Blaah. slapped You know, I just realized while writing this, that kicking froggy style while wearing flippers is…difficult..so like…I'm not surrreee…. :p

Beta-er: Rachel

Chapter six: Clues in the Coral


"Sakura! You got him!" Ino said aloud again, and made a sympathetic face, and showed the paper in her hand to me "I'm stuck with Shikamaru. He won't even want to get his lazy ass into the water, never mind search for something." Ino clapped me on the back, "Well good luck!"

I smiled half-heartedly, "And to you too."

Hinata peered over my shoulder at the paper clutched in my hand, "I'm s-sure you'll b-be fine, S-sakura."

"Who do you have?" I looked over at Hinata's paper.

"Naruto-kun."

"Lucky… He's actually someone that's not going go spazz at you about everything."

"Actually he probably will, "She replied. And then added, a quiet, "But I don't mind." Before wandering off to find the whiskered blonde.

I looked at my paper again, and clapped a hand to my forehead. Why couldn't I have shuffled around more in that stupid bucket! Why?

I looked at the crown of people, and right before my eyes, a skinny figure bounded towards me, his spinach coloured Speedo glinting in the sun. His shiny black bowl of hair swished around in a non-existent wind. My left eye involuntarily began to twitch. He looked at me, and leaned back on one leg, stretching his arm out with a 'thumbs up' and grinning ear to ear. I swear I could hear a 'PING' along with it, as his blindingly white teeth glinted in the sunset. Wait a second…sunset?

I shook my head in disbelief, and closed my eyes. Opening them again, I saw to my relief that the sunset was gone…but…I sighed and felt my inner self die as the weird looking boy in the horrifying Speedo didn't vanish along with the setting sun. He was beginning to seem like a spot on a window—no matter how hard you wipe and try and scrub it off, it just seems to come back every time you look. I raised a hand to my forehead, and somehow managed to look him in the eye without letting out some weird noise or something.

"I guess I'm going to be you're—" I began, but before I could finish, a hand grabbed my left hand, and pulled me around, back to over where the teachers were. Speedo-man followed the both of us too. I looked ahead, to see the spiky raven hair of Sasuke. I frowned. What was he doing?

"Anko-sensei, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." She followed the Uchiha along the rest of us.

"I'm sure you know Sakura's new to the school this year," he told her. I looked down at my wrist and noticed that my hand was still clenched in his. I blushed slightly at this, and turned back to what he was saying to the sensei.

"Well I was thinking, because she's new, maybe could I be her partner instead?"

"Well…" She looked over to a short, skinny girl with teal coloured hair and large violet eyes. "Do you agree with this, Sage?"

"Yes, Sensei. I'd rather be with Lee, because I don't know Sasuke-kun very well…"

"Fine then. But only because Sakura's new, and you all agree." She turned to walk away, but I swear I saw her wink at me as she did. I shuddered inside, and walked stiffly off after Sasuke. What did she mean by that?

I caught up with Sasuke. I grabbed his hand with the same hand that he'd grabbed before. "Why did you do that?"

He stopped, looking first at my hand, and then at my face, "Well I'm not sure actually." The look he gave me was slightly confused, but sincere all the same. "Random impulse, I suppose. Why? Did you want to be with Lee?"

I shuddered, "Oh god no, but it was just…random." I paused, the silence sinking in around us slightly awkwardly. "Well…" I started.

"I guess we'd better grab the map, huh?" he finished the sentence for me, smiling. "Besides, Sage sort of scares me sometimes. And I think she sort of has a crush on Lee…that's why she wanted to go with him. You know, most of the girls I've met are too freaked out by his weirdness to even go near him.

I blushed, and smiled slightly back, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "Yup." I replied, and walked beside him over to where Kakashi-sensei was stretched out in a beach chair. The maps were piled beside him, giving him the appearance of someone on a holiday that still needed to finish stacks and stacks of paperwork, but didn't quite feel like doing it just then. "Kakashi-sensei, may we have a map?"

