A/N: Alright, so I updated double!! And I'm passed 200 reviews!! Thank you, everybody, who commented. I know, Sasuke is a jerk and Sakura's being all depressed and Naruto got mangled and Ino wants to kill Shika and Gaara's sadistic. What else is bad? xD
Naruto is now Beta of the Pack, because everybody technically has an invisible rank, and he's third strongest.
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Lantern Moon,
Feather Phase:
Dream
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Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
-Michel de Montaigne
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CRASH. TWANG.
A dejected sigh.
"My God, Nara Shikamaru, is your brain so big that it's made you into a klutz?!" Ino yelled, helping him right the drum sets for the fifth time. He glared at her as the bass drum gave an echoing bang when his shoulder rammed into it. "This thing is so heavy, it's a wonder that you can tip it over!" she chided.
"Ino, we're all miserable enough already, alright? Cut me some slack," he complained as they set down the drums.
"What, surprised that your girlfriend's trying to murder us?" Ino seethed, venom dripping from her voice. Shikamaru glared at her even more sharply.
"Urusai!"
She gave him the hairy eyeball. "Don't tell me to shut up."
"Get off Temari's back, then! Neji's going to make us drive her out, isn't that enough for you?" he retorted angrily. "I'm probably never going to see her again." Abruptly, he fell backwards onto the floor, and put his head into his arms.
Ino faltered, and then sat down next to her friend. "Sorry," she murmured after a little while of silence.
He looked up at her with a dejected expression. "Yeah, it's okay."
"So you really like her, huh?"
Shikamaru sighed, like he often did when explaining complicated math concepts and strategic planning to Naruto and the blonde just scratched his head and shrugged. "Too much."
Ino flicked him in the side of the head. "Well, if that's true, then I guess it's alright."
He stared at her in disbelief. "Seriously?"
She paused. "No."
Ino smoothed back her silvery-blonde bangs from her face, her blue eyes staring at her curled up legs and feet, which had on a pair of immensely fluffy pink slippers. Shikamaru eyed the slippers too, and snorted. "Women."
She pushed him, and laughed a little. "I don't like Temari, but I'm your friend, right? I'm supposed to look out for your wellbeing," she explained. "Even if you don't love me, we'll still be friends."
"But I do love you, Ino…just not like Temari."
"Well, friend-love is different."
There was a pause. Then, Shikamaru said, "I've really been acting like a jerk to you, eh? And you're mad at me. Mendokusai." Ino laughed again.
"As long as you think I won't forgive you, at least you'll still stay with me to try and make amends. That's good. It means you won't leave with Temari, or go off on your own like Sasuke."
He looked at her carefully. "I'm not going anywhere."
-
"Hah!"
Tenten succeeded in connecting a roundhouse kick to Lee's ribcage, sending him flying into a tree. However, he just cheerfully got up again and dusted himself off, giving her a valiant thumbs-up sign. "Tenten-san, you're improving!"
"Improving? Nah, I had it in me to cream you all along," she laughed.
Lee shrugged, seemingly not bothered in the slightest bit of losing his manly pride at being beaten by a girl in martial arts. "I still have not thanked you enough for my new jumpsuit!" He gazed at the green thing fondly. She shuddered.
"That's okay," she replied hastily. "No need to thank me."
Suddenly, her stomach muscles tensed. There was somebody behind her. There was a hot breath on her neck. Then, "Boo." Out of her peripheral vision, she saw a shock of blonde hair.
"NARUTO, I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" she screamed, chasing after him into the house. Neji, who was sitting in the living room and bent over a giant book, did not glance up as the two of them sped by.
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"And so you see, each of us has many probabilities of physical appearance depending on the phenotype of our parent's genes," explained one Yuuhi Kurenai.
Sakura, with her science notebook open, gazed slightly open-mouthed at the board, not really paying attention. She wasn't the only one: most of the girls were passing notes under the battered school tables, and the boys were all gazing at their science teacher wit ha sort of awe, probably due more to her lovely face than to the figures she was pointing to on the board.
Just then, the timer on Kurenai's desk rang, signaling the end of the science glass for the day. Sakura got up in relief, joining the other teenagers in going from the room. There were only twenty or so in the class.
"Uh, Sakura-san?"
She turned to see a shy-looking boy with an honest face and brown hair that fell into his blue eyes. He would have been quite handsome with normal standards, if not for the werewolves living there.
"Would you like to…" he fidgeted slightly, "…go out with me sometime?"
Normally, she would have awkwardly scrambled for an excuse to turn him down, or just plain ignored him, but now she was beyond caring about such things like manners and hurting other people's feelings by a misplaced word here and there. She shook her head slowly.
"Sorry."
He looked hurt and confused. "Oh. That's okay. Why not?"
She paused, unable to think of an excuse that sounded sane. I'm depressed because the man I've loved since childhood, who happens to be a werewolf, has left me to rot here while he goes and seeks control over his maniacal powers, and I hate mortal men who try and take me on dates. Did I mention I'm depressed?
"I'm already taken," she said finally.
He furrowed his brow. "Really?" Then he smiled weakly. "Who's the lucky guy?"
Her wide green eyes crinkled slightly, a real light in them for the first time since he had left. "Uchiha Sasuke." His name fell like liquid from her mouth, smooth and beautiful and natural. She bit her lip until she tasted blood.
What possessed me to say that? He was never mine. He never wanted me. And now he's gone.
