Yay, here's a super, super long chapter for you! bwahaha

Thanks for Rachel (xStrawberrycream) for beta-ing the last chapter and this one :D

And I'm sorry if I make Sasuke at all ooc, but I can't help it…I want him to be like…a nice guy-friend type of guy for some reason :p Maybe cause he's so screwed up in the anime…any who, on to the chapter!

Warning, prepare forodd, Citree-written fluff :D mwahahaha

Chapter four: Seashells and Starlight


"YOU ARE MY SUNSHIIIIINE

MY ONLY SUNSHIIIINE

YOU MAKE ME HAPPYYYYY

WHEN SKIES ARE GREEEEEEEYYYY"

I glared at the alarm clock beside Tenten's bed. It was like a happy little fat man doing a dance and singing the song. Happy it may have been, but not at that hour in the morning. I threw a pillow at it, attempting to turn the noise off. It missed by about ten feet and landed with a 'fwumph' beside the window. I scowled and buried my head under blankets…only to have them ripped off by a cheery Tenten.

"Up and at'em, Saku! It's morning!" she chirped happily

"YOU'LL NEVER KNOOOOWWWWW DEEEEEEEAAAARRR

HOW MUCH I LOOOOOOVVVVEEE YOUUU

SO PLEASE DON'T TAAAAKE MY SUUUUNNSHIIINE AWAAAAYYYY"

I made a growly noise at her, attempted to turn over again…and landed on the floor on my ass. Being woken up by a noisy dude singing may have been bad enough but falling out of bed onto your ass right after it happens is far worse. She grinned at me and threw a lavender skirt and blouse at me, motioning for me to dress.

"It's time for brekkie, sleepyhead." She pulled her hair up into a ponytail this morning, and ran to the bathroom, a bottle of mascara in her hand. I yawned and grabbed the clothes she'd thrown at me. I lazily pulled them on after taking off my pajamas and throwing them in a corner beside me bed.

I couldn't even remember falling asleep last night…the last thing I could remember doing was looking out the window at the pretty autumn leaves…which were far prettier in the light, I noted, taking a look out the window. I was too tired to bother Tenten to get out of the bathroom so I could do my hair, so I just pulled it up into a ponytail for the time being.

xXx

"So what's this dance thing about anyway?" I poked Tenten for not telling me yesterday. We were sitting in the cafeteria beside a tired looking Jin and Ino. Across the table from us were Shikamaru and another boy I didn't know.

"Oh that? Well every year—"

"Let me tell her, Tenny. You're terrible at explaining things." Ino muttered, yawning. "This particular dance is something that only happens once a year, and it's not anything like the other ones."

"How?"

"Well, for one thing, all the other dances take place at either the dance hall down the road or in the gym, but this one isn't at either." She yawned again, taking a roll off of her plate and biting into it. "This dance is special because we get to go on a…field trip? You could call it that. Every year it's different."

"That sounds so cool! The best dances my old school ever had was when they played ugly music in our small gym while everyone sat in corners dying from heat. They crammed all the older grades in there, and with no air conditioning it was like death. What is it this year?"

Tenten made a face to show her sympathy. I took it to mean that all her life having gone to the Academy, there had never been anything like that, so she wouldn't really know what it was like. "It's some kind of beach party thing. We're driving a couple hours south and staying there for the weekend."

I stuck my tongue out f her and gulped down some mochi. (A/N: A mochi is a kind of rice cake) One thing was for sure, and that was that not even my parent's cooking could measure up the quality of food that they served here. Tenten and the others must have been spoiled for coming here so long. Beach party? I was already excited and it was only about 8 in the morning.

