Chapter 3: The Kerplunk Incident
The next morning was the same as the previous, dark, cloudy, and wet. Again, the blonde haired boy in the silly nightcap sat up in his bed and glanced outside. He hurriedly crawled to his window and called to the village again.
"GOOD MORNING, KONOHA!" He sang.
"Mommy, it's that boy again!" A little girl cried.
"Just don't look directly at him, dear." Her mother said, guiding the girl away.
Naruto pulled his head back into the window; ignoring the mother and daughter who seemed to be outside his window every morning. He jumped off of his bed and walked over to his dresser. He threw off his cap and bobbed his head to an unheard tune.
"When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you. When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you!" He sang as he strode to his closet to start packing for his vacation. "If I get drunk yes I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you, and if I haver yeah I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's havering to you!" He continued; grabbing random articles of clothing and flinging them into a large suitcase. "But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the man who walked 1000 miles to fall down at your door!"
He continued singing and packing long into the day, then went to get ramen. After ramen, he would grab his stuff and head off to the docks in the south of the fire country.
Sasuke woke up and glanced at his clock. It was 8:08am. He sat up and swung his legs over one side of the bed. He stood up and walked over to his closet; he too had yet to pack for the vacation.
"A cruise…" He glanced around his closet; looking for clothes he would wear on the vacation. Finally, he decided to just take the numerous duplicates of the clothes he wore everyday. There was a knock on his door.
He walked over to it and looked threw the peephole with his left eye. There, he saw Sakura and Ino standing there waving like maniacs at the other side of his peephole. He rolled his eyes and kept the door closed.
"SASUKE-KUN!" He heard the combined voices of the two girls. "We know you're there!" They yelled.
He groaned and moved his hand over the doorknob. He was about to turn it when he heard a whisper.
"What if he really isn't there?" Sakura whispered to Ino.
"You didn't pull me out of bed at 8 o' clock in the morning and drag me over to Sasuke's house just so we could stand outside the door," She whispered back, "I'm out of here; I still need to pack."
"Wait!" Sakura yelled, chasing after Ino.
Sasuke sighed in relief as he stepped away from the door to continue packing; he really dodged a bullet there. Sasuke packed for about 30 minutes, and then he spent a few hours getting his hair perfect. After that, he went off to the docks early in case he ran into any trouble along the way.
Sakura chased after Ino for a while, but lost her fairly soon. She sulked the entire way back to her house, packed up quickly, then would go to the Konoha gates very early because she knew Sasuke would be going early and she wanted to meet him there.
Ino managed to escape Sakura and scurry off to her house hurriedly to pack. She packs massive amounts of clothing in a very small bag; which most people, if they saw how much she put in that little thing, would say it was physically impossible.
In a small house, a boy with a bowl cut lay snoring on a messy bed. The alarm clock beside him rang.
"YOUTH!" He shouted, springing up from his bed, the second the alarm sounded, with his fist in the air.
He had already finished packing 30 minutes after he woke up and was ready for a quick training session with his sensei before he would leave for the cruise.
"GAI-SENSEI!" He called into the sky as he stood outside his front door.
"LEE!" Sang a distant reply.
"Gai-sensei?" He looked around.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Gai called, flinging a kunai knife at Lee's feet. Lee looked down, confused. Suddenly, Gai himself flung from behind a very skinny telephone pole and kicked Lee in the face. "Lee! You must be ready for any attack; even one from your sensei!" Gai said, looking down at his student.
"Gai-sensei, how did you fit behind that pole?" Lee asked, holding his face.
"I don't know, Lee, I just don't know." He answered.
Gai and Lee ran off moments later to their favorite training spot and trained for a few hours. Then, Gai helped Lee travel to the south coast of the fire country for the cruise.
Shikamaru lay in his bed, facing the ceiling. His eyes one-quarter open; as they have been for several moments. He slowly turned his head to his clock; it said 10:23am. He had already packed the night before. He rolled over lazily, facing away from the door. An hour passed and Shikamaru felt two hands on his shoulder shaking him.
"Shikamaru!" Someone said, he could tell who it was because the voice sounded muffled by food.
"What is it Chouji?" Shikamaru asked drowsily.
"You have to get up!" Chouji said, shaking harder.
"Give me a few minutes…" He replied quietly.
"Mmm…" Chouji grunted, annoyed.
He left to go and ask Shikamaru's father for help. About five minutes later Shikamaru was beginning to relax again when suddenly a very loud booming noise burst through the house. It started out with a simple trumpet-like sound, but that grew into drums; loud drums. It was the stereo, his father put the stereo full blast; and this wasn't the first time. Shikamaru recognized the song right away.
"Ladies up in here tonight, no fighting, no fighting. We got the refugees up in here, no fighting. No fighting. Shakira, Shakira!" It rang through his head, "I never really knew that she could dance like this, she makes a man wants to speak Spanish, como se llama, si, bonita, si, mi casa, su casa, Shakira, Shakira!"
Shikamaru groaned in pain, this song was what his father always played whenever he wanted Shikamaru to do something. His eyes clamped shut and he held a pillow over his ears.
"Oh baby when you talk like that, you make a woman go mad, so be wise and keep on reading the signs of my body!" Shakira sang, he knew the lyrics so well, "I'm on tonight my hips don't lie, I'm starting to feel its right, all the attraction, the tension, don't you see baby, this is perfection."
