Chapter 12:

"I think they caught us." Suigetsu said.

"Then what do we do?" Juugo asked.

"Act like nothing happened for now." Suigetsu said.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Karin asked.

"Have I ever gotten you in trouble?" Suigetsu asked.

"...Well there was this time when you--" Karin started to go on endlessly about the never-ending amounts of times that Suigetsu had gotten Karin in trouble. But as you could've guessed, the amount of times Karin had gotten Suigetsu in trouble was a lot bigger.

"Karin, no one's interested." Suigetsu interrupted. "Anyway, don't let your guard down. They might launch an attack any time."

Juugo and Karin nodded.

"Now let's get to bed!" Suigetsu smiled.

"Good Night." Juugo left the room and closed the door.

"We have to go see Tsunade tomorrow." Suigetsu said.

"I know." Karin said. "She reminds me of the Pamela Anderson person I saw on an ad when we were doing work in America."

Suigetsu chuckled. "You can see the resemblance." He said. "I prefer smaller ones." He grinned.

"If you're trying to hit on me it's not going to work." Karin said lowering her glasses and looking at him.

"Just playing a little." Suigetsu said. "Y'know games."

"Stop talking like Kidoumaru." Karin said. She got up. "I'm going soon." (Remember Kidoumaru?)

"Okay." Suigetsu said getting up to follow her out. Before she left, he leaned down and faced her.

"!" Karin looked surprised.

"Good Night." He said and kissed her on the cheek.

"...!" Karin's face grew bright red and she slapped him off. "..." Karin stomped out of the room.

Once she was gone, he got back up and rubbed his stinging cheek.

"Geez, she's so touchy." Suigetsu said getting up.

'No good night?' He thought as he went to bed.

"Shikamaru!" Temari said.

Shikamaru was lying on the grass. He opened one of his eyes. He looked straight up to see Temari's face over him blocking the sun and putting a shadow over his face. He winced.

"What?" He asked.

She dumped a pile of notebooks on his face.

"That's your homework you got." Temari said. "You should stop skipping class." Temari said sitting down.

"..." Shikamaru sat up propping his hands behind him.

"Are you sick or something? Because you don't look like it." Temari said looking into Shikamaru's face.

"...My shadow's weird." Shikamaru said. "It starts to change its shape on its own and it's freaking me out." He explained.

"Your shadow?" Temari asked.

"Yeah."

"It might have to do with...you know." Temari suggested.

"I think so." Shikamaru said. "But if that has to do with it, that means the power keeping the ninja world from resurfacing is weakening."

"NINJA WORLD?" A little boy with a scarf ran over. "I love ninjas! What were you guys talking about--?" He tripped over his scarf.

"Konohamaru!" Naruto ran over and picked the boy up. "What're you doing?"

"Naruto nii-chan! Those kids were talking about ninjas!" Konohamaru pointed at Shikamaru and Temari excitedly.

Naruto glared at them.

"We're talking about History." Both of them said at the same time. (Great minds think alike.)

"Oh..." Konohamaru looked a bit disappointed but when Naruto let him go he ran off to play with his friends.

"Who's he?" Temari asked.

"He's Konohamaru. He's in the Middle School division." Naruto said as he hurried after him. "I'm assigned to take care of him." He added.

Once everyone was gone, they started to laugh.

"Great minds think alike?" Temari said between laughs.

"I suppose it's true." Shikamaru said grinning. "How about we go out somewhere?" Shikamaru asked.

"I want to go see Eraku again." Temari said. (Remember him?)

"I think he's out there somewhere." Shikamaru said. "And if we're lucky we'll see him." Shikamaru walked toward the gate. "C'mon." He held out his hand.

This time, Temari didn't hesitate to take it and they walked toward the gate holding hands.

'It's not fair!' Ino thought grumbling.

Kiba had been busy taking care of the family dogs because of his sister's illness that he hadn't gotten enough time to be with Ino. And since Ino wasn't getting the attention she loved to get from him, she was obviously upset. She sighed. She was in the middle of the park and when she had seen Shikamaru and Temari that added on to her frustration.

'I miss him...' She closed her blue eyes and her blonde hair blew back in the soft wind.

'It's not fair!' Kiba thought grumbling.

Kiba had been working for about a week now for his sick sister. Luckily, she was getting better but still. After all, he hadn't seen Ino in days and it was really making him angry. He did love dogs, but none of the dogs could replace Ino. He sighed as he washed another dog. He had recently been IM'ing with Naruto who had talked on and on about his date with Hinata and how much he loved her, which added onto his frustration.

'I miss her...' He thought as he lay down to rest.

"I'm starting to feel better." Hana said as she slowly sat up in her bed. She had a fever for 2 days and she was tired. One of the dogs jumped on her bed and licked her cheek. She laughed and petted him. Her fever had gone down and she was feeling a lot better.

'Maybe I should tell Kiba now...' Her eyes darkened a little as she stared off into the distance.

The dog looked at her worried and snuggled into her whimpering.

'I'll tell him.' She patted the dog and got up. She looked as if she was going to regret this for the rest of her life as she got up.

Chapter done!

I've got 5 stories going on right now. (So like Natume to overburden herself...) So updating will be slower. Plus I have to get it read by my beta-reader so that adds to the time. But I do get impatient so sometimes I'll beta-read by myself and post. (Like right now)

Oh yeah, keep voting on my poll. (Just for the note, I'll probably write all the stories eventually, im just going to write them in order of popularity because I want to write them all.)