"Umm...could I sit here?" I choked on my mouthful of food, coughed and looked beside me with watering eyes. Sasuke stood there, a hand behind his head, as if to tell me he felt awkward standing there when everyone else around him was eating. "I woke up late and Shitahe didn't save me a seat…"

I saw his eyes dart towards the lavender haired priss and back to me. I nodded and moved over to make room for him to sit down. I almost felt sorry for him…but then again, it was his fault for choosing her to go out with. He sat down and forked a waffle onto his plate, very much less tired than the rest of us were. He was wide awake, and looked almost cheery, but for people like Ino and Jin…let's just say they would have rather still been in bed.

I watched him shovel down the waffle. "Hungry much?"

He tried to laugh and almost choked. Coughing, he replied "A little" and went on eating.

I waited till he was done chewing. "So you're going to the dance with Shitahe, huh?" I didn't mean for him to think anything of it, I was just curious.

He frowned at his waffle. I felt embarrassed. Maybe he and Shitahe were going through problems or something. He made a face, "Actually she hates these dance things, so she's not going." He sighed… "Never mind; I don't want to burden you with my problems, Sakura."

Truth be told, I'd never really given any sympathy to guys like that. Always thinking you're too weak to care about anyone else's problems…I rolled my eyes and returned to the croissant on my plate. But suddenly I didn't feel like eating anymore. I missed my old school…I hadn't even spoken to Kirin since the last school season had ended. I wonder if she missed me at all… (A/N: remember Kirin from chapter one?)

Jin stood up. I'd never noticed it before, but she resembled a stork; all elbows and knees; clumsy and awkward all the time. I laughed inwardly. Leave it to my mind to start making jokes inside. I gave myself a mental slap and looked over to see if Tenten was done eating.

I laughed to myself. Shitahe wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, challenging Ino to something when she wasn't even going to bet there. Maybe Ino didn't know, but Shitahe certainly did.

xXx

One week Later…-insert fast forward noise-

"OI! ARE YOU READY YET? YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE AN HOUR!" Tenten hammered her fists on the bathroom door. I snickered; it was my turn to hog the bathroom for once. I gave my hair one last brush before walking out. "Jeez, Sakura, we're going to a beach, not a prom!" I spun around, modeling my swimsuit for her.

It was a mint green coloured bikini. Little flower charms dangled on the ties at each side of the bottom. I had tied one of those translucent scarf's overtop of it, which was pink with little green leaf patterns. Tenten smiled, "It does look nice though."

I looked at her, smiling. She was wearing a light blue bikini top with surfboarding shorts on the bottom. "But don't forget to bring sweaters and pants for later. It always gets cold. And bring at least one week's worth of clothes, because they always change the amount of time we're staying at a place for some reason. "She pointed to the open duffle bag on my bed. Where she'd made that appear from, I had no idea, but at least I didn't have to be a bag lady like I usually did. I started transferring clothes from my trunk into the bag.

Ino came skidding to a stop in our doorway, Jin and Hinata following closely behind. "You guys ready?" She grinned at us, noticing that we were both still packing. "You'd better hurry up!" she said, and ran out the door again, presumably to bother someone else. I finished throwing my clothes into the bag and slung it over my shoulder, grabbing a rolled up sleeping bag from under my bed in my left hand too. Tenten grabbed her own bag and ran out the door. I followed her, not wanting to get lost in the winding maze-like halls of the Academy.

The bus outside was like some kind of house on wheels…complete with a bathroom and refreshments cart. It was like one of those old fashioned English Double Decker busses, except a bazillion times better. I reclined in my seat, looking at the ceiling. Tenten's face came into my view.

"Happy? You look very well rested." She sat down next to me and put her hands behind her head. "It's gonna be a long ride…"

"Why?" I sat up, looking at her.

"Well you know how we're going to a beach?"

"Mmhmm…"

"Well Orange Hill isn't anywhere near any sort of beach unless you're going to swim in a yucky lake somewhere."

"So…?"

"So the drive to the nearest beach is about 6 hours."

My eye twitched. Six hours! The drive from Orange Hill to my old town wasn't even that far! I leaned back again, "Well at least we're not on one of those ugly old yellow school buses that they used to make us ride all the time, huh?"

