Hello everyone! I'm really sorry about the kinda late update, but then I've been on vacation for a few days too and had to do work then finally the internet went down...>. Meh. Sorry about all this lateness. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Anyway, getting onz I hope I didn't confuse TOO much people with the chapter mix up last time!
Enjoyz.
Shipwreck Chapter 7:
Escape?
Shino sighed, his facial expressions mainly hidden by his pair of sunglasses. He was ravenously hungry… thanks to that… person. A glance was directed at Konoha's Green Beast. Yes-that particular person. While a certain number of males were being rashly perverted he had decided to get something to eat. Unfortunately, anything that looked or that was edible in the close surrounding area sadly had been harvested by their Food Retrieval Team- yesterday. Unfortunately, anything and everything harvested that was deemed edible had been demolished by a fire created by- another glance was directed at Konoha's Green Beast.
Now the trees were bare of any fruit and the boars now seemed to know that seeing a human meant instant death and thus stayed clear away and out of sight. Even his insects couldn't find anything- anything for him, that is. He briefly put his hand into one of his many coat pockets, checking for something. The rough surface of a cloth bag brushed against his fingertips. Yes, it was still there- the survival kit. Yes, Kankuro had made it a habit to glare at him ever half-minute. Yes, he desperately wanted to eat something from that survival kit bag.
But, if he did do that he'd end up in a situation similar to the one that Kankuro faced last night. Aburame Shino, of course, was smarter. What were they meant to be doing…? Oh yes. Shino winced upon remembrance.
They were 'supposed' to be gathering ideas on how to get more food, how to murder Rock Lee, where they actually were, and how the hell would they actually get of this stupid ramen-free round sandy thing with lots of funny trees on it!
One may of course guess who stated the last subject- Uzamaki Naruto. Shino smirked. The blonde looked, to say the least, very bruised, very hurt, and very sulky. It served him right. The only medic-nin in the group- Sakura, wouldn't for some 'strange' reason attend to Naruto-kun's desperate injuries. The pink haired teen was more inclined to give the teen a bash on the head, followed by a wallop on the head by Ino, then another punch on the head by Tenten, followed by an extremely hard whack by Temari, and ended with Hinata blushing furiously.
The same type of thing seemed to also happened to Kiba, Shikamaru and Lee. Interestingly enough, the Hyuuga and Uchiha were left well alone. Shino shook his head, assuming they had got caught on their escapade to the lake.
"I don't think we can get anymore food, that's currently in a day's reach around here," Kiba glared at Lee before continuing, "We pretty much got every single thing to be found. But now…"
Kiba produced another glare at Rock Lee. Lee himself seemed unperturbed by everybody's current feelings towards him and shrugged.
"I can get the food- hey, I can join you guys!" he grinned at Tenten, Kiba, and Chouji who looked mortified at this new idea.
Shino, noted with some amusement, that Temari and Sasuke, on the other hand had somewhere exchanged relieved looks with Sakura glaring at both, probably paranoid about a 'romantic relationship'.
"Rock Lee will-" Gaara paused for some kind of weird dramatic effect.
Everyone hopped closer towards the kage, mentally urging him to get on with it. The Aburame blinked in surprise- the Kazekage actually KNEW how to pause like that? Well, well.
"Rock Lee will STAY on his current team but- he will also spend extra time gathering the nessary food and water to make up for his… mistake."
Naruto waved his hand in the air, looking slightly like a young schoolboy, "Hey, hey, let's move on! Wasn't there something about you know… Fuzzy Eyebrows?"
Gaara shook his head promptly, "I don't think that's a… sensible subject."
Shino didn't think it was either, but it would definitely be an amusing subject… Yes, he wanted to also kill Rock Lee for his painful hunger but it'd of course be entertaining seeing all these other people rant and rave senselessly.
"Hell yeah it is sensible!" shouted Sakura, "Do you know how hungry we are? First we get no food at all then we find our privacy intruded by a bunch of perverts! One including him!"
An accusing finger was pointed at Lee.
"But Sakura-chan…"
'Sakura-chan' whacked him on the head forcefully. Various females glared at various males who promptly tried to mix in with the shadows.
"As amusing as it is to watch you little lovebirds run around like idiots… I'd rather we not waste time- can we move on?" Kankuro's voice was slow and lazy, with traces of amusement in it.
The pairs glared at Kankuro, indignant at being called 'lovebirds' and 'idiots'.
"Though I don't agree with your wording…" Kiba had slit eyes at the puppeteer, "I agree."
