Okay, okay… I should stop apologizing if I'm just going to do it again… I took quite a bit of time updating, again. At least this time I didn't make any update promises. According to the reviews I've received, I'm going to try to slide Sakura's 'crush' over to Naruto. I am more awkward writing GaaSaku because I like NaruSaku better and almost always accidentally hint at NaruSaku, because it is one of my favorites.
I do NOT own Naruto, hell, I don't even own my own anime, let alone a successful one!
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"What was that?" Chouji had stopped eating potato chips long enough to ask nervously. 'I KNOW that wasn't my stomach.' He thought, shaking his head.
"It sounded like… well…" Ino trailed off.
Temari gulped. "It did sound like…"
Shino adjusted his glasses, though he seemed to use extra care in placing his shades, as if afraid that he might drop them, which had never happened before… at least, not to anyone's knowledge who was present.
"That most definitely did not sound like a holler of youth." Lee stated worriedly.
"Yeah… Lee's right… it was more like a shout of… un…youth." Kankuro agreed awkwardly.
Shikamaru frowned. For all they knew, that scream had nothing to do with them. Disturbing, though it was, that someone might be being terrorized in Konoha, but they couldn't really afford to take side trips. Besides, something told Shikamaru that they wouldn't need to take a detour to reach whoever it was that screamed.
What Neji said next implied that everyone else thought the source of the sound was their destination. "That better not have been Hinata!"
"Neji!" Tenten said in a scolding tone, and punched him hard in the back.
"So, you think it's them, Neji?" Sakura asked, rather softly. "And you hope it's Kiba, aren't you?"
Gaara raised his eyebrows, wondering what was wrong with a perfectly good shout of agony… oh…that's right…
"That's not what I-" Neji started.
"Relax." Sakura told him. "I hope it was Kiba, too."
"Isn't it sort of, err, contradictory to your medical status to be saying that?" Kankuro asked.
Ino looked surprised. "I like Hinata better too, Sakura, but that's just a little bit cold on your part."
"It is very unyouthful to wish pain upon another person, Sakura-san!" Lee scolded, looking disappointed.
"I'm not wishing pain upon anyone, Lee, nor did I say that out of personal preference." Sakura denied.
"Right, because if it was Hinata, that would mean Kiba already bit the bullet, and that would be troublesome." Shikamaru pointed out.
"Use common sense." Shino said. "Hinata doesn't sound like a man." He adjusted his glasses and kept walking, followed by amazed gawks from all except Gaara, Shikamaru, and Sakura, and Neji.
Neji only glared.
--
"Karin." Sasuke said. She didn't respond.
He sighed. It didn't look like she would be stopping any time soon. "Karin." He repeated, this time more commandingly.
"What? If you're bored, just go ahead. I'm having a great time." Karin brushed her leader off.
Sasuke grumbled impatiently. He WAS bored, but leaving Karin behind with a possibility of Konoha backup on their asses was not a prospect he liked. They would have to leave immediately.
One look at Kiba told him that his former comrade was neither bored nor having a good time. Somehow, somewhere deep down, he knew he was feeling the emotion of pity. Or maybe a very painful stab around his midriff…
Suddenly, a sharp pain near his abdomen broke through his thoughts, finally making him fully aware of it.
It was a moment before he realized Hinata stabbed him, and the moment he did, he cursed his absentmindedness.
Hinata withdrew from Sasuke, her hands glowing blue.
'Shit.' Sasuke mentally cursed.
"Jyuuken, 64 strike!" She murmured.
Karin was too involved in her 'great time' that she didn't notice the silent attack.
"Having fun, Inuzuka?" Karin asked sweetly.
'No, not exactly.' Kiba thought. 'But it's so kind of you to be concerned about whether or not I'm having fun when I couldn't really care less about you.'
"Well?" Karin repeated, in an almost mockingly anxious way.
"Oh yeah, time of my life, just like Sasuke." Kiba said, deliberately alerting Karin to Sasuke's condition.
Karin turned around to get a look at Sasuke, who had slid to the ground, holding his wound. "Sasuke-kun!" She gasped.
Kiba took this opportunity to throw a kunai at her.
Karin promptly whipped around and knocked the kunai aside.
"I'm not stupid." She scoffed.
'I dunno about that.'
Hinata hurtled into Karin, hitting her over and over with Jyuuken.
A medical scroll plopped down in a patch of grass next to the tree Kiba was sitting against.
He picked it up, and immediately disappeared into hiding to heal himself.
Hinata had knocked Karin into the ground and struck her with Gentle Fist relentlessly, even as Karin's blood flung into her face.
Hinata had the element of surprise, and was not going to let this opportunity slip away.
Besides, this was for her and Kiba. It was very personal.
--
Naruto jumped onto another branch, always keeping his eyes locked on his destination.
