Suzume-kage: For some reason, my writing skills have been slipping, and my pride isn't exactly the size of Mt. Fuji. I'm not complaining, I'm just running out of fluff ideas, so if you have any suggestions please tell me. I'm now making this a Crossover between Naruto and Tales of Symphonia (Some of you might be familiar with it) I think it would be an interesting experience for our lovely little Shinobi from the world of Naruto.

Lloyd: So… we have to team up with the people from Narowtow?

Suzume-kage: That's 'Naru-to' Lloyd, and yeah, you, Collet, Raine, Genis, Kratos and Zelos will be included in the story. (Possible Mithos appearances.)

Lloyd: That Sakura girl really catches my attention… hmmm…

Zelos: Ahh… Hinata… My cool, intellectual beauty…

Kairo Chapter 9

It was dawn, and the team has been running since they left camp earlier in the morning. Sakura had even talked with Hinata quietly; Sasuke was there to hear what the pink-haired girl had to say. It almost got violent because Sakura had confessed her feelings to Sasuke right in front of everybody, including Hinata and Naruto. Naruto had thought that he and Sakura were together, and Hinata had developed a soft side for the Uchiha. But as predicted, he turned Sakura down, but not in a harsh way. He just told her that he didn't quite feel the same way, and that he only thought of her like a friend. Sakura had accepted his rejection and realized how much she loved Naruto, much to Naruto's happiness. Naruto was so happy he started to cry, Gaara only smiled a bit, he was glad that Naruto didn't get his heart broken. In the end, everybody won…

'So why am I not happier?' Hinata thought as she tried to maintain her speed to keep up with the others.

It seemed that everything was working out for everyone else, but not for her. Her feelings are still a wreck, and her hormones were just starting to gear up. Sasuke was in love with her, and she kind of like him back. But Gaara is also in love with her, and he was very important to her. She was stuck in a void, it seemed. Just then, Gaara slid by her on his sand.

"Are you okay, Hinata-chan?" he asked his observant eyes were tinted with concern. Hinata looked over at him for a moment but quickly turned away.

"I'm fine, Gaara-kun." She stated quickly. Almost too quickly, because Gaara immediately got suspicious.

He stared at Hinata hard. "Are you sure about that?" She nodded her head and stared at the path ahead of them. The sky was getting lighter with each passing hour.

Hinata sighed deeply, her breath turned into a visible gas as her warm breath hit the cold air. "Look, Gaara-kun, I just don't feel like talking right now, but I promise I'll tell you when I'm ready." She said, giving Gaara one of her vibrant smiles, only a smaller version. Gaara nodded. His heart thumped twice as fast when he saw her smile. They both turned back to the road. The Ice nation was only six hours away.

Meanwhile, at the back, the female Taijutsu specialist was having a hard time keeping up. Chai skidded to a stop, her back hunched over. Her breath came in short ragged gasps, they didn't seem like breaths at all. Her yellow eyes were becoming disoriented, and her feet started throbbing like mad. Chai coughed and sputtered loudly. Everybody heard the sputtering and turned to the source; Lee widened his eyes in shock and rotated to run over to his beloved friend.

"Chai! The beautiful Chinese lotus flower! Do you need my assistance?" Lee asked, joyfully putting his hand on Chai's broad shoulders. Chai coughed some more, looking up at Lee's caring expression, she smiled and nodded. "Please…" she croaked.

"Thanks, Lee-kun…" she whispered. Everybody watched as Lee turned his back to Chai and crouched down a bit, signaling for her to climb onto his back. She straightened up and slowly climbed onto Lee, wrapping her legs around his waist. Lee placed his forearms under her legs, securing her to his back. He ran back to the team with a big smile on his face, Chai smiled gently too. Neji smiled back at them, Tenten latched onto his arm and grinned. Everybody continued their pace towards the Ice Country. Sakura, Ino and Hinata were running alongside each other, chatting quietly. Sakura looked at Lee and Chai.

"You know, if I wasn't into a guy who had absolutely no interest in me, I would've had a crush on Lee, or maybe Naruto…" Hinata and Ino smiled at their friend.

"Yeah, but now you have Naruto, believe it or not, you two were so meant to be, Sakura." Ino perked up. Hinata smirked a very Sasuke like smirk.

"You mean like you and Shikamaru-kun, Ino?" Ino blushed and punched Hinata in the shoulder Sakura smiled and sighed dreamily.

