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It was nighttime in Konoha and the rookie 9 were all heading home from their training. But, was there something going on that they were all unaware of?

Just Breathe

BY: Ruri

EDITED BY: Chima

Sasuke x OC (Sen)

Disclaimer: Do you really think I'd own Naruto? Really? Ptchh, hell no!

RURI: I've just been recently told that I'm random. Do you this I am because I don't.

CHIMA: Not sure.

RURI: Wasn't asking you.

CHIMA: . . . and your point is?

RURI: . . . wow . . .

Chapitre Deux: (Makes me sound smart again!)

Journal

(RURI: Look for Sen's description in the profile!) -I'm going to write this quickly because it's really early in the morning and I'm going to try and cook Sasuke breakfast because he's not awake yet. I couldn't sleep.-

As I was saying in my last entry, Naruto's my cousin and Sasuke found this and killed me. Well, he didn't kill me, but he found it (last night because somehow I was noisy as I wrote it) and, though he didn't understand it, he saw that it was written in what most people call my 'nighttime scrawl'. I myself don't really understand this, but it has something to do with the fact that I write prettier or 'cleaner' when I'm tired. Probably because I take more time to write and form my words than before. He was mad because I wasn't asleep and he was tired of hearing my 'noisy' pen, or something. I really wasn't listening because Sasuke had no shirt on. Hey, I'm 12. You can't blame me for noticing it! . . . Right? Anyways, I'm off track, here. The reason he (Sasuke) can't read this is because I wrote it in English, my clan's native language. He's picked up a few words, but not enough to read anything. Oh, and I must explain something:

Lee it my teammate. So it Neji (sadly). It seems that I took the place of one of their teammates (Tenten, I think) when she moved away. I don't know why I wasn't left with my old teammates. But, Kami, I'm glad that I'm not with them anymore. They both totally hated me, and so did sensei. It sucked. Eggs.

But now Gai-sensei 'loves' me like he does Lee (creepy) and he makes me wear weights, which I have a big problem with. Not the weight in particular (that I'm fine with), or the fact that they are ankle and wrist-weights (which sucks eggs because Lee only wears leg-weights), but the fact that they are itchy. You heard me, itchy.

It's just weird like that. You don't see Lee going around with itchy weights, do you? Or, maybe you do. In that case, I feel sincere pity for you. Deeply. Oh, and you wouldn't believe it; there's been more talk about my teammates (mainly the sensei) in the Hosokawa compound (the Hosokawa clan and Hyuuga clan are like sister clans, though we are not related). You see, Gai had, in the past, somehow saw fit to attack my father 'just because' once. My dad doesn't hate him for that.

No, not hate.

He loathes him for it.

I fear for Gai-sensei's life. Not really, but you get the point, right? Well, I think that I'm going to be changing groups now, again. I hope it's not Sasuke's or Naruto's group because Naruto annoys me (sometimes, not usually) and I can't train/fight/work well with Sasuke around. It's a nightmare even trying to talk to him.

—Oh, and did I mention that I sometimes live in the apartment? It's because I wasn't supposed to come home last night because I screwed up majorly during my families little 'training session' (murder session). Yeah, I have to go home tonight. Sad, I know. Well, Sasuke's going to wake up pretty soon, so I'll be leaving you now. Wait. Who are you in particular? Someone I made up in my mind, or a real person who's reading this in years to come? I don't know, and I probably will never know. Confusing. I know.

-

RURI: Oh, and I decided that I'm not going to have it in only journal mode, as I call it, because that would be . . . boring, ne?

CHIMA: Yep.

RURI: Man, here comes another fight . . .

CHIMA: Excuse me?

RURI: You're excused.

-

(RURI: It's a miracle I'm alive, really) Sen crept quietly to the kitchen and started making the regular breakfast that Sasuke ate. At least, the regular breakfast she thought that he ate every morning . . . she didn't know, really. Actually, she was just winging it. She found all she was looking for and started cooking.

-

Sasuke was just waking up and he was slightly surprised when a delicious aroma was coming from his kitchen. His kitchen. He wasn't much of a cooker and, he grimaced at the thought, he had normally just gone to Ichiraku's to eat ramen there with Naruto. He laughed at the thought that the little blond dobe could actually convince him to eat ramen most of the time he was around him. But, the smell was tantalizing and he was hungry. He quietly, but quickly, put on a robe of some sort (remembering that the smell was probably Sen's cooking, so she was still there) and walked silently down to the kitchen.

