You could now see the sun setting in the horizon and the clouds turning orange like. It was getting chillier and you could no longer hear the birds chirping.
"Hey guys, it's getting dark!" Naruto stated matter of factly.
"Why Naruto," Lee snikered, "I never knew you were afraid of the dark?"
Naruto's forhead vein popped up!
"I'm not! I just need to reast!"
"Yeah," Kiba yawned, "I'm beat..."
"They're right. We should sleep." Agreed Neji.
They all stoped and started setting up camp. The girls went wood fetching and the boys set up the tents. Three tents with four people on each one. The first one was a blue tent and was for Neji, Sasuke, Lee and Shino. The middle one was purple and was for the girls, while the last one was green and was for Naruto, Chouji, Shikamaru and Kiba.
When they finnished setting up the tents, Sasuke used his Goukakyuu no Jutso to set a fire in front of the tents and then they placed some rocks and logs around so they could all sit and dine.
They were surounding the fire and eating some marshmellows and talking when Naruto suddenly had a bright idea!
"Hey guys!" He jumped up with a wide grin on his face. "How about... A GHOST STORY?"
Everybody sweatdropped.
"Come on Naruto, I don't think that I want to hear a ghost story now..." Sakura said.
"Yeah I agree!" Said Ino while looking around, especially at Shino.
Kiba grinned. "Are you girls afraid?"
Ino and Sakura scoffed. "As if! We're ninjas for some reason!"
"Well... prove it then!" Kiba grinned even more.
"Well fine!" Sakura said. "Go ahead Naruto! Tell us your ghost story!"
It was like Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving all together for Naruto. He even had tears around his eyes.
"T-thank you... Sakura-chan!"
Tenten stiffled a laugh and shook her head, Hinata giggled quietly while Sakura looked strangely at Naruto who was coming closer to her with outstreched arms.
"Get on with it dobe...!" said Sasuke while triping Naruto who fell, flat faced, on the ground. Could it be jealousy? Nah...
He got up and cleaned his clothes.
"Fine!"
Nruto sat down, grabbed a flashlight and placed it under his chin for special effects! Hinata giggled once more at Naruto's foolishness, after all, it was one of the things she really liked about him.
"Ah, ah... very creepy baka!" Said Sasuke.
"Shut up!" Naruto screamed. "Bastard..." he mumbled. Then he turned to the group. "Ok! Have you ever heard of the..." you could almost hear drums in the background. "BOOGIE MAN FROM THE WOODS?"
Naruto opened his eyes a lot for effect, and talked creepy... or just plain weird...
They all had sweatdrops on their foreheads.
"Don't make stories up, Naruto!" Sakura said, angry.
"Yeah you baka!" Ino whacked him in the head.
Naruto covered his head. "It's true! I promise! Come on guys! Back me up on this one!"
Neji smirked his, oh so famous smirk, and said, "Go on Naruto... now I wanna hear this..."
Naruto started his story.
"It was a very, very, very, very-..."
"Go on idiot!" Another whack on the head.
"Sorry I was just trying to remember the rest of the story! Anyway, as I was saying before being RUDELY interrupted..." He glared at Ino, "It was a VERY dark and scary night... much as this one... the moon was shining on the sky and the woods were silent..."
Naruto was talking slow to give that creepy effect, except it wasn't quite working... and they were all getting bored.
"Go on Naruto!"
"Fine, fine! They all went into the woods and never ever came out again!"
The group was now silent.
"What... that's it?" Chouji asked.
Naruto shruged. "Well... yeah! You guys were in a hurry so... aren't you guys scared to death now?"
They all fell back, anime style.
"That sucks big time Naruto..." Sasuke said while turning his marshmellow. "There wasn't even any Boogie man..."
"Oh yeah? Why don't you tell one then?"
Sasuke silently stared at his marshmellow. "I have enough ghost stories in my own life..."
Everybody got silent.
"Hum... maybe... maybe we should all go to bed..." Sakura said, trying to change the subject. They all nooded.
"Oh wait!" Lee said. "Shouldn't someone be on guard? You know, just in case! We can't jeopardize our youth can we?" He made his famous good guy pose and his theet went... wait... where was the pling?
Everybody stared at Lee with eyes wide open. Some were even whispering "Oh my... where's his pling?"
Lee's expression went to an alarmed one and he placed his hands on his mouth. His eyes showed now pure terror...
"AGH! MY PLING! GAI SENSEI WILL NOT BE PLEASED WITH THIS!"
Lee started running around in circles and screaming. Neji sighed and Tenten scratched her head. Everybody else was still in an awe.
