1Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any songs from Lion King.

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Chapter 7

Finding a Boat (Should Not Be This Hard)

"Menrui...Menrui, wake up." Roba shook the girl.

She sat up with a start. "Wha...?"

"We're leaving."

"Yeah... okay. Just give me a second." She shook her head and stood up. She looked around to see Kakushin and Hari waking up Kiseichu, Shingetsu, and Hiun. "What time is it?" She yawned.

"The sun just set." Kakushin answered. "You've been asleep for almost twelve hours, so don't even say you're tired."

"Hate to break it to you, bro, but trees aren't exactly the most comfortable things to sleep on in the world." Shingetsu muttered, rubbing her neck.

"Someone else needs to be leader today, Shin's still half asleep." Kiseichu muttered.

"I'm fine, shut up." She snapped back, pulling the map out of her pocket.

Hiun peered over her shoulder. "So what does the all knowing map of wonder say?"

Shingetsu hit her with the map before looking at it again. "Mm... the map says... this way!" Shingetsu said, pointing north. Everyone headed that direction.
Kakushin sighed, and Hiun turned to him, "What, upset your sister dragged ya into this?"
Kakushin chuckled, "I guess so, but having to be in charge of a bunch of 12-year-olds... it's an annoyance."
Hiun rolled her eyes, "So? You're fifteen, only three years older than us."
"But you admit I'm older than you." Kakushin flatly pointed out.
"..."
"At a loss for words I see. I finally beat out the great Hyuuga intellect."
"Why you-!" Before Hiun could contain herself, she jumped onto Kakushin, trying to yank his hair out.
"Hey! Let go!" Both sped toward the others, who were keeping a steady pace. That is, until they all stopped and turned around to see what the commotion behind them was. Big mistake.
Everyone collided with each other, Kakushin landed on top of Hiun in a... eh-hum, compromising position. "Er... would you love birds do it in a tent instead of on top of the rest of us?" Menrui muttered.
"Or just let us beat up Kakushin for being a..." Hari couldn't seem to find the word he was looking for. Kiseichu's eyes blazed in fury. Shingetsu was still in shock from seeing her brother... laying on top of her best friend. That was SO wrong!

After a couple of minutes, and another few awkward positions, one of which caused Kakushin accidentally brushing his hand over Hiun's chest, they were moving again, though Kakushin was standing far away from the Hyuuga triplets. The silence hovering around the group was suffocating, so Menrui broke it her way: singing the most annoying song she could think of. "Oh I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, diddly-dee, there they are standing in a row, diddly, diddly, dee. Big ones, small ones, some the size of your head! And if you eat a poison one you'll surely wind up dead!"

"MENRUI!" Birds flew out of the nearby trees. The blonde-turned-brunette grew quiet.

The group traveled in silence again until Roba spoke up. "I just had a thought."

"If it has something to do with that cloud looking like a bunny, I'll strangle you." Hari threatened. Best friends or not, Roba's cloud descriptions could get quite long and very boring.

"Well, no, but now that you mention it..." He stopped as the eldest Hyuuga glared at him. "Never mind. I was just thinking that we should probably stop using our regular names. I mean, if Tsunade does send someone after us, and they ask around any of the towns we stop at, our names will give us away, different physical appearances or not."

"He's got a point." Kakushin muttered. "One mention of any of our names to the ANBU, and we're busted."

"So we think up new ones then." Shingetsu said. "Easy enough. Let's just stop here, you three have to be tired anyway, you were up for almost twenty-four hours, and we'll think while we rest."

Everyone agreed to this plan, especially those who'd had watch, and they stopped. "You know, that cloud really does look like a bunny."

--

"All right, I think that's all of them." Shingetsu looked down the list of names in her hand. It read:

'Menrui: Soba

Roba: Uma

Kakushin: Karada

Shingetsu:

Hari: Hotai

Hiun: Kiken

Kiseichu: Komori '

"Come on, Shin. It can't be that hard." Menrui said.

"Shut up. I helped all of you think of your names, I'm out of ideas." She muttered.

"Tsuki." Hari muttered.

"Huh?"

"Tsuki. Your name." Shingetsu paused to consider it, then wrote it down.

"Okay, we're done."

Roba, now Komori, yawned. "Maybe we should just go back to traveling during the day. I'm tired."

"Not tonight. We're not far enough yet." Shingetsu spread the map out in the middle of their circle. "There's a town about twelve miles from here. If we keep going like we have been, we should make it there by tomorrow afternoon."

"Wait a minute... you mean, without sleep, we'll make it there by tomorrow afternoon." Menrui said.

"It's that, or we risk getting caught. Besides, when we get there, we can find an inn and sleep as long as we want there."

Everyone, begrudgingly agreed with Shingetsu's logic and got up, trudging towards the town.

True to her math skills, they reached the town mid-afternoon the next day as Shingetsu said. They found an inn without much trouble and paid for a two of rooms for the next two days. Everyone promptly fell asleep as they got their rooms, not bothering with bed arrangements.

Later that evening, after everyone had awoken, refreshed and a lot less cranky, they discussed further into their plan.. "Okay, boss lady, what's next on the agenda?" Kiseichu asked.

"Well, we need to get some more supplies, and find a boat."

Kakushin rolled his eyes. "Really? I though we were going to swim to Kage Ryu."

Shin gave him a glare worthy of their father. "Really starting to annoy me with your sarcasm, bro."

"I've only just begun."

Hiun jumped, figuratively speaking, between the two. "Before we have an all out 'sibling war' in here, can we get back to the boat thing? Mainly, how we're going to afford it?"

Shingetsu and Kakushin looked at each other, then dug through their bags. Moments later, they both produced a full looking bag. "Mom and dad give us allowance." They said at once.

Roba looked at them both. "Okay, Hiun, Hari, and Kakushin are triplets and don't even do the creepy unanimous thing."

"Can't help it." They grinned, their fight seconds earlier forgotten. Hiun started laughing as Roba just gave them another look.

"You two are so troublesome."

"Love you too, Uma." Shingetsu muttered. Everyone gave her an odd look. "Hey, if we're going to use different names, then we might as well get used to using them. Now, we need to go shopping."

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SC: Yeah, I know. Another short chapter, sorry. But I couldn't drag out the pointlessness of this chappie any longer. Next Chapter: Off to the Island Hidden in the Mist.

Ja ne

SC

P.S.: Here's a list of what the group's old and new names mean:

Menrui: noodles; Soba: noodles made of buckwheat

Roba: donkey; Uma: horse

Kakushin: core, heart of the problem; Karada: body/substance/reality/form

Shingetsu: new moon; Tsuki: moon

Hari: needle; Hotai: bandage

Hiun: doom, misfortune; Kiken: danger/peril/risk/hazard

Kiseichu: parasite; Komori: bat

The names are supposed to be somewhat similar to each other, for the sake of being able to remember them easier. I know. It's stupid. Just leave it be.