A/N: Okay, time to do some necessary sorting out. First; Sasuke is gone in this fic. Second; the Sandaime is still alive. Third; Gaara isn't Kazekage. Obviously. Fourth; Sakura has already trained with Tsunade. The rest you'll see.
Chapter Eleven: Encounter at the Ichiraku Ramen
Gaara shook his head, and Shai shrugged. She knew Gaara knew that she knew that he knew that Shai wasn't going to the Ichiraku Ramen for lunch. He just knew.
"I'm coming with you."
Shai shook her head, "No, you're not. When I get back, we can read the mission report together. If you hadn't got this already, well, I'm supposed to help you out."
It was Gaara's turn to shrug. He shifted slightly so that he was blocking the hallway to the front door, a slight smirk playing upon his lips. Shai sighed dejectedly, and slumped forwards. She had lost the battle.
"Fine, come on." She moved to brush past Gaara, but he caught her upper arm and cocked an eyebrow. Shai rolled her eyes and leaned up to briefly kiss Gaara on the cheek before wrapping her arms around his neck to smile up at his face. He 'Hn'ed and leaned down to kiss Shai properly.
"Ahem. Some of us need to leave?"
They both jumped apart at the sound of Temari's voice. Shai giggled and bounced out of the hall towards the door. She was in a better mood already. When Shai reached the end of the small walkway that led to the sand-nin's temporary house, she turned to see Kankuro locking up the place, Temari and Gaara nowhere to be seen.
She shrugged and turned around, and almost jumped when she was standing nose-to-chin with Gaara.
"Boo."
Shai chuckled and shook her head. Moving once again to brush past Gaara, she half expected him to grab her arm again, and felt slightly disappointed when she didn't. Sighing to herself, she began to walk towards the Ichiraku Ramen ... Or, at least where she thought it was.
Twice on the trip over to the shop, Shai had to be tapped on the shoulder and directed in the proper direction by Gaara, and once she had to turn around because they had gotten ... Lost, to say the least. It took them a total of thirty minutes to get there from a fifteen minute trip.
As Shai approached the shop, her anger returned with a vengeance. She huffed up and started stomping towards the place, and only calmed down enough to enter when she felt Gaara's hand on her shoulder.
When they entered the Ichiraku Ramen, Gaara froze at the sound of another boy's voice.
"... And then we'll jump out at them! It'll be a total surprise!"
"You idiot! They would be expecting that kind of thing!"
"Oi! Don't hit me!"
"I hit you because you're an idiot!"
"Guys, guys! Calm down."
" ... Yeah, shut up Naruto."
"What did you say to me?"
"I said, shut up. I guess you're deaf too."
Shai glanced over at the noisy table of seven, then back to Gaara. Something about his face was ... Odd. Shai gently touched his shoulder and he jumped. He shook his head and nodded over at the counter, and Shai's face soured.
"Right ... My reason for coming here ..." She quickly turned on the man that was at the counter. Luckily it was the same man from before.
"Hey! You! Who made my ramen last night? I demand to know!"
The man at the counter smiled, thinking that she'd come to compliment the chef, or something nice like that. Obviously, he was blind, "Oh, I did, miss! Why? Was it that good?"
Shai closed her eyes to keep her temper in check, and when she opened them again, she exploded.
"Was it good? Oh, sure, it was good. So good I almost died!"
The man at the counter shrugged, a smile still hanging on his face. "Well, maybe you have an allergy to the food?"
Shai trembled in anger, and her voice was laced with venom, "An allergy? Is that what you call falling out the fucking window?"
Something touched Shai's shoulder. She looked over and saw Gaara, and she immediately got the reins on her temper. Closing her eyes again and taking four deep breaths, Shai could feel herself relax. When she opened her eyes again, she realized someone was talking to her and Gaara.
" ... Here! Come and sit with us!"
The boy had blond hair that seemed to defy gravity, and curious blue eyes. Shai looked up at Gaara's face, and he looked back. Nodding subtly, Shai sawGaara's nose twitch, and his mouth turned up in a smirk. That was a good sign, obviously.
Gaara nodded at the boy and walked over to their table. Shai noticed that when he sat down in one of the small spaces left to sit in, almost everyone shifted away from him. She would have done the same a month or two back, but she was barely afraid of anything now. She giggled and sat next to Gaara, forcing him to move closer to the ones that didn't want him to sit there. Gaara justmoved over andcrossed his arms.
"So, who's the girl? Is she your girlfriend?" It seemed that only the blond boy was willing to talk to Gaara. Shai was, of course, too shy to speak first so she just looked between Gaara and the blond boy.
"Hn." Gaara glared at Naruto, but the gaze he was giving him didn't scream bloody murder. It seemed ... Friendly, somehow.
"Aren't you going to introduce her?" The blond boy looked over at Shai, having second thoughts,"Or can you introduce yourself?"
Shai blushed, and held out her hand to the boy, "I'm Shai."
Naruto cocked his head but shook her hand, "I know you're shy. But what's your name?"
Shai glared across the table at the boy, gripping his hand as tight as possible. She even heard something in his hand pop, and he flinched. Even if she did get that a lot, it was a bit embarrassing for it to happen with a group. She heard snickering from somewhere to her left, and she released the boy's hand, "My name is Shai. S-H-A-I."
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be Hokage one day!" Naruto rubbed his hand, and cringed when one of the only girls at the table smacked him upside the head.