Sakura aproached Tenten. "What the hell? What do we do now?"
Tenten sighed and took some kunais out of her pouch. Then she smirked. "WE don't do nothing... I act, you just sit and watch..."
Lee was still in the background screaming like there was no tomorrow. Tenten kissed her kunai and, with a perfect accuracy, pined Lee down on the nearest tree. Neji smirked, yet again, and walked to Lee.
"Hey Lee... here." He took some of Lee's Pling a pling white teeth all year tothpaste from Lee's bag and showed it to him. "Now Lee, if I give you this tothpaste that makes your teeth go pling will you behave and stop running around in circles?"
Lee's eyes were glued to the tothpaste.
"P-p-pling!"
Neji waved the tothpaste in front of Lee and he followed it like a dog follows a bone.
"I take that as a yes..." Neji looked at Tenten. "Will you do the honours?"
Tenten smirked at Neji. "Sure, it's my pleasure..."
She took out her kunais and, as soon as Lee was on the loose, he grabed the tothpaste and run away from them and into the tent, still screaming...
Everybody had a swetdrop on they forhead.
"Does that happen a lot?" Shino asked.
"Well..." Tenten looked at Neji, Neji looked at Tenten. "Yes!" They answered at the same time. Sudenly Lee's screaming halted and he walked out of the tent.
"Ok..." he started. "Where was I? Oh yes, we can't jeopardize our youth can we?" Then he made a little girly squeek, got serious again, and made the good guy pose and now, his teeth went PLING!
"Whoho!" Everybody cheared! Lee bowed. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week!"
Eventualy, they all agreed that someone should be on guard duty for the night. They would do a two hours shift by teams, starting with team 8, then team 10 followed by team Gai and then team 7 until morning.
Hinata, Kiba and Shino were on the first watch. They all gathered around the fire and after five minutes passed in complete silence they heard something in the lines of...
"ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZ RONK! RAMENNNNNNNNNN! SNORT RAMENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN! ZzZzZzZzZzZzZz"
This was followed by some muffled sounds that resembled something like:
"Shut up down there Naruto!" Sakura yelled.
"We're trying to sleep dobe!" Said Sasuke, annoyed.
"Shikamaru! You better shut him up or else!" Ino's threatening voice could be heard clearly.
You could hear Shikamaru gulp, groan and then mumble "Troublesome woman!" a lot of times.
"I can hear you perfectly Shikamaru! Stop complaining and shut him up!"
"ZzZzZzZzZz RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN! ZzZzZzZzZz"
"SHUT UP DOBE, SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"
"SHIKAMARU SHUT HIM UP!"
"INO-PIG STOP YELLING!"
"YOU'RE THE ONE YELLING FORHEAD GIRL!"
"OH YEAH?"
"YEAH!"
"OH YEAH?"
"YEAH!"
"YOU TWO SHUT UP OR I'LL PINE YOU TO THE NEAREST TREE AND LEAVE YOU THERE TO ROT!"
... Crickets chirping ...
"RAMENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"
"AGH! SHIKAMARU YOU ARE SO DEAD!"
"I'M TRYING YOU TROUBLESOME WOMAN!"
"WELL YOU'RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!"
"OH YEAH! YOU TRY IT THEN!"
"THERE'S NO WAY I'LL GO TO YOUR TENT YOU LAZY BUM!"
"oh for God's sake... WHAT WOULD I DO TO YOU INO?"
"WHO KNOWS? YOU COULD-..."
"SHUT UP! GOD DAMNIT! SHUT UP!" Naruto screamed. "I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE AND ALL YOU'RE DOING IS ARGUE! Jeez... you look like and old married couple..."
"WHAT? OH YOU'RE SO GONNA GET IT NARUTO! YOU STARTED THIS YOU KNOW?"
"SHUT UP INO-PIG!"
"YOU SHUT UP!"
"ENOUGH!" Sasuke screamed. No one has ever heard him scream like this. So they all shut up. And now everything was quiet.
Hinata sighed and looked at Shino and Kiba who shruged. These people sure were noisy...
... ah... sweet silence... at last!...
"BBQ CHIPS!"
"Oh for crying out loud!"
"SHUT UP!"
"YOU SHUT UP!"
Eventualy everybody shut up, well, actualy it was after tying Naruto up so he couldn't move or speak and stuffing a BBQ chips package down Chouji's troath... or so to speak...
So now Hinata, Kiba and Shino only had another hour to look out. Hinata yawned and streached.
"You can try and sleep Hinata," Shino spoke. "I have my bugs scatered around in the perimeter. You can rest."
