Tooku hanareteru hodo ni chikaku ni kanjiteru. Samishisa mo tsuyosa eto kawatteku... kimi wo omottanara.
The further we are apart, the nearer I feel you are. Even my loneliness turns into strength... when I think of you.
Nami Tamaki - Reason

"RISE AND SHINE WONDERFUL GENIN OF KONOHA!"
'I swear if he yells one more time...'
"THE EARLY BIRD ALWAYS GETS THE WORM!"
'I am going to cry..'
"EVERYBODY UP UP UP IT'S A NEW DAY!"
'I really hate Gai..'

Miku forced one eye open, and then the other.
Everyone was in the sitting position, their hair a mess, one eye open or both eyes half closed, rubbing sleep from their eyes or looking around in complete confusion.
All except for Gai and his mini-me.
"That's more like it." Gai said flashing everybody an over-enthusiastic and toothy grin.
"Gai-sensei..." Tenten mumbled, her eyes both still closed. "What time is it... the sun's not even up yet."
"Why Tenten, my lovely blossom, It's 5am!"
"5AM?!" yelled, well, everybody..

Sasuke wasn't as mad about last night anymore.
He had a lot of time to think about it, and he came to the conclusion that something must have happened to cause Miku to hate her family so much Atleast.. he hoped that was the case.
But his pride and reputation was preventing him from apologizing to her.
"She'll talk to me eventually." He told his reflection in the river while washing his face. "Then.. I'll just act like nothing happened... yeah, good start."
"Are you sure about that?" A voice spoke up from behind him.
Sasuke spun around startled, knocking his headband off the rock nearby and into the lake.
"Great..." he mumbled, not even bothering to check and see who was behind him.
"Here, let me." The voice spoke again.
Sasuke turned his head to the right to see Tenten, elbow deep in the water fishing out his hitai-ate for him.
"Hn. What are you doing here?" He asked, wondering why the kunoichi of team Gai suddenly decide to speak with him.
"I heard Miku talking to herself lastnight." She explained, handing him his soaking-wet hitai-ate.
This got his attention.
"She said something about how she should have told you what happened, and she said you were right about her being pathetic and weak. She's thinking about giving up and leaving the squad..."

"So..." Miku began, feeling awkward. She began pulling up handfuls of grass and constructing a big pile on the ground in front of her.
"Do you need something?" Neji asked in a tone that let Miku know he had no intentions of having a conversation with her anytime soon.
"I just... uh... never.. nevermind." She stuttered, destroying the mountain of grass.
"Very well." He said, turning back to.. whatever it was he was doing.
'I guess that's what I get for trying to start a conversation with a Hyuga who's meditating...' She thought to herself, re-constructing her grass pile.

Naruto and Lee ran off into the bushes with one another to have a sparring match, while Sasuke was off brooding somewhere. Tenten vanished as well and both sensei's went for a "leisurely stroll along the mountain path." as Gai so strangely put it. That just left Neji and Miku alone at camp. Miku had never been alone with anyone like Neji Hyuga before. He made Sasuke seem like a chatterbox put on repeat.

"I wonder where.. everyone else went.." Miku spoke out loud, partly to herself and partly to Neji. It was uneasy being alone with him for so long and she needed to branch out more and make new friends. If she can talk to Sasuke, why not Neji?
"So... um do you know... what our.. what our mission is? Our sensei never told us and... I was just... wondering." She trailed off. He was now on his feet giving Miku a look she really hated receiving.
"You are very irritating. You remind me of my cousin." He said harshly. "I detest people who are weak like you, nor do I have any intentions of conversing with them. I'll take my leave now." He said, turning bis back to Miku and walking off down a mountain path.
Oh right.. that's why " Not Neji."
"Why can't I talk to anyone?" She asked herself. "I can talk to Sasuke just fine, and Naruto when he's not making fun of me..."
Miku let out a deep sigh. "Face it you're a social outcast, and you're so weird. Why do I have to be so weird?"

