DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, Kishimoto does. I don't own Hikari Aino.

A/C: Constructive criticism is warmly welcomed and appreciated, as well as readers' suggestions/ideas. (Particularly when it comes to Lemons – I really suck at those! :S) Flames and mean comments are not welcome – saying 'no offence' means squat. If you don't like what you're reading don't leave a comment!

NOTE: With this chapter… I'm just winging it. Because I haven't actually seen ALL of the Wave Arc, most of what the characters are saying in this chapter have been improvised - and I'm trying to follow the story according to what I've read from the Full Synopsis of each episode. So please - don't flame me…

THE BATTLE FOR WAVE COUNTRY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN…

"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just gotta find the one's worth suffering for."
- Bob Marley

Five more minutes…

I thought irritably as I rolled over on my futon and tightly shut my eyes.

Five more minutes and if she hasn't stopped moaning and giggling Sasuke's name…I'll smother her with the pillow!

It was the middle of the night.

Exactly after we had finished hearing the story Tazuna had been telling us, and after Naruto had made his bold but slightly foolish declaration… then promptly passed out from chakra exhaustion. Sasuke sighed and scooped up Naruto's unconscious body into his arms. Without saying another word, he turned and headed up the stairs towards their shared bedroom. Sakura and I followed quickly. I was looking forward to going to sleep and hopefully forgetting how much I was still smarting from Sasuke's sharp, uncalled for tongue. But what I hadn't been counting on was Sakura suddenly talking in her sleep… actually, it was more like giggling in her sleep.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura suddenly giggled.

I snarled angrily and sat up, glaring at her sleeping form over near the bedroom window - where she was huddled in the foetal position - and from where I was seeing, giving her pillow a bear hug.

Probably imagining that the pillow was Sasuke.

Sakura barely stirred when I sat upright, as she continued grinning like a demented Cheshire Cat and letting out the occasional giggle and excited moan of "Sasuke-kun!" for what seemed to be every five seconds. Yawning, I briefly flirted with the overwhelming urge to yank out her pillow from underneath her head and smothering her with it in her sleep, like I had previously promised myself only seconds before.

But in the end I decided not to, mostly because I understood her attraction towards Sasuke - even if it did make me physically sick seeing her and the legions of Sasuke fan girls screaming, fainting, making goo goo eyes or even stalking him, just to gain his attention for a few measly seconds.

The other reason was because I wasn't up to explaining her 'mysterious' death overnight.

Tee hee.

Still, I'll admit, I've had my share of envious glares and choice insults thrown at me from random fan girls (and boys - wonders will never cease) whenever Sasuke, Naruto and I have hung out back at the Village. But just how exactly is it my fault that Sasuke prefers the company of both Konoha's most hyperactive, knucklehead blonde ninja and a somewhat shy but very friendly Kunoichi from the Hidden Village of Snow over the other girls?

It's not as though I throw myself over him every time I see him. Okay, yeah. We do give each other hugs - really nice ones too. But it's usually he who instigates them when he thinks nobody (other than Naruto, of course) is looking on curiously (or jealously). I consider myself to be lucky. Or so I used to believe, before Sasuke had snapped at me back in the wood during the chakra control task.

I sighed with frustration and sank back down into my futon and stared up at the wooden ceiling trying to relax my muscles for my much anticipated sleep. Eventually I closed my eyes.

"Sasuke-kun!" squeals Sakura.

"That's it!" I whispered angrily to myself and ripped the thin blanket aside and got to my feet, grabbing my pillow in the process. After glaring hard at Sakura one last time, I promptly turned and headed for the door, wrenching it open.

"I'm gonna sleep on the couch." I muttered tiredly to myself, not really caring if I could be heard.

I remembered too late that the couch downstairs was very lumpy and it probably would've been better to just simply turn around and head back into the room and not sleep in there, rather than having a sore back tomorrow morning. Eventually though, I shrugged in resignation and just shuffled miserably towards the stairs which led towards the Living Room, yawning as I went.

