Kankuro was bored. That sexy little medic-nin, the blonde from Nara's team, had insisted he stay in bed and rest. Kankuro had told her he couldn't make such a promise, so she would have to climb under the blanket with him just to make sure he behaved.

He'd stated puking shortly after that.

Was still puking.

Pulling his head out of the toilet, Kankuro rested his cheek atop the cool porcelain seat and wished like hell he could be doing something other than this.

A floating green eye suddenly blinked at him.

Kankuro cocked a brow at Gaara's all-seeing sand eye.

The eye dispersed into a billion particles of sand, only to move about and rejoin to form a word: Bulgogi.

Was that even Japanese?

Gaara decided he didn't mind the blonde kinoichi. She was a bit on the talkative side and she treated food like an enemy, but she didn't seem the least bit afraid or intimidated by him. He was almost certain that was supposed to be a good thing.

Kiba was okay too. He acted a little too much like Kankuro for Gaara's tastes, but otherwise Gaara appreciated his bluntness and lack of manners. He rather thought Kiba made him look better.

Shino, on the other hand, Gaara severely disliked. From the moment he had taken Hinata outside to the instant they had returned, Hinata had seemed different. She hardly spoke, she barely ate, and she didn't even lift her gaze from her lap long enough for Gaara to try and catch her eye.

"What do you think, Kazekage-sama?" Ino asked him.

Gaara turned away from Hinata to frown at the blonde. She'd been going non-stop for nearly twenty minutes and she chose now to ask him a question.

"He can't, Ino-chan," Hinata whispered. "He leaves tomorrow, so he'll miss Market Day."

"Oh, that's too bad," Ino pouted prettily.

Gaara only nodded, not agreeing one way or the other. "Hinata would you care for some dweji bulgogi?" he plucked two pieces from the tiny grill on their table with his chopsticks and held it out to her. He had to reach over Ino and Shino to do so, but he didn't really care about manners or lack there of.

Hinata finally looked up at him and gifted him with a tiny smile. "Y-"

"Shouldn't you be returning to the hospital, Ino-chan?" Shino's drawl interrupted Hinata. "I believe Choji was expecting you back this evening.

Hinata's gaze turned away from Gaara to Shino, then to Ino. "Has something happened to Choji?"

Ino rolled her eyes and flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder, "He worked out with Lee-kun this morning."

Hinata's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with the same delicate fingers that had grabbed hold of Gaara's hand just minutes ago.

Gaara was confused. He'd sparred with Lee on a number of occasions and had been just fine. Sure his old friend was a bit enthusiastic, but he wasn't nearly as demanding as Baki-sensei.

"Would you like to go visit him, Hina-chan? I will deliver the Kazekage to his apartments," Shino offered.

"Actually," Hinata lowered her hand and looked to Gaara, "I promised to take Kazekage-sama to see Kakashi-sensei after dinner."

Gaara noticed no one looked to him to validate her lie. Either Hinata was very good at fibbing or no one believed her capable of it.

"Kakashi-sensei's sharing a room with Choji so we can go see both of them. Together," Ino turned a feline smile on to Gaara.

He bit back the urge to frown at her and instead looked to Hinata again, "Shall we order two more courses to take to our ill comrades?"

She beamed at him, "Choji would love that."

Kankuro had to make several stops to vomit before he could even reach the Bulgogi House. According to Baki, Bulgogi was a Korean word for barbequed beef.

Great. Food. As if he wanted anything even near his stomach right now.

But just as he was stumbling past some ramen stand an annoyingly familiar voice was screaming his name.

Kankuro stopped, dry-heaved, then forced his eyes open to glare at the far too cheerful blonde. "Thought you were go-" Kankuro dropped to his knees as his body forced more stomach acid up his esophagus and out his mouth.

A small and cool hand was suddenly pressing against his forehead, "You're burning up."

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Kankuro turned and saw pink. He smiled, remembering his favorite Leaf kinoichi. "You following me?" he teased.

She lurched back, wrinkling her nose in disgust, "You poison yourself again?"

"Just so I can see you," he tried to sound suave, but he had to turn away and wretch some more.

"Naruto, help me get him to the hospital," Sakura commanded of her teammate.

While Choji loved nothing more than the sight of Hinata smiling down at him and serving him bulgogi, he was hardly happy.

For one thing, she wasn't alone, nude, or even semi-nude. For another, Shino was with her. And Gaara. Kiba, he had learned years ago, didn't count. While he could be just as overprotective of Hinata as Shino, Kiba considered Hinata a lost cause:

"Why sweat a girl whose saving herself for a guy like Naruto. By the time he figures out she's in love with him, he'll be 102-years-old and taking his last breath."