"Nobody ever said you were weird, did they?"
Miku spun her head around to come face to face with...
"Tenten!" She yelled in surprise. "Wh-wh-what are you doing here...?"
She was hoping Tenten would stay far away for a long time, considering all the strange looks she's been giving her this morning. Miku had a hunch that she was up to something..
"Well.. I came to find you silly!" Tenten said, poking Miku in the side. "Say, you're feeling skinnier than usual. You haven't been starving yourself like those other nitwits in Konoha just to fit His Highness Uchiha's invisible standards are you?" She asked with a sly smirk. "My my Miku, and to think I thought you were sensible."
There she goes again, trying to get under her skin.
"I-I-I-I don't like Sasuke!" She yelled, flustered. "We're just friends, I mean.. we-we were but we're not now, I mean, uh..." She couldn't think of anything to say.
Tenten's face broke out into a wide grin.
"You're awefully excited for someone who doesn't like Sasuke and who is apparently just his friend but isn't really his friend." She said teasingly.
Miku bit her lip. Tenten was just trying to get under her skin, and there was no way she was going to let her.
"So.." Tenten began, sitting down on the ground beside Miku. "Wanna go for a walk?"
Miku caught a mischievous glint in her eyes as she asked this and her defenses went up almost instantly.
"Not really no." She said as quickly as possible.
"Really? Word around the street is you enjoy walking, in fact I see you and Sasuke walking together all the time." She said, inching closer to her. "I think a walk would be wonderful for the two of us. All alone, in the woods, with nobody else. Just you and me..."
Miku swallowed back nervousness.

Tenten liked Miku.
She loved watching her squirm, and loved it even more when she stammered, stuttered and had a complete spazz attack. She never teased her for the sake of being mean, she just loved poking fun. Miku had always just assumed Tenten was a cruel malicious monster that wanted nothing more than to embarrass her to death but, that wasn't the case at all.
Tenten could never tell Miku that, that would just ruin all the fun.
"Come on I promise It will be fun!" She said, leaning even closer. "I won't bite."
Miku's face was as red as her obi was by now and Tenten could tell she was probably on the verge of wetting herself.
"I really can't Tenten, I... I... I gotta go!" And with that she leaped up onto her feet and took off over a boulder and vanished without a trace.
"Hehe score!" Tenten cheered to herself, stretching out into a laying position. "You done good Tenten, you done good."

"So those are the genin from Konoha, sent here to free out little birdie?" A man dressed in a black hood sneered from his spot on top of the mountain.
Him and his companion have been keeping an eye on the group since the night before.
"It would seem so." His companion, a man in a mask chuckled. "They seem like a weak bunch don't they? Hardly worth our time."
"But that boy down there... he's an Uchiha." The man in the hood wondered out loud, his eyes never leaving the raven-haired boy even for a split second. "He seems.. promising. Leave him to me."

"It's not nice to be spying on innocent children." Kakashi spoke up startling the two men. "I mean really, I think that's illegal."
"Don't waste your time being a smart-ass Kakashi!" Gai shouted from beside him. "These two.. should be punished, Might-Gai style!"
"How long have you two been standing there?" The masked man yelled, preparing himself to fight.
"Long enough." Kakashi said, reaching up to push his mask up. "We're not about to let you target our genin like this."
Both men began to laugh. "We're sorry but this is not our time to fight you." The man in the mask said, vanishing into a dark poof of smoke.
"Yes indeed. Your time will come soon, Kakashi of the Sharingan eye." The man in the cloak said before also vanishing into smoke.
"These two.. seem familiar." Kakashi announced. "I believe I've met them before."
But Gai wasn't listening.
"How come everybody knows who you are, but they don't even seem to notice my existence?!" Gai yelled, his arms flailing all over the place. "It's not fair at all!"
"... What are they up to?" Kakashi wondered, completely toning out Gai. "And why Sasuke? Why the genin and not us?"
He let out a deep sigh and began working his way back down towards the mountain towards the genin.
"This just doesn't make sense."

*Short chapter is short. I apologize.
I don't get the laptop very often so my updates are late so sorry.
Review please!