I just want to say to everyone that I am really and truly sorry. It's been 10 months since I've last updated and I am the biggest piece of poop in the entire universe, bigger than an elephant dung! Anyone who is still with me, who has read this story in the past and is still reading it, I just want to say that you are the most wonderful forgiving people on this planet, and thank you so much. For any new readers, I want to welcome you (though you've read the rest of my chapters so this is a little belated) and promise that the quality of my chapters will improve. I am ashamed of the countless errors in my past chapters. This one I edited again and again. So it better be halfway decent! It's a bit longer than usual, so I hope you enjoy it. I have been trying to update; I just couldn't seem to get into the flow. I finally figured out what I wanted to do last week and I REALLY got into this chapter. I had a blast writing it, so I hope it shows. I want to make a new start with this story (how fitting, since I'm posting it on New Year's Day!) I am hoping to update at least every other week from now on, I'm getting into the fun part! Please Read it, it would mean a lot to me.
For those of you who have decided to read it: I hope that you enjoy the bit of humor in this chapter, a bit of fun while we are progressing into this year. I've sort of got how I want Sakura to act, and I'm changing the plot a bit from what I originally decided. This chapter may be a little disjointed from the rest...but when it's been almost a year, there really isn't any other way I could do it. Enough of me delaying you with mindless babble: READ ON:D
The sun was peeking through the trees as it made it's way slowly into the sky. I could hear the birds chirping softly, and the crisp morning air wash over me, as comforting as a bathe of sunshine. Miles of forest lay before us, and days were ahead of us, each one would start out like this: with peace and tranquility, only to be interrupted by the loud ear piercing screams of our little avian friends…
"Sakura…SAKURA!!!!" I felt a hard hit on my side, and quickly came back to reality. Disgruntled, I turned to see a very annoyed Sasuke glaring at me.
"Jeez, Sasuke," I said while I rubbed my torso, "Can't you cut me a little slack? It's six o'clock in the morning! And I spent all night packing for this little trip!"
"Maybe you should have packed earlier." Sasuke snapped back. I laughed at his extremely short temper. It's funny, when I'm exhausted; I get really hyper and silly. All of a sudden Sasuke looked like a nice angry vessel that would be wonderful to mess with.
"It's not like you got much more sleep than me, grumpy pants." I laughed, grabbed my teammate firmly and tickled him on his belly like a cute little kitty. "You had to pack tooo!" I cooed in a baby voice as he helplessly giggled in my death grip.
"SHOVE OFF!" His eyes flashed red. Uh oh, someone definitely wasn't a morning person.
With that he catapulted himself into a tree. He started up his fireball jutsu, and before I knew it a huge flaming ball was hurtling at my face. Oh joy, what a wonderful way to start my day. I nimbly dodged it, and jumped up into the tree.
"Sasuke." I put an arm around his shoulder and said in an overly serious tone, "lets not waste chakra pointlessly. I'm sorry I tickled you and called you a grumpy pants."
"No you aren't." He growled at me, but nonetheless, his Sharingan faded into rich, dark chocolate brown.
"Aww, now isn't that better? We can loooovee each other like a big happy family!" I ruffled Sasuke's hair, "Such a cute little boy!"
He shoved me off the tree, and landed beside me.
For a few moments, Sasuke and I stood side by side, surveying the area around us. We were waiting for our backup squad to appear, but so far, no one had shown up save for ourselves. "Where is everyone?"
"Asleep probably. Great, we'll have a backup team of 6 slackers, that'll sure help us when we are found out."
"Cut the doom and gloom, Mr. Pessimism." I rolled my eyes and grabbed his wrist to check his watch. "It's 3 to six, we are early. We had to get special instructions from Tsunade remember? They aren't late."
"Who's not late?"
We whipped around to see who was speaking. It was Kiba.
"Hi Kiba." I said, smiling. Sasuke's scowl deepened.
"Hey Sakura. I see that you and the ice prince are here early." He laughed jauntily and scratched behind his head. "Thought you'd get a head start on the rest of us?"
I chuckled nervously. I could feel Sasuke stiffening beside me; Kiba was really getting to him. Not that it took much to bother Sasuke right now. He was in a hell of a bad mood. "Nah, the Hokage had some stuff to show us. Rest of your team on the way?"
Kiba slipped easily into the change of topic, and I thanked the gods that he wasn't the brightest in the bunch. (I mean, Kiba's my pal and all, but he doesn't catch on real quick, you know?) Kiba loved to pick a fight, and he hated Sasuke with a vengeance, not that that was uncommon around here. "Yeah, Shino and Hinata should be here soon. I'm pretty sure that Hinata was waiting for Neji at the Hyuuga district."