It didn't help Choji's mood that Kakashi had gotten bulgogi too. Sure Gaara had given it to Kakashi-sensei, but that just meant Gaara and Hinata had been to the Korean BBQ House together. That was Choji and Hinata's special place. Choji wondered if they'd been alone. Hinata had never eaten with him alone.

And to make matters worse, Ino was fawning over the Kazekage. Insisting he have a seat, practically commanding Choji to roll out of his sick bed and give Gaara a place to put his ass.

All the while Kiba berated him for being dumb enough to work out with Lee.

"You having a pity party, Choj?" Shikamaru asked as he finally returned. Of course with no chips.

Choji did something he'd never done before. He glared at his best friend. But no one noticed because at that exact moment Sakura was rolling a new patient into the room.

"Can you slow this thing down? I think I'm going to be-" Kankuro never finished his words as he was suddenly heaving into a paper bag.

"GAARA!" Naruto released the door he'd been holding for Sakura and ran over to his friend. "When Kankuro said you were here I couldn't believe it."

Gaara tried to shake hands with Naruto, but the blonde was suddenly hugging him instead.

Choji looked over to where Hinata was standing beside Shino and saw the tiny smile she seemed unable to hide whenever Naruto was around. Her head was bowed but she was looking up at her crush through her eyelashes, and her fingers were unconsciously poking each other.

Disgusted, Choji pushed the table tray full of food away and rolled over and on to his side, facing the window and giving his back to all of his comrades.

Not that anyone except Shikamaru noticed.

"Don't sulk," his oldest and dearest friend whispered in his ears. Choji ignored him.

"Okay, everybody out!" Sakura commanded. "Visiting hours were over three hours ago Ino!"

"But Hina-chan wanted to see Choji," Ino's pouty voice had Choji rolling back over, nearly on to Shikamaru who was stretched out on his bed again.

"What about me?" Kakashi drawled, giving Hinata a one-eyed stare.

Hinata instantly blushed, tried to ignore Kakashi and hurried over to Choji. She bowed to him, "Get well soon, Choji-kun. May I come and visit you tomorrow?"

Choji told himself not to be pathetic and ridiculous, that Hinata was the lost cause Kiba had claimed her to be. But she was so pretty looking down at him with those big colorless eyes and her hands folded at her lap.

"Of course," he said foolishly.

She smiled and bowed again. "Good-night, Choji-kun."

"Shikamaru that includes you too. OUT!" Sakura barked.

Shino had never been so happy to see Naruto.

As they all left the hospital, Hinata lingering behind with Ino, Shino pulled Kiba to a stop so that the other four could go on ahead.

"What, bug breath?" Kiba demanded once their comrades were out of hearing range.

"Take Hinata with you to retrieve Temari," Shino commanded.

Kiba's eyes widened, "Shit! I completely for- Wait! How'd you know I was with Temari?"

"Does it matter? No. Now take Hinata with you so no one can say Temari was wondering the private training grounds unaccompanied by an assigned guard."

"Why can't you go?"

"That would require me to leave Hinata with the Kazekage."

Kiba immediately saw Shino's point.

The two teammates quickened their pace to catch up with Ino and Hinata. Both kinoichi had their heads bowed as Ino whispered something to Hinata.

Kiba grabbed Hinata's hand, pressed his finger to his mouth indicating silence was necessary. Shino bent over, inserted his head between Hinata's and Ino's and whispered into Hinata's ear. "Go with Kiba to retrieve Temari-san so Ino cannot discover her secret."

"I can hear you!" Ino hissed at Shino.

Hinata turned her frown from Kiba to Shino. She wasn't an idiot. She knew exactly what they were playing at.

"And who says I won't just follow Hinata and Kiba to find the truth out?" Ino added.

Shino turned from Hinata to Ino, "The Hokage. Your orders were to follow me. Not Hinata."

Ino glared at him, "I hate you. Hinata, go find out then come back and tell me."

"She won't," Shino stated very matter-of-factly.

"Come on, I'm already late," Kiba tugged on Hinata's arm.

"But Ga-" Hinata cut herself off as she looked over at the Kazekage, still walking ahead of them. He was with Naruto. They were the exact same height. Naruto had his arm around the Kazekage's shoulders and was talking so loudly about his latest top-secret mission to root out Orochimaru's hideout and retrieve Sasuke.

"…a failure!" Naruto shouted. "Sasuke's way strong now. Which means I'm going to have to work quadruply hard to catch up to him."

"Quadruply isn't a word, Naruto," Gaara chided softly.

"Come on…" Kiba tugged incessantly.

Hinata turned and gave Shino as dark a look as she could muster for trying to ruin her friendship with Gaara.

She turned and let Kiba lead her up into the air to run across the rooftops heading toward the forest.

Gaara nearly started when Ino took hold of his arm and smiled far too sweetly up at him. "Miss me?" she taunted.

