Hi everyone

So I decided to write about what everyone else did for the couple of days that Naruto and team 8 were out of the village.

Once I start writing about them again, you'll know that the days are entwined again.

So maybe you won't expect Naruto and Team 8 for another chapter or two.

Enjoy guys

I don't Own Naruto


Chapter 11

Neji sat himself in a meditative state in order to work on his other senses. It was quiet and peaceful, the waterfall was constantly flowing, and birds were chirping. He emptied his mind of any thoughts and allowed himself to be as relaxed as possible. Quiet sound of nature, not a single-

"Neji-ni-san"

-person around. Neji opened his eyes to see his younger cousin running up to him.

"Hanabi-sama, to what do I owe this visit." Neji hardly ever talked to the younger heir of the family, but from the looks of it, she seemed to want to ask him something.

"Neji-ni-san, I have a favour to ask; could you accompany me to the academy grounds?" Hanabi asked nervously.

He raised his eyebrows at this; unlike Hinata, Hanabi was always more sure of herself and was never nervous of anything she did.

"May I ask why you wish for me to come instead of one of the other branch members? Is there something you do not wish for your father to know?"

Hanabi looked like she was contemplating on something before answering, "….I don't have any friends Neji-ni-san. Yesterday I met someone, and I really want to be friends with him, but Tou-san doesn't let me out on my own. I don't know how Tou-san would act if he knew so I just want to keep it a secret for now."

Neji took a closer look at Hanabi; with how she trains and taught to have proper elegance, sometimes he forgets that she's only eight years old and still just a kid. With a sigh, he got up, and began heading towards the gate.

He paused, and then looked over his shoulder when he realized that she wasn't following, "What's the holdup Hanabi-sama. Unless you've changed your mind, I'm fine with heading out now."

She looked surprised for a second, then beamed at him and ran to his side.

As they proceeded towards their destination, Neji couldn't help thinking that perhaps she and Hinata were more alike than what meets the eye.


"Konohamaru, stop staring into space and pay attention when we kick the ball to you" Moegi yelled from across.

Konohamaru snapped out of what he was thinking about, and looked at the object next to his foot; a kicking ball.

"Demo, sorry Moegi, I'm a bit distracted. Let Udon kick the ball with you for now until my thoughts are cleared up" Konohamaru just waved as he sat on the swing near his two friends. Udon had taken his place, and began kicking the ball back and forth with Moegi.

It's not like he didn't want to play, on the contrary he loved it, but his thoughts were focused on the previous day. He had invited someone new to hang out with him, and he was not sure why he did it. At first he thought it was so she would feel better, but that was not his style to take pity on anyone; he personally hated it when people took pity on him. He kept on thinking about it until he came up with one conclusion; she hadn't known that he was the grandson of the third hokage; therefore, she didn't treat him the same way as most of the villagers did.

'It's still amazing that she didn't realize who I was, even after I stated my full name, but perhaps that is for the best. I wonder if she'll show up today' Konohamaru had been looking around every couple of minutes, seeing if she would show up. He kept cursing himself for not being specific on what time he was coming to the academy.

"Konohamaru, I'm getting tired, please play with Moegi" Udon pleaded to him.

Sighing, he got up and took Udon's place, facing Moegi, 'Oh well, I'll ask Naruto-ni-san about her. He might be able to help me find her later' Konohamaru thought as he kicked the ball back to Moegi.


Hanabi walked next to Neji, in proper form of a huyga, but on the inside she wanted to skip. It was her first time having a friend, and she was excited. His family name wasn't really familiar with her, there were too many families to remember in the village, but she didn't care; he didn't treat her the way most of the villagers would treat the heir of the main family, and that was fine with her. She at first loved it when people would bow and show formal respect, but when she realized that they didn't really see her, but as the clan heir, she began to act coldly towards them so they could act differently around her; it didn't work.

She looked next to her and saw Neji doing the same thing; his eyebrows were raised.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Hanabi was a little unnerved by the smirk that was growing on her cousin's face.

"Nothing, but this friend of yours, what's their name? If I am going to be part of this secret, then it would be best for me to know in order to cover anything in the future" Neji explained.

Smiling, I told him, "His name is Konohamaru Sarutobi. He said to meet him at the academy grounds if I wanted to hang out with him today."

A surprised look appeared on Neji's face for a second, but then it returned to its neutral look.

"I see. I shall take you there, and then set a time when to pick you up. Should your father inquire about today, I can state that we went to a training ground to train. I recommend telling your father about your new friend as soon as possible. Surly he wouldn't prohibit you from enjoying some time with those of your own age" Neji said.

Hanabi looked down at that; she wasn't too sure if her father really would allow her to have fun with kids her own age that wasn't part of the huyga clan.

"We are here" Neji announced. She looked up and found the person that had helped her yesterday. Nerves were starting to fill her when she saw two others with him, but she stomped on it and made her arrival apparent, "Konohamaru-kun"

The person she called to have turned around and smiled upon seeing her; she could feel the nerves again trying to take over.

"Glad you could make it Hanabi-chan"


"Glad you could make it Hanabi-chan" and he really was. He loved his two friends that always hung out with him, but he wanted to make more the way Naruto-ni-san did; plus, he personally wanted to get to know Hanabi better.

Looking at the person next to her, he recognized him as the one who fought at the chuin exams against Naruto-ni-san.

"Konohamaru, who is it?" Moegi asked. Udon had gotten up and joined the group.

"Udon, Moegi, meet Hanabi-chan. We met yesterday and I invited her to play with us today. Hanabi-chan, meet Moegi and Udon; they are my best friends at the academy" Konohamaru introduced them to each other.