"Yellow buses? As if." She laughed, "I think we pay enough to attend the school that they can afford to hire one of these babies."

I grinned and nodded. I didn't really know how much my parents were paying to send me to the Academy, but it had to be quite a lot if they had things like coach buses and good food, as well as all of the lands that the school grounds had.

"Okay! Now we have a head count, kiddies, so sit tight and we'll be on our way soon!" The principal stood there, a putrid yellow 'Hawaiian' shirt on his top, a pair of ugly green shorts on the bottom. He had those stupid glasses that let you swing the tinted lenses out when you're not wearing them perched on his head, a clipboard in his hand. "I'm going to call out your names, so listen up. Remember people, listen and silent are spelled with the same letters!"

I gave him a blank stare, and so did everyone else. Tenten shrugged and sat up, a bored look on her face.

She nudged me, "You'd better listen really carefully, though. He tends to pronounce names wrong, and if you don't reply to him, they send out a search party to look for you…which could take hours. So just wait and talk after he's done calling out the names."

I nodded and looked back at Amaya-senpai, Academy principal with mental issues. "Abrami Shinu."

"Hai." The boy who spoke was tallish, with spiky brown hair. I noticed he was also in my geography class. I snorted. His name wasn't really Abrami Shinu, it was Aburame Shino. I guess Tenten was right to pay attention.

"Akimichi Cheesy."

"Mphglm."

I looked to the boy who had spoken surprised it was humanely possible to make such a horrible noise. His mouth was stuffed with chips (which explained the sound), and he managed to clear his windpipes and blurt out a 'Hai' after a minute.

"Aneshi Ami."

"Hai, hai…"

I suddenly grew very sleepy. I started to zone out…he wasn't even near my name, so I guess it didn't really matter.

xXx

"Fuuma Sasame."

"Present."

Crap. I sat up and snapped back to the present. Already at 'F'? I sighed. At least I hadn't been missed…yet.

"Gaara."

"Hn."

"Haku?"

"Here."

"Harno Sakra?"

"Hai." I relaxed; now I didn't have to listen to his boring voice anymore.

A few minutes later, he ended with a flourish at 'Yaminiki Ini' and tossed his clipboard aside. I was thankful he hadn't found anyone missing. The drive was already going to take long enough as it was. I pulled a sweater out of my bag and threw it on over my bathing suit top when the AC started in the bus.

Tenten yawned. "I hope there won't be any traffic on the way…"

"Okay! Trip overview!" A familiar voice spoke out from the front of the bus. Anko stood there, a grin on her face and a tired Kakashi behind her. Genma, my home economics teacher looked at us from one of the front seats. "This time, as you know we'll be going to Shikon Beach, to the south, and our drive time is approximately 6 hours to get there. We'll be there camping for one week, so you'd better not hate beaches." She winked and sat down beside Genma.

The bus started down the road…a very bump road I might add, as the luggage was flying everywhere. My bag ended up landing on my head at least twice, and when it fell out of the overhead rack for the third time I got fed up and stuffed it under my seat.

I discovered the recline button on my chair and pressed it at precisely the time that the bus went over a particularly large bump. My chair went flying back—right into a sleeping Naruto's knees.

"NANIIIII?"

"N-naruto-kun! Y-you're inside! P-please don't y-yell!" Poor Hinata covered her ears. I think Naruto had scared the crap out of her with his yell, as her face was quite a bit paler that usual. He looked at her, and gave an embarrassed smile. She turned a bright pink and looked away.

"Sorry Naruto. I dunno how to get it back up…"

"Okay, first off dobe, don't scream when you're inside a bus. I wasn't even near you, and you were too loud. Second, just don't yell in general…please?"

I looked beside me. Sasuke stood there, a frown on his face and one hand on his left ear—the ear that had been closest to Naruto. He pointed to a switch on the opposite side of my chair from the recline button. "Third off, you use that one to come up. It's a stupid design, but I guess there isn't really anything you can do about it."