Hinata smiled and Shino. He was always so pleasent. She couldn't understant why people tought he was weird or scary.
"Arigatou Shino-kun. I guess I'll just take a walk around here."
"Hey! Don't wander too far Hinata! It might be dangerous for you!" Kiba warned her.
"It's alright, Kiba-kun. I'll be fine."
Kiba got up. "Take Akamaru, just in case."
Akamaru ran to Hinata and she picked him up and placed him on her arms. He licked her hand and she giggled. Kiba scratched his head.
"Ano... Hinata, if you run into any danger, erm..."
She smiled reassuringly.
"Don't worry Kiba-kun."
"Right!" he smiled, all his fangs could be seen. Hinata giggled and walked away.
She didn't wandered too far, like she promised Kiba. Honestly, he worried too much. She sat down near a tree and patted Akamaru. She looked at the stars and sighed. A million things running trough her mind, but mainly, Naruto...
"Naruto-kun..."
"Ah! I knew I couldn't walk up on you! You have the Byakugan! You must've seen me miles away!" He grinned. Hinata jumped a little, surprised by his apparition. She hadn't seen him at all, she had been to wraped up in toughts to notice.
"Ah... r-right!" she smiled nervously.
He sat down next to her. "What are you looking at?"
She looked up. "T-the stars..."
He grinned. "Yeah they look cool..."
"Ano..." she played with her fingers, Akamaru was glaring at Naruto. "I t-tought you were s-sleeping, Naruto-kun."
Naruto scratched his head. "They didn't let me sleep! They tied me up! It's not fair!" he crossed his arms. "And... I was kinda hungry..." he grined and Hinata giggled.
Then she reached to her pocket.
"Oh, I t-think I still have s-some brownies f-from lunch!"
She took two brownies and gave them to Naruto.
"Yeah! Thanks Hinata! What would I do without you, hun?"
She blushed and patted Akamaru.
"Did you cook these yourself?"
She blushed again, "Hai..."
"Wow!" He looked impressed. "They're awsome! You should move to my house Hinata! Then I wouldn't eat ramen every day!"
Now, this was a perfectly normal comment from Naruto, made with no intent of second intentions or anything, but Hinata blushed deeply at this.
"Y-you really mean that?"
Naruto nooded vigurously. "Sure!"
She giggled. "I'm glad..."
"HEY!" Naruto looked amazed. "You didn't stuttered!"
She giggled once again.
Two hours passed and they all switched teams. Now it was team 10 turn to watch. Ino got out of the tent and yawned while Hinata yawned on her way in. Ino sat near Shikamaru and Chouji who were by the fire.
"I'm... yawn so... yawn sleepy..."
Ino's eyes were almost closed and her head was bumping forwards. Shikamaru watched her amused and was trying to guess when she would fall and hit her head on the ground, but instead, she fell on his lap.
Her head was resting against his crossed legs and her hair was framing her face perfectly. It was almost too perfect for him to watch.
Chouji, noticing this, turned his head and pretended to be busy with his shoelaces but, of course, he didn't had them because he had those ninja sandals they all wear, you know!
Shikamaru's hand moved to Ino's blond locks, but he stoped mid air. He couldn't touch her... she would notice. He wasn't allowed.
He looked up, trying to distract himself from the beauty that was on his lap. What the hell was he thinking anyway? Ino was just a bossy girl! A bossy troublesome girl! A bossy, troublesome and annoying girl! An extremly beautiful bossy, troublesome and annoying girl...
And this girl could make his heart beat a lot faster than he tought logical... she could make his toughts dissapear and she would be the only thing left on his mind... how could she do this...?
He shook his head and looked around. It was a peacefull night, he doubted that there would be any disturbance, it was highly unlikely. Chouji fell asleep by the fire but Shikamaru didn't woke him up. As long as one of them was alert, it was enough.
And he didn't mind being the one awake, after all, if he diverted to sleep all he would see was shining blue eyes and beautiful blonde locks... he sighed and moved a bit.
Ino woke up and looked around.
"Oh, Shikamaru! I fell asleep..."
Shikamaru looked at her. "Hey it's ok Ino, sorry to wake you up!"
She smiled at him and shook her head. "No problem..." Then she adverted her gaze to the fire.
He stared at her strangly, why was she being so nice to him? Could she be sorry for yelling at him a while ago? Nah... that couldn't be it...
Then Chouji snored and she jumped a little. Shikamaru smirked.
"A little jumpy, aren't we?"
Ino threw her tong at him. "No way!"
He laughed. Yeah right, she was a bit scared, he could tell... so he moved a bit closer to her and gently paced his arm behind her, but he wasn't touching her, he was only trying to make her feel safe.