He was focused on catching Sasuke, and that was all that mattered to him.
"Naruto? Where are you-?"
'Sakura-chan?' Naruto looked down to catch a glimpse of pink hair before his shin crashed into a branch.
His focus was gone, and he wouldn't be catching it in mid-fall, not now that he was so surprised that he had found them already.
He crashed head first into the ground and blacked out, though, he noticed, upon impact, that the ground was a fair bit more cushioned than he remembered.
--
The group was traipsing through the jungle of trees when Sakura heard a rustling of leaves above somewhere behind them.
Instinctively, she looked up and a flash of orange caught her eye.
"Naruto?" She called.
He looked down at her.
It was Naruto.
She winced when his leg crashed into a branch and he flipped over the branch.
The knuckle-headed ninja plummeted towards the ground.
Sakura ran towards the place where he would land, and, deciding she wouldn't make it fast enough on her feet, slid beneath him and caught him.
Despite her effort, he still managed to smack his head into the ground, though he was mostly saved from the damage of the impact.
He blacked out.
--
Naruto opened his eyes groggily, then, remembering his mission, brought his head up at an amazingly speedy rate.
He felt something hard connect with the top of his head, and whatever it was fell backwards.
"How long was I out? We have to- Sakura-chan, what are you- Ow!" The solid object that connected with the top of his head had been Sakura's chin, and the blow knocked her flat. But, she shook it off enough to give Naruto one hard blow to the back of the head.
"You were out for like four seconds. Then you woke up." Sakura grumbled, nursing her chin. "You made me bite my tongue, by the way. What kind of thanks is that?"
"Thanks?" Naruto asked quizzically. "What happened?"
"You fell out of a tree." Neji said moodily, as though he had no time for such childish things. "Sakura caught you so that you wouldn't damage that brain of yours any further than it is."
"Oh… hey! Shut up." Naruto ordered.
Neji snorted.
"We have better things to be doing right now. Hurry up!" Naruto exclaimed, rising to his feet shakily. "Sasuke's here!" And with that, he took off running, dragging the all too lazy Shikamaru with him and Sakura not too far behind him. Shino took off at a walking pace.
"We'll call you guys for back up if we need it!" Naruto shouted over his shoulder.
"Why couldn't I have been part of the back up? How troublesome." Shikamaru sighed.
The rest of the group processed this information, then glanced at one another quizzically.
--
Kiba looked at the scroll then at the bone still sticking through his chest. He sighed in defeat. The scroll had used all of the medical chakra in it.
At least he couldn't feel anything in that area, and at least the bone was back in him, even if only partially.
Kiba stood up and then vanished once again.
--
Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura came to a stop, surveying the scene before them with confusion.
Normally, as they all knew, Hinata didn't take to hitting someone relentlessly, and Sasuke didn't usually start bleeding spontaneously, either.
They shook themselves off in time to notice that Sasuke was inching towards Hinata with a kunai in his hand.
He began to rise to his feet and poise himself to stab.
"No you don't!" Naruto shouted, catching Hinata and Sasuke's attention for a second.
Sasuke turned back to Hinata to follow through with the motion, but Naruto wasn't going to let that happen.
He flew top speed at Sasuke, ready to strike, when someone flung themselves out of what must have been thin air and tackled Sasuke to the ground, punching him several times before satisfied that the traitor was unconscious.
"Ki…Kiba? You… alright?" Naruto asked as Kiba got up. "I heard someone yell…"
"No, I'm fine now… at least, it's nothing Sakura can't fix." Kiba shrugged it off.
"Why're you… is that a… bone?" Naruto questioned.
Kiba looked down unconsciously. "Oh, yeah, it is."
"…Oh." Naruto looked slightly queasy.
Sakura lifted Hinata to her feet, her knuckles, face, and torso splattered with specks of blood.
Karin must have been unconscious by then.
Sakura glanced at Kiba and Hinata. "Looks like you've had a bad day." She commented.
"That just about sums it up." Kiba grinned.
"Doesn't that… you know… hurt?" Naruto asked poking the bone a little too hard.
Kiba recoiled slightly, then scowled at Naruto. "Well, yeah. Now I know not to poke it, thanks." He said sarcastically.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, looking at Karin and Sasuke.
Shino finally came into view, still walking.
Suddenly, smoke erupted from Sasuke's body, and Sasuke launched himself through the smoke at Kiba.
Kiba narrowly dodged the attempt.
"Hyuuga." Sasuke breathed, his tone deadly. "Inuzuka."
Kiba didn't want to stick around to hear what the Uchiha had to say, but he did hear it.
"I'm going to put you both in hell."
Hinata gapped at the furious boy, as though she couldn't comprehend such a violent thought.
Kiba grabbed Hinata by the hand and dragged her away.
"K-Kiba!" Hinata gasped. "You're crushing my hand!"
