Naruto thanked him and he and Sakura both started to leave.
"You do realize I can't let you finish this, right?" Shino asked them, sounding so serious that Naruto and Sakura thought the might just send his bugs out at that very moment to kill them in the name of French toast.
"Uh, how'd you know we be here?" Sakura asked, latching onto the first thought that came to her mind.
"Internet," Shino said in an "isn't-it-obvious" voice. Sakura stared at him before screaming in frustration. No matter what happened, she was constantly reminded of her lack of knowledge on the internet matter.
A/N: Will Sakura ever find the internet? Will Naruto and Sakura find their sap grove or will Shino kill them in the name of French toast? And before I go on with questions, I can promise that Kiba and Kakashi will reappear next chapter. Sasuke and Orochimaru might even join in the breakfast debate fun. Anyway, please leave a review and thank you!