\:: Wake Me Up ::/

Sasuke awoke to the sound of seagulls and his friend's breath on the back of his neck that sent a shiver over his body. He didn't freak out too much since he was now sort of use to the closeness. He carefully escaped from the blond's grip around his abdomen. Now free and off the bed, he stretched those limbs out, smiling at Naruto who was sleeping peacefully. Watching his friend triggered a pleasant memory within him. He sat back down on the bed at the edge and ran his fingers through a tuft of blond hair lovingly, smiling. 'We're going to get back to that point..eventually.'

With happy thoughts flooding, he carried on with the morning ritual. When he came back out of the bathroom, all he'd put on was a pair of black capri pants. Yawning, he decided to go on and see if the other's were up. He was hungry and eager to get back to his lessons.

Out in the hall, he picked the door right across from him and knocked with one hand, twirling that gem in the other. "Hello?"

No one responded.

He knocked again. "Anyone awake?"

A rustling sound and bed springs were heard, nothing more.

'Oh well, this is important.' He grabbed that knob, twisted, and pushed in slowly, peeping around when it was wide enough.

At first sight, he saw the room was a lot bigger than his and Naruto's own. It's occupants were the main attraction.

Sasuke didn't even try to suppress that smile etching further across his face. The duo sleeping were too precious for him not to. They looked like a couple that had just gotten off of work late or simply had a rough night in general. He could have assumed more because Shikamaru was shirtless like the redhead laid out against his chest with an arm over. Since the covers were askew, he could see they both still had on sweatpants. His eyes traveled back up to meet peering black ones that looked as if they weren't sure what they were seeing.

"Huh...Uchiha?"

Caught, he played it off like he'd just got there. He sort of did. "G-Good morning, Nara! I was just checking in to see if you guys wer-!"

"Shut it." Shika groaned, a hand up to his forehead from the shouting. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Uh-um...just a minute or so."

"Just a minute or so my ass!"

Gaara stirred from the noise, turning his head away from it and bringing a palm over his pillows mouth. "Shhhhhh."

Sasuke chuckled at the scene, stifling it not even a second later when Nara glared him down hard. He was then directed out via an index finger from said grumpy one. Pouting, he departed and closed the door back, deciding to go check on Kiba. He strolled on off, hoping for a more pleasant morning greeting. At the next door, he knocked a little louder. "Hey, Kiba! You up?"

There was a response, and there were also an abundance of other sounds to accompany it, obscuring whatever had been said.

"Are you okay? What's all that noise?" Sasuke ended up taking a huge leap back away from the door as Kiba came bursting out of it, quickly slamming it back shut.

"A-Ahoy, Sasuke!"

"Ahoy there yourself..are you okay?" He asked again, observing Kiba's rather clean and yet messy appearance. The teen smelled and looked like he'd taken a bath. He also looked as if he was smacked with every furry and feathery animal known to man afterwards.

"Uhh, this?" Kiba pulled at his shirt nearly fluffed. "They hate it when I take a shower because it gets rid of their scent. Gaara won't let me eat at the table otherwise and sharing with them is a nightmare so...here I am!"

Sasuke nodded, understanding and amused at the adorable scene before him. He leaned up and swatted at the bundle of fur and feathers in the teen's hair sticking out. "Here, let me help."

"Thank you!" Kiba knelt down so they could reach more, having a feeling he'd be in trouble for arriving like this. He went on and dusted off as much as he could from his clothes as well. "Where's blondy?"

"He's still asleep."

"Dumb ass, of course. What about Shika and Gaara?"

"They're still in bed...Quick question, do they always sleep together?"

Kiba shook his head. "Nah, you guys have Gaara's room. He had to talk with Shika about something anyway so they shared a room tonight."

"Ohhh." That only made his suspicions worse. "Was Shikamaru happy about that?"

"I don't know to be honest. I was half asleep when they dropped me off at my bunk. Why? Are they doing it or something?" Kiba had the nerve to ask and not even wait for an answer. His stomach was growling and he wanted it to stop. He marched straight to their room and twisted that door knob, but it didn't budge. "They locked it!"

Sasuke shrugged. "Guess they aren't ready."

"Wah? No way! It's breakfast time! We never skip it no matter what!" Enraged that his comrades weren't up by now, he banged on the door, shouting, "Open up! You guys can fuck afterwards!"

Sasuke stood there, not sure how to handle the sudden tantrum.

"I'm hungry, Gaara!" he cried out, slumping against the door dramatically. That empty feeling in his tummy intensified.

The door was yanked open rather aggressively, causing an unprepared bratty teen to fall right in.

"What the hell are you on about, Kiba?!" Shika stepped aside in time, arms crossed, clearly peeved.

"I'm hungry! Where's Gaara? Did you guys do it?" he whined from the floor.