"Sorry." Kiba growled, letting go.
"Damn… I was sure he was unconscious…" Kiba berated himself.
Kiba looked behind him, but Sasuke was nowhere in sight. "Looks like we lost him. Good thing too. I was thinking I wouldn't be able to run one more minute."
"Kiba!" Hinata tried to warn him of a food stand, but she was too late.
"Hu-?" He started, but crashed into the stand, sending food and boy to the ground.
"Itai…" Kiba mumbled, feeling his head and chest.
"Kiba, are you- Eep!" Hinata squeaked when Sasuke tore out from behind the crashed food stand and leapt at her.
She dove to the side just in time. Sasuke got up and charged at Hinata, who was sprawled on the ground.
Before he could make contact, a melon smashed into the side of his head, knocking him off course.
Hinata sprang to her feet and the Inuzuka and Hyuuga dashed away once more.
"Kiba, since continuing to run will most likely end in disaster, use henge." Hinata suggested.
Kiba nodded, and a moment later, an older, taller burnet with blue eyes and shorter hair was before her, and she became a blue eyed blond several inches taller and older looking.
They settled down on a bench when they came across a park.
"Act like we're on a date or something." Hinata instructed.
"Uh, okay…" Kiba nodded.
Seconds later, Sasuke skidded up to their bench, looking at them suspiciously.
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked nastily.
"It's rude to ask people for their name before telling them your own." Hinata piped up.
Sasuke scowled at her, and growled in frustration. "Tell me what you're doing here, then."
Hinata opened her mouth, but Kiba interrupted her would be lecture on rudeness, seeming to read her mind.
"On a date, man. What else?" Sasuke eyed him suspiciously.
"I don't believe you, Inuzuka."
Kiba held his hands up innocently. "I dunno who the hell you're going on about, but seems to me that you're a bit out of you're tree demanding us to prove our innocence and to answer your questions."
"I still don't believe either of you." Sasuke decided.
Suddenly, Kiba got an idea, a sort of spur of the moment thing. "Well, honey, guess we'll just have to make out with him watching."
"Uh-!" Hinata started to protest, but Kiba silenced her with a kiss… a very long kiss.
"Satisfied, you insane pervert?" Hinata squeaked.
Sasuke's nose wrinkled in disgust. "No, it's most likely an act."
Kiba and Hinata gapped at him.
"Hey bastard, what are you doing kissing my girl?" A male voice called.
Kiba and Hinata looked at each other in panic as a random fellow sauntered up to Kiba drunkenly and tried to take a swing at him. Kiba ducked.
"She's not you're girl, she's mine!" Kiba protested.
The drunk squinted at Hinata and realization seemed to dawn on him. "You're right. My girl had a lot more freckles." He hiccupped and stumbled away.
"Uh…" Kiba shrugged at Hinata.
Sasuke had disappeared from sight, when suddenly another call came. "Hey, bastard!"
"Damn it! Not again!" Kiba groaned. But this voice sounded familiar. It sounded like Naruto's voice, and it was coming from ahead.
Hinata and Kiba rushed to the scene. Sure enough, Naruto was there, facing off against Sasuke.
"Dirty." Naruto panted.
Sasuke frowned at him. Apparently, he knew that if he stayed, he would lose the fight.
Sasuke tried to make a break for it, but Shino was blocking a path, and on the other two paths, Sakura and Shikamaru were stationed. Behind him stood Kiba and Hinata. He was boxed in.
Naruto sped at him with great speed and struck him with all the strength and chakra he could muster into one punch.
Sasuke immediately slumped over, unconscious, this time Sakura checked to see if he really was. He was unconscious.
"Thanks, you really saved our necks with that drunk illusion. He didn't anticipate that." Hinata said.
"No problem." Sakura said warmly. "Good work on your part, too. Even if him suddenly getting up and attacking you wasn't completely expected, you got him to a place with more ninja around incase we needed back up. I'll get you guys to Naruto's apartment, it's closest, and heal you."
"Thanks-" Kiba started, but then Neji's voice sounded off directly in his ear.
"You son of BITCH!" Kiba started to whirl around to argue when Neji punched him upside the head, and Kiba fell, dazed and exhausted.
"That was troublesome." Shikamaru remarked. "I don't think you really had to do that."
"I wanted to." Neji growled, but calmed down when Hinata hit his shoulder.
"Was there any other reason than hitting Kiba that you came here?" Sakura asked mildly.
Neji nodded slightly, as if this reason was less important than hitting Kiba. "That woman, Karin, is gone. We believe that it's to get back up to get Sasuke."
END CHAPTERI know it's not good enough for not updating for such a long time, but… please, still read and review! Hinata played a much bigger role here, as I promised. I will update with in the year, though, I know that much. Unless I discontinue this…I don't think I will discontinue it. Review!