"Ahh, Neji's team is coming?" This definitely wasn't good news, Neji was great, and I'd be glad to have him, but TenTen and Lee didn't seem compatible with this sort of mission.
"Nope." Kiba leaned down to pet Akamaru.
I put my arm around Sasuke, giving him my silent support. I knew he hated to be left out of the conversation. Although he covered his emotions with dislike and annoyance, there was a certain amount of pain associated with the way people looked down upon him, distanced themselves from him.
"What do you mean, 'nope'?"
"Well, Lee and TenTen aren't coming."
"Oh, that's too bad." I lied between my teeth. Sasuke slipped out from under my arm and started heading back to the village.
"Sasuke, where are you going?!" I shouted after him. He looked back momentarily.
"Forgot something," was his simple reply.
I frowned and turned back to Kiba. "So who else is on this mission, then?"
"Shikamaru and Ino."
"Ino? Really…?" Ugh, Ino, she would only be a liability. She was my best girl friend but, more and more lately she annoyed me, somehow she seemed so much shallower than she had when we were younger. Given, I didn't spend as much time with her as I used to, but still she was just so immature. The more I thought about it though, I realized that it wasn't her that had changed…it was me.
Kiba took one look at my crestfallen expression and laughed, "hahaha, Sakura, don't look so disappointed. We aren't going to be around you two much."
"Yeah…I guess…"
"Ahhh finally, Hinata and Neji are on their way!"
Sure enough, Kiba's nose didn't tell a lie, I could see the Hyuuga pair in the distance now. I shifted restlessly; I really wanted to get a move on it. Suddenly I got an idea that would vent my excess energy.
"Hey Kiba, I'll race ya!"
He laughed, "Wait, where!"
"To Hinata and Neji! Where else?!" I could feel the adrenaline starting to course through my veins. My eyes glinted dangerously.
Kiba grinned like a predator about to pounce on its prey "You're on!"
"On your mark…" We both got into running positions... "get set…." Kiba winked at me as I dragged out the two words. Suddenly, I shouted loud as I could: feeling was pure and exhilarating, "GO!"
I launched into a full throttle sprint. The distance to Neji and Hinata was short enough that there was no need to pace myself. Kiba seemed to figure the same, we were neck in neck, but unluckily for Kiba, I was a lighter, faster runner.
Nevertheless, Kiba wasn't going to give up without a fight, when he saw I was gaining a lead he shoved his full body weight into me.
"Oh, you want to fight dirty then, do you?" I breathed at him, the wind was rushing through my pink locks, I loved the feel of it against my skin. The distance was drawing to a close.
"What other way is there to fight?" Kiba countered.
"Touché." I said; the irony in my tone was unmistakable. Poor, poor Kiba. Why did everyone seem to forget that I have super strength?
I pushed against Kiba with an ounce of my full strength. His face turned white. "Oh shi-"
Before he could finish his sentence he was tumbling away from me into the bushes. I ran past a startled Hinata and slung my arm around her.
"S-Sakura!"
"Hey Hinata. Hey Neji." I grinned wolfishly at them.
"Hello Sakura." Neji replied indifferently.
"I better go help Kiba up." I jogged over to Kiba and held out my hand.
He spat in it. "Bitch!" He yelled, "I'm gonna be sore for a week! Really, Sakura, you should take it easy on a poor guy like me."
"Ahaha, that's rich Kiba. You asked for it." I wiped my spit covered hand on his shirt and pulled him up by his collar.
"Ask for it? I didn't ask for anything other than a little bit of humanity." Kiba mumbled under his breath as he struggled out of my grip. I pretended I didn't hear him, because, reall, I didn't mind. I felt great. What's a little bit of teasing between friends, anyways?
Kiba walked up to Hinata and greeted her. I watched as she smiled and he blushed lightly. An embarrassed expression spread over his face.
"Kiba-kun, you did well. There is no need to be embarrassed, Sakura is an exceptional shinobi."
"But…she's a girl…"
I bristled at that, and Hinata seemed to a little as well. I was surprised; Hinata didn't usually show signs of anger.
"I am also a girl." She reminded him, not unkindly. "That doesn't mean anything other then we have...um...certain…p-parts, that you don't have…and uh-"
Oh dear, Hinata was embarrassing herself. Neji interrupted her mercifully. "It's a wonder that Shino isn't here, isn't he usually up early?"