Gaara frowned, "Um…"

"Hina-chan had to go retrieve your sister with Kiba, so Shino's going to act as your guide. Don't worry, I won't leave you alone with him."

Gaara stilled, turned, and saw the Aburame hanging several paces behind them.

"Shino?" Naruto asked and turned as well. "Dude! I didn't even see you back there. When did you get here?"

Shino's jaw clenched.

"Where is my sister?" Gaara demanded of the Aburame.

"Leaving the forest."

"Alone?"

"Hardly."

"Take me to her."

Hesitation. "That would not be wise."

"Did I ask for your opinion? Lead the way."

Ino released Gaara's arm, ran over to Shino, and leapt on to his back. "Hmmm," she sighed in Shino's ear. "Good thing I have to follow you, huh, Shino-kun?"

Shino turned his head as best as he could with Ino's chin poking into his shoulder. His face was completely blank. "Three birds," he whispered back to her, then turned and took off for the rooftops.

Temari really didn't want to move. Neji was snuggled up behind her, his breath warm and sweet against her neck, while his silken hair streamed over her shoulder and down her right breast.

His hair was nicer than hers.

Smiling, she turned over slowly, ignored his mumbled groan of protest and nipped the tip of his nose. "Wake up, sleeping beauty."

"No," he grumbled, keeping his eyes closed.

"I told Shikamaru to meet me almost an hour ago."

"So? He's a smart enough guy. He'll get the hint when you don't show up."

Temari snuggled closer to him, wishing he were right and they could remain like this all night. "Walk me half way?" she asked, too rational to allow herself to fantasize overly long.

Neji opened his eyes and gave her a dark look, "I'll walk you all the way," he rolled over and pushed himself on to his feet.

"Wait," Temari rose to her knees and grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer. All rationality left her as she gazed up at him. He was just so beautiful and the way he looked down at her while running his hands through her hair, which was no longer tied in its usual four ponytails. "Shikamaru can wait five more minutes, right?"

Kiba wondered if he should prepare Hinata for what was coming, but when he heard her gasp and looked back, he saw that she'd activated her Byakugan.

"Now, Hina-"

"EEEEEWWWWW!" she closed her eyes, squeaked when she remembered she could still see through her eyelids, turned off her Byakugan, and used her hands to cover her eyes. "Eeeeewwwww!" she whimpered.

Kiba ran over to her, doing his best not to laugh. "That's what I said when I first smelled them on each other."

"Why didn't you tell me not to use my Kekkei-Genkai?" Hinata tried to slap him, but her eyes were still covered, and Kiba was able to dodge her rather easily.

"I forgot," he admitted.

She lowered her arm, opened her eyes, and swung at him again. He grinned when she slapped him far too lightly on the arm.

"Wanna know the worst part of all this?" Kiba asked her.

"There's something worse?"

"Yup. Your knew buddy's about 100 yards behind us."

"G-Gaara?"

Kiba nodded.

"But, I didn't see him."

"Cause Shino's leading the way and running in the path of your blind spot."

Temari finally allowed Neji to put his pants back on when Kiba and Hinata dropped down on them. Literally. They landed right between him and Temari.

"We need to split up," Kiba stated without hesitation. "Nej, you're with me."

"But-" Temari frowned.

"You have to come with me, Temari-san," Hinata stated very quietly, staring down at her feet and blushing so deeply even Neji could see it in the dark.

"Hina-chan," Neji tried to explain.

"Later," Kiba grabbed his collar and dragged him up into the trees.

"Quickly," Hinata turned toward Temari, but couldn't quite bring herself to look into the older girl's eyes, "Your brother is right behind us."

"Shit, which one? Oh never mind. SHIT!" she grabbed Hinata's hand, startling the poor Hyuuga. But Hinata was experienced enough to ignore her discomfort and led Temari away from where Kiba had said Shino was.

Her Byakugan activated, she saw Shino, Ino, and Gaara clearly now that she was at a different angle. Avoiding them was…

"Shit!" Hinata accidentally squeaked aloud.

Kiba realized what Shino was up to when the bug bastard didn't follow after Hinata. Instead his disgusting mint and soap scent was drawing closer and faster to Kiba and Neji.

"Split up," Kiba hissed at Neji. "Go West and avoid Hin-" Kiba very nearly screamed.

Gaara was suddenly before them, floating on a bed of sand, his eyes glowing in the dark. He raised one hand and a lasso of sand whipped out of his gourd and laced around Neji's waist. Then more sand flowed and twisted about Neji until his arms were trapped at his side and his legs were forced together.

A moment later, Neji and Gaara were gone. That cloud of sand shooting up into the air, past the tree line, and darting out of Kiba's sight.

"One stone," Shino's deep voice had Kiba turning around to find him and Ino directly behind him.