Chapter 11

It was an emergency, they said. What the hell was that supposed to mean? I sure don't need any more problems; I'm broke enough.

I pumped my legs faster as Kiba pulled harder on my arm, urging me to run faster. Did I mention how warm his hand was?

The cold whip of the wind in the early morning cut across my face like glass. My eyes had long since snapped shut; all I had to guide me was Kiba, and he didn't really do a good job. Just a while back I'd bumped into a tree, a stray branch has pulled some of my hair away, and I was pretty sure we'd run over a poor pedestrian.

If I ever become blind, Kiba will never be my watchdog.

A housedog, sure, I could live with that.

I squeezed Kiba's hand real tight, though I think I did more damage to myself than I did to him. Still, he slowed enough to turn around and face me.

"What?" I heard his voice.

I opened my eyes. I smiled at the sight. "Oh, nothing," I said.

"The f—" He never did finish his sentence. The back of his head slammed into a thick tree branch.

I laugh at his pain. "Payback."

--

I stared on as the flames licked at logs and ash. They said I'd go blind if I did such a thing. Ha. They aren't here, right now, are they? Either way…

I quickly put out the flames and turned on my back. Homeless… it sounded so weird to me, but that was the exact word to describe the state I'm in.

--

The fourteen of us sat once again in the forest clearing, the venue of out first meeting. I looked at all the familiar faces. There was Ani-chan, our medic, Chouma, Chouji's li'l sis, Atanih, the feisty ninja girl, Kain, the famous Dragon Sai wielder, Fuji-chan, my best friend (not an oc), Shino, Sai, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Chouji, Akamaru and Kiba. And then there was me.

"Hinata is missing." Kiba, once again, was sitting on a tree stump, the way he did when we'd first teamed up to save Hinata. Major wave of déjà vu here…

"Again?" We'll have to save her from the 'evil' clutches of Gaara again, then." Atanih gave me an exaggerated wink.

"Er, hi." Gaara stepped into the clearing. He gave a shy wave, and took a seat at the far end.

"Wow, feels nostalgic…" I whispered.

"Anyway," Kiba interrupted my thoughts, "I have called on you guys once again for another Hinata rescue mission."

"Hinata can take care of herself," Kain replied.

"And besides," Atanih added, "last time we went, it was you who ended up the damsel in distress."

Everyone laughed, even Gaara, who probably didn't know what happened.

"Oh, and don't forget the KibaShino incident," I said.

"What KibaShino incident?" they asked.

"You don't remember?"

They shook their heads.

"Well, it was like this. There was this love potion I made for Gaara to make Hinata fall in love with him. Kiba and Shino drank some, and the first person they saw was each other."

"W-wait. That was a love potion?! How come I didn't know?!" Kiba was red and fuming; smoke was coming out of his ears.

"You prob'ly didn't have any memory of it. It must be a side effect," I shrugged. Then the look on Fuji's face told me something. "Soooo… you don't know anything about what happened between you and Shino?"

"What?" they all asked.

"You really wanna know?"

"Now that you said it, I don't think I really wanna know," Kiba reasoned.

"Tell us!"

"Well… Kiba and Shino— mm-mmmphh!" Kiba's hand covered my mouth. I bit him.

"They KISSED!" I jumped up and down, pointing.

"We did NOT!" they both screamed. It was rare to see Shino scream, so we must relish the moment.

"How would you know? You don't remember a thing! And, I have Fuji-chan as a witness."

"Yep. We saw the whole thing."

"Okay, that just sounded wrong." We all shuddered.

There was a moment of awkwardness. Naruto broke the silence. "Hey, you know what, Neji, I never saw you come with us on that mission to save Hinata."

"Er, um, well, I…"

"Oh, speaking of Hinata, aren't we supposed to be forming a battle plan of some sort? Or a rescue plan maybe? HELLO?!"

"Hey, like Atanih-chan said, Hinata can take care of herself. It wasn't like she was kidnapped or anything," Kain said.