"Is it physcally impossible for you to appologize? And do you always have to say that! Anyways ..." The girl had pink hair and bright green eyes. She turned to Shai, her own hand outstretched, "I'm Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you Shai."
Shai gripped Sakura's hand in a friendly handshake. Shai liked this girl for some reason. When they released each other from the handshake, Shai heard a muffled whine from across the table. When she looked over, she saw a boy with messy brown hair, red markings down his cheeks and interesting dark eyes.
"Akamaru, it's alright. Come out and say hello." The boy seemed to be talking to a whining, trembling lump in his jacket. He unzipped it down to mid chest and a little white dog poked it's head out.
"Aww .. What a cute dog .." Shai looked up at the boy, then back at the dog, "Can I pet him?"
The boy chuckled and coaxed the dog out of his jacket and onto the table, "Yeah. My name's Inuzuka Kiba, and this is Akamaru."
Shai giggled and reached over to pet the Akamaru. The dog backed away from her and whined loudly, trembling like nothing before. When Shai sighed and looked back over at Kiba, he smiled apologeticaly, "I guess he still doesn't like Gaara ... No offence."
Shai glanced beside her to Gaara, who just nodded at Kiba. Shai sighed again and upturned her hand, beckoning to the dog gently.
"Come here Akamaru, It's alright. I'm not sure about Gaara, but I promise I don't bite." Glancing over at Gaara from the corner of her eye, she saw his mouth twitch in a would-be chuckle. She continued to gently make a coaxing motion to the pup and trying to reasure him thatshe was friendly.
"Akamaru, come on. That's not fair. Say you're sorry." Kiba frowned at his pup, seeming to understand the whines that Akamaru had made. Shai cocked her head and looked up at Kiba curiously.
"Did you just ..?" Shai looked down at her fingers, surprised that Akamaru had finaly made his way over to her and had sniffed her hand.
"Yeah. He said something pretty rude to you a moment ago." Kiba smirked, having just received a small ego boost from Shai's speechlessness.
Shai giggled as Akamaru licked her fingers in apology. Shai reached up and scratched behind his ears breifly before Akamaru trotted back to Kiba and tried to climb back into his jacket.
When Shai looked around the table, she realized that she hadn't been introduced tofour of the members of the table .. And that everyone was staring at her.
" ... I'm Hyuuga Neji."
Shai looked over to her left, where a boy with long brown hair and white eyes had his hand outstretched. Shai shook his hand with a returned iron grip. He seemed to want to gauge her strength, and she wanted him to know that she was strong. The first time she met his eyes made her skin crawl. They had no pupil and it creeped her out the way he just .. stared, at her.
When she released his hand, it felt as if she'd just let go of an ice-cube; her hand tingled. She pulled it back and stared, wondering what the hell the boy had done to it, when she heard a little cough from beside Neji.
" ... Aburame Shino." Shai held out her hand once again to shake the boys hand. She couldn't see his eyes or his mouth, due to sunglasses and a high colar, but again noticed that his hair defied gravity. The boy didn't take her hand, but nodded politely in her direction.
Shrugging, she held out her hand to the girl beside him, having to reach around Gaara, whom looked rather ... Stoic.
Shai noted that the girl's hair was black, tinted blue, and also had white eyes with no pupils. The girl smiled and shook Shai's hand, speaking with a small voice that reminded Shai of herself."M-my name's Hyuuga Hinata."
Shai blinked and looked between Neji and Hinata, "Are you two related?"
Neji looked away from Hinata and Hinata stared down at her fingers. Shai didn't think that she'd get a straight answer from either of them, and honestly didn't care all that much.
Instead, she looked over at the last boy. His eyes were closed and his hands behind his head as if sleeping, but when Shai propped herself up over Gaara, one of his eyes popped open to reveal an eye that was so dark it was almost black. His hair was the same color, and pulled up into a ponytail.
"How bothersome. Nara Shikamaru." Shikamaru didn't even bother moving anything besides his head to offer a nod at her.
Shai sighed and sat back down properly. She looked at Gaara once more, only to see that he was having a staring contest with Naruto.
"So what brings you two to Konoha?"
Shai looked over at Sakura and smiled. "Oh, just missions ...You know, the usual stuff."
Sakura nodded in understanding. She did know. Shai could tell something was bugging her though, just the way her eyes subtly darted between her and Gaara every so often.
" ... So ... How do you and Gaara know each other?"
Shai opened her mouth to say something, but she felt Gaara'ssand closing it again. She knew that Gaara didn't want them to know the reason they were in Konoha, and she also knew that they couldn't see the sand because it was thinned out too much.
"That's none of your business." Gaara's tone was extremelyicy. Shai didn't think he'd react like that, but she guessed it had something to do with their mission.
Sakura seemed taken aback from his reply and fell silent. Naruto, of course, was the first to break the awkward silence.
"Oh! Do you guyswanna help us out?"
Gaara cocked his head in confusion, and Shai just blinked.
"Help you ... With what?"
This is where everyone is sitting. I gave myself a headache trying to figure this out so you wouldn't get one too. Enjoy!
-Sakura--Naruto--Kiba-
-Neji-
-Shino-
--Hinata-
--Shikamaru---Gaara-Shai
Each hyphen is aboutthree centimetres. Neji and Shikamaruare sitting in a corner.
A/N: Ooh! I wrote this in one sitting. Go me! This also means I made myself sit down for five hours and think the hell out of my brain, but whatever.
