A/N: OMFGWTFBBQCOPTER IT'S AN UPDATE! Enjoy!
Naruto collapsed on the ground, laughing his head off. "Ha HA! Sounds like they've got YOU pinned, Sasuke-teme!"
The self-appointed avenger beared his teeth in an almost animalistic snarl. "Would you care to repeat that?" he whispered, fury lacing through his voice. The Sharingan switched on, the twin wheels of fiery death spinning slowly in the Uchiha's eyes.
Yusuke and Youko looked at each other and coughed nervously.
"Well...no," Youko confessed weakly.
Yusuke looked at him with wide eyes. "Kami-sama...he's like Hiei, only...taller..." The aforementioned fire demon glanced in his direction.
"Hn... Whatever, forget the gay business--in case you hadn't noticed, WE ARE TRAPPED ON A GODFORSAKEN ISLAND."
"Hiei has a valid point," Kurama intoned serenely, having already been at the butt of many a gay joke himself for his...magenta hair...and therefore unaffected by the unfolding scene before him--Sasuke, upon realizing that Naruto was still laughing at him, was slowly performing the hand seals for Chidori.
"The twelve of us are going to have to find some way to get out of this predicament--"
"Thirteen," interrupted the white-eyed boy. He indicated a mousy girl with short hair who was off cowering in a corner...how was there a corner on the island? The world may never know. "And anyway, we really have no idea who you people are...other than the pair of idiots over there." He nodded toward Youko and Yusuke, who were watching a certain livid Uchiha launch himself at a certain cackling blond with a screech and a sparking right hand.
"I'm Hiei," intoned the half-koorime in a monotone.
"And I'm Kurama," added the kitsune.
"Neji," replied the white-haired boy. He jabbed a finger in the direction of the boy with large eyebrows, who was engaged in an enthusiastic conversation with--of all people--Botan. "...That's Lee. I wouldn't recommend talking to him. You've been warned."
"I'll take that warning," Hiei acknowledged flatly. He glanced suspiciously at the silent duo. "And those two?"
"The redhead is Gaara. The guy with the trench coat is an Aburame, but I can't be bothered to remember his name..."
"Shino," muttered a low voice, startling the three. The aforementioned Aburame glared at them creepily, his dark sunglasses flashing in the light.
Following that slightly odd interruption, a timid voice spoke up. "A-Ano, shouldn't we move Sakura-san?" The short-haired girl had walked up to them, tapping her index fingers together nervously. Both youkai realized that she, too, had white eyes. A sudden, dramatic scream following her comment startled them all-- save for Sasuke and Naruto, who were still...whatever.
"SAKURA-SAN! FEAR NOT, FOR I SHALL PROTECT YOU IN THE NAME OF YOUTH!" shrieked the boy so recently dubbed Lee. And he promptly grabbed the unconscious pink-haired girl and took off at a super-sonic run.
All the remaining eleven souls stared absently as the green clad, bowl cut prodigy skipped away with the unconscious pink haired lass. "Dontcha think we should do something?" Yusuke whistled as he continued to stare at the cackling form running further and further from them.
No one dared to say anything, as they were most probably used to it at that point anyway. "We should focus on groups," Shino said monotonously, using his forefinger to slightly adjust where his glasses sat on the bridge of his nose. Few were surprised that Shino actually contributed to something quite useful, as the boy seldom said anything that was other than the response of, "..."
"I call being with the Yusuk-man!" Youko screamed, as he raised a fist of victory into the air. The two boys high fived triumphantly while everyone stared blankly, yet again...
"There's no way I'm going to be stuck with Sasuke-temee!" Naruto shrieked proudly. "Now if there were any RAMEN on this island, I'd be partners with that! And then eat it!" The blond genin giggled, obviously amused.
"O-Okay well, I umm, I'll go with uh-uhh Neji nii-san," Hinata bemoaned, seemingly hurt by the fact that her dear Naruto-kun favored ramen over her...again.
"Botan and I will cover more ground if we are paired together," Kurama stated, "that is of course--"
"WAITAMINNIT!" Lee cried ferociously, as he swung in as if on cue. "I demand a rematch...err, repairing! Since I was not here, it is obviously not fair to me that I, the beautiful green beast of Konoha, have been jipped!"
"Kill me. NOW." Sasuke seethed.
Hiei glared at his katana for a few moments and actually considered it.
Botan, being vaguely paranoid, noticed the Jaganshi's contemplation, and coughed nervously.
"Uh...maybe we should be in groups of three instead!" she blurted out. "I mean, after all, the island can't be THAT huge, and, uh...there's strength in numbers...?" She promptly grabbed Hiei and dragged him over to where she and Kurama were standing. There. That should guarantee SOME degree of sanity--who KNOWS what he would have done to the weird, other-worldly people anyway?