A pair of eyes were watching me as I went.

When I walked into the room, I stubbed my toe on the bottom step and hopped around, setting loose a couple of unladylike curses as tears of pain created tracks down my cheeks. I calmed myself down from my frustrating situation by counting slowly and calmly to ten before carelessly chucking my pillow towards the 'torture' device I was going to be sleeping on and padded towards the kitchen to get myself a glass of water.

"I miss you, Mom…" I whispered, before cleaning my class and placing it upside down on the draining board.

I shuffled back towards the couch and grabbed the blanket I learned that Tsunami always had there for anyone's use and sank down onto the couch, trying to make myself as comfortable as I could for the uncomfortable nights sleep I was bound to be having soon. The moment I finally got relaxed and was beginning to close my eyes, I suddenly sensed somebody heading towards me. I groaned into my pillow and tensed up, pretending to be drifting off to sleep as the person came closer. I felt the couch cushion I was lying on descend a couple of inches beside me and I felt the warmth of that person's skin on my belly.

God hates me…

"You have got ten seconds to get lost before I render you unconscious with my fist…" I threatened the person, feeling ready to cry angry, frustrated tears.

There was no sign of any movement coming from the person and it was clear that either he or she hadn't heard me or obviously had a death wish. I growled softly to indicate that I wasn't joking around and was in fact deadly serious with my threat. And to prove that I wasn't bluffing, I clenched my fist tight enough that everyone could see how white they suddenly got.

But I was immediately silenced and stopped in my attempts to seriously hurt him or her when I felt soft, warm lips placing sweet butterfly kisses onto my flaming cheeks, my temples, the tip of my nose (that caused me to wrinkle it with irritation), indicating that it was definitely one of the males. Either that, or Sakura was sleepwalking and had mistaken me for Sasuke. If that was the case, she was gonna get such a black eye, not even cover up could hide it and a fat lip that would make her look like a trout.

Then I felt lips pressing gently against mine - and I froze, licking my lips and recognising the taste. I opened my eyes in surprise and saw Sasuke looking down at me, a small smile on his normally emotionless face.

"Eh? Sasuke?"

I sat up and blinked in confusion. "What are you doing?"

Sasuke simply reached out his hand smoothed back my unruly hair behind my ear before replying.

"Waiting for an opportunity to apologise without anybody else around." He whispered sheepishly.

I smiled softly before asking, "You're sorry?"

I couldn't help feeling a little bit sceptical. As it was unusual for Uchiha's to apologise for something that they had done wrong - usually because they were too proud to realise they had been in the wrong in the first place. Obviously, Sasuke was the exception to this rule. When Sasuke nodded and I smiled happily and folded myself into his arms, and found myself listening to his steady heartbeat, while he crushed me to his chest and rested his chin on top of my head.

I felt my eyes sliding shut as sleep finally crept up on me and threatened to drag me to the land of nod - I humbly surrender. But one thing kept nagging at me that couldn't wait until tomorrow. Because I knew that Sasuke and Naruto would STILL be trying to master that chakra exercise in the woods.

"Why did you yell at me in the first place, Sasuke?" I mumbled drowsily into his shirt.

Sasuke sighed before pulling back from our embrace and yawning himself.

"Like you said before back in the woods. I was frustrated that I wasn't getting this lesson straight away. And I guess I was resentful that you and Sakura were able to achieve it before I could."

I nodded, feeling slightly annoyed at how immature and childish Sasuke actually sounded, and amused that Sasuke was actually ADMITTING that he was as well.

"It just reminded me of how much my…brother-" He flushed angrily when he mentioned his brother, even spat the word 'brother' in a poisonous way and I was momentarily afraid of him. I pulled away from him to give him space while he had his little confession/rant but felt him lock his arms around me again in that iron grip, and refusing to let me get away.