"The next one was to discuss was where we are!" pointed out Shikamaru, as he jumped into a tree for safety.
"Island." replied Ino bluntly and vented out her rage on Shikamaru via a rant.
"We're not going to be found soon, you know." The quiet voice of Hyuuga Hinata broke through the voices of the others- the only female who hadn't punched, kicked, or vented out any anger on anyone.
Shino nodded. It was good that she was actually speaking up. She had come a long way from where she couldn't put a whole two sentences together without stuttering... But, the bug-user frowned, what she said…
"What do you mean? What do you mean?" the words were spoken fast and hurried, from Naruto.
"Well… Before the… storm, I was looking at some of the ship's maps along with the captain. He told me that it would be still a little more to go, as we had three more days of journey ahead of us."
Of course. The Aburame closed his eyes briefly in understanding. This was the second day of the shipwreck. This meant it would take one more day before the ship was scheduled to arrive at their destination, but the people at port would allow a day or two lateness before getting worried about the ship. After all, storms and harsh weather conditions were common in this area, leaving ships and boats normally late. Thus, it would take quite a while for anyone to get worried about them, let alone paranoid. Naruto, being Naruto did not catch on at all on all of this.
"Wha-?"
Fortunately everyone else did.
"Shut up, idiot!" hushed Sakura, "Hinata-san's going to speak again!"
"The good news is, from the maps, we're probably on an island close to the main land so we're able to travel across the sea by ourselves.," Hinata stopped, "The bad news is that there are hundreds of these islands, and our ship is at the bottom of the sea-out of sight. We shouldn't expect any one to come and get us. We have to escape on our own."
Silence met this new information and Hinata, red, scurried into the shadows thinking that she had said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Shino frowned, as many others did, but this wasn't because of Hinata. He frowned, because, the situation had somehow become worse. He glanced at the slight bulge in the bag beside her. Hopefully she remembered to do that sometime later today. A glance was directed Naruto- that guy better like it...
But, before people started running around like idiots and yelling, 'We're doomed', and Hinata losing her self-confidence again, Shino decided to change the subject.
"How about if we just find out how to get to the mainland at the moment?" he asked, "Instead of worrying and panicking unnecessari-"
"RIGHT! LET US USE OUR BLAZING FIRES OF YOUTH! YOSH!" and off ran Rock Lee towrads the beach.
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Gaara had no idea how and why all this was happening before him. He distinctly remembered that they all did enter that discussion based on how simply to get off the island. Then… he seemed to have entered a different world. After the more sensible ideas like building a raft or some form of a boat were put up and tried… then did the really… strange ideas pop up. These ideas were normally accompanied with,
"Well, have YOU got a better idea?"
After many other dubious people questioned and criticized the plan. The next normal event that would happen was that everyone would actually run after the person who suggested that idea (and was now proceeding to carry it out), some still criticizing, some deciding to just go the heck along with it.
What had they tried…? Oh yes- a life raft(until it sank because of inaccurate building), another life raft(that broke when four people stepped on it), a third life raft(that didn't break or sink until ten people got on it), a fourth life raft(that was perfect until they found that it was devoid of the essentials-a sail, some type of rudder, and oars), an actual boat(but they ended up with something that looked like a spaceship), yes… the list somehow went on and on and on.
He was the Kazekage. And he was on a C rank mission. This was absolutely ludicrous. This is whole… thing was absolutely ludicrous. True, true, his whole village council was all for it as was the Hokage in Hidden Leaf Village. The reason? Gaara glared at no one in particular. Money. Yes- lots and lots of money. The Hokage, with her infamous numerable amount of debts had been bound to accept the deal- which also included him, his sister and his brother. Their client had came to them with a list- yes, a list with fifteen names on it, the exact names of the ninja who would be assigned to this mission. Amazing, but sadly enough this was the reason why he was thus here now with:
One carrier of the Nine Tales Demon Fox, one probable unstable white eyed Jonin, two sane Jonin, one ex-missing nin, two ex-fangirls, one weapons specialist with giant bombs, one apparent genius, one white dog, one dog master, one taijutsu lunatic, one anti-social bug user, one 'eternally-hungry' Chunin and one Kazekage.
Yeah. He had quite a mix… didn't he? Why any client would want all these exact people, together, in one mission was enough of a mystery which he'd probably never find out. After all, reasons wanted could disappear instantly when there was money… and lots of it around.