He opened his visible eye, and looked at me. "Sure. Just take one, and then you're free to start when Anko-sensei says so. But don't start before that or she'll chew your heads off, okay?"

We began to walk away, when he called at our backs, "But don't even bother trying to follow anyone else, because all the maps are different, so you'll just get lost."

I turned around, gave him a salute and continued walking. That was a good thing to know, after all.

xXx

"So… We have to find a what?"

"Another clue."

"…"

"…"

"Why?"

"No clue…"

I sighed and slapped my hand against my face. "We're getting nowhere…" I looked to the boy beside me, who was staring intently at the map and instructions, as if they were suddenly going to talk to him and give him an answer of some sort.

"Well…I guess we'd better start following the map, and then see if we can find something, huh?" he stood and offered a hand to help me up. I blushed slightly, and grabbed it, finding myself pulled to my feet in a split second.

"So where's the start point?" I looked over to the map he was holding, but no brightly marked starting point or red 'X' seemed to jump out at me.

"Actually…I have no clue about that either," He said, an embarrassed look plastered on his face, "But I guess following the clues might help…" He handed me the map, pointing to an inscription in the top right corner.

"Follow the path,

Though weathered it be

And at the end

Dive in to find me

But in haste

Do not look

At only the surface

Judge not the cover,

But the book

As for the start

I run under your feet

Like a timeless piece of art

Time I've yet to meet

Hidden I might be

But look and I won't

Come on and find me

Waste time you don't

Swim twenty to the west

Then cut it in half

And swim that to the south lest

You be led off the path"

"What…the heck. Seriously…what the heck… Does that last line even make any sense to you?" I looked up from reading the page to see Sasuke's face even more confused. I groaned and walked over to the edge of an old dock, sitting on the railing. Sasuke followed me, brow furrowed.

Maybe brain teasers and problems like this one were an interesting challenge for him, but for me, they were no more than something else to make my brain try and run away. I saw him move from several places around the beach. He grabbed my hand again. I jumped off the rail and followed him, wherever he was going…which appeared to be where Shikamaru and Ino were diving off the end of the dock.

"How come we're following them?" I frowned…they didn't even have the same map as us!

"We're not. We're following the path."

"Path…?" I looked down at the dock beneath me. Well…I guess it could be considered a path. In a really weird sort of way… I looked at the writing in the corner of the map. "So this is the weathered path?"

He nodded, slipped a flipper on to one of his feet.

"And we dive in at the end?"

Another nod, and the other flipper put on was my reply.

I sat down beside Sasuke and put my flippers on. "I never was any good at the riddles, you know. I'm glad you are." I stuck my tongue out at him, grinned and pulled my mask on, jumping into the water.

xXx

I sighed, and pulled myself back onto the end of the dock. We'd been out the entire day, and I was getting near ready to collapse on the beach.

"What is this? The fifth freaking clue!" I muttered to an equally exhausted Sasuke, who was lying on the dock beside me. He leaned up and counted the folded pieces of paper scattered around us on the weathered wood.

"Nope, seventh. But thankfully this is the last one." He smiled and pulled his mask back on top of his head.

"Last clue forever

You'll find me I'm sure

So be sure to put in effort

Or you'll be back to where you were

I'm pretty colours - violet, blue

Not so hard to spot

I'll be lying in the open water

You won't have to look a lot

Swim to the south

A little to the west

Ten strokes up

Five strokes are the rest

Good Luck!"

Sasuke looked up from reading, "Well at least it's not a wild goose chase like the rest of the clues were…seriously. Clues to find other clues! What kind of scavenger hunt is that?"

"No clue…it's more of a treasure hunt, isn't it?" I stretched my legs out, and jumped back into the water. Despite the fact that I'd been swimming for far longer than I would ever have swam before, it was beautiful. Rays of sunlight shot through the water, bouncing off the scales of brightly coloured tropical fish. Every here and there, patches of coral were scattered about, fish swimming all around them. Once I even saw a turtle, but it swam away too quickly for me to go up to it.