"I wonder if there are great places to go on dates." Sakura said, putting a finger to her chin. Ino nodded, stars twinkling in her sapphire eyes.

"I wonder if Shikamaru would be interested…" Ino added thoughtfully, breaking into a thinking pose of her own. Hinata scoffed, leering at her friends.

"I don't think we're going to the Ice nation to sight-see." Hinata told them, her voice lowering. Sakura and Ino looked over at her, surprised. "Hinata, loosen up!" Ino shouted, punching Hinata in the shoulder again. Sakura waggled her thin eyebrows at the bluenette.

"So Hinata, thinking of getting together with Gaara?" her and Ino snickered teasingly. Hinata turned pink, she was thinking of Gaara at the exact moment Sakura mentioned him. 'Do I like Gaara-kun? Well we did kiss. But it was just between friends… Ok, really good friends…' she argued with herself. Tenten and Neji ran up beside them.

"We are almost there!" Tenten shouted gleefully. Sometimes, she was as happy as Lee. Neji nodded and scanned his sharp eyes throughout the group, and the area surrounding them. "

Everyone, be prepared. I sense a disturbance." As if on cue, Hinata tapped into her Hyuuga bloodline traits. "Me too, it's pretty close, so stay focused just in case." Gaara slid over to her again, staring at Hinata just like before.

"Who are they?" Gaara asked, his voice alluring. Hinata gulped before meeting his gaze. "I'm not sure." She answered; her voice was just a solemn. Kiba ran up soon after.

"I smell something! The scent is very strange, nothing like I've ever experienced before!" He exclaimed. Hinata rolled her eyes at her former teammate.

"Oh please, you'd be glad that you're useful for something…" she whispered. But Kiba's sensitive ears heard it, and he pouted at her. "What's that supposed to mean? That I'm not useful? Seriously Hinata, is you're chest the only part of you-"Hinata cut him off before he could finish.

"My…WHAT!" She shouted so loud, birds on near by trees flew away, her eyes full of rage. By now, everyone was staring. Kankuro gave Kiba a thumbs-up and Temari tried to contain her laughter, Gaara stared at the two, smirking in amusement. Naruto was grinning pervertedly, Sasuke winked, and smirked yet again, and Lee stared wide-eyed at the scene he and Chai were witnessing. Tenten buried her face in Neji's shoulder, trying not to laugh. Sakura and Ino were biting their lips, they were definitely trying to suppress a giggle. Shikamaru gave Kiba a lop-sided grin, and Neji was fuming with anger and outrage. And yet Hinata stood there defiantly, staring at Kiba himself was breathing in fast breaths, his chest heaving from underneath his black hoodie. He looked as if someone just killed Akamaru.

"Err… Hinata-chan… I didn't mean that…" Kiba started, but he just stopped talking when Hinata gave him the coldest, meanest glare he had ever received. "I'm just going to…to…" Hinata rolled her eyes, Neji walked up to Kiba. Kiba looked up at the angry Byakugan eyes and grinned innocently.

"Why hello there sir, how do you do?" Kiba asked, grabbing a cane and a top hat. Neji lifted his hand and struck Kiba across the face hard. So hard, Kiba crumbled to the floor. Neji stood there, staring down at Kiba.

"Keep you're dirty thoughts to yourself, Inuzuka." With that said, he walked back to where the others were standing, like mannequins in a display case. Kiba got up slowly, using his new-found cane and holding his left cheek, where Neji hit him with a chakra infused palm. He made a grunting noise and murmured something about 'me and my big, rather hot mouth.' Hinata turned to face everyone, but there was something terribly wrong with the picture, everyone except Gaara, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Neji was trying to suppress something. Hinata narrowed her eyes at everyone.

"What?!" she breathed, annoyed. Out of nowhere, Naruto burped, real loud and slow. That of course, set off a chain reaction. Temari's eyes widened, she gasped out laughing.

