AJ: well here we are again, at this little ficcy of mine... and look! I UPDATED!

Kabuto: bout time

AJ: shut up you... anyways, I have kinda an excuse, see I'm not done school yet, one exam left, but still not done, so I've been studying and working on summative in my spare time, since its summer now, I hope to make updates more frequent!

Kabuto: ya, like you'll do that...

AJ: I can't believe you don't shut up!... anywho, the DISCLAIMER is as follows, I don't own Naruto!

Commenties to my Revieweries!

Shadow Eclipse- thank you, heh, your one of the Narutoy Sasukey liking people... I can't stand it, but that's most likely because I hate Sasuke with a fiery passion more than anything else...

Aerisu17- reply eh? Your wrong it's a review!!! Haha, in your face :P and down disagree cause I know where you live... and I can guess which window!

Wormkaizer- here is your Naruto and Hinata stuff, again its only a little, but again more later in the fic... But I hope ya like

Gopu- Thanks

AMI MIZUNO1- sorry it was short, I hope this is more to your length liking and I'm glad you love it



The five jounin sat against a large tree, orange banners hanging from the branchs. Anko and Gai were having a compition, Kakashi was happy at first, glad that Gai was doing one of his competitions with someone else, that was until he realized they were trying to see who could talk louder than the other, and he still had a hangover.

"Anko... why are you here?" he said, sounding very irritated.

"BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE A MISSION AND I HAD NOTHING ELSE TO DO SO I THOUGHT I'D HELP KURENAI!" She shouted at the top of his lungs, not wanting to lose the yelling contest.

"DON'T YELL!" Kakashi snapped, " I have a very, very bad headache."

"Hanvgover you mean," Anko said, in a normal voice again (Gai cheered loudly for winning the contest), "... so you spent the night at Iruka's?"

"Anko, the man blushes if you look at him in a funny way, nothing happened," Kakashi replied.

"Damn, I mean you and Iruka, that's something I'd pay to see," Anko replied. All the jounin went quiet and their eyes were on the purple haired one. "What? I would!"

"Do you always say what ever pops into your head?" Asuma asked after another drag on his cigeret.

Anko paused for a moment of thought before she answered, "Most of the time, yes."

Kurenai shook her head and muttered something under her breath about her friend.

A new voice entered the area. "Finally found you guys," said one of the two young ninjas who walked over to the tree.

"Izumo! Kotetsu! How are the cutest lower level ninja's I've ever seen?" Anko asked happily.

The two had a very blank look. They stared at her then looked at each other and shrugged and back at the group.

"There is a meeting backing in the village," Izumo said.

"For all jounin and chuunin," Kotetsu added.

"We were told to get you."

"What's the meeting about?" Kureni asked.

"I don't know, but Hokage-sama is in a frenzy," Kotetsu replied.

"Sounds important... we should waste as much time as possible," Kakashi said.

Asuma suddenly gave a lazy sigh, "I have to go get Shikamaru."

"We should leave a note for the other kids, so that they know where we've gone," Kurenai said.

"I have a solution for both," Kakashi said, withdrawing a kunai, "Some of my dogs can find Shikamaru and one can stay here to tell the others."

"Alright, summon your poochies and lets go see what all this hulabaloo is about!" Anko shouted louding, dramatically pointing in the direction of the village.



"See, I told you I had an idea!"

"It's a stupid idea."

"You're just mad I thought of something so good," Sakura snapped at the Hyuga.

She was hunched over a small fire, feeding it twigs. Her master plan was to build a fire and put dry leaves upon it creating an exceptional amount of smoke and smoke their cloths. Kiba and Akamaru would smell it, but hopefully not come near thinging it was smoke, and bugs don't like smoke. In her mind she new it wasn't good at all, but she was never going to admit that to Neji.

"There, all ready," she said adding some more leaves, a large cloud of smoke billowing from the little fire and then she stepped back, "you can go first."

"Take the bird then," Neji muttered and walked over to Sakura, handing over the wounded bird.

