Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
I honestly have no idea what to say. The last time I updated this story was almost a year and a half ago. I can't express how sorry I am that I haven't updated at all. I wouldn't be surprised if no one has this on their story alerts anymore, but here it is anyways. And I want to say that I was working on this chapter a few months ago, but something happened to my computer and I had to reset it, so I lost everything.
It took a lot to get this chapter out there, and I have to say I didn't put my whole heart into it. I re-read the past 11 chapters of this, laughing and many parts, and getting frustrated at others like cliff-hangers, and I finally felt what it was like to be a fanfiction reader again.
And please ignore any and all grammar and spelling errors, because I wrote this off of the top of my head just now without checking it over.
After trudging for what felt like hours, though in reality it was really about thirty minutes, the group somehow circled and found themselves next to the broken remains of the statue. Sakura felt incredibly guilty. It was her fault that they couldn't find their way back to the camp; if she controlled her anger like her friends told her to countless times, none of this would have happened. She wouldn't have to be stumbling around in leaves, she wouldn't have had to talk to Sasuke (though she felt slightly good about telling him,) and they would be eating a relatively good lunch.
"I'm so sorry about this," she apologized, kicking some of the smaller stones. "If I didn't throw the rock, none of this would have happened."
Before the guys could chime in in agreement, Ino cut in loudly. "It's not your fault. If Naruto wasn't such a jerk, you wouldn't have thrown the rock."
"Right, because throwing a rock is a reaction people always give when we insult them," Sasuke sneered. "Sakura's right. It's her fault we're here, so let's just leave it at that."
Ino and Tenten went to argue, but Sakura gestured to them to be quiet. They retreated, deciding to burn holes into Sasuke's empty head, according to them.
"If it makes you feel better," Hinata said quietly, "I didn't have a horrible time." Everyone gave her an incredulous stare, as though she had just admitted she was a magical unicorn with a message from the future. "I mean," she added quickly, "there are things I'd rather be doing, but considering the fact that we were abandoned by our supervisors on a random mountain-side, it could have been much worse. There could have been bears, or lions--"
"There are no lions in this area," Shikamaru interjected, then fell quiet when his friends hushed him.
"--and honestly, if I were ever to be stranded alone with a group of people, I'm glad it was with you guys."
Naruto licked his lips and for a moment, Hinata looked horrified at what he might have been thinking. But he didn't seem to notice the underlying message he was sending her, and instead continued. "All this sweetness is making me lust for candy."
Tenten peered into the direction of the sun to see if there were any approaching figures. "We should stay here," she stated firmly.
"Obviously," Neji stated smugly. "This is the first thing we saw that gave us a sense of direction. If someone comes looking for us, this is the first place they'll come. There's no reason for you to say it like you made some scientific discovery."
Tenten snapped. "Holy shit!" she said in a strangled voice. "I am SO tired of your attitude! Honestly, you make it seem like YOU'RE the one PMSing instead of Sakura!"
Neji seemed speechless. But there was no way he was going to let her have the last word, nor the last insult. "I'm not PMSing!" he exclaimed, looking to his friends. "I'm not PMSing, am I?"
His friends exchanged glances, then shrugged with apologetic expressions surfacing on their smug faces. "Sorry, but you're worse than Itachi sometimes," Sasuke stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
For a few seconds, everyone had thought that Neji was near the verge of tears. "It seems being away from his hair products for a whole day has driven him to the point of insanity," Sakura joked, though it was hard to say whether she actually meant it.
At this point, everyone was so tired and hungry that they all started arguing about pointless things. Naruto began yelling about the colour of the sky, Shikamaru told him to shut up, Hinata insisted that everyone try to calm down, and Ino whined that she wanted to get back to camp.
No one had sense the ominous presence of a ninth person creeping up behind Hinata.
"Surprise! Guess who's gotcha from behind!" the figure exclaimed in a creepy voice that could only belong to a man who had been preying on unsuspecting women for almost his whole life.
Hinata felt someone grab her shoulder, spun around, and screamed into their face as loud as she could, her eyes bulging out of their eye sockets.
The person was so surprised that they, too, screamed back, and soon everyone in the group was screaming out of shock, fear of the man, or in Naruto's case, because everyone else was and he wanted to be part of it. He grinned stupidly as he screamed, and looked around to make sure everyone else was still screaming. They weren't. He stopped.
"Who," Neji demanded, stepping forwards, "or what are you? How dare you lay your hands on the future leader of the Hyuuga family!"
The man, as they looked closer now, was indeed creepy looking. He had long white hair, red paint scribbled on his face, and a permanent look on his face that just asked people to smack it.
"Ooh-hoo-hoo!" he sang, staring intently at Hinata. She backed away slowly into her friends for protection, but all the while tried to smile politely as to not directly offend him. "So if this is Hinata Hyuuga, that means I've found them!" He turned around, opened his mouth, and let out a rather bestial cry , pounding his chest for dramatic effect.
Within a few seconds, a large group of adults came running at them. Kurenai and Iruka had worried looks plastered on their dirty faces, Kakashi and Asuma looked relieved that they had found the missing kids, though it was more because they could finally go back to camp, rather than the fact that they were actually found, and Tsunade was bouncing along (A/N: Tsunade was, not her breasts, pervs!) towards them.
When she reached them, she glared at the group, then at the statue (which she didn't seem to mind was broken,) then at the white-haired man. "What on earth happened here?"