"YOSHI!" screamed a certain taijutsu master zealously. He whipped around and pointed at...Neji. "Neji! As your rival and teammate, I DEMAND that you allow me on your team!" And a second later he appeared beside his teammate.
Slowly, ever so slowly...Neji's eye twitched. This was a nightmare. It HAD to be. There was NO WAY he could be trapped on an island with all these idiots, and, out of all of them, stuck with ye green-clad psychopath, and his accursed MAIN HOUSE cousin. Someone was going to pay. Oh yes. VERY DEARLY.
In the meantime, the other three stoic ninja had somehow managed to interact enough to establish that they would, in fact, be going as a group. Sasuke let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. What a relief. ANYONE would be better than the blond- haired dobe. This left Naruto. Okay, it also left Yusuke and Youko in a group of two. Can you guess where this leads?
"Uh...I guess we take the blond ramen man..." Youko said blankly. "Wow, this is like picking teams at recess or something...whatever." Kami-sama help us all.
Amongst the occasional chirping of one or two random birds inside the labyrinth of the island, Lee screamed in victory while Neji looked in the other direction. Surely the Branch Hyuuga had been all too accustomed to Lee's...unorthodox mannerisms. Hinata on the other hand, felt compelled to scream out of horror while Lee raised a fist into the air and happily trudged alongside his new teammates, bowl cut bobbing in the wind.
"I suppose...we should scout out for any signs of shelter. That is our first priority..." Neji stated suavely. The boy slowly let his eyelids close until he reached optimal concentration. "Byakugan!"
Hinata looked around aimlessly and decided to lend...err, SOME sort of helping hand. "Byakugan!" she immitated in a much less intimidating sort of way. The two Hyuugas scouted out the area, Lee observing patiently.
It had been about five minutes of scrutinizing before Lee's wide smile began to fade. Even he had begun to grow tired of smiling for no reason. "Neji, I've been meaning to tell you something," he announced in an almost triumphant tone.
Both Hyuugas relaxed for a moment and directed their attention to Lee. "What is it this time..." Neji asked, obviously irritated by the fact that there was bound to be stupidity coming his way in at least .5 seconds.
"I found something..."
"What!" Neji demanded.
"Yeah...over there," Lee pointed absently. It had been a mass of twigs and leaves, which seem to have been knocked over. "You mean you missed it?"
"..." Neji hung his head low for a moment while Lee proceeded to whoop and holler.
"GAI-SENSEI WOULD BE PROUD! OHHHHHWAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
"M-make it stop!" bemoaned Hinata as she timidly covered her ears.
"For once, I agree..." Neji said as he acknowledged his cousin's statement of woe.
The moment Lee ceased in his ear-shattering bellowing, the troupe began (stupidly) following the trail of the mysterious...something or other.
"Ah, do you really think we should be l-looking for it?"trembled Hinata, nervously tapping together her pointer fingers once more.
"Yes!" shouted Lee with determination, clenching his fist as imaginary waves crashed up dramatically behind him. "I must face any challenge, INCLUDING the unknown, HEAD ON! And I must defeat all who would stand in my way, to prove that I am truly a genius of hard work. FOR THAT IS MY NINDO!"
"Or," added Neji dourly, "we could just find it, catch it, kill it, and eat it for dinner."
"D-dinner would be nice," the Main House Hyuuga admitted, clutching her stomach as it gave a low growl. None of the ninja had eaten since they'd set out on their pointless, over manned, and likely never to be completed mission.
A snapping twig made all of themswivel around, both Neji and Lee falling into their respective fighting stances while Hinata whipped out several kunai from her pouch. The silence that followed was stifling, but suddenly...
"VENOSAUR!" roared the squat, four-legged creature loping in their general direction. It barreled passed the trio, knocking down a score of other trees in its wake as petals floated gently in its wake, having fallen from the bizarre flower situated on the thing's back. All three shinobi blinked.
"...The HELL was that thing?" Neji said finally.
The other two just shrugged helplessly.
The three aspiring young genin stood there in silence for a moment, Neji rubbing his temples after a few moments. Lee proceeded to scout out the entire area in hopes of locating and possibly smiting the famed 'Venosaur' creature. Striking a pose that would blind even the manliest of men out of sheer horror, Lee screeched, "To abide and protect my way of the--"
"VENO-ROAR!"
The bowl cut prodigy almost dared to leap three metres when suddenly he spotted the aforementioned...thing...whatever it was...
"I-I think it looks... h-hungry!" bemoaned Hinata.
While Neji seriously considered using his Hakke Rokujyuu Yonshuu on whatever the hell was giving him a serious migraine as well as causing his already disruptive partner to shriek and bellow uncontrollably, said genius of hard work turned tail and ran clear out of the forestry.
Wait a minute.
Where was Lee? And Hinata?
Neji furrowed his eyebrows for a moment. "Shit."