"He's changing and standing. Hopefully that answers both of your questions. Why do you ask though?" He looked out into the hall, catching sight of a nervous raven in the middle. "Oh, Mr. Uchiha, spreading rumors?"

"What?! No, no, no-I was just- He misunderstood me!" Sasuke held up his hands in promotion of his defense.

"Mhm." Shikamaru actually didn't mind and so brushed it off. "Why don't you two go get Naruto and set up the table. We'll be there in a bit."

"Aww, fine!" Kiba forced himself up and off the floor over to Sasuke, grabbing his wrist and pulling him along across the hall. "Wanna draw on his face if he's asleep!"

Sasuke snickered, nodding. "Why not?"

\:: Can We Learn To Let it Go? ::/

"45….46….47….48….49….50." Kakashi sustained his position there in front of the foot of the bed, core perfectly elevated off the floor thanks to his unwavering arm strength. He was physically in the zone. As for his mentality, it was slowly diminishing. His thoughts only circled around his missing apprentice. Where would Menma be sleeping now? What was Menma thinking about? Did Menma miss him? Does Menma know he's thinking about him?

"Menma," he sighed out, dropping down on his shoulder then on his back. That name didn't echo in the room as much as it did in his head. Perhaps he'd gotten to close or not close enough. Whatever the case, this one fact remained.

Menma was not there.

How long had it been? A day? A day and a half? It felt like a month or at least about two weeks. He groaned and cupped his hands over his face, eyes shut tight in frustration."I shouldn't of let you go with him. I swear I'm going to kill tha-"

Knock. Knock. Knock.

There goes someone at the door again for the fifth time this morning. You'd think they'd get it the third time that he would gather his things together whenever he felt like it. It wasn't time to leave yet anyway. Obito had to have his schedule system tight. That cut his extra brooding time in half.

"Kakashi! Open up!" Speak of the devil.

"I'm busy packing!" He flat out lied, waiting for the typical response, half convinced Obi had just walked off instead.

"We're going out to eat, drink, and relax before we leave later on today. Think of it as a meek celebration. You coming?"

Finding that odd, Kakashi sat up and asked, "Why are we celebrating?"

For a few minutes there was nothing but awkward quietness which was starting to piss him off. So he forced himself up and hustled over to the door, unlocking and pulling it open to a typical sight. All three of his brothers were in the hallway with an mid argument type of vibe about them. "Good morning?"

Jiraiya was first to speak up with a roll of his eyes, "You coming or what?" All the pervert got was a blank stare.

"At least come to spite Jiraiya."

"Fuck you, Ochi!"

Obito shook his head at the two bickering yet again, turning to Kakashi. "So how about it?"

"Why are we celebrating?"

"Yesterday was the last day. We can all finally go home soon and get this over with."

"We need our students though? All we have is on-"

"Ah-bup-bup! Sshh," Obi interrupted above him, a hand raised. "They're coming for us. All we have to do is wait. "

"What if they don't?"

'...Did you not hear a damn thing I said at the bar?' Obito let those thoughts display on his face. "Don't make me repeat myself."

Kakashi teetered on doing it just to piss off his older comrade. "What happened to me laying low?"

"I've paid off a few establishments and made a few empty promises! So, come celebrate with us!" The way Obito proclaimed that was almost creepily happy. "Sakura and Neji are guarding our rooms. They'll notify us immediately of anything suspicious."

Orochimaru stepped up and patted Kakashi on the shoulder. "It'll be good for you to have some fun."

"Aw what the hell, I've kind of missed hanging out with a mind like my own with to much heart." Jiraiya smiled, car keys in hand. "That doesn't mean I'm talking about you or anything."

"Hm." They dragged out a humored chuckle from Kakashi and a small smile. They just went a whole second not intentionally trying to hurt each other. "Well in that case, let me get dressed."

\:: An Attempt ::/

No one likes waking up to obscenities on their face. Naruto wasn't all that keen on the fact for sure. He stood at the sink, begrudgingly wiping 'baka' off his forehead, swirls off his cheek and drawn on crooked glasses around his eyes. It could've been much worse. He was sure it wasn't all because of Sasuke. No, the blame had to be shared with the brown haired kid across then den area, smiling all innocently by said raven in the booth. He grumbled out, "I know you guys had something to do with this!"

Sasuke played oblivious. "What are you talking about?"

"You clearly sleepwalk." Kiba shrugged, arms crossed. "Or sleepdraw."

"Sleepdraw?!" Naruto shouted in disbelief, looking back from the sink in time to see the two culprits laughing. Snarling, he threw down the rag. Before he could make his way over to them, the door to their little dining area opened wide.