"-used to one up me at every attempt we made together growing up. It was made even worse when my father went out of his way to compliment him for his achievements and freaking criticise me for not being as 'perfect' as Itachi was."

He finished his explanation with a dry laugh. I hummed in sympathy and it seemed to calm Sasuke down a bit, as he kissed my head tenderly.

"Why are you sleeping down here anyway?" He asked, pulling away a bit to frown at me.

I sighed, thudding my forehead against his chest and feeling irritated again. I rubbed my eyes tiredly as I moved to lie down again against my pillow.

"Sakura was talking in her sleep and won't shut up long enough for me to actually attempt to sleep." I answered and frowned tiredly at the amused expression on Sasuke's face.

"Do I want to know?" He asked resignedly, as though he knew what I was going to say. I smirked and shook my head, reaching out to entwine my fingers in his and played with them.

"Why don't you come and sleep in Naruto's and my room?" He suggested with a sly and suspicious smile.

I blinked unsure that his suggestion was a good one. Tsunami and surprisingly Kakashi (whom I thought would've been fairly flexible about room arrangements, considering all those dirty books he constantly reads) were strict about boys and girls sleeping in separate rooms. Hence why I was stuck with Sakura "I-desperately-want-Sasuke-kun-to-notice-me" Haruno in the same bedroom.

Even Kakashi had a room to himself.

Lucky bastard.

"I don't know. Won't we get caught?" I hesitated - not wishing to insult our hostess' hospitality by disobeying her rules. Or suffer our mentor's wrath. Sasuke shrugged carelessly.

"Do you honestly care?" He scoffed in irritation.

There's the Sasuke I know and loved, and as for giving a shit about being caught, to be honest, I really didn't. It was more what Sakura's reaction would be if she had somehow found out my new temporary sleeping arrangement. Although for next time, I was going to make sure I fell asleep WAY before she did, so I could actually sleep and not have a repeat performance of what was about to happen.

"Sure. I gotta sleep sometime." I agreed and moved to get up. But I was so dead on my feet, my legs wouldn't respond.

I groaned.

"On second thoughts, I think I'll just stay here…" I changed my mind and moved to roll over to face the wall, but instantly felt Sasuke scooped me up into his arms bridal style.

He smirked down at me.

"You're not getting out of this that easily." He said, giving me a playful Eskimo kiss.

I giggled lazily and lay my head down on his shoulder, resting my forehead against his neck and shutting my eyes. Sasuke shifted my dead weight in his arms and carried me back up the stairs, and headed for his and Naruto's room. Then a thought occurred to me.

"Hey… Sasuke?"

"Hm?"

"Do you snore?" I asked worriedly.

Sasuke chuckled.

"Nope. But Naruto does, unfortunately." He replied.

I groaned with horror and tried to get out of Sasuke's arms, but he held on tightly.

"But you can barely hear him…" He added a little late.

I smiled tiredly and gave up trying to escape Sasuke's clutches as I was too tired to really care. Sasuke opened the door and walked in kicking it closed behind him before sauntering over to a nearby futon and laying me down in it. Beside it folded up neatly was Sasuke's forehead protector and his weapon's pack. Immediately, I folded myself into the foetal position and shut my eyes.

I felt Sasuke slide in beside me, pulling the thin blanket over the both of us and wrapping strong arms around my waist. I smiled as he pulled me in towards his chest and rested his face on the back of my neck so I could feel his warm breath disturbing the fine hairs and raising goosebumps. Smiling, I decided to turn over and I rested my head on his chest, looking for the soothing, steady heartbeat.

Both Sasuke and I clasped hands, knotting our fingers together before falling to sleep.

"Goodnight, Sasuke." I murmured drowsily.

"'Night, Hikari-chan." He whispered back.

A loud call from a bird, jolted me from my sleep and I sat up blinking like a newborn.

What?