Then, there was the good chance that their client was dead- drowned, sleeping forever at the bottom of the sea. No money. But, then, the important thing now was to just survive and he currently wasn't concerned if their mission succeeded… or didn't succeed.
The Kazekage, quickly took a step to one side as a huge hunk of wood came flying right at him. He spared a glance at what the others were doing. They were trying to chop down trees for a raft. Trying was the keyword. Rock Lee had just made a tree explode into a mass of flying debris via one kick. A vein throbbed on Gaara' forehead.
This was it. He had enough. He had learned patience from being acquainted with the lunatics in this group for a few years. He had learned more patience from his council in Suna. But sadly, very sadly, that patience had just expired. He was absolutely sick and tired and waiting for these people to actual do something worthwhile. He had given them a chance, so now as he was nearly at and on the verge of insanity he thus had to resolve it all by simply doing things sensibly- Not that he wouldn't mind doing it like that, that is.
"We are going to stop this pathetic idea of building a life raft."
Heads turned, silence ensued.
"But wasn't it YOUR idea?" pointed out Naruto, trying to look intelligent.
This of course failed and Gaara felt like screaming, 'no, it was the guy in green spandex's idea.' But this was very un-Gaara and although he had some kind of affinity for the blonde… this was really cutting it.
"Idiot!" whispered Chouji hurriedly to the Kyuubi container, "I know you went away for two years but-"
The Akimichi heir gestured with his head towards Gaara.
"Don't you know that temperament, that look on his face?" continued Kiba, also in a whisper, "He's like Hokage-sama when she's found out the sake shipment has been delayed."
"Oh." This time, with the reference to Tsundae, Naruto understand perfectly and startled to babble, "I'm, ah extremely sorry, ah Gaara-sama, oh I mean, Hokage-sama, nononono, I mean, ah, Kazekage-sama, yeah that's it!"
"So what are we going to do now…?" continued Sakura.
Gaara himself was feeling like using on of his more…deadly jutsus on all of them- the one where sand enveloped you on all sides and then…suddenly crushed the life out of you. Yes, that one-
"Thanks a lot, Forehead-Girl…." Muttered Yamanaka Ino sarcastically.
For Gaara, unaware of he was actually doing as he was thinking, had actually unconsciously started to command his sand to wrap itself around each shinobi there. The ninja all froze- had Gaara finally… cracked and went back to his old unstable state?
Temari remembered the old days, "Ah Gaara…?"
But unfortunately Gaara still deep in his thoughts, didn't notice the question, and didn't notice that his eyes had developed a somewhat freakish, psychopathic look to them- he didn't notice anything. Gaara was still reaching into his inner depths, trying to find where he stored that emergency bit of patience for times like this…
The sand by now was up to their knees. Gaara kept on searching mentally, unaware of his surroundings- unaware of everything. Lee seemed to be on the verge of frightened frenzy, having flashbacks of the last time he had been in a situation like this- the situation which nearly killed him.
Tenten, out of the blue, tried 'counseling', in a somewhat soothing voice, "Ah… Gaara, you'd wouldn't want to hurt us would you? Don't you want to-"
The sand around the Chuunin suddenly rose up to the teen's waist instead of slowly crawling up her thighs. Tenten froze and kept silent.
"DAMN IT GAARA!" shouted Naruto and clumsily flung a free kunai at the kage, "SNAP OUT OF IT!"
Temari's eyes widened but thankfully, Kankuro saw it, caught it and blocked it with his arm. The kunai simply bounced off the Jonin's arm, the blunt side tapping his shoulder blade.
Gaara pushed away a particularly painful memory form his childhood and continued his search, diving further into his mind.
"Moron!" seethed Kankuro, "Don't you know- that makes him worse!"
Sasuke tried a fire jutsu as a test, half wondering if the sand for once wouldn't resist the fire. It of course did. Neji tried using some sort of chakra attack and Shino started to send his insects toward Gaara- only to be stopped by an anxious Temari. You had be extremely careful when Gaara was like that. Even if the Sand demon was out of the kage… there were times when-
Gaara's mental mind grasped the fleeting emotion, and finally returned to the real world, unaware of what he had been just doing. His calm demeanor returned, the freaky eye look disappeared, and the sand immediately retracted before Gaara knew what it had been up to.
"We are going to try something else- something more," Gaara stopped, as he saw the many figures staring at him, frozen in place, like statues.