I'd always wanted to try one of those 'swim with the dolphins' things, but Sasuke said that they were out too far at sea to do it here. If they got trapped when the tide went out, they'd probably die. But swimming in the reefs was nice.

I looked ahead of me at Sasuke. His hair looked even funnier underwater than it had when he'd woken up that morning. Whenever he paused to use the clue as a reference (did I mention they were laminated to keep them water-free?) little fish about the size f my pinky finger would swim all around him, as if looking for a home or something. Thankfully one of the bigger ones hadn't come along yet. I laughed at the thought.

Turning to the west according to the miniature compass tied around a strap on my bathing suit, I kicked five times, and looked down. The clue had said that the sea-star would be purple and blue—and out in the open. It shouldn't be too hard to find.

I surfaced and looked over to Sasuke, who poked his head above the water too. "So… We have to put in effort to find something out in the open that's purple and blue this time?"

"Apparently. I'll cover the right side, okay?" He answered.

I nodded and took a deep breath before diving back under the shimmering surface. Kicking to the bottom, I used my hands to fan away the sugary white sand from things half buried on the bottom. I discovered a coupled of rocks, and an angry old crab, but nothing purple and blue. I surfaced again for air and found Sasuke already swimming above the surface. He beckoned to me, and I swam over.

"I think I found something, but you'll have to help me with it."

I nodded, and followed him to the bottom. Sure enough, there was a purple and blue marking—attached to a much bigger object. I fanned some of the sand away to discover that the purple and blue abject was part of a much larger something. I grabbed it by a notch at the side when Sasuke did, and pushed off of the sand. We bobbed to the surface, the—wooden box floating along behind. Wooden box! The sand on top of his had been keeping it from floating, I guess.

"So that entire hunt was for…a box?" I gave him a confused look, and helped tow the box to the end of the dock. He climbed up, and I gave the box to him. He put the box down, and offered a hand to help me out of the water. I blushed and took it. "Thanks, "I mumbled, sitting down on the dock.

I leaned back on my hands, drying off in the heat of the setting sun. Sasuke sat down beside me, looking out over the horizon. Fluffy cotton-ball clouds dyed pink from the sun floated about the sky, chasing each other in the warm breezes blowing off the ocean.

I closed my eyes, letting the sun warm me up. In the water it was warm, but out of it where the winds could get at you, I was glad to have the sun on me. I opened my eyes again and smiled, "Look!" I leaned over to Sasuke and pointed to one of the clouds. "It looks like a butterfly or something."

He laughed, "I used to sit back outside the Academy with Chouji, Shikamaru and Naruto and skip class to watch the clouds. I probably wouldn't have done it, but Naruto made me."

I grinned, and scuffled closed to point at another cloud. A rabbit-shaped one this time.

We sat there for a few minutes, looking at the clouds, when I realized that the soggy box behind us still hadn't been touched. I turned around and grabbed it. "How do you think it opens?" I asked Sasuke, jerking my head towards a padlock on the side of it.

"Well done!"

I whipped around to see Anko standing behind me, twirling a key on a chain around her finger. She handed me the key, and walked off. I frowned at her for such a random visit, but tried the key anyway. Inside the box were a few two liter cans of pop, and almost a dozen bottles of water, as well as a note.

"Count to one

Then two and three

Then join the groups

To discover me,

You're group five

Find six and seven

Thirteen, fourteen

And eleven."

"More hunting?" I sighed, and fell back on the dock, looking overhead. What kind of prize was a box of drinks?

"I guess we'd better find the groups then, huh?" Sasuke stood, and picked up the box of beverages in one hand. With his free hand, he pulled me up. We walked back over to where some of the other pairs had gathered.

"What group are you?" I asked Tenten, walking over to her and Neji. Beside them was a box full of paper plates, cups and plastic cutlery, as well as spices and other things.