That was a very vivid dream. Yawning, I looked around the room, expecting to see Sakura lying on the futon next to the window, but was extremely surprised and shocked when I instead saw Naruto. He had in his sleep, kicked off his thin blanket and was lying in a sprawled position, with his limbs lying haphazardly everywhere and was snoring deeply with his mouth wide open, with a small string of lukewarm drool was dripping down the side of his mouth. I wrinkled my nose a little…

Ew…

I pulled aside the blanket and moved to get up from the Futon, but nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt strong arms wrap themselves around my waist. Somebody's warm, hard chest pressed up against my back, sending blood pooling in my cheeks at the closeness, and I felt a chin resting heavily on my shoulder.

"Where are you going?" a familiar voice whispers sleepily into my ear. I looked over my shoulder to see a pair of sleepy, slightly annoyed onyx eyes and a tired smile.

"Sasuke?" I mumbled, before remembering what had happened last night and I flushed in embarrassment.

"Who else would it be?" He teased, smirking a little.

Sasuke then goes to lie back, taking me with him. I panicked a little bit, obviously not expecting him to do this.

"Go back to sleep. It's too early…" He urged me.

I yawned automatically, which indicated to Sasuke that I was still tired. I nodded - not really up for a debate and lay back curling up onto my side and allowed Sasuke to spoon me. However, we were forgetting one thing that would ruin any more sleep that the three of us planned on having. Just as Sasuke and I had drifted off again, but were coherent enough to still be able to hear what was happening around us, the bedroom door opened swiftly.

"Sasuke-kun! Naruto! It's time to get up! Tsunami says-"

But we didn't get a chance to hear what Tsunami had actually said because of the wall shaking scream that rocked the foundations of the house and caused Naruto, Sasuke and I to sit bolt upright on our Futons and look around for the immediate danger. Naruto and Sasuke going as far as brandishing kunais and Sasuke hurding me behind him for my own protection because I didn't have my weapons on my person.

When none of us could see anything remotely dangerous or life threatening, all three of us turned towards Sakura and gave her the scathing glares people who were definitely not morning people would give to a soon-to-be very dead person. In this case, Sakura.

"Was that entirely necessary, Sakura?" I growled before stretching out my tired limbs.

"You-you-you"

It appeared that Sakura was so angry that she couldn't form any sentences that we could actually understand. Sasuke and Naruto rolled their eyes before replacing their kunais into their weapons packs and flopping back down on their pillows, turning over to get back to sleep.

But then Naruto sat up and frowned questioningly at me.

"What are you doing in here, Hikari-chan?"

I smiled at him apologetically. But before I could actually reply, Sasuke sat up and fixed Naruto with an irritated look.

"Apparently, Sakura wouldn't shut up last night. So I invited Hikari to sleep in here with us."

Then he flopped back down into his pillow and shut his eyes tightly.

"Oh." Naruto replied and then returned to sleep.

I stood up and headed for the bedroom door, shoving past Sakura. She caught my wrist in an iron grip and I winced in pain.

"Where the hell are you going?" snarls Sakura.

I looked down at her hand wrapped painfully around my wrist and then glared back at her, watching as she shrank back slightly, but didn't let go of my wrist.

"Let go of my wrist." I said quietly.

"Not until you tell me why you were in here and sleeping on the same futon as Sasuke-kun." she demanded almost hysterically.

I sighed, but instead of telling her why, I simply grabbed her wrist, causing her to shriek with pain and bent it backwards so she could release mine. She did and I smiled in triumph.

"Firstly, I'm not going to tell you why I was sleeping in here, because it's none of your business. And secondly, if you do not let me past so I can use the toilet, then I can't be held responsible for any actions that may result because of that." I said with sickly sweetness.

Sakura paled and stood aside to let me past, just as Naruto snorted with laughter and Sasuke chuckled.

"Thanks." I said grinning humourlessly, and walked down the hallway towards the bathroom. I nodded towards Kakashi who had stuck out his head from his bedroom door, probably when he heard Sakura scream. He returned the nod and had a slightly amused 'smile' on his masked face.