A vein nearly pulsed on his forehead but the kage shook it away. It was at times like this that he really wondered if all these people were REALLY actually what the world considered them to be: geniuses, powerful, intelligent… Yes, at times like this, he really had his doubts…. They were really all idiots weren't they…?
Naruto sighed and suddenly relaxed, "Whew… I thought I was going to be crushed to death… I never knew sand could be so scary either…"
AND they were insane and delusional- wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
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"I'm giving you all the option via majority rules on either a three man team or pairs, chosen by yourselves."
Hyuuga Neji looked up. They were finally going to do something worthwhile. Great.
Temari seemed to respond instantaneously after glancing at Lee, "Pairs. Sasuke?"
Sasuke nodded almost immediately, "Yeah. We'll do scouting."
Neji nodded in understanding. Lee was all in all, not so much of an idiot as he was in Genin days, but there were limits.
Neji smirked as he saw Haruno Sakura half glare at the pair- she probably had some very wrong idea of why the two were together. Knowing that there was going to chaos in the next few seconds for partners, the Hyuuga looked quickly around, trying to find Tenten. Where was she…?
Too late.
"Tenten, do you wanna scout with me?" Inuzuka Kiba flashed a lopsided grin at Tenten from where he stood beside his dog.
Neji inwardly shook his heard, allowing himself another smirk. The Chuunin would of course, have to be disappointed and go find someone else. It was almost preposterous that Tenten would go with anyone ELSE anyway-
"Yeah, sure!"
WHAT THE HELL? Fortunately, Neji didn't scream this out loud, otherwise the others might have been scarred for life. The Byakugen user didn't have time to call out a retort or anything of that manner as the area soon collapsed into noise, sound, and movement as people started to talk to each other.
His logical side tried to convince him that Tenten was just being polite; after all, the two had been together quite a lot on the island so far, due to the fact that they were both on the Food Retrieval Team. It would only be natural for them to go together… and besides, the dog boy otherwise would be stuck with no one…right? What the hell... He didn't even sound convincing to himself…
Neji suddenly realized that his options for a partner were disappearing as he heard,
"Shikamaru, you're going with me right?"
"Guess so…"
Turning around, he saw a flash of green cloth and winced- he definitely didn't want to get stuck with HIM for a whole three hours… Pink entered his eyesight, as he caught hold of Sakura who seemed to be looking for a partner still, somewhat reluctant in her actions.
He might as well go with her… since Tenten- red nearly blinded the Hyuuga's vision on this thought- was going with that…idiot. What was she thinking?
"Hey Sakura-chan!"
Neji saw his team mate greet Sakura and immediately knew what was happening. He was going to go ask Sakura… and knowing the kunoichi she'd probably accept- she was quite amiable with him these days, seeing him as some sort of brother. And on impulse, he said smoothly and quickly,
"Sakura, do you have anyone to go with?"
"Ah," the pink haired teen glanced at Lee who had been stopped by Gaara, "I guess… not. I'll go with you!"
She smiled at him nervously and he nodded curtly. Neji glared at Kiba from the corner of his eyes. Where he and Sakura some kind of leftover trash...? Impossible... And yet-
Neji glanced at Sakura looking at Sasuke and Temari talking, while he himself tried not to barge in on Tenten and that other person beside her. What was up with Tenten today...? This was wrong. After all, whenever did she start being so... friendly with that Inuzuka? From his memory, he never really remembered he talking to any other male with the exception of him. After all, Tenten was HIS teammate, HIS sparring partner- but then, he didn't really care, of course. She could go be a slut if she wanted to.
Neji looked around for Tenten, not that he actually really cared, really… His fingers somehow clenched into a fist upon seeing the two and his eyes somehow narrowed upon seeing the Inuzuka casually touch her hand- yes, he really didn't care.
Neji glanced around seeing who was with who, determined to get the image of Tenten with Kiba out of his mind. Gaara stood in the centre obviously waiting for people to get organized, his facial expression calm- for the moment at least.
Naruto was talking very animatedly to a slightly red Hinata while Shino and Kankuro near each other- just not… socializing with each other. Temari and Sasuke interchanged a few sentences to each other and Lee was ecstatically pumping his fist in the air while Chouji beside him tried half heartedly to calm the shinobi down. Shikamaru leaned against a tree, some form of red tinting his cheeks- Ino was probably lecturing him for being pervert… It was a good thing that the same thing hadn't happened to him with Tenten- and speaking of her…
Neji tried, he really did, but his self-control suddenly broke and he looked again at the kunoichi. She didn't even seem to notice he was there- oh maybe she did. Neji fought to keep his facial features calm and placid as the weapons specialist turned to smile at him… then immediately talk to that infuriating mud haired teen beside her.
