Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
AN: OMG! I just realized (thanks to lovely reviewers) that I've been selling Neji's last name wrong. Bows head in shame Gomen ne minna-san! Thank you for your patience and I hope that you can all forgive me for my mistake!
Spoilers: until about manga chapter…um 180 something…the one where Sasuke goes bye bye.
Optimism
Chapter Five
By: Poison IvyIno and Shikamaru sat together at Ichiraku, enjoying what Ino called "Together Time" but what Shikamaru called "Troublesome as Hell."
They sat together, enjoying the ramen, and each other's company (though it appeared that Shikamaru was having second thoughts about the latter) when Ino paused in mid-word (a rare enough feat for that girl that her boyfriend paused in mid-chew) to watch something off in the distance.
Her teammate turned in his seat, and looked over to what Ino was staring at.
"What…is that thing?" she asked carefully, watching what appeared to be a cloud of dust and leaves approaching fast.
Shikamaru, more of a regular there, only shrugged and turned back around. "Naruto at breakfast time" was his only reply.
Ino watched wide-eyed as the blonde ninja streaked past them to perch on a stool beside her boyfriend. She wondered what happened to all that speed when he battled.
"Miso ramen please!" he called out, waving a hand cheerfully.
Then he spotted Shikamaru. The blonde jumped up and grabbed his arm.
The lazy ninja tried to yank it away without it being too obvious.
"Just the person I wanted to see!" Naruto exclaimed.
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Why?"
"I need to talk to you!"
"Jeez…what about?"
"Just…" Naruto's eyes grew shifty. "Stuff. Alone."
Ino suddenly grew very interested. She leaned past her boyfriend, and narrowed her eyes.
"Good morning Naruto."
"Uh…hi Ino."
"What do you want with my boyfriend?"
"None of your business." He mumbled. If Ino was anything like her friend, then he had to be careful about what he said.
"Then you wouldn't mind me telling…Sakura-chan that you stopped by?"
Naruto's eyes darted crazily as he searched for an answer.
Shikamaru smiled despite himself. If Ino wanted to know something, she would find a way to find out.
"Well?"
"Ano…" Suddenly Naruto's eyes lit up as he focused on a spot behind the girl. "Look! Sasuke!"
"Wha—?"
But the blonde ninja had already run pat her, dragging a startled Shikamaru behind him.
Damn. Sakura-chan always looked.When she was out of sight, Naruto finally slowed down, allowing Shikamaru time to breathe.
"Jeez Naruto," the chuunin panted, out of breath, "why do you have to be so troublesome? I was having breakfast."
"So?" Naruto glared, "I had to run out before my ramen arrived!"
"Well what do you want anyways?" Shikamaru grumbled, looking back towards the ramen stand, "It'll only take awhile before Ino finds us you know."
The blonde straightened. "Yeah. Listen, whatever I say here, you can't repeat anywhere ok?"
The other ninja suddenly seemed to have more interest in the conversation. If Naruto was treating this seriously, than there must be more than met the eye.
"Why?"
Naruto glanced around suspiciously before glaring. "Just because"
Shikamaru held up his hands, palms facing Naruto. "Ok Ok. Waste of time anyway" he grumbled.
"Do you remember when three years ago we went to look for Sasuke?"
All pretense of joking went out of Shikamaru's eyes. "Sure. My first command mission. Why do you ask?"
"Do you remember anything…strange about Sasuke when we returned?"
Shikamaru thought for a bit. "He was quiet during the trip back, and for a few weeks after, but that's normal form victims of trauma. Also, he had his trial coming up. Why do you want—"
"Shikamaru!" a shrill scream pierced the air, and a blonde kunoichi sped toward them. "Naruto you bastard! Think you could run from me did you?"
Naruto looked off into the distance. "This is too much before breakfast, sounding oddly like Shikamaru.
"Remember. You promised."
His companion nodded, and Naruto ran off, away from Ino.