Half an hour later we had congregated around the dining room table where Tsunami was setting out our breakfast.

"Good morning, everyone." Tsunami greeted us, placing bowls of Okayu down in front of us and then turning to head back to the kitchen to retrieve other breakfast dishes.

"Did you sleep well?" she beams, over her shoulder.

"Yes, thank you. It was lovely." Kakashi smiles pleasantly.

"I slept like a log!" adds Naruto, who had taken his seat next to me and grinned broadly, looking almost strangely like a fox.

"And sounded like a chainsaw…" mutters Sasuke under his breath. I snorted with quiet laughter and lightly slapped him on the arm, causing Sakura to flush angrily with jealousy.

"What about you Hikari and Sakura?" asks Tsunami, taking her seat in between Tazuna and a scowling Inari. I shrugged nonchalantly.

"I slept alright." I replied and felt Sasuke squeezing my hand underneath the table.

"I had lovely dreams last night!" Sakura reported, hoping Sasuke would be interested.

He wasn't.

The food was served and everybody placed their hands together respectfully.

"Itadakimasu!"

We chorused and immediately grabbed our chopsticks and dug in, with Tsunami giving Sasuke and Naruto warning glares to slow down so that they didn't have a repeat performance of what happened last night. Luckily, nothing like that happened. It seemed that Sasuke and Naruto had learned their lesson about being competitive in eating food at top speed.

"How about you, Sweetheart?"

Tsunami directed her attention towards her son who was moody as usual and picking at a piece of broiled fish with his chopsticks. Inari didn't look up.

"Did you sleep well?"

Inari nodded but didn't say anything else.

We the Genin, looked at each other, silently reminding ourselves to watch what we said around him, so we didn't bring up any sore topics that related towards his late stepfather, or his lack of faith in our abilities to pull him, his family and the Village out of the thickening fog and into the brilliant sunlight.

The remainder of the meal was ridiculously silent, except for the clinking of bowls and occasional sipping from our teacups, before Inari eventually spoke up.

"May I be excused?"

Tsunami nodded, giving her son a small, sad smile before Inari placed his hands together and muttered "Gochisosama (deshita)" before rising to his feet and making a hasty retreat out the door. Naruto and Sasuke immediately looked at each other and the competitive streak skyrocketed again and both looked towards Tsunami and Tazuna.

"May we be excused as well. We need to finish our chakra training." explained Naruto politely.

Tsunami and Tanzuna nodded and Sasuke and Naruto copied Inari and said: "Gochisosama (deshita)" before getting to their feet, heading for the door to put their sandals on and instantly racing for the wood to resume and hopefully finish their training. Sakura, Kakashi and I finished our breakfast, thanked Tsunami and retreated outside.

Sakura and I looked at our teacher for our instructions.

"Alright girls. We really can't start anything new until the boys have mastered the chakra technique." said Kakashi.

Sakura and I nodded.

"So what we're going to do is continue our basic training, strictly taijutsu, and then we'll go and see how far the boys have progressed and offer them assistance if they need it. Sound fair?" He asked us.

Again Sakura and I nodded. For the rest of the week, that was what we did, until one day, Sakura went off to observing the bridge building again and to protect Tazuna, and I went as usual to go and observe and help Naruto and Sasuke.

To my surprise, Sasuke immerged from the wood without warning looking tired, dirty and irritable.

"What's up, Sasuke?" I asked, curiously.

"Nothing, I'll be back in minute." He reassured me and disappeared back into the house. I shrugged and continued my way into the wood towards where Naruto was. When I reached the tree, I noticed Naruto lying passed out at the base of the tree.

Typical…

I thought and pushed aside the brush to go and wake him up when I sensed another presence nearby. I frowned and crouched down in the bushes and, like Kakashi had shown us, lowered my chakra so it was uneasily traced. As I watched, a young girl suddenly appeared carrying a basket of what appeared to be fruit.