"Wahahahaha!" Ino and Sakura bowed their heads and broke into a fit of giggles. Tenten was punching Neji's shoulder in laughter. Chai laughed so hard, it sounded like she was crying. Sasuke and Gaara started chuckling; Lee was pounding the floor with a bright red face. Almost everyone was blushing though, even Neji. Kiba's random yet sexist comment was perverted, but the consequence was ridiculously funny.When everybody settled down, they resumed their journey to the village hidden in the Ice crystals. They must be getting close, because the temperature was dropping and the sky was ashen white. Snowflakes started to drift down gently, landing on Hinata nose. She giggled as it dissolved into her skin. She turned to see if everyone else had noticed it was snowing and to her surprise, she saw Sasuke opening his mouth wide while looking up at the sky, three or four snowflakes falling in. Sasuke closed his eyes, as if enjoying the taste of cold precipitation. He closed his mouth and resumed looking to the path, locking gazes with Hinata as he did so. He smirked, it wasn't a 'gotcha' smirk, it was one of those smirks that his fan girls would swoon over. Hinata smiled a bit, and looked to Gaara. He was examining a snowflake that had landed on the sleeve of his burgundy shirt. It was only natural that he'd be curious; he did come from a country where even rain is not even possible. She saw Sakura latching onto Naruto's arm; he kissed the top of her pink haired head. Turning to her left, she saw Shikamaru wrap his arm around Ino's waist, and Neji wrapped his arm around Tenten's exposed shoulders, she was shivering a bit. She watched as Neji leaned in and kissed Tenten's cheek. Kiba stretched out his arms and folded them behind his neck, leaning his head against them. He was still grinning; he was replaying the gig he managed to pull off earlier. Hinata walked over to Gaara, whom was examining the flake of snow on his sleeve.

"You, know that no snow flake is like another." She said, looking at the snowflake as well. It was shaped like a pentagon, with six forks of ice lining the middle.

Gaara looked at her, amazed. "I come from a place were water evaporates, Hinata-chan" Hinata nodded and smiled gently.

"Beautiful isn't it?" she gushed.

"Hn." But Gaara wasn't looking at the snowflake, he was looking at her. They resumed walking. Hinata took out the mission info scroll from her backpack, and unrolled a bit of it.

"The scroll states that we have to save Ice country, from a demon's threat, but I don't know what a demo would want from a place." Hinata noted on the fact that they were going to the Ice village to protect it from a demonic being. Sasuke walked up and nodded. Looking over her shoulder he also read some of the information.

"It also states that we would not need to seek it out, it comes to the frozen lake just south of the village every three days." He looked at Hinata, his facial expression as impassive as ever. Hinata nodded her head and glanced up at the white sky. 'Looks as if the color has been sucked right out of it.' She thought, observing a flock of birds flying swiftly in a V formation, they were migrating, winter had officially hit the Ice Country. Hinata smiled and took in some cold air through her nostrils. This was the life. Just then, she heard some rustling noises, like someone was trudging through the snow behind her. Hinata was at the back of the group, and was trailing them from a good five meters. The others couldn't hear the trudging noises. Hinata head the noises coming closer and closer. Hinata turned around, sensing a disturbance in the area. 'Whatever this is, it's masking its chakra quite well!' she thought desperately whipping her head from one direction to the next. 'Why can't I see-' an arm snaked around Hinata's waist pulling her in, in a surprisingly warm embrace of some sort. Hinata looked up, her hand reaching for a kunai, and her mouth opening wide.

"Help! Sakura! Ino! Tenten? Anyone!!!" she yelled, trying to slash at the offenders head with her kunai. The figure wore a hood, and a long black cloak with strange red swirly patterns. The cloaked figure grabbed hold of Hinata's wrist, promptly disabling her spear at his head. Hinata's eyes grew wide, she looked back at the group, everyone was running to her. "Hinata!" almost everyone shouted at once. Sasuke and Gaara got there first, Sasuke snapped out a few shuriken, and a kunai. He positioned his arm for throwing the shuriken, but stopped in mid-throw. Coal black eyes widened. That hooded cloak, with the red swirls, it looked like…

And, I'm sure you can figure out this cliff hanger easily. I don't even think you need any hints. See you all later…

Gaara: YOU! If I EVER catch you peeking at MY Hinata-hime, it's downtown for you!

Zelos: Bah, what are you going to do… you eyebrow-less… Uhh….

Gaara: YOU IDIOT!!!! sand bursting out of gourd

Suzume-kage: Review to help save Zelos... At least until Sasuke gets here...

Kiba: Gaara and Sasuke jumped this guy with girlishly long hair! Eww he even wears pink!!!

Sakura: Just happens to walk by What's wrong with pink? Oooh! A hot guy with red hair!

Kiba: Uhhh...Everything...?

Sakura: Hmph...