DISCLAIMER : Naruto and all its fantastic characters belong to the twin brother of my mother-in-law's son...Kishimoto Masashi...

CHAPTER 4

"The Others "

As Ino ran through the thick woods of the dark Forest of Death,
she became more and more frightened. It was dark and the air is kind of
stuffy, she never traveled this far nor this deep inside the forbidden
place and with a confused mind, its no surprise how traumatic this
experience can get. With a help of little hallucinations about trees
looking like ugly monsters which probably explains her loose screws, she
fell instantly into a mass heap of dirt.

"Where the hell am I?" she said panting heavily.

She lay under an old oak tree that has barks and branches falling off
piece by piece. Tired from all the craziness she's been, the poor girl's
eyes dropped and felt heavy, Ino gave a large yawn.

"This is frustrating....I just want to...slee...."

"CLUNK!"

a big nut fell from nowhere hitting her head, hard, making her jolt
awake.

"What the...?" She can see birds and stars flying around her head like a
halo. She shooed them away but they kept flying.

"Oh well..." She sighed, touching the sore spot on her crown. Lowering her
head, she then closed her eyes when suddenly another object hit her, this
time, to her relief, is far from hard. Actually, it was rather soft and
slimy and...

"Ok, what the hell is it now?!" Ino lifted her hand to touch the "thing".

...smelly.

Looking at her hands, her eyes blast open and started screaming in
horror as if it was her last.
"YUUUCK!!! B-b-b-bird's poop!!! Help!!" She stammered running wildly
toward all directions.

Due to her exaggerating outbursts, as usual, Ino tripped and
bumped into a tree, rolled endlessly down the hill, hitting big rocks,
flying dangerously high up the air, landing on hard logs, rolled again,
dived into the dirty swamps, chased by a crocodile, emerged from water,
ran again, rolled and finally stopped when she hit an enormous trunk of a
tree.

That was a bit exaggerated but that was a great adventure for a
princess like her, being dirty and stuff, she needs exercise you know.

Well, getting back, Ino who had the senses to asses her
distressed situation, curses in unexplainable rage with more "esses".

"Goodness!!!! This stupid forest!! If I'm not the princess, I could have
died ten times!!! No wonder its called Forest of Death!!! (And why am I
even still alive?)...Ouch!" she complained kicking and hitting a tree
several times and so more nuts, twigs and branches hit her head.

"ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!"

She should've at least thanked the tree for knocking her senses
back (hehe). Finally, after exorbitant tantrums, cries and curses, she
walked away from the scene with only few scratches and bumps, even her
dress is still perfectly intact, nobody knows how. She then started
strolling again, this time looking at the road intently avoiding anything
that might harm her. As she drew nearer the end of the path, something
caught her eye.

A tower, no, a house in the middle of the loathsome place. It had
different colors and weird things glued to it just like what she saw on a
ninja anime, having swirls here and there. The house is not like a small
hut that's suppose to be (maybe some renovation occurred, who knows). Its
painted in dirty white with a red roof and a chimney, it has a second
floor and three small windows in front the higher part and two below. One
thing noticeable is the vast amount of sand on the left side of the house
and a huge training ground on the right. Surrounding it are very, very
tall trees with dents from knives? She approached the house cautiously,
trying to calm her curiosity.

Ino knocked several times almost smashing the doorknob, shouting
and doorbelling when reality struck her...there was nobody home. She turned
the battered doorknob and went inside. The girl was met by a living room
on her right where seven different kinds of bean bag with names made to
form a circle around the fireplace, in the middle is round table which
also serves as a small cabinet below and a dining on her left with
cabinets on the wall and another big round table with seven chairs, ahead
is the stairs leading to the bedrooms.

Actually, the house looks perfectly fine except from the
unbelievable mess around. Clothes were scattered everywhere, the floor
has traces of sand, dust, bugs, cobwebs, and a huge pile of dishes plus a
god-awful stinky smell of...dogs?

'It really looks like a war took place but aside from that, its fine!'
Though Ino thought this with sarcasm. Beggars can't be choosers and if
she wants a place to stay, she would have to live with this monstrosity.
She then tiptoed her way through the dining searching for food, when her
feet was caught onto something...