She looks harmless, I suppose…

I thought and I saw her stop when she saw Naruto's sleeping form on the ground. I tensed when she approached him and reached down towards his neck. I gasped thinking she was about to throttle him, but the girl merely nudges Naruto, who blinks and opens his eyes.

"Huh?"

He sits up and looks at the girl curiously.

"Who are you?"

I decided to make my presence known.

"Naruto!" I called, pretending that I had just been passing through. Naruto's head snapped towards me and grinned tiredly.

"Oh, hey Hikari-chan." He said and I came over to him.

"Are you alright?" I asked, concernedly.

Naruto shoved aside my concerns.

"Yeah, just a little tired." he replied before we turned our attention towards the girl who smiled pleasantly at us.

"So anyway, who the heck are you?" Naruto asked, sounding a little rude.

"Naruto, that's rude." I scolded him, but the girl giggled a little bit.

"It's alright, I don't mind."

The girl told us her name and then sat down beside us, offering us some fruit from her basket.

"So like your girlfriend said-"

"Hikari-chan's not my girlfriend…" Naruto interrupted at the same time that I said: "He's not my boyfriend."

The girl smiled politely.

"My mistake, you just seem to get along so well together."

Naruto and I grinned and I felt him hook an arm around my shoulders and pull me close while I punched his shoulder.

"So like your friend said, are you alright? What have you been doing?" she asked curiously.

Naruto scratched his head and looked away from the girl shyly before replying.

"Oh, I'm just training, that's why I'm out here in the woods." He said, blushing a little.

"Really? Why do you train?" She asks curiously.

Naruto and I looked at each other, trying to deliberate an appropriate answer to her question before we both realised that each ninja has a different reason to why they train. For example, I train because I want to get stronger and live up to my Clan's name, as well as discover who killed my Clan and my father and grandfather all those years ago and make them pay for taking them away from me.

"I'm training to become stronger, so that my village will recognise my powers." Naruto replied. I nodded approvingly.

"And are you training for yourself or for somebody else?" the girl asks with a strange sadness in her voice.

Naruto and I frown at the unexpected question. Personally, I believe that Naruto is training to prove himself worthy of acknowledgement and acceptance. But then again, that's just me - I don't know what Naruto's answer might be. When Naruto didn't answer, the girl asked him another question.

"Do you have anyone important to you?"

"Do you?" I asked gently.

The girl seemed to take my question seriously and stared blankly at nothing as her mind drifted back to the past. Eventually, she replied to my question.

"I believe that a person is truly strong, when they are fighting to protect somebody that they truly cherish."

She then stood up, taking her basket of fruit with her and then turns and looks at us very seriously.

"By the way. I'm not a girl, I'm a boy." and then he walks away, leaving both Naruto and I staring after him in shock.

I snapped out of it first and turned towards a very tired and drained looking Naruto.

"Are you sure you're alright, you look drained." I fussed over him and he sighed resignedly and slumped against my shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess I pressed myself a little too hard." He admitted. I frowned disapprovingly at him.

"Well that was dumb." I tsked and then remembered something that could help him - and possibly my other teammates in the future. I gently pulled myself away from Naruto and helped him to lie down.

"Here, I'll help you." I said as Naruto frowned questioningly at me.

"What are you doing?"

I unzipped his jacket, revealing his black T-shirt which I promptly pushed up to reveal his bellybutton causing Naruto to immediately squirm and widen his eyes in horror as he tried to tug it down again.

"No, seriously. What are you doing?" He asked, starting to panic. I scowled at him.

"Don't be a baby, I'm not going to hurt you. Now hold still." I ordered him.

Naruto reluctantly relaxed and I positioned my hands over his mid-drift and closed my eyes focusing on my chakra. My hands started to glow green at first, causing Naruto to gasp in surprised interest and then after a few moments, started glowing purple. Immediately, I opened my eyes and pressed my hands firmly on Naruto's stomach. My clan's symbol appeared on the underside of my wrist.