Neji looked at the four, and declared his departure, "Hanabi-sama, I shall take my leave for now, at 5 I shall return" with that he left.

Hanabi looked at the two Konohamaru introduced to her: The girl named Moegi wore goggles on her forehead. She has orange hair tied up, with red elastics, in two pigtails. There seemed to be a permanent blush on her face. Her clothing consisted of a red tank-top over a pink t-shirt layered at the bottom; the pants she was wearing were grey and shoes were ninja sandals.

The boy named Udon had short brown hair and dark eyes. He seemed to have a running nose by the drip of snot hanging. He wore circular glasses. His outfit consisted of a simple blue shirt, which was zipped up in the middle, a pair of brown pants, sandals, and was also wearing a pair of goggles on his forehead.

Both Moegi and Udon smiled at her, "It's a pleasure to meet you Hanabi- chan. We were just playing ball, or was trying to, but this lazy one here was dazing off into space" Moegi said as she pointed her thumb in the direction of Konohamaru.

"Hey, I was just thinking a lot is all" Konohamaru complained.

"Since when do you think much?"

"Plenty of times"

"I bet I can count how much that was on one hand"

"Bet you can't"


Hanabi just watched the argument between the two in amazement; her father would throw a fit if she ever talked back to him, and her sister was too timid to talk back. 'Is this how friends act towards each other?' Hanabi thought.

"Don't worry about those two Hanabi-san, that's just how they are. It will stop after a few minutes, but in the meantime, would you like to kick the ball with me?" Udon asked her with uncertainty.

She just smiled, "Sure, I haven't played before" and she waited for him to kick the ball towards her while the other two continued to argue.


After leaving Hanabi with the three academy students, Neji took a stroll around the village. He wondered how Hinata was on that mission she was sent on. Her reflexes had surprised him. 'I wonder if Hinata-sama is proceeding smoothly, perhaps that would lessen the stares and whispers coming from everyone else in the clan' it was becoming more apparent with the whispers of the clan how he was able to talk freely and on friendly terms with the head and heir, more than what a branch member should. Ever since his talk and defeat at the hands of Naruto, he began to open his eyes and notice how much stronger his cousin was than his original thought at first. He was more surprised at how despite the undeserved hatred she had received from him; she still had the heart to forgive him. That made him feels a little overprotective of her, and presumed her training where her father stopped training her. It also gave him hope that if Hinata were to succeed as the head instead of Hanabi, perhaps the clan would be able to change for the better.

"Hey Neji, wait up" turning his head around, he saw Tenten running up to him.

"Hey Neji, what doing around here, I was about to go grab some lunch, what to join me?" Tenten asked.

Neji hadn't realized that he hadn't eaten before meditating earlier today, and suddenly became aware of his hunger at that moment.

"I haven't eaten yet, so I will join you, where shall we eat?" Neji asked.

Smiling, she pointed to her left, "There's a café not too far from here. If we hurry, we might be able to catch the lunch special" she began to head in the direction where she pointed to. Neji just followed her, deciding to put his thoughts of Hinata and the clan aside for the company of his teammate.


Sakura had dragged herself to the hospital, with the flower of friendship in her hands. It had been sometime since she actually had the chance to converse with Lee properly, and she wondered if she should take Ino's advice on helping his rehab.

'I think he should be fine. Lee's not the type to cause trouble.' Smiling at something so ridiculous, she slowly walked towards Lee's room. She was about to knock, when she heard yelling behind the door.

"Get back to bed"

"But, my youth is slowly disappearing with the lack of exercise"

"Your youth won't even continue if you don't follow the proper routine of recovery"

"Please, just another 300 push-ups, then I'll return"

"Argg"

It sounded like someone threw something against the wall, and smashed it.

Becoming worried, Sakura opened the door, and stared wide eye at the scene: Lee was knocked out; the bump on his head was from the broken chair on the ground. A nurse was panting, looking like she just wanted to kill her client.

"What's going on here?" Sakura finally was able to find her voice.

"Ah, Sakura-san, I just can't take it anymore. Out of all my patients, I have never had one so completely disobedient. I am going to have to request to Lady Hokage that he must be transferred to someone else for his treatment. I will soon lose it to the point of killing him" she looked like she wanted to pull her hair out.

'Is it that bad? Well, I wasn't going to take Ino's words seriously, but since an opportunity has arrived' Sakura almost felt bad about what she was going to do, but she did know the affection Lee held for her, and while she cared a great deal for him, it wasn't the same way.

"Why don't you suggest to Hokage-sama to have him transferred to me; I'm a friend of his, so perhaps he might be more obedient in listening to me"

The nurse looked surprised at first, then beamed at her, "Thank you Sakura-san, you're seriously doing me a great service at taking him from my care. I'll inform lady Hokage right away" and she ran out the door.

Sighing, Sakura turned towards the unconscious figure on the floor. She walked towards him, and helped him onto the bed; all the while he stayed unconscious. Even if she was doing it for her own reasons, it still made sense for her to be the one to help him as he tried to help her back in the forest of death.

'Sorry Lee, but there are times when only rest will be able to make you strong again' She placed the flower in the vase, and started to clean up the broken chair at the corner of Lee's room.

She only hoped that Lee would listen to her as Ino suggested, otherwise, she would be in for a long few months of rehab with him.


And that's a wrap

I hope I am not boring anyone with the progress of the story, It is called 'Slowly getting there' after all.

I also think I have the majority of Couples figured out, but again it won't happen yet as they are only preteens

Cheers