She took it and he stepped closer to the fire. He unzipped his jacket and slid it off. Bandages ran around the lower part of his torso and up around his left shoulder, his back was also marked with a few scars in the middle of his back. Sakura's eyes swept over them a few times and felt rather sad.

"Stop staring," Neji snapped.

"Sorry... those are from when you-" she started, but her finished.

"From fighting the sound when we went to get your boyfriend back."

"He isn't my boyfriend!"

"But you wish he was, just like every other damn girl in this village! Is there even a reason why? Other than the obession they have with his looks?" Neji said rather bitterly, he didn't like Sasuke, and it showed.

Sakura went quiet and looked at the ground, though Inner Sakura swore at the Hyuga repeatedly. She thought about what he said, she knew there was another reason she like the Uchiha, she just couldn't think of it at the moment.

Neji waved his jacket over the fire, letting the smoke catch it, making it smell. When he finished he slid his coat back on and retrived the bird from Sakura, so that she could smoke her cloths.

She comtemplated what she was going to do, its not like she was going to take off her shirt and wave it over the fire. She stood looking at the fire, the wind tossing her hair gentally and then she smiled, coming up with a new idea. She put some brush on the fire and then moved a bit to stand in the smoke. She coughed a few times, smoke streaming into her face and stinging his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Neji asked.

"I didn't want..." she said while coughing, "... my shirt..."

"Its not like I would look!" Neji snapped.

"You're... mad... I... another good idea," she struggled to say.

"No, its a bad idea. That's how you-" Sakura didn't hear the rest of Neji's reply because she passed out before he finished.



"Tell me if you're slipping, I don't want to drop you."

"Hai, Naruto-kun," Hinata replied, tightening her grip around his neck, but making not to choke the blonde boy.

Naruto was carrying her, piggy back style. They had been walking for a while now according to Hinata's direction.

"Naruto-kun... if you're tired... I can walk," she said timidly.

"I'm okay and you're hurt, I wouldn't make you walk. Plus this is making good endurance training," Naruto said happily.

It was quiet for a while between the two. Naruto, uncomfortable with the silence, tired to think of something to talk about, but he was at a lack of ideas.

"So... what kinds of things do you do in your spare time?" Naruto asked, figuring now might be a good time to get to know her a little better.

"Train..." she replied quietly.

"Train? All the time?" he asked.

"I'm... weak... I need to train..." Hinata said, hanging her head.

"You're not weak, you made it to the preliminaries of the exam," Naruto said.

"Because I was with Kiba-kun and Shino-kun... they were carrying me..." she said, letting her chin touch her chest, her head lowered to its full extent.

"But when you fought Neji you did really good!"

"But... I lost..."

"There isn't a problem losing to someone who is really strong. You did better against him then some of the others would have. You are strong Hinata," Naruto said full of sincerity.

She was silent and looked. Naruto glanced back over his shoulder, noticing the more sad than usual look on her face.

"You are strong," he repeated, "You could probably beat a lot of people." She didn't say anything in response so the blonde genin went on. "You're a different kind of strong too, during your fight with Neji, even after he hurt you really bad, you still kept going, standing up for yourself and what you believe in. It was really brave of you."

"Thank you, Naruto-kun," she said in almost a whisper.

There was another long pause between them before the fox demon's container spoke again.

"Someone once told me that when a person has something precious to protect, that's when they become truly strong. So, if you think you need to be stronger, think about someone or something important to you."

A faint smile formed on the shy Hyuga's lips, tighting her grip on him just a little more and as she thought of a person precious to her.



AJ: NEJI WITH NO SHIRT! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I got nice mental images when I wrote that part

Kabuto: you sicken me

AJ: oh come on, I'm a fan girl I'm aloud to picture bishies tops less... ya... and I gave the chapters names now if nobody noticed and I went back and tried to put little breaks in the last chapter to make it easier to read, but not sure if it'll work... the next chapter is probably gonna be short, but up sooner so ya... see ya then