The Hyuuga broke his gaze and focused on a tree near him. One…Two…Three… Four… Five- He felt his head turning before stopping it just in time… Damn it! He wasn't jealous- of course…not?
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Running. Akimichi Chouji hadn't done so much of it… in a very long while. His legs felt like huge iron weights, pulling him down into the ground. Simply put, Chouji wasn't built to do this sort of life threatening exercise. He was built to eat… and eat… then eat some more. But as fate would have it, here he was, running- and running and running.
"Hey, Gaara, let's take a short break, huh?"
The Kagekage paused on a tree branch and turned his head back. Chouji tried his best smile.
"Might as well."
Oh wow- it worked. The Akimichi sighed in relief, and choosing a thick branch that would support his weight, slid down against a tree trunk. Chouji glanced around from where he was, taking in the dense jungle. He and Gaara had already covered at least half of the area they were meant to cover and explore- that is, the beach area closest to the shipwreck to the camp.
And it was… Chouji tilted his head upwards, checking the position of the sun in the sky- just starting to reach late afternoon. They would finish in another two hours. Good. He wanted to go to that lake and take a bath of something. He was had buckets of sweat- a substance which seemed to attract those infuriating bugs that kept landing on him… He envied Gaara- any insect that came into a questionable radius of the kage was disintegrated by sand. Yeah-
A small feathered blue object suddenly smashed into his face and after catching whatever that thing was, Chouji spat out feathers from his mouth. He had actually been tempted to just eat them- he was that hungry, but… the sensible part of him still seemed revolted at it. Give or take a few hours more, and he'd probably be living on feathers happily…
But this was not the time to actually think about feathers and lovely things like that. Instead, this was the time to yell,
"What the hell!"
And clutch the offending blue thing in his hands. Thus Chouji did exactly that. Gaara turned to look back and blinked. The bird squawked- a very high pitched squawk, and kept squawking. Chouji let go immediately, as the sound painfully hit his ear drums and Gaara closed his eye momentarily.
The bird clumsily started to fly away, still dizzy from its collision. Chouji, recovering from the attack, suddenly realized what was flying away from him- food! The thing he needed. He didn't care if the bird was poisonous or something like that- he needed food NOW.
Enlarging his arm immediately via a jutsu, Chouji struck his hand out and caught the bird. Soon, the poor creature was making weak squawk sand struggles, terrified in his hands. Drool dangled from his lip. Food… On impulse, the Akimichi started to bring the bird to his mouth until he realized…
That it was still squawking its head off and was alive and kicking. He paused for thought. Then, with one well placed blow, the bird received swirls in its eyes and was off to dreamland.
"I'll just be a few minutes," said Chouji after seeing Gaara's gaze on him, "I'm starving! We can split it anyway…"
Jumping down to the ground, the shinobi started to hunt around for sticks, one hand clutched to his precious treasure. Once various thin sticks had been assembled he started to rub two sticks together, trying to get a fire going. Cooked Unidentifiable Bird never sounded more delicious at the current moment. Chouji rubbed faster and more vigorously.
The result was a tiny flame which slowly, hungrily began to eat and grow. Once satisfied with his fire, Chouji dumped the parrot onto the still blazing fire, not caring about a spit or how he cooked it now- he just wanted it cooked, damn it.
Gaara landed beside him with a soft thud. Chouji grinned at him, feeling some form of ecstasy with the thought of eating.Saliva formed speedily on his mouth. He really wanted to eat it now. NOW. But at least, heshould have it cooked and hygienic… A drop of water suddenly landed on Chouji's nose.
"Eh?" the shinobi looked up surprised.
Was that dew? OR was that-
Suddenly, a huge downpour of rain descended on the two companions, pelting down on their backs and distinguishing their meager fire in almost an instant. The rain also revived the bird, and it immediately took off, it's wings and feathers singed. The sudden change of weather was shockingly cold and Chouji sat there numbly for a few seconds before he realized what had happened.
"Damn. Stupid Bird."
Done. Hopeflully, that was alright, and wow- we haven't heard from Shino in a while have we?
If you're waiting for NaruHina to actually get a move on its way, you'll be glad to know that yes… a little fluffy moment is in the next chapter. Well, at least I think it will be fluffy.
Again, I'm sorry for the uber lateness!
Till Whenever,
-StarDragon X