"Whoa, hey?!" He hollered. But it was over. I immediately withdrew my hands and folded them in my lap.

"Done." I said, smiling sweetly at him. Naruto frowned a bit before sitting up and then an amazed grin spread across his tanned, scarred face.

"Hey, I feel better. How'd you do that?" he asked, curiously.

"It's my family's kekkie genkai - holy prayer." I replied.

"Is it some sort of healing technique?" Naruto asked.

I nodded and pulled him to his feet. Naruto flexed his previously tired and sore muscles and whistled appreciatively.

"That's so cool." he complemented me.

I blushed modestly.

"Yeah, my Grandfather taught me that when I was younger…and before he and Dad had died." I replied, sadly.

Naruto looked guilty, probably thinking that he had made me upset. But like all the other times people had shown me sympathy or pity, I immediately shut down and changed the subject.

"C'mon, let's see if you can make it to the top this time." I encouraged him, effectively distracting Naruto as he groaned and looked at the tree resentfully before cracking a small grin and frowned with a new determination growing on his mischievous face. He twirled the borrowed kunai on his index finger before charging once more up the tree trunk. I stood at the base of the tree.

A small smile on my face as I watched him getting higher and higher and gaining momentum as he went.

"DAMN IT!" I heard Naruto curse and started falling down. He reached the bottom, miraculously managing not to injure himself and whined in frustration.

"Why can't I get this?" He grumbled. I sidled up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Naruto. You'll get it eventually - keep practising." I said gently and Naruto nodded and once more charged up the tree, just as Sasuke re-appeared.

He seemed to be frowning and looked deep in thought.

"What's eating you?" I asked, frowning at him.

Sasuke snapped out of his momentary distraction and focused on me. He shook his head.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." He replies and pulls a kunai from his weapons' pack. I came over to his side and looked at how his progress was going. There were a lot of slashes in the bark.

"Have you managed to get the hang of this yet?" I asked cautiously. But Sasuke sensed my hesitation in asking him this question and smirked at me in amusement.

"Sort of. I think a couple more times and I'll be able to make it to the top." He confirmed, just as Naruto sailed out of the tree again, and spat out a curse.

"And probably before the dobe too." He bragged a little arrogantly. I scowled at him but stepped back so that I could observe the both of them.

An hour later, both of them had almost mastered the exercise and I practically cried in relief. Naruto cheered from where he was standing in the tree and gave me the thumbs up, whereas Sasuke simply smiled in satisfaction.

"Way to go, guys!" I called, grinning from ear to ear.

A hand descends onto my shoulder and I look over to see that both Kakashi and Sakura had arrived, probably to find out where Sasuke, Naruto and I were. Naruto hurls his kunai to the ground, forcing Kakashi, Sakura and I to dodge and Sakura to glare up at Naruto for doing so. But she suddenly screamed when Naruto pitched forward without warning and started falling. Kakashi and I gasped as well, thinking he had lost his balance. But my extremely foolish best friend simply fell and swung like a pendulum - clinging to the underside of the tree branch he was standing on by using his feet, just like Kakashi had done the first time he had shown us how to do it.

"Nothing to it! Dattebayo!" Naruto yelled, striking an upside down nice guy pose and grinning like a fox.

I scowled angrily at him for scaring me like that and decided to smack him for doing that when got back down to Earth. Suddenly, Naruto lost grip and started to fall.

"Oh no! Naruto!" I squealed.

I covered my mouth with both my hands, fearing the worst, just as Sakura and Kakashi both reacted with horror at the same time. Luckily, Sasuke caught him just in time, hanging upside down via his feet as well.

All four of us glared at Naruto, who scratches his head sheepishly and chuckles nervously.

"Uh, heh heh. My bad, guys…"