I pressing the switch he's pointed to and removed my chair from Naruto's lap. He rubbed his legs.

"Sorry, Naruto. I didn't mean to squish you," I apologized to him. He smiled and told me it was no problem. I thanked Sasuke for telling me how those stupid chairs worked, and found myself staring out the window bored within a few minutes.

The countryside passed by quickly…like it was going somewhere, even though I knew we were the ones that were moving…the bumpy road had ended some time ago, and we were on the highway now. I stood up.

Avoiding Tenten legs on the way into the aisle, I went over to the fridge at the other side of the bus. I passed Ino and Shikamaru on the way…Both of their eyes were closed, and Ino rested her head on Shikamaru's shoulder, snoring quietly. He opened one eye and raised a finger to his lips—he didn't want to wake her up. I grinned. Perhaps Ino hadn't really just chosen his name out of all the guys she knew when Shitahe had challenged her. And perhaps he hadn't just said 'yes' to her because he was just being a good friend…

I grabbed a bottle of water and went back to my seat. I yawned…car rides made me tired…I untied my hair from its elastic and let it fall over my shoulders to help ward of the cold air from the vent over my head. Too bad they didn't have those things that let you turn the air of like in planes.

xXx

I sniffed…something smelled nice…it was a smell that I remembered from when I was a little girl…that nice smell that makes you think of home. I snuggled into whatever my head was resting on that smelled so nice. I opened my eyes a crack, rewarded by the blinding glare of the setting sun. I blinked, trying to get the sun-spots out of my eyes.

I gave up, and closed my eyes again. I didn't want to get to the beach soon…being on the bus was so comfortable…this was actually my first time sleeping on a bus, for a fact. All the other times had been on those stupid yellow busses that are uncomfortable to even sit on, and smell really bad. Like old leather or something. I felt myself drift into the peaceful realms of sleep again.

I yawned—I was thirsty again. I felt for the water bottle by my side from earlier and opened my eyes to unscrew the cap, looking directly into Sasuke's face. I swear I could feel my face turn red. So that's what had smelled so good—I'd been resting my head on his shoulder. I was thankful he wasn't wearing that nasty axe stuff that all the guys at my old school used to wear—I was allergic to it. (A/N: Axe smells like ass. Disagree? Too bad. growl but seriously, does it smells like crap)

"So you're awake, huh?" He was blushing slightly too. He was wearing black t-shirt with a black and red fan on it—the Uchiha symbol, Tenten had told me. On the bottom, he had navy coloured swimming trunks and flip-flops. His bottomless eyes stared into my green ones.

I felt my face go redder. I nodded, too shy to say anything.

He gave me an embarrassed sort of grin. "I didn't want to wake you up."

I smiled, "It's okay…and sorry for sleeping on you…I hope Shitahe doesn't murder me when we get back."

He shook his head, "What she doesn't know won't hurt her…Besides, we broke up just before I came."

I gave him a shocked look. Then I looked away, embarrassed; I didn't want to meddle in his private affairs. "So…where'd Tenten go?" I looked back at him, desperate for a change of subject.

He pointed around the edge of his seat at her. "She went to play cats cradle with Ino when she woke up, but I didn't have anywhere to sit, so she told me to come over here beside you."

I frowned slightly, "Then where's Shikamaru?"

"He's talking to Kiba," he said, "And Jin's over with Chouji," he added before I could ask anything more.

I blushed again. "Sorry…"

"Hn, don't worry, but are you normally this inquisitive?"

"Umm…" I blushed more, "Not really…maybe it's because I just woke up."

He smiled, "I feel sorry for Tenten in the morning then."

I realized what I'd just said was…odd. I didn't really know if I asked a lot of questions when I woke up, either because I didn't notice, or because her stupid alarm clock put me in too bad of a mood to ask anything. I wasn't sure if what I'd told him was true. I smiled at him again as an excuse for not talking and looked out the window.