Shikamaru filed in with his street clothes on. Gray hoodie, jeans, and combat boots. Short and basic, hinting that they weren't going to be on the boat much longer. He dropped down in the booth beside Kiba and placed his laptop on the table. He then went to fixing his hair up lazily, grouchy.

"Good morning to you too, Shika!" Forgetting his rampage, Naruto rolled his eyes and went back to cleaning off his face. He wasn't surprised when he all achieved was a grunt.

"Good morning again as well, Shika!" Sasuke tried again this time, cheerfully.

Shikamaru winced, finishing up with his hair and then glaring at the Uchiha, simply saying, "Coffee."

"Pardon?" The raven tilted his head to the side confused.

"OH! Shika and Gaara have this like 10 minute grace period in the morning until they can't function without coffee. So best not to talk to either of them unless it's important," Kiba offered up that little late tippet with a shoulder bump, "unless it's necessary, like this."

Sasuke witnessed the animal lover scoot around next to the clever man and lay against his shoulder. He was sure the teen was going to get pushed off. Instead, Kiba was petted! This threw the raven off on so many levels.

Kiba grinned big, asking, "When's Gaara coming?"

"Soon, so off." Shika stopped petting the child and went to work on his laptop.

"See that." Kiba backed off as told. "If you did that Sasuke, he'd probably hit you."

"No shit," the raven said without care, honestly surprised when Nara laughed at that. Smiling inside at the accomplishment, he almost missed his best friend slumping down beside him all grumpy like. "Naruto?"

"We're heading back in land." Naruto stared across the table at the man responsible. He picked up on that by the choice of the clever one's clothes. He sat up and pushed said man's laptop closed. "Why?!"

It took everything Shikamaru had not to seriously beat the blond in front of him. He propped his elbows up on the table and closed his hands together, bringing his mouth behind them. "I told you yesterday that we- Never mind. You must think this will interfere with you finishing your lackluster training last night?"

Naruto matched Nara's intense stare, slowly sitting back down. "Yeah."

"You'll get to finish. Don't worry."

"That's good news!" Sasuke didn't like the constant tension between the two.

Naruto nodded and said, "I guess...I'm sorry. I'm just hungry."

Sasuke looked from Naruto to Kiba and then to Shikamaru, seeing a pattern. Thinking it a good time, he decided to bring up his concerns. "Do you all want to talk about it when Gaara gets here?"

"Talk about what? Breakfast?" Shikamaru dodged the actual question convincingly ignorant.

"What?! No." Sasuke put his hands on the table. A serious like gesture in some situations. "I mean about what they did to you guys!"

Silence filled the air seconds after and left the raven startled. The three men around him were all sharing a desolate expression.

"What do you mean besides the obvious?" Naruto came to a second later. "I thought we discussed everything."

Sasuke fumbled, not sure how to ask what he really wanted to ask after seeing that. Thankfully, Shikamaru did it for him, kind of.

"He means why are we so easily triggered." Shika sighed in a bored like manner, being the one on board that truly couldn't cope too well with his anger. He opened his laptop and tapped away, waiting for it to power back on. "If you must know, it's just one of the many products of our previous surroundings. I do believe we are making progress though."

"Sure..." Sasuke mumbled, nervously looking down till Naruto put an arm around his shoulders.

"You don't have to worry about us." The blond smiled down at his concerned buddy. "You're mind should be on this training after we eat!" he proclaimed with a smack of the table that he regretted seconds later, seeing how it scared the Uchiha. "Sorry!"

"It's okay." Sasuke dismissed the action, not meaning to be so jumpy. He looked to the pupper teen seconds later, seeing them appear gloomy for once and hugging themselves. "Kiba?"

"It wasn't all bad...sometimes when I think about... about the bad things... it hurts.. and..I-I-," Kiba stumbled as if broken mentally for a little for a second. Randomly, he shouted, "I'ma go get Gaara!" The wild teen crawled up on the table suddenly, shocking only Sasuke. Seconds later after Shika moved his laptop, said teen jumped down, leaving the room without a word.

"Hm, he didn't start crying this time. That's good." Nara's computer powered on like a signal it was okay to talk again.

Sasuke stared, mouth agape. "This is actually worse!"

"What do you want from us, Uchiha?" He glanced up from his laptop, annoyed.

"Why don't we talk about something else?" Naruto shrugged nervously, worried about the tension. "Breakfast would be a good start!"

No one else heard that.

Sasuke crossed his arms and sat back in the booth, feeling a little agitated himself with how the supposed clever man kept taking his actions negatively. "Well I'd like for you guys to at least try talking this out. It worked when you all were in the tunnel."

"Of course." Shikamaru got up from the booth, not aggressively but not in a good mood either. He walked over to the coffee maker and started it up. "How about this, should we live through the first step of our plan, then we'll all sit down at a nice little campfire and talk about all of our traumatizing experiences."