"So, what do we do now?"

"Tell stories?"

"Sure."

"Let's start with you, Kiba."

Clearing his throat, Kiba started to tell us his story in words that even I couldn't understand half of what he said. It went in one ear and went out the other to me.

"As the first born male child of the main branch in the Inuzuka family, I, undoubtedly, was heir…"

--

The stars are pretty tonight. This was the type of stuff I would have never seen at the Hyuuga compound. I found myself thinking of my life back in Konoha. Could I still consider myself a ninja there? Sasuke left town and was considered a traitor. Still, he came back. Under a few conditions, he was allowed to live there.

Would I ever want to go back?

--

"'Kay, since I was the first to tell my story, I get to pick who's next." He looked at all our faces and made a choice. "You, Ani."

She pursed her lips. She started softly, then building confidence as she told her story (Er, sorry ShyAnimeGurl, for not telling you. I'm making this stuff up as I go…)

"I used to live in a small farming village outside of town. My mum was a simple herbalist healer. I must've gotten my medical skills from her side of the family. As for my dad… well, he…" she broke off.

"You don't need to tell us anything you don't want to say. We're telling stories for the fun of it. How 'bout you just tell us how you ended up in Konoha?"

"I… there was a war between Konoha and another village, and we were smack dab in the middle of it. We had a stronger alliance with Konoha, so we all went here. In exchange we aided Konoha in the war. A few days later they stormed our village.

"Me and mom helped heal the injured while my dad and brothers… they, they…"

"Did they win the war?" Atanih asked.

"Yes, but the toll was high."

"Oh. Sorry about your dad and brothers," I said.

"Oh, no. They're not dead. Dad came home from the war with a shaved head, is all. Wanted to be a monk. And I quote, 'No damn way a monk will get involved with a f***in' war,' end quote."

We laughed.

"Are you sure your dad's a monk?"

She nodded. More laughs.

"Okay, I wanna pick who's next! I want you, Chiyo!"

"Nah. You wouldn't wanna hear my story. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't listen if I did." I closed my eyes and muttered under my breath,"Again."

"Oh, come on. Please? We'll all be listening to everyone else's stories, anyway."

"Fine. Well, let's see. I don't really have much of a history…" I paused for a while, and then started with my story.

"I am the fabled Witch of Konoha (haha, made that up), and I truly mean that literally. I came from the Hidden Valley of the Dead, from which I swore never to return."

"How come?"

"I was getting to that," I snapped, "It wasn't that I really never want to go back, I mean, my whole family's there… I was more like kicked out."

"Why?"

"Well, I also wanted to be a ninja. So I packed my bags, walked out, and they told me never to come back. I agreed, since there was really nothing I could do. Turns out, they've got it sealed on stone, sort of like a curse forbidding me to set foot upon their lands ever again.

"So now, I became an exile."

"But didn't you leave like two years ago?"

"Try interrupting me again and I'll kill you, gut you and hang you out in the fields to feed the hungry birds. So, where was I? Oh, yeah. I left two years ago to finish my training as a witch, but since I was like, exiled, I went to the next best place—the library."

"So after spending three months there, I found a way to break the stone seal standing outside the entrance to my home village. They all welcomed me in, since the elders who'd once thrown me out were dead. Then I finished my training, got my Witch license—which, by the way, allows me to fly on a broom— and then came back here. So there. End of story."

"Oh. Okay then."

I pulled out a bar of chocolate from a pouch on my belt. Stuck to the partly melted chocolate was a small Gaara plushie.

"Hey guys, lookie here! It's Shukaku!" Fuji said.

"It is?"

"Yeah. Don't you remember? Anybody wanna have Shukaku as a pet?"

"Sure, I'll have him," Atanih said.

"Yay!"

Just then, Sakura and Sasuke passed by. -- newly-weds…

"Hi! Tellin' stories. Wanna hear? It's Fuji's turn."