The sun set—and judging by this, we'd run into traffic. I looked at my watch…Quite a lot of it, actually. We should have been at the beach about three hours ago if it took six hours to get to it. I yawned…how long had I been sleeping on his shoulder? I could remember waking up once, when I'd first noticed the smell. That had been when the sun was just setting…maybe an hour ago. But before that…It felt like my brain was trying to escape.

I gave up and leaned back in my seat, careful not to lean onto him again.

"Alright Kiddies! We're here!" Anko stood up, a grin on her face, and pressed a button. Clod air jutted out onto us from all sides—she'd put the air conditioning on full blast. I yelped and jumped to my feet, grabbing my duffle bag.

Perhaps making everyone wear their bathing suits on the bus just for this purpose had been the teachers' intentions all along…either way I was going to get off…and fast. I ran off into the fresh night air after Tenten, closely followed by Sasuke. Naruto somehow managed to trip on his way down the single step off, and went sprawling, landing flat on his face.

"N-naruto-kun!" Hinata ran over to help him up.

"Pfft, dobe." Sasuke snickered at him, and walked over to help to. I followed him. "Did you not notice that you had to step up to get on or something?"

Ino slapped him on the arm jokingly. "Sasuke! Don't be so mean! You know how Naruto is."

"Hn…" He threw his bag over his shoulder after helping Naruto stand and walked away.

Naruto made an annoyed noise in his throat, "Stupid Sasuke-teme always has to act like such a cool guy or something. Does he really think he's that high above us?"

xXx

"AND DON'T PEEK, YOU PERVERT!" Ino punched Naruto backwards and slammed the door shut. Having absentmindedly followed us to the changing rooms, I suppose he'd gotten what he deserved. Ino packedquite a punch in her arm…Naruto was probably lying somewhere outside dazed.

I grabbed my pajamas from my bag and put them on, throwing a big sweater on top, as it was getting cool outside. I frowned, "Tenten, you know how we're going to be here for a week?"

"What about it?"

"Well what are we going to do the entire time?"

She frowned, "Actually I have no clue. The sensei's will probably have something planned out for us though."

I brushed my hair and tied it with a red ribbon Ino had given me. I piled all my discarded clothes back into my bag. It was about 7 o'clock, and I was so hungry I could've eaten a horse. Thankfully I could smell food from inside. I waited for Ino to finish changing and grabbed my sleeping bag as she'd done and then walked out into the dark towards a campfire with her.

Sure enough, Naruto lay on the ground some distance away, dazed. Ino poked him in the stomach, "Next time stay with Shikamaru or Kiba or something…that way I won't have to bruise my hand again, baka."

We walked over to the nearest campfire. There were quite a few of them, as each one only fit about ten people around it. Kiba moved over to make room for us on the sand. He handed me two long, thin metal sticks with handles at one end and a pointy thing on the other. They reminded me of mini pitchforks. I passed one down to Ino. He handed me a package of hotdogs.

I gave him a weird look. "What are we supposed to do with these?"

He gave me a weirder look back, "Haven't you ever been camping before Sakura?"

I shook my head. "Too many bugs…my mom hated them, so we never went, and before I came to the academy my parents were never home enough to go with me."

"Hmm, that sucks. Well anyways, have you ever cooked on a fire before?"

"No…"

"Never?"

"Never."

"Well that's just weird."

Ino jabbed him in the stomach with her finger, "Shut up Kiba. I'll help her."

I laughed as Kiba wheezed, the breath knocked out of him.

"It's pretty simple—the biggest thing you have to worry about is burning yourself, but usually new people are too paranoid to burn themselves. It's the veterans you have to worry about, although there are some who just never learn." She stuck her tongue out at Naruto, who had seated himself beside Jin and Hinata on the other side of the fire.