A severed arm poking from a huge amount of sand.

She fainted.

After recovering from shock, she became skeptical on the idea of
having to stay in her "hideout". What do you know, beggars can be
choosers. But evaluating her current dilemma, it's the perfect place to
at least rest. Ino then decided to just look for food and find a new
'more' safer place without bugs, sands and definitely NO severed arms.

The princess searched inside the cabinet which has seven storage compartments with their own doors. She opened one and all she found were energy drinks and vitamins with names attached to it, but mostly, the sticker says "Lee" so decided to go back at it later. Ino opened the next compartment and found a lot of shampoo, conditioners plus lots of hair enhancement products and Eye cleansers for a guy named "Neji". The girl was a bit surprised to know that a man fumbles over his hair too much. Still no food so she searched the next and found piles of dog food, next were "Sunglass cleaner" with bugs all over, the other compartment, (to her horror) was full of sand, sleeping pills, aniti-pain pills and more severed human parts in glasses.

It creeped her out like hell.

She instantly shut the compartment feeling cold and looking rather pale, breathing hard thinking that terribly insane murderers must be living in this house. To her panic, she then opened the last and was surprised by a pile of different kinds of Ramen. 'At last, something edible...' The shaken girl got one and started preparing the food to eat.

After indulging in the delicious taste of ramen, the princess sought to make her escape but after looking at the room one last time, she felt a bit guilty for trespassing and even taking food. With her "princessly" instincts, she then considered the thought of cleaning the house as a token of appreciation. The now, determined lady, started making handseals and some incantations she learned from Kakashi.

"Buunshin no jutsu!"

Ten replications of Ino appeared and she gave them orders to start cleaning the house.

"where did all these sand came from?!" One of her replication wondered.

"It smells like dogs..." another whined.

"Don't tell me a werewolf lives here." Several told each other.

After a gruesome process of cleaning the ground floor while
discovering more and more outlandish stuffs which includes, kunais,
shurikens, more ramen cups, comb (even porno magazines!) and consuming
half of the day, the once spit-of-hell-house is now sparkling clean. For
an added touch, she placed her ever famous flowers on top of the table
with seven little chairs. Tired from using most of her chakra, she went
upstairs to start cleaning the bedrooms.

The princess went up to find a single door, when she entered, the
room was big and six beds were seen; two sides of the square room had
three beds, each set facing the other three across like a hospital ward.
Each have bed sheet has its own design and color theme. The plain dark
blue, yellow sheet with big red swirls and green sheet with a face of a
man printed who looks like Butler Gai were on her left while a white one
with black paw prints looking like a Dalmatian's fur followed by a simple
grey sheet and dark red on the right. Ino wondered where the seventh is,
since almost everything in the house was made up of 'seven' . She then
thought about the sand guy and the sleeping pills.

'Hmm...Oh well, might as well start' the blonde doesn't want to think about
the any derange murderer, whoever he is.

The original being left, Ino didn't take her time and
finished cleaning the bedroom easily. She was careful not to separate
private things from the bed. Totally wasted and out of chakra, she
decided to rest on one of her favorite beds, the one with the neatest
cover in dark blue and fell instantly asleep.

Meanwhile in a not-so-faraway cave

"Digdigdigdigidigdigdig is what we like to do, digging diamonds to make
us rich...chuchu..." A very disturbing song can be heard that only one person
can sing.

One of the (supposed to be) 'dwarves' that was so pissed off by
the song and never even tried digging gold went outside the cave, wanting
to escape this nightmare, shameful fate, the horror by the most awful
song by the lowest form of human being...no, the singer isn't even a NORMAL
human... whatever it is, the raven-boy had entered when he 'felt' an
intruder in their house 50 miles away. He stopped and used his
'sharinggan eyes' to make sure.

"SASUKE!" a yellow haired guy appeared and with an ear-piercing voice
yelled at him making the other jump almost dropping on his butt. If that
ever happened, what a shame it is to the name of the Uchiha's!

"What?!" Sasuke who now regained his composure at the sight of the
approaching idiot at his back.