"Eleven. You?"

"We're five!"

Tenten grinned, and Neji nodded, his usual serious self. "Let's go find the other four groups then."

We walked around, asking various people, but no one was in any of the other groups there. I sighed, and dropped myself down onto the sand. The other groups probably weren't finished yet.

Half an hour later, I found myself standing next to Hinata, Naruto, Jin, Kiba, Shikamaru, Ino, Lee and Sage. Sasuke, Neji and Tenten were gathered around all of the boxes we'd put together.

Everything in the boxed, when split apart had made no sense, but together, there couldn't have been anything plainer; the teachers had planned some sort of luau for us. Altogether, me and Sasuke had brought drinks, Hinata and Naruto a ham (a/n: wtffff), Neji and Tenten plates and flavoring, Lee and Sage vegetables and rice for the side. Shikamaru and Ino had all sorts of biscuits and pastries, and Kiba and Jin had brought a barbeque grill, a wok as well as cooking instructions for the entire mess. (a/n: a wok is an oriental stir-fry cooking thing, which in this circumstance would be used for the vegetables.)

After reading the instructions, we learned that every pair would be responsible for what they'd brought, everyone was horrified. Not because of the fact that it was terribly hard to understand what to do, but because of the fact that Naruto had access to the ham. I didn't even want to think about what might be cooking in a few minutes, so I turned away, and went to pour drinks.

xXx

I looked at my plate suspiciously. The meat looked edible enough, but I wasn't so sure. I looked around to see everyone looking at their plate too. I looked at Naruto, who was busy shoveling down his food, as if there was no tomorrow.

I sucked in my breath, and let it out with a whoosh. Picking up my plate, I took a nibble of the meat. "This is good!" I took another bite. It was even better than the ham that my parents used to make when I was little.

"See? You'll be a great wife someday, Hinata!" Naruto grinned, and gave her foxy thumbs up, before going back to shoveling down his food. Hinata's only response was to promptly turn a violent shade of red and stare intently at her food as if it was going to come to life or something.

I couldn't almost feel tension leave everyone when they learned that Naruto hadn't touched the meat. I watched Neji nervously scoop up a forkful of vegetables from his plate. He sat there for a moment, chewing. It might have been my imagination, but I could swear I saw his face steadily growing a bright shade of red.

"NAAAAANNNNIIIIIII!" he struggled to swallow, and wrapped a hand around his throat frantically grabbing for the glass of pop by his side. He gulped it down, and frantically poured himself another. Tenten thumped him the one back, and looked at him with concern in her honey-coloured eyes.

He grabbed his plate again, and forked all of the vegetables on it into the fire. The flames turned red for a few seconds as the carrots and peppers burned. They turned to ash, and the fire calmed down again, but all the friendly conversations around the fire had stopped. Every eye was on Neji, who was still choking down glasses of liquid. I frowned and looked towards Lee and Sage. Sage shrugged; like Naruto, she'd had nothing to do with the cooking. I narrowed my eyes at Lee, who was sitting on the sand, a hand behind his head, smiling nervously.

He suddenly jumped to his feet, and gave us all a bit thumbs up, along with the trademark grin the he seemed to share with Naruto.

"Lee…" I felt a death-intending stare shoot through the air at Lee from where Neji sat.

"What?" he shrank back slightly from the glare Neji was sending him, but the smiled never left his face.

"WHAT! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!"

"Believe me, you don't want to know," Sage told him, calmly eating whatever the heck Neji had just thrown into the fire.

I gulped, and looked at my plate. Sasuke looked at me, afraid to try eating it. We both shoveled our helpings of whatever it was into the fire at the same time as everyone else, aside from Lee and Sage. A slight crackle immerged from the fire. Our attention was again brought to fire as it kind of…caved in on itself and burned out…



Blahhhhh…. Next chapter contains much fluff, so be warned! mwahaha

Citree