"Anyway, all you do is stick the hotdog on the stick and cook it until you think it's done. Then you get a bun, if you want a bun of course and eat it. It's the best way of eating while you're camping, I'd say." She smiled and stuck the meat onto the pole, sticking it into the flames.

I followed suit, careful not to jab my hand on the pointy end of the pole. I felt someone sit down beside me, and I looked over to see Sasuke sitting there, an already made hotdog in his hand.

"Mind if I sit here?"

I shook my head.

He nibbled the end of his food—I could tell it was still too hot for him to eat it. My back was cold as I watched the meat cook, but it was nice having the heat of the fire on my face. I could smell him again, and mixed with the scent of the fire it made me think of my cottage. In the winter I used to curl up beside my cat beside the fire and sleep. Thinking of it brought back memories…I shook my head to clear the thoughts away, and pulled my hotdog out of the fire.

Judging it done, Kiba me pointed towards a table with bund and condiments on it. I went over and used a bun to pull the meat off of the red-hot piece of metal it had cooked on. I grabbed the ketchup bottle and squeezed it. The bottle protested with a loud 'SQUELCH' as the tomato paste came squirting out. I forked some lettuce on, and went back to sit at the bench.

I let the food cool for a bit…Ino was right. I was too paranoid about burning myself to actually get a chance to do it. I watched Ino pull a blackened sausage out of the fire, laughing. (A/N: Okay, I know sausages and hotdogs are two different things, but I feel like I'm using 'hotdog' too much, okay?) I thought she'd forgotten about it until and asked me what I was laughing at. Apparently eating burnt food was something she did often…

xXx

Shikamaru had pulled out a guitar from somewhere, and everyone was singing at our little campfire. I noticed that the campfires were spaced just far enough apart that we could have music and not disturb one of the other groups, but not so far that the teachers, who had their own campfire weren't able to keep an eye on all of us.

I dug my toes into the sand. He played the guitar quite skillfully—he probably took lessons. I looked up to the sky, and let out a small gasp. It was nothing like the city. A vast view filled with little twinkling stars, and a crescent moon. Now I didn't regret at all having to sit in the bus for so long, even though it wasn't a bad bus to sit in for long trips.

In the city only a few of the brighter stars and the moon were visible because of the light from the buildings. Out here, the only light at all was from a small lantern one of the teachers has put to let everyone know where the bathrooms were, and from the fire. But the fires gave off a nice light, and you could hardly see the lantern it was so tiny.

I leaned back onto the sand, not caring, for once, if any got into my hair. Sasuke leaned back next to me. "Know any of the constellations?" he whispered, "I heard this is your first time camping."

"Nope. Only what I learned from those little kids books, about the different types of stars. I used to read a lot of those things when I was like…ten."

He laughed at my comment and pointed directly up at four stars shaped into a sort of box. His hand moved to the left of the four stars to point to three other ones. "See those ones?"

I nodded.

"That's the big dipper; Ursa Major. Most of the constellations depend on the direction you face, and the time of year to see them, but you can see that one most of the time, because it's so bright and big."

"Cool," I said softly. I laughed quietly, "It does look like a dipper…or some kind of ladle at least."

"And that one's Cassiopeia." His hand moved from the left of the big dipper over, higher to five stars shaped like some sort of giant 'w'. "A lot of them are based off of Greek and Roman myths of sorts. I'll show you some books on them when we're back at the academy."

"Really? Thanks" I smiled, and moved closer to him subconsciously. I felt a chill run down my spin. It was cool lying on the sand, but I didn't want to go back to the fire. I looked at the sky…it was such a deep colour…black, but broken up by happy little twinkles of the stars. It was my turn to share some facts, "Did you know there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand in the earth?"

"Really? That's insane." I saw him scoop up a handful of white sugary sand from the beach. "That's really weird…he looked at the handful. But there's got to be hundreds of thousands of grains…in my hand! And this beach stretches down like…almost 5 miles!" he whistled. "I feel very insignificant," he remarked.