"What are you looking at?! Go back there and work!!" Naruto ordered
pointing towards the cave.

"Who are you to order me around??!" The raven-haired boy is definitely
annoyed.

"I'm the leader here for your information!!!" The blonde retorted back.

"The dog-guy said the same and what do you know, he's now hiding behind
his tail..." Sasuke coolly replied. With Kiba's very sharp sense of
hearing, he immediately stomped out of the cave followed by Shino who was
digging using his bug friends.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY UCHIHA BOY??!" Kiba is obviously displeased, fuming
with what the Uchiha had said.

"I said you're still a meek puppy"

Sasuke is a genius, everyone acknowledges that even the loud fox.
Unfortunately, the sharinggan owner is also a genius in making matters
worse .

Well, sometimes, but not as good as Naruto.

"I"LL BURY YOU HERE!!" Kiba was ready to strike.

"Oi!! This is between Sasuke and me!!" Naruto blurted out and went to
attack the raven-haired boy.

The commotion led Rock Lee out of the cave, trying to stop the
three idiots.
Shino on the other hand just watched everything with his perfectly blank
stare, letting his companions beat the crap out of each other.

"STOP!!" Lee tried holding them, but like loose animals, they just gave
him a hard punch, and the fuzzy-eyebrow's thin body flew.

"Ouch!" Lee rubbed his back and looked up to see that he was on Gaara's
feet who was now outside and very irritated with his sudden migraine due
to all the noisiness. The taijutsu master instantly crawled away as fast
as he could looking horrified to see death hover over him. He almost lost
his limbs once. NEVER again. NEAR Gaara is a BIG NO-NO.

Sand-boy on the other hand was nearing the boiling point and was
touching his head in pain, grunting and moaning. This stopped the three
jerks and moved farther away as much as possible.

"What's going on here?" Neji went out the cave looking like the leader,
big boss, father etc.

"Sasuke's not working!!!" Naruto automatically cried out.

"I WAS, but I felt someone inside our house dammit!" Sasuke decided to
get to the point to stop the noisy fox from more complains. Kiba who is
now very sore everywhere decided to shut his mouth upon seeing the
"crazy sand boy" plus the "know-it-all Byakuggan guy".

"Yeah right! You're just making excuses!" the blonde countered.

"Why the hell would I do that? Stupid fox!" Sasuke murmured, thinking that why he even bothered to tell the dobe what he was thinking while he knew from the very beginning that he doesn't listen to things that are worth knowing and besides Naruto is just unbelievably stupid that he won't understand it anyway.

"What?!" the fox-kid asked to Sasuke who just shrugged and walked away.

"grrr...why you...you..." Naruto didn't finish cursing the red-eyed from head
to toe when small creatures came crawling down his feet.

"AAARRRGGH?! Shino! What the hell are these?!

"Bugs" he answered blankly.

"I know! I'm not stupid!" Naruto told the guy while his nerves where
shaking.

"But you are stupid." Shino remarked, even his tone seems blank.

"Was that a joke?!" Naruto asked feeling mortified.

Shino just blinked. Naruto really thought that Shino is weird and all but
being such a 'No Reaction' type of person is really something that kind
of pisses him off.

"ah, ok...just get them away from me! Not everyone are bug-obsessed y'
know" The blonde gave a look of disgust which made the other boy kind of
pestered and sent some of his bug-friends near Naruto's very private
parts.

"YAAA!!! OK, SORRY!!! FINE!!!" The fox kid almost made a strip tease with
his awkward scratches here and there. The small creatures rustled away
from Naruto and the blonde, pouting, just sat beside Kiba who was digging
while Lee joined them.

"Oi, Kiba! Why the hell are you digging? Looking for bones?!" Naruto
asked with his face curled up in a sly smirk.

"Kinda...I'm helping Akamaru..." Kiba answered, not minding the slight tease
in Naruto's tone while brushing his pet's back.

"There's a lot of dog food back home! Why don't you just let him eat it?!
And besides you should be digging jems and crystals, not those slimy
bones! You don't even know whose bones are those! We're supposed to be
dwarfs remember? You should act at least-near-human, dog brain! Get it?
Dog brain!! NYAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!"

