Chapter 2

Going on a Vacation

Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! I can't believe how popular this story is, and it's only got two chapters! WOW! So, this is chapter 2, Please enjoy!


Sakura was so excited she though her eyes were going to fly out of her head. In her room, she was buzzing about shoving this and that in her bag and preparing herself for the adventure with her ten friends. They had all called and notified her that they would all join her, some more…enthusiastic…than others. The sun was still premature in the sky when Sakura descended the stairs and bumped into her younger sickly sister, Hikari Haruno.

If you had met Sakura and her sister at the same time, you would have never guessed they were related. Sakura had received the lighter side of the genes, and Hikari the darker. Her sister had long, brown-red hair, like an autumn leaf preparing to fall from cold weather, and eyes a dark chocolate brown shade, though her features had been altered by Hikari's ailing state, her usually freckled cheeks were faded to a pale greenish tint.

"You feeling any better, sis?" Sakura asked her.

Hikari sniffed and glared wicked daggers at her older sister.

"Yeah, I feel great Sakura! I can actually move around now!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I was being sincere, shortie. Don't worry about it; I won't be doing that anymore."

"Okay! Okay! Geez, attack the sick person, Sakura! Well, in all truth, if you must know, I still feel like I got hit by a bus. I hope you're happy, Sakura-chan, cause now I can't go on the trip and ruin your life. Must be fate."

Sakura found a triumphant grin sliding on her face.

"Yup, no you. Just me, and Ino-chan, Naruto, Lee-san-"

Hikari's face lit up into a sly grin.

"Yeah, about him…what'shisname, he's downstairs."

Sakura heard cracking glass in the background.

"Who is here?"

Hikari walked past Sakura and spoke without looking back.

"You know, eyebrow boy. Lee-what'shisface. He came by early. He's downstairs, talkin' to Mom. You might wanna hurry so he don't hear any embarrassing stories about you. Especially the one about the spaghetti…"

"WH-what?" the confused kunoichi squeaked.

Her sister sighed again in extreme anguish, trying to cool her ongoing temper by clutching her fist in the air.

"Okay, let me put it in pink-haired-ditz…HE-IS-DOWN-STAIRS-WITH-OUR-MO-THER. DO-YOU-UN-DER-STAND?"

Sakura stared blankly at her younger sibling with utter disorientation. Her brain would not let her comprehend the fact that Rock Lee was in her house, alone with her mother; where her mother never learned the fact that it was rude to share secrets about her daughters, in this case, daughter.Sakura held her breath so she wouldn't scream.

"Thank you…Hikari…" Sakura let out the oxygen and gripped her hand tightly in a fist.

"…Whatever…" Her sister faintly mumbled, going back in her room to sleep.

Sakura took in large quantities of air into her lungs and crept silently down the stairs so her mother or Lee wouldn't hear her, mentally praying the steps wouldn't creek or emit any sound whatsoever. Sakura didn't know weather to be flattered, or totally creeped out that Lee had decided to come an hour before they were set to leave, but hey, she needed some company anyway. As she reached the bottom of the steps, Sakura cupped her ear to amplify the sound of her mother and Lee talking

"So, how did you exactly meet Sakura, Mr. RockLee?" Her mother asked sweetly.

"Oh, I met Sakura-san at the Chunin exams, Mrs. Haruno." Sakura heard Lee dreamily reply "She was very nice…"

'Liar!' Sakura though sadly 'I was a total jerk to you Lee-san…why…'

"Really?" Sakura's mother cooed "Sakura isn't very good with strangers. I'm surprised."

"Sakura-san was very nice; even though we were enemies then…she is a very skilled kunoichi."

"I dreaded the idea of Sakura becoming a shinobi at first. All the death and far away missions…I'm even more scared for her younger sister, Hikari. Sometimes I wish I could be there with her…"

"Do not fear, Mrs. Haruno!" Lee exclaimed; Sakura buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. "I promise to protect your daughter with my life! She will be just fine; I will always come to her rescue when she is in a pinch!"

Sakura could practically see her mother's face turning pink from his words of love and protection.

"You are such a sweetheart, Lee, dear. Now I know that Sakura will always be safe thanks to you."

"You are welcome, Mrs. Haruno. It is my blessing!"

Sakura stood there for a moment, just smiling out of pure happiness that her mother wasn't telling humiliating stories and that they were both getting along well. Sakura had had problems in the past with friends and parents not getting along…she didn't want to relive the Naruto nightmare…

Sakura internally debated with herself if she should walk in on their conversation, when she heard a familiar shout from behind her.
"Hey, Mom!" Hikari called from the top of the stairs, a blob of something green in her arms "I think Aimi is sick!"