-

Sen was setting the table (this time blessing her 'princess lessons' instead of cursing them, which was a first for her) at the exact time Sasuke entered the room. She was slightly disappointed that he had a robe on, but scolded herself and continued the table-setting while pretending that she hadn't noticed.

"So," Sasuke said, crossing his arms and leaning against the right side of the kitchen's doorframe.

"So," Sen said, looking up from her newly-set table.

"I see you mad some breakfast." Sasuke said, pointing at the pans of various, but normal, breakfast foods.

"Yup," Sen said, starting to heat up for some reason . . .

"So, your princess lessons taught you this?"

"No, my mom did," and Sen walked over to Sasuke and pulled him down onto the seat that she had prepared specially for him.

"Oh, so I'm eating you mom's cooking, then?" Sasuke asked, holding up an already half eaten bowl of miso soup. Sen shook her head and laughed while she ducked down into her seat, thinking, So, does this mean he likes my cooking?

"Well, I still like it, though it might kill me off later," he said jokingly. Sen caught on after a horrible millisecond of silence.

"Well, don't forget the fish, nori, or the tsuke-mono (BOTH: Is that right?)," Sen said, pointing her chopsticks menacingly at him, though laughing through a mouthful of her own miso (it was her favorite food, behind ramen).

"Right, Sen, right," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes and moving onto the next food item, or the only one left, the tsuke-mono.

She was about to reply when his doorbell (or what she thought was his doorbell) rang. "You might want to get that," she said, taking up his empty plates, along with her own. Sasuke colored and practically ran towards his room to get the doorbell-sounding sidekick ring. He found that it was an IM, but it was from what he supposed was Naruto. It read like this:

Orange9Tail: Oi, emo-boy, get out to the training field now! Sakura's all worried about you because you were mad at her last night and now the stupid Kurenai-team and Asuma-team have showed up at our training field!

EmoBoy: Shut up, Naruto. I have a guest.

Orange9Tail: Is it Sen again? xD

EmoBoy: So what if it is?

Orange9Tail: OK, ok, don't get all defensive on me. I'm just delivering the message because Sakura seems to be afraid of her sidekick biting her, or something.

EmoBoy: I'll be there ASAP, now leave me alone.

Orange9Tails: Roger, dodger.

Sasuke shook his head, but silently praised the lord that he was able to backtrack what he had originally said to Naruto on AIM, though he couldn't when actually speaking to Naruto.

"Um, Sasuke?" Sen asked from the doorway.

Sasuke froze, but managed to look up just in time and put the sidekick in one of his pockets. Sen was watching the hand that was holding the sidekick with interest. "Nani?" Sasuke snapped, "Why are you bothering me?"

Sen's eyes mellowed down and for one horrible second, Sasuke thought that he'd made her cry. But the next second, she laughed and said, "So, that was your sidekick?" Sasuke nodded, and Sen continued, "Cool. I used to have one, but Gai said it was a waste of space and that it'd only slow me down so he stepped on it. And you can guess what happened after that when my father heard that - he'd said that Gai had 'destroyed private property from the Hosokawa clan' . . . and then they started fighting, then my father got bored and just went home to sleep or whatever he does when he's bored, and then Gai challenged Kakashi to a fight, and Kakashi won . . ." Sen took a deep breath, but Sasuke stopped her from saying anything else.

"OK, Sen, I have to go to meet up with my teammates." And Sasuke started to walk out the doorway when Sen caught up to him.

"Hey, what time is it?" Sen asked.

"Time for you to get a watch . . ." Sasuke mumbled because he really didn't know either.

"Well, I should probably meet up with my team. What field are you going to?" Sen asked, proving to be more persistent than expected.

"Field 14," Sasuke said in a monotonous voice.

"Weird," Sen said and continued to follow Sasuke to Training Field 14.

"Why is it weird?" Sasuke asked, confused at the training field being labeled weird.

"Because I'm supposed to go there, too. Weird, ne?" And with that said, Sen walked in front of Sasuke while he followed, very confused at this point.