"Eh, we've got nothin' better to do anyway."

"Yes!! My turn!" She jumped up and down for quite a while, and with the fading embers of our dying campfire (which I never noticed before), it gave the perfect atmosphere to tell a story such as hers.

"I am the FIRST EVER alliance-nin EVER! Believe it!" Fuji said. Gaara made a sound that was halfway between a snicker and a cough.

"Hey, that's my line!" Naruto protested.

"Shut up. Where was if? Oh yeah. Believe it! What happened was I came from Snow country. There was a war there, so we had to move. I got separated from my family, who ended up in Sunagakure. I went looking for them and that's when I became an alliance-nin! THE END!"

"Well that was… short…" I mumbled after a swallowed the chocolate I was eating.

"You know once, I destroyed a whole village," Fuji added.

Sasuke leaned in closer.

Naruto's eyes grew wide.

Gaara rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"How?"

"I forgot. I was going to this village, tripped over a rock, and when I woke up, it was gone. So now, Tsunade forbids me to go anywhere outside Konoha, but I still go since I also work under Gaara and he's fine with it. So yay!"

"What does an alliance-ninja do, anyway?" Ani asked.

"I don't really know…keep the peace between Konoha and Suna?" she thought deeply for a moment, then got sidetracked. "Oooh! Pretty leaf!"

"She always gets distracted. Remember in the desert oasis?"

"Yep. First it was a leaf, then it was Sasuke and Orochimaru, then it was Kabu—" Chouma said.

"You were with Orochimaru?!" Sakura was fuming. "You are coming with me," she said, pulling him by the ear.

"Ow, ow, ow…"

"I sure wouldn't want that to happen with me and…" Shikamaru trailed off, and shuddered.

"Talk about henpecked…" Shino commented.

"Oh, I get it… Sasuke's like a chicken-ass and his wife… Ohh… Wait, Shino made a joke!"

-GASP!-

Everybody crowded around Shino to hear his joke. Naruto started waving his arms screaming, "Hey! I'm the funny guy here! Pay attention to me! I will become hokage, and you'd better watch out…" Just then, like a gift from the heavens, a mallet landed on his head.

Bwahahahaha!

"Fujiwara-kuuuun!! I love you!!"

We all turned around to see an unfamiliar guy with an enormous cake.

"You have a fanboy?" We all turned to stare at her.

"I don't know! What kind of prank is this, Chiyo?!"

"I didn't do anything! I don't know this guy!"

"Then he's a real fanboy? Whoa."

So we ate cake and danced the funky chicken and the worm, to make up for our unfinished party. And we PARTIED till we can party no-mo.

"What now?" I asked. We were all drunk from the soda, thanks to fanboy dude. Hooray for fanboy dude! He gave me a small smirk as he approached Fuji with a jar of cookies…

…laced with my love potion. (MyMojo: LoveMeKun©. Looks like a perfume bottle as a disguise. Soon in witch stores nears you!)

"You wanna cookie Fuji-chan?" he said, handing her the jar of cookies.

"Sure." Fuji reached in the jar to find… nothing.

"Hey! Where are my cookies?!"

Turns out Gaara hogged them all.

"No! There was love potion in those cookies!!!" I screamed.

"Chiyo…!" Fuji was furious.

"But Fuji-chan… Gaara's going to fall in love with someone else if he doesn't see Hinata tomorrow when he wakes up!"

"Is that a problem? Then let's just tape a picture of Hinata to Gaara's forehead!"

"Good point. But what would happen if he falls in love with the picture?"

"Oh."

Kiba yawned. "We'd better hit the hay. It's late."

"He only said that since he doesn't have anything to do," I grumbled. So we made ourselves comfy in the forest (real beds, thanks to MyMojo: Funky-bed© -courtesy of me) and fell asleep.

--

Sorry for not writing much about Hinata-chan and Gaara. That was my problem from the start.