But the boy didn't sense anything strange about her. "Oh. I don't know him. Sorry for bothering you, then." He rushed past her towards his waiting group of friends, obviously embarrassed for her less than tactful rejection.
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"Hmm."
The Weapons Mistress was blushing slightly. She had reason enough to. Her cheek was pressed to one Hyuuga Neji's unclothed shoulder blade, which happened to be hot enough to give her sunburn. She winced as she pulled her face away. "That's some inflammation you have," she commented.
For the last fifteen minutes, she had been trying to get ice for him, when Ino informed her that there was none, so she had used sink water, which happened to be too warm because Naruto had just taken a shower with all the cold water, and now she was using her own skin. It was quite cold, as she was clammy with nervous cold sweat.
Tenten pressed her hand flat against Neji's bare back, and his muscles twitched slightly under her palm. "Does it hurt here?" she asked gently.
He turned his head toward her slightly. "Iie."
Circling out from the middle of his back was a huge blue design that might have been a tattoo, if it had not been so intricate. It looked like a cross between a six-pointed compass and a henna sun. In the middle was a rune that looked like a triangle crossed with a sort of abstract arrow. Letters in some ancient script spiraled out from this symbol.
"It's been a while, huh?" Tenten said softly, touching the center of the symbol. He flinched. She drew back slightly.
"Sorry. It hurts there, right?" He nodded stiffly.
Lightly, she touched her finger to the spot again, and growled a word that wasn't in any known human language—a wolf word. For a moment, the spot glowed pale blue, and then the light was gone. She pressed it lightly. He didn't move. "Is the pain gone?"
"Hn."
"Full moon," she mused. "Why didn't you tell me to seal the pain before, if it's been bothering you for a while?"
He didn't answer, instead just reaching over for his shirt and pulling it back on over his head. She sighed in exasperation.
"I know your Mark acts up when the moon's full, but even if you are Alpha, you've got to tell me if it starts paining. No need for anybody to suffer unnecessarily."
"Hn." He stood. "Arigato," he said without emotion.
She rolled her eyes. "No problem."
-
The room was bleary.
Matsuri blinked, and it came into sharp, clear focus. She shook her head, and then attempted to stretch. Instantly, sharp pain arched across her chest. She gasped, and reached up with her hand to touch her collarbones. Crusted blood.
Previous events scooted into her head. She gasped again and sat up abruptly, wincing at the protesting throb of pain in her ribcage.
"Awake," said a cold voice.
She started, and faced her sensei. "Hai, sensei," she murmured, her eyes downcast and unsure of what to say. She felt indignant and angry at his treatment of her of recent, but was so used to the submissive attitude that one should have to their sensei that she forced herself not to say anything rash. However, she couldn't stop herself from asking why, at least.
"I made a mistake, Gaara-sensei," she said in a low voice, "And for that I apologize. There was no point in shedding blood, whether it was mine or not." She had surprised herself by her own unshaken voice.
The red-haired man stared coldly at her, and then stood, and walked to the window, his back turned to her. "There is no point to life," he replied flatly.
She cocked her head and stared at him curiously. "There is!" she said, and then blushed at her own forwardness. "I…I mean, there's love and friends and happiness, isn't there?" she stammered.
His eyes were cold as glass when he turned to face her again. "Perhaps. I love nobody but myself," he said in a monotone that clearly stated that there was to be no more conversation on the matter.
"Come," he said, motioning to her to stand.
She did, and staggered slightly. He was already opening the door, and turned slightly in her direction. "I will accompany you to the garden. Temari is waiting."
For what? she wondered.
However, he had already swept out of the room, and so she followed.
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"Aw, there's no ramen left!" Naruto declared as if this was the greatest catastrophe to ever encounter mankind. He sullenly shut the door of the pantry, and sagged into a chair at the table. Hinata and Lee, who were also there, stared at him.
"Ah, Naruto-kun, your youthful humor inspires me!!" Lee declared at last in response to the ensuing silence. Naruto made a grouchy face at him, squinting like a child with sand in his eye.
"Bushy-brow, I wasn't joking."
"W-We could g-go and get more," Hinata suggested mildly, her lips slightly smiling in spite of herself. The blonde wolf never ceased to amaze her, in terms of humor or otherwise. He put his head on his folded arms, which rested on the table, and looked at her admiringly.
"That's a good idea!" he declared.
Lee put his hand up in the air, as if being called on in class. "Naruto-kun, I think that was just common sense, which the youthful Hinata-san possesses in great quantities! I do declare that she is remarkable!" he crowed. Hinata blushed nine shades of red, and tried without success to compose her face into an expression which would politely stop Lee from ranting on about her.
"Naa, Hinata-chan, I think you're better than ramen," Naruto muttered, yawning and stretching his arms. That statement made Hinata blush all over again.
"A-Arigato."
Naruto cocked his head at her. "For what?"
She looked at him with wide, innocent white eyes, and smiled brightly, bringing color into her usually pale features. "For b-being Naruto-kun." Naruto shrugged with an air of false modesty.
"Hinata-chan, I'm not that great…"
"Oh, shut up, baka, we all know that you think you're the greatest thing that ever happened to the world and that you're someday going to be great and rich and all that," Ino interjected, walking into the kitchen and rolling her blue eyes.
Naruto scowled. "Maybe."
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A/N: Some fluffiness there!