-

By the time Sen and Sasuke got to training Field 14, the rest of team Gai had showed up, too, and Lee was pestering Neji for about the cuzillionth time in ten seconds (you do the math); worse, it looked like Neji was about to snap.

"Oi, Lee, stop irritating Neji right now! Neji, stop looking like your life is the worst, 'cause it ain't!" Sen snapped at her teammates. "Gai, stop annoying Kakashi-sensei!" She added once she saw Gai taunting Kakashi . . . or, at least, trying to. Kakashi was reading his perv (;; EWW ;-;) book, ignoring Gai (though Gai didn't, at the moment, realize it).

"Yosh, so you control your team, Sen?" being the only one there stupid enough to ask that question, it was, of course, Naruto.

"What's that supposed to mean, Naruto?" A very angry Sakura, Sen, and Ino asked (bitterly) at the same time, chakra surrounding each of them menacingly. Obviously, they thought he was scorning Neji, Lee, and Gai for not being able to control their girl in the group. It wasn't Naruto's fault; he just tended to say the wrong things at the wrong time, is all. That was really intended to be a compliment. Thankfully, Kakashi stepped in the way of the stampeding girls and stopped them from harming his student.

"Well, look who tuned into the real world," Gai said, striking a macho man pose.

"Hm?" Kakashi asked, looking up from his book. "I'm afraid I didn't hear what you were saying."

Gai's pose faltered, but he managed to keep his smile up and just shake his head, muttering, "Kakashi, Kakashi, Kakashi," and walking over to Lee. Sen wished that this was the time she was going to change groups because she didn't really want to baby-sit these people, no, lunatics anymore than the next guy (or girl). And, the next guy (or girl) would probably run off because he'd (or she'd) gone mad, though if he (or she) was lucky, he'd (or she'd) just be having a few scarring nightmares about the whole, "Lee!"; "Gai-sensei!"; "Oh, Lee!"; "Oh, Gai-sensei!" bit. Sen figured she was lucky that she'd stayed sane (or at least a bit sane) for this long.

Out of the blue (RURI:I like that saying!), Sarutobi popped into existence next to Asuma, greeting them with a formal "Kaijtsu," and he started to edge away from Lee and Gai, who had come up to them in an expectant manner. "I am here to tell you that you will be getting new members to your team. Most of you will not move, but some will."

"Nani?" Naruto asked, rather rudely. "What's wrong with our teams right now?"

"Well, I got a rather lengthy complain about a certain teacher from Hosokawa Hiroshi," Hiroshi was Sen's father, "and he requests a new team for Sen." And, as if he almost forgot, he added, "And Naruto." Both Sen and Naruto reddened from being singles out like that, but it only lasted a while for Sen because she realized that she'd be leaving team Gai for good. Leaving team Gai . . . for good, and she sighed contently at that thought and made an impatient gesture for the Hokage to finish his speech. Good for her, he had almost finished. "So, I shall wait for the parents or guardian for each genin present to arrive if they are available." And, as if on cue (though they might have been), Hyuuga Hiashi (Hinata's father and Neji's . . . uncle?), Inuzuka Tsume (Kiba's mother), Yamanaka Inoichi (Ino's father), Akimichi Choza (Chouji's father), Nara Shikaku (Shikamaru's father), Aburame Shibi (Shino's father), Hosokawa Hiroshi, and Sakura's mother (don't know her name; don't' know if she's a ninja, so now she is) arrived in a puff of smoke like most jonin do to show off.

"Now, the sorting of the teams will begin . . .

Team Asuma: Akimichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino, Haruno Sakura;

Team Gai: Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, Aburame Shino;

Team Kurenai: Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uzumaki Naruto;

Team Kakashi: Uchiha Sasuke, Inuzuka Kiba, Hosokawa Sen." And he stopped reading the list. Everyone gawked at his choices for a team. "It was mainly Hosokawa Hiroshi, Hyuuga Hiashi, Yamanaka Inoichi, Aburame Shibi, and Akimichi Choza who made up the teams, also with some reasons behind why they chose these teams."

-

And, I would like to know what you think of the team arrangements.

You can email me (with the title "RURI") or just review! OK, and I hope this was long enough . . . its 2,315 words long!