"That man," Naruto exclaimed loudly, but before he could continue, Tsunade pointed a finger at him and glared.
"You, shut up," she said shortly. She pointed to Tenten. "You, continue."
Tenten obliged. "We got lost last night," she mumbled, "so we slept in a cave last night. And then that man," she repeated, pointing to the creepy old man who was staring at Tsunade with great interest, "creeped up behind Hinata and grabbed her---"
"Jiraya!" Tsunade exclaimed, horrified. "How could you touch a little girl like that?"
"No no no!" Hinata stated, embarrassed by what Tsunade thought. "He grabbed my shoulders and just really scared me!"
Tsunade seemed a bit sceptical, but brushed it off almost immediately. "Anyways, the important thing is that you're safe and that your parents won't sue us because this was all part of the plan," she said rapidly, with a stare that told the children they couldn't breathe a word of this to their parents or anyone else.
&&NOS------------------------------------------------------
Once they arrived back at the camp, they were ambushed. Questions zoomed back and forth, and no one had time to answer them. Temari was inquiring about whether they saw any bears, while Kankuro demanded to know if anything else happened besides a bit of sleeping. Chie and Aya shrieked back at Kankuro, threatening that nothing else could have happened, and if anything did, they would be in a lot of trouble.
Sakura immediately bolted from the group as fast as she could to get to her cabin and rid herself of leaves. When she was only meters from her cabin, Chie stepped in her way, her onyx eyes daring Sakura to contradict whatever she was about to say. But before Chie could say anything, Sakura exclaimed, "I don't have time for this!" and pushed her aside so she tripped on her own feet and landed in a puddle of mud. Chie's screech was heard all over camp, and so the rest of the seven decided to rush to see what happened.
Everyone glanced over to Hinata, waiting to see if she would saying something like 'serves you right!' or 'you got what you deserved,' but she merely spared Chie and pitying smile and continued to the cabin.
All of them, including the boys, entered the cabin peered into Sakura's room to see her lying on her bed, moaning from the sweet comfort her bed gave her. She preferred this over the rock-hard ground she had to sleep in previously. Hinata lay down beside her and stared up at the ceiling, just glad to be back. She never knew how much she took a bed for granted.
But the nice moment was ruined when Naruto jumped in-between the girls and whooped, stretching himself across it so that the girls were driven to the very sides. "Naruto!" Sakura blurted out. "Get off my bed!" She pushed him to the side, where he bumped into Hinata, and they both toppled onto the ground. Hinata, who was so caught up in the moment, didn't realize she had grabbed hold of Naruto, (it was a habit of hers to seek protection) and was now blushing madly, though she still hadn't let go.
Naruto was speechless. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to clown around and make a joke, flirt shamelessly and make it seem like she wanted this, or to seem completely disgusted by the idea and jump up.
Whatever his idea was, no one was quite sure of his choice. He began to speak, but all of his words became tied and jumbled in his mouth, so as he was grinning, he was unaware that his words sounded like, "Haba schlubgin oo ya hinay-nay."
Hinata, who was lying on top of him, was utterly baffled and wasn't sure whether it was her embarrassment that made her unable to comprehend what Naruto just said, or whether his stupidity had taken over and everyone else had heard what she did. She felt a sudden heat rush to her face as her eyes rolled back. Naruto stared at her as though she were possessed, and slapped a hand to his mouth. Then suddenly, she collapsed.
And so, silence weaved its way into the air and decided to linger there for a few moments. A few people opened their mouths, but then closed them again, and repeated this process a few times.
"Welll…" Sasuke said, dragging on the ending of his word a bit longer than he wanted to. "Looks like she fainted."
The boys waited for one of the girls to retort with a smart response, but no one said anything. Shikamaru looked at his watch and said, "It's 2:30, I haven't eaten lunch, and I'm too tired to say anything."
"Not much different from normal," Neji muttered, but agreed. Slowly, everyone exited the room, leaving Naruto and Hinata in the same position. Naruto didn't want to move, for he feared he'd wake her up when she seemed to finally be getting a good sleep. But as his stomach rumbled loudly, causing her to stir, he decided he needed food. Now.
So, very carefully, he picked her up bridal-style, lay her in the bed (completely forgetting it was Sakura's room, not Hinata's,) and after glancing around to make sure no one else was there, planted a light kiss on her cheek and left with a lingering glance back before he shut the door quietly.
For them, it was nothing romantic. On the contrary, Hinata never thought that her first kiss (or rather, cheek kiss) would have been achieved by rolling off a bed on top of a boy and fainting. But nonetheless, it was good to be loved. Hinata's eyes fluttered open half-way. She gently touched her cheek, which still burned with a kiss, and a small, sheepish smile tugged at the corners of her lips until she fell back to sleep.
There wasn't much humour in this chapter as I wanted, but I did try to add in some fluff at the end. Jiraya has appeared as requested. I wanted to make his entrance dramatic, but wasn't sure how, so I just had him creep up and 'attack' Hinata.
Once again, I'm really sorry if this chapter didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, but I'll try to do better next time. Reading your reviews actually broke my heart, because everyone was asking for updates and laughing, and I totally let you down. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me this far! I hope I won't disappoint you again (after this horrible chapter.)
I'm so scared to post this, I'm actually shaking right now. Well, I hope you enjoyed.