"Oh Shikamaru! Did you heard that?"
He looked at her, confused. "Heard what?"
She stoot quiet and shushed him. He heard some leaves rastling.
"That!" she had now a panicked look on her face. "Should we wake up everybody?"
Shikamaru shook his head. "That won't be necessary. It's probabily and owl or some other night animal Ino. Why don't you go back to sleep, I'll keep watch."
She shook her head vigurously.
"No! What if it's something else?"
Shikamaru smirked.
"Like what? The boogie man from the woods?"
Ino grumbled. "No, baka! It might be ninjas!"
Shikamaru sighed. "Ino, stop it."
Ino got up, mad at him for not listening to her.
"I'm going to see what it is!"
Shikamaru yawned and streched. "Do as you please."
"Ugh!" she placed her hands on her hips. "You're impossible Nara Shikamaru!"
He smirked. "Yeah, I try to!" and then he yawned. Ino walked into the woods carefully. Her heart was beating faster but she would not falter. She took a kunai out and held it close to her face. Then she stoped and listened closely.
Sudenly something jumped in front of her and she opened her mouth to scream, but Shikamaru, who had been following her, not wanting her to get hurt, prevented that from happen and placed a firm hand on her mouth while whispering in her ear.
"Shh... you don't want to wake up everybody..."
Ino ignored the sudden sensation she felt when he whispered in her ear like that and removed his hand from her mouth.
"What the hell was that for!"
He pointed at the ground in front of her.
"You see that, it's a rabbit. Now let's go back to sleep."
"A rabit... ahahaha..." she laughed nervously, "Right... ahahah..."
Shikamaru shook his head and returned to the camp. Ino stood in the same spot.
"A rabbit? At night?"
She turned back, ready to argue with Shikamaru but she was grabed by the waist.
"Argh!"
She managed to scream a bit until she was knocked unconscious. Shikamaru, who was already seated near the fire, got up.
"Ino?"
He woke up Chouji.
"Wake up Chouji!"
"BBQ CHIPS! Hun? What?"
"Chouji come on!" Shikamaru started, impantiantly. "I think that there might be something, or someone in the woods..."
Chouji rubbed his eyes. "Why?"
"Come on! I think Ino is in danger!"
"Ino?"
They got up and ran into the woods, ears and eyes wide open and kunais in hand.
"Awww! Ain't this precious? Two charming princes come to save the beautiful damzel in distress..."
They looked around and saw nothing. Then Shikamaru spoted something in the woods and pointed in that direction.
"There."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... I belive you're too late... it's a shame really... she WAS beautiful."
There was a tall looking ninja on top of a tree branch. He had long blond hair tied up in the back and with a few strands on his face. His skin was pale and he wore black pants and a black robe, like the Akatsuki ones but without the red clouds, that reached his knees.
His forhead protector was on his leg. He was a mist nin. Shikamaru looked at the guy's arms.
"Ino!"
She had her eyes closed and her mouth a bit open. She seemed to be unconscious.
"Oh, is that her name? Well... no matter now... she's gone!"
Author's notes: Yep! A cliffie...! ah well, hoped you liked this one. I have an announcement to make: I will be leaving for vacation with the family on Sunday and I really don't know when I'll be back. So, I'm really sorry, but there won't be any chapters for a while. I'm sorry guys! Anyways, thanks a lot for all the feedback! Here's the replies for your reviews! ;)
Warprince2000: Sorry if I didn't update sooner! Anyways, hope you liked this one! ;)
Lunarangel: Once again, thank you for your wonderful review! I really enjoy reading them! hope you liked this chapter!
Shika-kun: Hiya! More Shika Ino on this one hun? Liked it? there will be so much more! I'm getting kinda excited just thinking about it! o/ never mind me! Hoped you liked this! thanks!
Magus Black: Hmmm... yes... I will definitly find something for Lee! I really like him! let's see what crawls up my crazy mind! xD thanks for your review!
Loveme731: Well it will be a while until they get to the sand, but Gaara will be there, of course. Sorry, thanks for offering your OC, but I'm really not thinking about pairing Gaara with any girl! Sorry! I look at him as a loner:P anyways, hope you still read this!
Inu4023: Sorry! No NejiTen on this one :s but there will be more up ahead! Don't worry!
Jays Arravan: Sorry! I really don't know how to write NaruHina and SasuSaku very well, but I'll try! See, there was a tiny bit with NaruHina on this one and in the next chapter I have a special something on SasuSaku! You just wait and see:P anyways, thanks for the review!