That didn't sound very convincing, nor thrilled. Sasuke sighed, accepting the circumstances. "Promise?"

"What are you, five?" Shikamaru watched his coffee, one hand on the counter and the other on his hip. "Everything I say, I mean."

"Then saying 'I promise,' shouldn't be a problem." The Uchiha sat there determined. His old friend didn't say a word and partially looked uncomfortable.

"You're definitely five. I'm only going to say it so you'll shut up." Beep! Beep! Beep! Off went the coffee machine fast. Shikamaru cleared his throat and retrieved two mugs out of the cabinet, filling them. "I promise."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He came back minutes later to the booth and sat down, placing both mugs side by side on the table.

"Glad you guy's sorted that out." Naruto cheered even though the still angry duo weren't so relaxed.

\:: It's not easy ::/

Sasuke and Shikamaru's feud hung around like a cloud long after Gaara had finally made an appearance and started breakfast. Kiba came back to his spot in a normal manner than the way he left. He had his phone this time and was quieter than usual. Even the redhead on board hadn't really said anything during the time he arrived or when they all finally got to eat breakfast. The only good thing that came out of those awkward minutes, was how quickly the meal was over.

"Everyone take five and we'll get back to training. It shouldn't be to difficult so our little pampered guest won't throw up his breakfast." Shikamaru glanced at the raven he was poking fun at, un-expecting a comeback.

"You must be upset about the promise?" Sasuke brought it up, catching the clever man wince. "Don't worry. I haven't forgotten it."

Gaara chuckled and turned in his seat at the head of their little booth, legs crossed and both hands resting around a cup of sweetened coffee. "My, my, you're already making other obligations?"

"It's n-nothing!" His slight but very noticeable stumble caught everyone except the ginger off-guard. Shika really had a weakness when it came to the redhead on bored.

"Don't be like that. It's okay! I'm honestly proud you're being so open!" Gaara beamed, making his love-struck comrade hit their head on their laptop in embarrassment. He also generated a few low key laughs from the other gents on board. "Are you going to tell me what you promised though? Or is that a surprise?!"

"I said I'd set up a campfire so we can all talk about our … lives at the compound," Shika uttered grumpily, raising up and massaging his forehead.

"OH!...oh…" Gaara frowned, switching his cup to one hand so he could straighten out his own gray hoodie. He thought about his moments there...and then some before. Internal screams rang in his head before he suppressed it all so it didn't surface. He put back on his mask and beamed. "That's okay!"

"You all don't have to if it's that bad I don't want anyone to get worst!" Sasuke said as he scooted up and over Naruto to be near the clearly not alright redhead. Good thing the Uzumaki teen was busy trying to switch spots anyway so he could spy on Kibbles.

"My lord, are we that awful?"

"No! I just...I don't want you guys to...keep things in. It hurts when it's all bottled up for so long." The raven thought about his brother in that case.

"Hmm, well don't worry to much. I think it's a very kind idea nonetheless, and there's no better man to make that happen than Shikamaru!" Gaara boasted, taking a sip of his coffee and carelessly placing a hand over said man's own near the computer. Sound dissipated from the room again among a more light atmosphere this time.

Shikamaru himself had maybe the faintest hint of a possible blush as he nodded a bit, not wanting to move his hand the slightest yet. "Quite."

"Hey, are you two dating now?" Naruto spoke up, looking up from the goat video Kiba was watching. He had still been observing and listening on the sly. "Or is it just physical?"

The redhead went red, the clever man went blank, and the raven merely laughed with a hand over his mouth.

"You're just as nosy as your friend here." Nara groaned, switching to holding Gaara's hand. "Why don't you guys head back on deck, times almost up."

"You didn't answer his question." Kiba dropped his phone on the table to gawk at them. "You two really ar-

"I said head back on!" Shikamaru ordered more firmly this time, shocked to silence a second later when he received a peck on the cheek from a special someone.

"We talked about it last night, Kiba. We're going to try to wait till this is all over. Emotions like this can be very compromising." Gaara showed a smidge of sadness in his own words by accident. "Let that be the end of it, please."

"Ah, oki!" Kiba went back to his goats, waiting for them to exit the booth, knowing damn well he can't leave like he did last time now that Gaara was there.

Naruto shrugged, thinking there reason to be stupid and so pushed an aw-struck Sasuke to move out of the booth. "Hey bud, move it! We've got work!"

As all but Shikamaru left the booth, Gaara prepared to leave behind them. When he stood, he was sort of jerked back into a certain lap, failing at his main strength, scaring himself for a split second. "G-Gah! Shika what are you-" He lost his voice and calmed down when he was hugged tight, a forehead resting against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry! I'm just...I'm going to kill him."

Gaara released a breath he didn't know he was holding and smiled. "Glad you're hugging me then!"