"Alright, everyone, settle down! I know it's the last day of school, but you all need to remain calm!" Iruka-sensei cried, trying to be heard above the shouts and constant chatter.

"This year's camping trip is gonna be so fun!" Choji whispered to me. He was referring to the field trip that Iruka-sensei took everyone on at the last day of school. He called it a "Survival of the Fittest" challenge, but it was basically just a camping for the weekend to give us a break from training all year.

"Yeah!" I agreed excitedly, eyeing all of our suitcases across the room. "It's gonna rule!"

I couldn't wait. Just the thought of chilling and hanging out with Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Kyoko, and Naruto all weekend made me want to shout with excitement.

"...let's get going!" Iruka-sensei cried and everyone cheered and ran to the front of the classroom to get their bags.

Shikamaru groand. "I can't wait for this weekend to be over."

"Oh, you're excited! Who wouldn't be?" I cried and grabbed his hand; I dragged him to the front of the class to gather our stuff.

Iruka-sensei led us outside where we met up with a few other classes before we started our hike.

"Tsunami!" Naruto ran up to me, grinning.

"Naruto!" I yelled and gave him a hug.

"I'm allowed to hang out with other classes!" he cried and I shouted,

"Yay!" Something seemed off about Naruto, like something I hadn't noticed before. Butterflies flapped around in my stomach when I saw him, and I tried to push the feeling away, but couldn't.

We started our hike into the forest. I walked with Naruto and Kyoko, and Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba walked behind us. Kyoko seemed slightly uneasy, sending nervous glances Naruto's way.

"Whoa! Kiba, that's against the rules!" We heard Choji cry behind us and we turned around. Kiba was hiding a small dog in his jacket.

"Oh My God! He's so cute! What's his name?" I asked, petting the small dog.

"Akamaru. And he's not cute, he's a ninja dog. We'll train alongside each other until one of us dies!" Kiba boasted.

"Cool," Kyoko murmured and Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji reached out to pet Akamaru, too.

"He is too cute!" I argued. "You can be cute and tough at the same time. Like me!" They all burst into a fit of laughter.

"You had all better be laughing with me," I commented, pouting.

"HURRY IT UP, YOU GUYS!" Link yelled from up ahead and we ran to catch up.

"Okay, kids, here's our spot," Iruka-sensei said and a bunch of kids set up their sleeping bags all around, but Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba (and Akamaru), Naruto, Kyoko, and I all set up close to each other.

"What now?" Kyoko asked, sitting cross-legged on her sleeping bag. Kids were running around us, doing a bunch of different things.

"We should go swimming," Kiba suggested, gesturing towards the lake not too far away.

"YEAH!" I yelled. "Everyone remembered to pack their bathing suits, right?" They all nodded. "Let's go!"

We all grabbed our bikinis or swim trunks and changed behind trees.

"Why didn't you change?" I asked Shikamaru as everyone else went charging down the hill, towards the lake.

"I don't feel like swimming," he replied.

"Too bad. You have to," I argued and he shook his head.

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do!" I cried and grabbed his sleeping bag and then ran down to the lake.

"Aww, crap. Tsunami, give that back!" he moaned and ran after me. I held it out above the water and dangled it there.

"Come and get it!" I mocked and Shikamaru reached out to grab it. Akamaru yapped and jumped up, biting down on the end of it.

"Akamaru, no!" Kiba replied, just as I lost my balance and plunged headfirst into the water. Before I went under, I heard the riiiip of fabric. Oh man. Shikamaru is gonna be soooo mad at me.

I emerged from the water and looked down at Shikamaru's soaking wet and torn sleeping bag.

"Perfect," he grumbled.

"Shikamaru, I'm so sorry!" I cried. "You can use my sleeping bag!"

"Whatever," he said and walked back to the campsite.

"ShikaMARu!" I moaned, but he ignored me.

"He looked mad!" Choji cried.

"I hope this doesn't ruin our trip," Kyoko pouted and Kiba turned to glare at her.

"Don't you ever think of anyone but yourself?"

"Shut up! It was your stupid dog's fault, anyway!"

"He didn't mean to!" They went on arguing like that while Naruto and Choji stared at me.

"You should-" Naruto started, but I cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going." I dragged Shikamaru's ruined sleeping bag out of the water and laid it on the grass before returning back to our campsite. Shikamaru was leaning up against a tree, staring at the cloudless sky. I sat down next to him.

"I'm really sorry, Shikamaru."

"It's okay," he murmured.

"Really?"

"Yeah. It was an accident. I'm not mad," Shikamaru replied and I grinned. Yay! He's not mad!

"You can use my sleeping bag. And I'll take the blame if your parents are mad," I offered and he nodded.

"Okay."

"Will you kids be quiet?" Iruka-sensei hissed, angrily and we burst into a fit of giggles. It was sometime around midnight and we were the only kids left awake. We all had our sleeping bags in a circle around a small campfire that I started (thanks to my firey powers :D), the occasional spark sent flying towards us.

"Will you guys shut up?" Sasuke Uchiha grumbled, stomping over to us. Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Kyoko, and I were huddled close together (Kyoko made sure to stay as far away from Kiba as possible) while Naruto was a little farther away. The rest of my friends were only (sort of) nice to him because of me, but I could tell they weren't too crazy about him. "Some of us are trying to sleep!" He stomped back to his sleeping bag and I frowned.