Kiba's fangs appeared. Sasuke sighed, Shino smirked a bit while
Lee tried to calm things down. Wait, Shino actually smirked!?! Too bad
his face is covered with a corny over sized uhm..collar? Still the noisy
kid continued laughing until his laughs turned to shouts of horror as if
he's going to die. Well, actually he IS really going to die.

"Shut up" the red-haired with a gourd snapped coldly, quite irritated by
Naruto's never ending babble; Gaara's sand now covering half of the loud
kid's body.

'Serves him right' Kiba and Shino thought while admiring the view of
Naruto's near-death experience.

"Quit playing around, Gaara" Sasuke appeared from the back of the two
genins.

While the bug-guy and the dog-boy gave sighs of disappointment learning
that Naruto's life was spared.

"This is interesting..." Gaara's dark eyes widened.

"Sasuke..." Naruto's eyes overflowed with tears and thanked Sasuke for the
first time. The Uchiha just gave a look of disdain.

"I am the only one who has the right to kill this idiot" Sasuke announced
rather proudly.

"WHAT?!"

To stop more moronic things to happen again, Lee decided to change the
subject and asked the Uchiha about what he said a while ago.

"Ne.. Sasuke-kun, what were you saying about an intruder at home?"

The raven-haired boy didn't answer, tired of repeating himself.
Everyone's attention were directed to Sasuke and seeing how stubborn the
Uchiha is, Neji used his Byakuggan's new profound telescopic power which
can reach up to 70 miles (WOO!) to scan the area and their home.
Everyone upon seeing this hurriedly hid, leaving Neji confused which makes him think that everyone's scared of him. "Hehe..." he snickered. He was very pleased to know that his comrades are all losers and are too afraid to see the real power of the Hyuga clan.

"Why are we hiding? Even Gaara covered himself in a large amount of sand and Sasuke too?" Naruto asked intently to the others.

"Byakuggan can see through anything stupid!" Kiba explained.

"So what's wrong with that?" the fox kid again asked with his eyebrows
curling in confusion.

"BAKA!! You might want to keep your privacy don't you?!" Kiba exclaimed

"huh?" Naruto still doesn't know anything.

"hello??? See-through-anything.." Kiba is getting more and more
impatient.

"Sou! I remember one time Neji used his Byakuggan to see through Shino's
body during his fight!" Lee made a hand gesture hitting his left palm
with the fisted right hand as if a bulb suddenly appeared above his head.

"M-my body?" Shino said lowering his head, his face turning into a pale
shape of purple while looking at his harassed body.

"Hentai!" he added with a very low voice, his face now turning into a fury shade of red.

All four of them turned to look at Neji with burning faces cursing every
part of his human life.

Neji, unbeknownst that he's being ripped mentally piece by piece by his
companions because of his mental capacity to comprehend that he's not
being feared for his power but by his lack of decency using that
"Perverted-eyes" (as Naruto puts it) while everyone's around, is clouded
by all self-uplifting thoughts and is also concentrated on the intruder
in their house. After scanning, and having his eyes back to normal,
everyone reappeared, ready to tear him apart when he concluded things.

"There IS someone in the house."

To be continued....

A/N:

Snow bunny: Did you like it? Ahahaha, I hope you did, actually writing
this is a lot easier since my sister had (at last!!!) the initiative to
write constructively!! We had a lot of fun writing this and we hope that
we portrayed each character nicely (except for Ino whose very exaggerated
of course) We also decided that Neji's Byakuggan be improvised just for
the sake of it... hehehe the concept about everything here is somewhat
original and we talked about it while I was kind of working out...

Kagemaji: I don't know what to say, she told everything...so again, REVIEWS please or E-mail us at kagemaji3103yahoo.com or Snowbunny01313yahoo.com. Thank you!!!

Snow Bunny: Oh, by the way, thanks to my sister who patiently sat by my side while I tire myself typing this even though its supposed to be her fic.. for bringing me glasses of water, getting the cds for my background music and looking at the Thesaurus...(even though she's suppose to be doing all of this and I should just edit it.)