The silence lasted for oh... about .5 seconds before the tensai ran from Venosaur,itsrather irritated and frustrated form galloping behind in tow.
Neji would have run longer. Honest.Hejust didn't expect to reach shore so quickly. Being trapped behind an angry sea and an evenangrier animal, he would surely have calculated that SOMEONE would be there to rescue him or at least lend him a helping hand. Alas, the rest of the dysfunctional groups were scouting about on their own.
Neji hissed to himself as he swore he saw Venosaur's eyes flash red.
He promptly considered his last resort to be along the lines of killing it and eating it.
Just when he was about to reach for a kunai, he heard the resoundingscreech of "RETURN, VENOSAUR!"
The teen jumped in fright as he noted a red aura surrounded the creature and in its place, came a compact ball.Neji'swtf-face (and you better believe it's a trademark)came out in full swing as a man garbed in a white labcoat suddenly approached the scene.
"Sorry about that, lad!Didn't mean to startle you! Y'see I'm breeding a new type of Venosaur and thought it'd be interesting to watch as it adapted to different habitats! The name's Oak, Professor Oak! I specialize in this type of thing! Oh wait!" Said old-school professor suddenly glanced at his watch, "I'm late for a date in Vegas!" He screamed. "I'll see you around! And oh, good luck getting off this island! VIVA LA OAK, BABY!"
The Hyuuga could only watch with a deer in the headlights look as the man took out what seemed to be jet powered boots and strapped them to his feet. The next thing he knew, he was sailing through the skies, his retreating form reducing to a small dot in only a mere 5 seconds.
"Well this sucks."
Understament of the century.
The first few minutes of Youko, Yusuke, and Naruto's journey were surprisingly silent. After all, the dynamic Y-duo had yet to determine whether or not Naruto was nearly as big of an idiot as they were, and until they did, they felt it best to keep their inane...plotting...to themselves.
Finally, when the silence became too much for the loudmouths, Youko asked awkwardly, "So...you like ramen?"
Naruto's eyes lit up in a slightly maniacal glow. "Are you kidding? RAMEN IS GOD!" he screamed more than a little enthusiastically. "I mean...it's noodles...and really yummy liquid brothy stuff...and FISH. It's like my life's blood, man! There's instant ramen, and chicken ramen, and beef ramen, and shrimp ramen, and..."
Youko and Yusuke exchanged a Significant Glance as the blond continued to yammer on about what seemed to be an endless number of different ramen flavors. Words were not needed, for they were both thinking the exact same thing.
Oh, yes. This one would do.
Whatever retarded idea had formed within the heads of the two erstwhile teens was forced to wait, as they, too suddenly ran afoul a horrid and vicious creature.
Well, that's not entirely accurate. What actually happened was the unfortunate accident of Yusuke's foot suddenly stepping on the creature's face, thus effectively waking it and leaving all three of them at its mercy. The following, dreadful words suddenly filtered up from the forest floor.
"Poo-tah! Let's boogie! Do-do-do, do-do-do!"
The trio stared down blankly at the creature, which seemed to be either a giant furry ball with feet, or a fur-covered bird body with exceedingly large eyes and a beak. The fur of the creature was black. Its eyes were a disturbingly toxic shade of green. It stared up at the three unblinkingly, rocking back and forth in a way that brought to mind the mental image of either a stuffed animal suffering from a bout of epilepsy or a gyrating car.
"Um...what is that?" Naruto asked cautiously, abandoning his ramen worship to stare back at the thing with blue eyes full of curiosity.
"It looks like the bastard child of Puu and a lemur," Yusuke mused, holding his finger at the ready, just in case. And yes, by that I do mean his pointer finger. "If it were born, y'know, maimed and retarded or something."
"It's a Furby!" Youko exclaimed, his face an indecisive cross between amazed and horrified. "But...it's like, a living Furby, not a mechanical one."
The Furby smiled up at them all with unnerving innocence. It managed to bypass several laws of physics in doing so, the most obvious problem being that no creature should be physically able to smile with a beak. "Me Boonok. You friend." The eyes widened in what might have been delight, but merely made the creature look completely deranged.
Youko's expression had finally settled on horrified. "Oh, this isn't good."
From out of nowhere, thousands of fuzzy not-heads popped up from behind bushes and trees, under rocks, and through the very ground itself. One small runt of a Furby even emerged from Naruto's kunai pouch. They all wore the same expression as the recently introduced Boonok. "You friend," spoke a multitude of voices in complete unison.
And then everything went black.
A/N: The attack of the hindrance known as Furby (but secretly I still like mine so it's all good). So, yeah, we love Oak...so we had to put him in there... it was inevitable. Really, it was.We're on the move, writing our fingers to the bone as we speak, hopefully workin' on chapter 5 and finishing it when we can. Review, thank ya and g'bye!