Leaving Shikamaru to deal with his pissed off girlfriend. Not to mention the new thoughts swirling around in his mind. After all, he had seen the Hyuga kiss Sakura. And he had seen the look on Sasuke's face. Jeez. Naruto's right. This is too much to deal with before breakfast.
"Ohayou Sasuke-kun!" Sakura chirped brightly, skipping onto the bridge.
She had spent half an hour in front of the mirror, perfecting her smile, but it was lost on the Uchiha, who merely grunted and looked away.
But Sakura didn't give up that easily. After all, she was an eight-year veteran at this game.
"Ne…Naruto is late again." She pouted, even though Naruto was the last person she wanted to talk about right then. "You know, one day Kakashi-sensei is going to show up before him, and he'll be so busted!"
"That's not very likely," Sasuke said, examining the clouds carefully.
Encouraged by his reaction, she inched ever closer to him.
"Ne…Sasuke-kun…" she began after a timid pause, "What are you thinking about right now?"
He glanced over to where she was sitting, looking up at him innocently with wide eyes. Well, she would have been innocent, except for the fact that her face was rather close to his.
He was debating whether to answer her or not when a loud, annoying, and all too familiar voice called out.
"Hey! Are you two going to kiss?!"
Sasuke snapped his head away while Sakura looked disappointed.
Naruto looked the same, as if the talk they had yesterday never even happened. There was nothing but good humor evident in his eyes, and Sakura wondered for a brief second if he had been joking.
But over the years, Naruto had become much better at lying and deception, and Sakura could never be sure.
"Don't let me interrupt you!" he yelled, walking over to the opposite end of the bridge, "I'll just sit over here!"
Sakura was all for ignoring Naruto (after all, he did say those awful things about Sasuke-kun) and picking up where they had left off, but when she turned her gaze back to the object of her affections, he had turned away, seemingly engaged in his own thoughts.
She sighed. There's no use talking to him when he's like this.
When Kakashi arrived at the bridge (characteristically late) he was met with a familiar scene.
Sasuke had his back turned to his teammates, with a look of introspection on his face.
Sakura sat as near to him as possible, gazing up at him with a look of pure adoration.
Naruto seemed to be drawing on a stone with water, and even from where Kakashi was standing, (on a nearby tree branch) he could see that it was a ramen bowl.
"Yo." He said carelessly.
"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura screeched at him. Sasuke winced and edged further away.
Kakashi only shrugged.
"Aren't you going to give us some lame excuse, sensei?" Naruto asked, adding steam to his picture.
Kakashi managed to look insulted. "Lame? Excuses? They're the truth!"
Sasuke sighed, as did Sakura.
"Well," she began, "Let's hear it. Why were you late?"
"There was a plague of giant locusts that I had to save a nearby village from."
Sakura gaped at him. "Locusts?" LOCUSTS?" she screamed.
Sasuke edged farther away.
"I don't think you've ever repeated yourself once sensei." He said thoughtfully.
Kakashi shrugged. "It's a real talent…having something to do everyday." He added quickly seeing the twin looks of anger on Sakura's and Naruto's faces.
He jumped off his branch to land beside them. "OK team. Today we're going to work on retrieval."
"Retrieval?" Naruto asked, looking up with interest, "Like of some important scrolls from another country or—"
"He means of pets or something like that dobe" Sasuke said listlessly, earning a pissed look from his teammate.
"That's right!" Kakashi smiled, "An important Fire Country official has lost his Fluffy, and requested, specially, a team of experienced chuunins to do the job. I volunteered us, knowing how much you guys love to trek through the woods—"
"Love?" Naruto sputtered, "more like you're too lazy to get us a decent mission sensei!"
"Fluffy?" queried Sakura at the same time, long since used to Kakashi's habits, "that would be a dog or cat righ—"
"Yup." Their teacher grinned, "Fluffy is a snake. A boa constrictor, to be exact. And the official warned me that Fluffy will most likely be scared out of its wits, so you will be bitten"
Seeing the look of disbelief on Naruto, he added, "Don't worry! Boas aren't poisonous! They crush their prey to death!"