I laughed, and watched him let the sand fall back onto the beach. By the fire, I heard Ino begin singing to Shikamaru's guitar.

"Wishing on a dream that seems far off
Hoping it will come today
Into the starlit night
Foolish dreamers turn their gaze
Waiting on a shooting star
"

I leaned up slightly, watching Ino sing. She had a pretty voice. Maybe I'd look into the singing and instrument classes when we got back to the Academy.

"But
What if that star is not to come?
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
When the horizons darkens most
We all need to believe there is hope

Is an angel watching closely over me?
Can there be a guiding light I've yet to see
I know my heart should guide me but
There's a hole within my soul

What will fill this emptiness inside of me?
Am I to be satisfied without knowing?
I wish is then for a chance to see
Now all I need
Is my star to come...
"

The song ended, and I clapped. Ino grinned at me, and did an awkward kind of curtsy-bow from where she sat on the ground. It looked like she was tipping over to scoop up sand in her mouth or something. I laughed. Sasuke sat up.

"Any next calls for songs?" Shikamaru's voice broke the silence that had come after the last song had ended. When no one called out, he shrugged and began to play another, more up-beat song, this time with no one singing. I moved closer to Sasuke, "You should sing!" I whispered to him.

He turned a bright red, visible on his pale face in the light from the fire, "As if, Sakura. I sound like a dying cow whenever I try to sing. I tried out for choir when I was little, and the teacher told me it'd be easier to teach Shitahe how to use polite manners when she talks."

I snorted, "You're that bad, huh?"

"Yup," he whispered, "But don't let anyone know, okay?"

"Don't worry, I won't."

Someone walked behind us, and placed a mug of hot chocolate in my hand. Anko winked at me, and put one in Sasuke's hand before walking back to the teachers' fire. I stared at her back. She'd winked! I mentally stuck my tongue out at her, and turned my attention back to the fire. The wood was starting to burn down now, and it was chilly.

I sipped my drink, scalding my tongue. I blew on it to cool it off before trying to drink again. I laughed as Naruto took a big swig of his and spat it all over the sand when his mouth burned.

"Dobe," I heard the raven-haired boy beside me mutter, "What, did he think? Someone gave him cold chocolate?"

I laughed quietly. Sasuke's cynical sense of humor reminded me of someone, but I just couldn't put my finger on who it was. I shrugged inwardly and looked through the dying fire at Ino. She was leaning on Shikamaru's shoulder again, but this time very much awake. I smiled, she looked to peaceful. Maybe all the singing had tired her out or something.

It was quiet without the guitar (Shikamaru couldn't really play with a cup of something in his hand), but it was a nice silence, not an awkward one…maybe it was because of the crackles coming from the fire. I felt my eyes beginning to droop. I covered my legs with my sleeping bag when I felt goose bumps begin to take over my skin.

I felt Sasuke stand up and grab something, laying it out on the sand before sitting down again. It was his sleeping bad. I lay back to look at the stars again. I didn't know what my mom could possibly say was wrong about camping…this was the freest I'd ever felt in my life. I heard the guitar start up again. Shikamaru had placed his drink on the sand…apparently he hadn't enjoyed the silence very much. Maybe it was too troublesome for him to simply listen to the sound of the fire.

The song was quiet—like a lullaby. I sat up slightly to finish off the last dregs of my hot chocolate before lying back again. A white streak ran across my vision, flying from the right to the left and disappearing almost as quickly as it had come…a shooting star. I smiled; it was my first time ever seeing one.

I can't really remember falling asleep, but the last thing I remembered before waking up in the morning was seeing that star…maybe I should have wished for something…


Holy shizolies. That was the longest chapter I've ever written…seriously, doods. Anyway, hope you enjoy, reviews are loved! haha, you can tell I was all hyper at the beginning and then died down at the end :p

Oh yeah, I changed a bunch of other things, Rach, so if you think it's bad, slap me at school or something XD

Citree