"What happened to Sasuke? He used to be nice."

Kiba shrugged. "I dunno. My parents were talking about it a few weeks ago. Something about his brother."

"Hey, you guys, we should play Truth or Dare," Choji suggested.

"That game's a drag," Shikamaru argued.

"You think everything's a drag, Shikamaru," I shot at him and then smiled at Choji. "I think it sounds fun. Choji, since you thought of it, you can go first."

"Umm...Shikamaru. Truth or dare?" Choji asked the boy next to him.

"Truth."

"Do you like anyone?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "That question's lame." But everyone, even Naruto, was leaning in close for his answer. "No. Kiba, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" Kiba cried, fiercely earning a few "Shh!"s and "Shut up!"s from kids around us.

"I dare you to..." Shikamaru thought for a few seconds and then grinned. "kiss Kyoko!"

"What? No way! I hate her!" Kiba argued, helplessly and Akamaru yelped.

"I hate you, too! No way I'm kissing him!" Kyoko snapped.

"You have to or else you can't play anymore," I said and they both scowled. Kiba puckered his lips and mashed them against Kyoko's; they both immediately shot back, gagging and wiping off their mouths.

"Gross!" Kiba moaned.

"You kiss like an 8-year-old!" Kyoko yelled.

"I am an 8-year-old!" The rest of us giggled at the two arguing, trying to pretend the kiss had never happened.

"I'm gonna beat you up for making me kiss Kyoko, Shikamaru!" Kiba shouted, angrily and Shikamaru smirked.

"Yeah, whatever."

"You guys are so loud!" Sakura complained as she and Ino walked up to us.

"What are you guys doing, anyway?" Ino asked.

"Playing Truth or Dare," Naruto replied.

"Ooh, really? I wanna play!" Sakura cried and Ino nodded, then the two girls glared at each other and sat on opposite sides of the circle. What happened to them? They used to be best friends, I thought, sadly.

"Okay. Kiba, your turn," I said.

"Naruto...truth or dare?" I was surprised that Kiba picked the blonde: Kiba thought Naruto was annoying. Of course, Naruto thought the same way about him.

"Dare."

"I dare you...to throw a rock at Iruka-sensei's tent!" I thought it was really unfair that Iruka-sensei got a tent and everyone else had to tough it out in sleeping bags.

"Aww, man!" he moaned and picked up a rock and went over to Iruka-sensei's tent. Now I knew why Kiba picked Naruto.

"Kiba, you loser, that was mean," I said, angrily. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Iruka-sensei:

"NARUTO!" We started giggling again as Naruto came running back to the campsite so fast that he tripped over Sakura.

"Ow! Watch it!" she snapped.

"Sorry." He sat down in his sleeping bag. "Tsunami, truth or dare."

"Truth." No one had been saying truth for a while.

"Aww, Tsunami, you're no fun!" Kyoko moaned.

"Shikamaru said truth!" I argued and turned back to Naruto.

"Umm..." I expected him to ask me who I liked, and the answer would be no, of course. Wouldn't it? The butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling still hadn't gone away, and I was sort of hoping that someone would dare Naruto to kiss me. I wanted him to kiss me. Did I like Naruto? "Who do you hate the most?" Crap.

"Honako Kashuni!" I cried, confidently. "I hate her!"

"Honako's not so bad," Ino piped up. "She's nice."

"Yeah! To you!" I had noticed that ever since Sakura and Ino stopped talking to each other a few weeks ago, Ino and Honako had been hanging out more. Eww. I returned my attention back to the game. "Sakura. Truth or dare?"

"Dare!" I noticed Sasuke sitting at the edge of the lake and grinned. "I dare you to push Sasuke into the lake!" She gasped.

"No! That's mean!"

"It's funny! Now go!" I could see Naruto grinning next to me; Naruto didn't like Sasuke. He thought he was a show-off.

"I'm not pushing him in!" Sakura argued and scrambled to her feet. "In fact, I'm gonna go see what's bothering him!"

"What? No, I'm gonna go see what's bothering him!" Ino said, getting to her feet and they glared at one another before charging down the hill, whisper-yelling Sasuke's name.

"Aww, look what our innocent little game of Truth or Dare has done to them," Kyoko said, grinning as she looked down at Sakura and Ino practically attacking Sasuke down at the lake.

"Speaking of our 'innocent' little game of Truth or Dare," Kiba made air quotes around 'innocent'. "I still have to beat you up for making me kiss Kyoko, Shikamaru!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Do it, I dare ya'!"

"Hey, Tsunami," Naruto whispered, tapping my shoulder and I got nervous and excited. That happened a lot when I was around Naruto now. Crap, I thought, sadly. I do like Naruto. "Wanna know who I like?" I brightened.

"Sure!" I smiled, happily at him, hoping him to blush and whisper: 'You.' Instead, he murmured,

"Sakura." His smile faded. "I can't believe she likes that stupid Sasuke. What's so special about him, anyway?"

"Yeah," I whispered. "I don't get it."

What was so special about Naruto, anyway?