After handing out ear pieces, Kakashi said cheerfully, "Fan out!"
As they went on their way, Naruto went closer to the kunoichi. "Hey Sakura-chan—" he began.
"Are you here to apologize?" she interrupted frostily.
He looked taken back. "N-no. I'm here to tell you that the reason that Kakashi-sensei is late is because he just bought the latest volume of that dirty pervert book he's always reading. I saw it when he appeared."
"Oh." Well that does explain a lot.
"Then I have nothing to say to you Naruto. Come talk to me when you are ready to say sorry." With that she sped away, quickly disappearing through the trees.
Naruto sighed. It really wasn't worth it, pursuing her. Besides, an apology was something that he was just not ready to give. After all, he had just been trying to warn her.
"Sakura-chan?" Ino blinked. Then blinked again. Her usually cheerful friend looked like she had been dragged through hell and back, with strange ring-shaped bruises on her arms.
The girl in question sighed. "Don't ask." Instead, she held open the door of the flower shop for Ino. "You ready to go?"
Her friend nodded, but still looked concerned. "Are you sure that…"
They exited together, walking slowly in the direction of the outskirts of town.
Sakura nodded. "Don't worry Ino-chan," she assured her, "just a little snake fighting. Nothing I couldn't handle…in the end."
Her friend smiled, then snapped her fingers as she remembered something. "Hey! I forgot to tell you! This morning Naruto was hanging around me and Shikamaru, acting weird—"
Sakura's face darkened. "When isn't he?" she growled.
"Yeah, well, do you know why he might want to talk to Shikamaru so urgently? Neither of them will tell me a thing!"
"Naruto and Shikamaru-san?" Sakura blinked. "No. Not really." If this is something about Sasuke-kun…she threatened inwardly.
Ino shrugged. "Boys. By the way, Sakura-baka-chan, why are we going to the Hyuga's house again?"
"Because," Sakura explained slowly, "Hinata-san invited us. You know, she's lonely. Not that many friends outside of her family."
Ino nodded at that. "Yeah. She's a sweet girl. But-" here she nudged Sakura meaningfully,"-you sure the reason that you accepted wasn't because of Neji?"
Sakura blushed without realizing it. "Ino-chan!" she mumbled, walking faster, "me and Neji are barely friends! So quit it ok?"
"Fine." Ino said, stopping the nudging, "I'll hold my peace/ but-" she wagged a finger, "If I find out that you two have been doing anything without informing me of it…I'll tell your precious Sasuke-kun!"
Sakura giggled loudly as the two continued on their way.
Someone knocked on his door, a timid, polite knock.
He put down the light paperwork he had left over from his last mission (a simple reconnoiter one) and called out, "Come in."
A shy Hinata stepped in. "Neji-nee-san," she began, nervously, twiddling her fingers, "will you be joining us for dinner later?"
He thought about it. After Sakura had left last night, Hiashi had called him into his office, and told him firmly that, no matter what his place was, as far as he was concerned, he was part of the family, so will he please start acting like it?
Neji had been sure that Hiashi had only been saying it to avoid further embarrassments, but still…there had been a note of, well, sincerity in the man's voice, and frankly, it rather unnerved him.
"I don't think so Hinata-sama." he said at least.
"But…Sakura-san and Ino-san will be there. And I'm sure that she'll want to see you."
Neji raised an eyebrow. Sakura again? She's here rather a lot, isn't she?
He wondered briefly if she was part of some plot thought up by the main family to make sure that he came down, but after seeing the earnest look in his cousin's eyes, he realized that he was just being paranoid again.
"I'll think about it." he said gravely.
She nodded and left, and for a moment, Neji felt like laughing.
It was almost like…the branch family had been calling the shots on that one.
A nice light chapter with a bad ending. But, I promise, the plot will pick up soon!