Sakura was instantly struck with a mixed feeling of fear and nausea. Ai was Hikari's pet frog; the animal Sakura feared the most.

"How can your frog get sick, Hikari?" Sakura mother sighed and shouted back.

Hikari groaned and began her march downstairs; Sakura watched her with a curious glace. Hikari looked at her sister and smiled devilishly, indicating that Hikari had a plan spinning about in her brain. Just when she reached the second to last step, the frog in her arm started to wiggle and jump from her arms onto the floor, mere inches from Sakura's feet.

'Don't scream. Don't scream. Don't scream.' Sakura repeated to herself, trying to contain the urge to squeal for her life and run behind her sofa. But she didn't want to do that in front of Lee; to embarrassing.

"Aimi-chan!" Hikari scolded her pet "You can't wiggle around like that if you're sick."

Hikari moved to gather up her frog and bring it to her mother, but it casually hopped from her, closer in the direction of her sister. Sakura inhaled and exhaled to calm her nerves. Hikari had planned this; Sakura could see it in her minx of a sister's eyes. Sakura never knew why, but Hikari just found joy in embarrassing her and making her life hell, though Sakura would probably never discover exactly why.

In her brain, the pink-haired kunoichi devised a plot to sneak up the stairs and away from the frog. Slowly, Sakura inched in a circle round the frog with her hands covering her mouth, so as not to yelp and cause Lee and her mother to run in and see her cower. Sakura felt her foot graze the lower step, but when she tried to step up onto it, she tripped and fell on the step with an inaudible bang. She gulped hard and froze to make sure that Lee didn't hear.

"Hey, Sakura," Hikari whispered to her sister with a sneaky grin "Aimi-chan…is in your lap…"

At first, Sakura's brain couldn't compute the information that her devil of a sibling had passed on to her, but when she looked in her lap and saw the green blob with small blue eyes gazing up vacantly at her, Sakura's brain snapped back into reality, as well as tapping into her deep, dark fear of frogs.

'Don't scream. Don't scream. Don't scream' She repeated to herself, though it was useless.

Sakura screamed like someone had just shoved a kunai into her back.

"EYAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Instead of obeying her sister, Hikari broke into laughter. She had always enjoyed the fact that her sister had a great fright of frogs, though Hikari loved them sincerely. However, she was not prepared for what happened next.

As soon as Sakura had let loose the blood-curdling scream, Lee was at her side before any of the three could blink. Sakura whimpered wrapped her arms around her upper body. She couldn't tell if the frog was still on her or not, but she felt a warm hand placed on her shoulder.
"The frog is gone, Sakura-san. You can open your eyes now."

Sakura popped her eyes open and saw Rock Lee standing by her…with the frog on his head…

"Lee-san…" Sakura whispered.

Lee flushed "Yes, Sakura-san…"

There was a long pause as the both looked deeply into each other's eyes. Hikari made a motion that she was going to be ill when Sakura finally spoke.

"…There's a frog on your head…"

Lee frowned and shot his eyes to the floor.

"Hai, Sakura-san." He mumbled, almost ashamed.

Sakura giggled and poked his shoulder to draw his eyes back up to confront her. His eyes were filled with comical tears, his lip slightly trembling.

"You look cute, Lee-san, with that frog on your head."

Lee immediately began to redden and turned away from Sakura, not knowing what to say, though on the inside he was doing back-flips and promising to run 500 laps around Konoha if he couldn't respond to her.

"Thank you, Sakura-san…I did not know you were afraid of frogs…"

Sakura copied his blush and stood up from the stairs, forgetting about the frog, the trip, and her demon sister from the netherworld.

"Yeah…kinda…how come you're so early Lee-san?" Sakura changed the subject.

"I wanted to be early incase Sakura-san needed help! It is going to be the eleven of us together in one roof, which could cause much agitation."

Sakura nodded in agreement. She had already finished packing, and was now waiting on her friends to arrive. Lee had come a bit early, so that means ten other people had to come. Sakura estimated that Naruto or Ino would show up next. Then Hinata and her team, then Shikamaru and Choji, then Tenten and Neji. Though she was unsure. Sakura instantly felt perturbed by all of the things Lee had said. All eleven of them alone in a huge house for two months…that was like a horror movie that lacked cameras and directors; Sakura had seen many before. But recollecting on Lee's pledge of undying protection, Sakura knew she had nothing to worry about.

Now she just had to wait for everyone else.

'Going on a vacation is stressful work!'


Sorry bout the short chapter, but I needed to put the semi-cliffhanger to keep everyone reading. Please R&R and tell me how much you loved it!

Next Time: Chapter Three: Everyone Arrives

Teaser: 'There was a hard knock on the front door in the kitchen. Sakura mentally guessed Naruto, and like always, she was absolutely…wrong?'