Kiba nodded, "Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he was out in the forest spying on us. You know, he does that way too often and then he shows up and scares the cra-"
"Hello, Kiba." A low voice said in the dog lover's ear and a hand grasped his neck as bugs crawled up the expanse of his body.
"O-OH MY GOD!" Kiba jumped and pulled out a kunai with a shaking hand.
We all burst out laughing. Neji smiled good-naturedly and even Shino seemed amused under his collar. We were still in a fit of hilarity when the final two members of our group made an appearance.
"Hate to break up the party…but we're here!" Ino and Shikamaru had finally shown up, and now were staring at us like we were loony. Well, Shikamaru always stares at everyone like they are loony...
"What the fuck, you guys are so weird." Shikamaru muttered, annoyed. "So troublesome…" the boy sighed.
"LET'S GO!" The blonde girl smiled brilliantly and started to walk down the road. I stopped her by grabbing her collar.
"Not so fast."
"But we're all here!"
"Um, no Ino, that's not true. There is still Sasuke-kun." Hinata interjected, sweetly. God, I love that girl, she is so cute.
"Yeah, we still have Sasuke." I glared at everyone, daring them to challenge me. They all looked down, except for Ino, who met my gaze squarely.
"Oh, so he's too good to show up on time? We should teach him a lesson and go on without him, serves him right for being late." She flipped her hair, and twisted to see if her perfect butt had any stray lint on it. I had the sudden urge to strangle her.
"Uhh, he was here EARLY, but then he had to go back for something. And you shouldn't be talking Ino, you are 5 minutes late."
"It figures that you would take his side; I mean, obviously, you would, since you're screwing him." She smirked at me.
My mouth fell open. I couldn't believe it. All of this…all of these years that I'd spent being her friend and she could think that? She could actually think that I was…was…that Sasuke and I…The whole idea was outrageous and yet…it explained everyone's behavior perfectly! I fumed and turned around to yell at my six comrades. "Is that what you all think?! You think that I'm sleeping with him??"
Again, everyone looked down. Neji made some excuse about needing to go to the bathroom, Shino slinked off, and Hinata blushed bright red.
"Well…you did spend the night at his house, you know…" Kiba said sheepishly. "What are we supposed to think?"
"What business of yours is it that I am at his house!? Did any of you ever think that it was because he was in the hospital and I took him home! He was passed out!" I paced, I yelled, I wanted to kill someone. This was so unfair! I am a grown woman, and I still feel like I'm in the Academy. Somehow I thought that my peers would become more realistic and less malicious with their words when I became a Chuunin. Wrong as always, Sakura. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Everyone was looking embarrassed now, even Ino. She looked down at her shoes and murmured an apology under her breath.
"AHH!" I punched my fist into a tree with all my strength. There, a perfect way to vent my anger without killing anyone. It collapsed onto the ground with a loud thud, leaving a puff of dust in the air…and in it…Sasuke.
"Hey." He said. I stared into dark eyes that revealed nothing, and cursed my inability to read them. He must have been sitting there since he "forgot something" and left for the village.
"Hey…" I replied. I knew he had heard the whole thing. As we stood staring at each other, silence enveloped the group.
"Is that everyone? Because if we aren't going I'd like to go lay down and look at some clouds while all of you crazies duke it out." Shikamaru drawled with fake annoyance. We all were grateful for the break in the silence.
"Ok, everyone lets go." I said.
"Shino, Neji! Stop cowering in the bushes, we're leaving!" Ino yelled. She caught my eye and gave me an apologetic smile. For some reason, I didn't want to forgive her. I settled for giving her a slight nod.
And with that, we began our Journey to the Akatsuki. It was a fitting beginning for what was to come.
Ahh, the end has finally come (to this chapter, not to our lives or this story...fortunately) and reckoning day is afoot. I beg of you, my kind readers, TO PLEASE tell me what you think. Flames are more than welcome, I would exalt in a nice burning. Thank you so much for reading all the way! I'd give you a prize of some kind...but all I have is this author's note, and it seems more like a punishment than a reward (sorry about that, I just don't seem to have a humorous bone in my body at the moment). I better end it. I PROMISE on my grandfather's grave, that I will reply to any reviews I get for this story (unless I can't -cough- stupid anonymous reviewers -cough-).
Again, you all seriously rock.
Love,
Alerting Alliteration
P.S. I love all of you anonymous reviewers:3 just PLEASE leave me an email address so I can reply!