"OKAY, OKAY, I'M UP!" Shikamaru yelled; he couldn't listen to another word of "My hips don't lie".
Almost instantly, the song stopped. Shikamaru stood up and got ready to go. Within ten minutes, he and Chouji began the long journey.
Gaara sat on the edge of his sister's bed, waiting for her to wake up. Kankuro was already awake and making sure he had enough clothes for the journey. Since they had come from the sand village, they already packed suitcases for the leaf village and were going to take those with them. The night earlier, after his siblings went to sleep Gaara spoke with Tsunade and she agreed to let the leaf ninja off duties for a week.
"Mm…" Temari began to stir. Kankuro glanced over at his siblings. Gaara moved slightly closer to Temari, smiling like a young boy. "Shikamaru…" She mumbled. Gaara's smile faded.
"Huh?" Gaara and Kankuro both grunted.
Temari's eyelids flickered quickly. Her fingers were twitching too. Kankuro sighed and scratched the back of his head.
"She's dreaming." Kankuro muttered.
"I'm waking her up." Gaara said moving his hand onto her shoulder and shaking her rather fiercely. "Temari, wake up." He commanded.
"Wha…" Temari grumbled, squinting her eyes against the light on the ceiling. Her eyes moved around the room and fixed on her youngest brother, "Gaara?"
"Wake up, we have to go soon." Gaara explained, "It's 9:40."
"Okay, let me go change." Temari said, slipping off the bed and falling face flat on the floor. She remained still for a few seconds before moving her palms onto the cold wooden floor and slowly pushing herself up. "I'm okay." She stumbled to her suitcase, grabbed some clothes, and went into the small bathroom.
"Girls are weird…" Gaara muttered.
"I hear that." Kankuro agreed.
Kiba received a rather rude awakening; Akamaru scurrying up the left leg of his pants. Kiba was having a wonderful dream: he was in a field of flowers, ice cream raining down on him, flying through the dense fog of bliss. He looked down and saw his little white dog sitting on the ground with his tail wagging happily. Suddenly, a pain shot through him, he fell to the ground and instantly woke up.
"Akamaru!" He yelled angrily.
"Kiba." A voice said.
"AKAMARU YOU CAN TALK?!" Kiba yelled, confused.
"No, it is I, Shino." Shino said, leaning to Kiba's doorframe, "It is a good thing you packed last night, because we have to leave now; it's already 12:20."
"12:20!" Kiba screamed as he leapt from his bed; Akamaru being flung from his pants.
"Yes, now, we must go." Shino replied, turning around and walking out the door.
"Coming!" Kiba yelled after him, grabbing his luggage. Luckily, Kiba predicted a predicament such as this, and he slept in his clothes.
"I spoke with Hinata over the phone; she says something interesting is happening at the Hyuga compound she can't miss, so we shouldn't wait for her."
"Oh, okay." Kiba said catching up with Shino.
Neji lay in his bed, his head pounding slightly. He didn't want to open his eyes just yet but he felt he had to. He cracked them open and stared at the roof. It was slightly dark in his room because of the cloudy skies but Neji preferred it like that.
But something felt wrong. He sensed a presence close to him, so he turned around in his bed. His heart stopped instantly at the sight. There was a girl, but not just any girl. It was Tenten.
Her eyes flickered open and she stared at him. At first, her eyes weren't focused and she didn't know what was happening. But her brain began working the second she locked eyes with Neji's and saw the terror in them. Her eyes widened when she realized the scenario she was in. She was nude. He was nude. They were in the same bed.
"AHHH!" Both of them screamed, grabbing covers and covering themselves. Neji jumped off of the bed, holding the blanket over himself. Tenten pulled as much blanket from beside her as she could and covered all but her neck and head.
"What the heck?!" Neji yelled, completely confused.
"What happened last night?" She asked loudly.
"I… I can't remember." He admitted.
"Neither can I…" She said, her lip quivering with fear.
The door suddenly slid open, "Hey Neji, I was wondering if you might like some…" Someone stopped mid sentence as he saw what was happening, "Tea."
"Uh, Uncle Iroh, it's not what it looks like." Neji said frantically.
Neji's uncle Iroh. He was a Branch family member who was his uncle on his mother's side. He always got Neji some calming tea in the morning.
"Then, what is it?" His uncle asked, interested.
"It's…" Neji was lost for words, his mouth just hung slightly open.
"Why don't you two just get everything straitened out and meet in the breakfast nook in ten minutes; the main branch will be joining us." His uncle said, a grin crossing his lips, "Oh, and bring your lady friend." He added, closing the door.
A silence hung in the air, neither one daring to speak. Neji looked down at the ground. He saw a box, the box from which the mysterious beverages had come. He looked closer and read the label.
"Sake." He stated, looking over to Tenten.
"Uh, what?" She asked.
"It was Sake, that's what we drank last night, and that's why we can't remember anything." He concluded.
"We were drunk?" She asked, her voice going slightly higher.
"I suppose so." He replied.
"Um… You don't think we…" She couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.
"Even if we were drunk, we would probably have enough sense not to do anything like that. We're still only thirteen." He resolved.
They both sighed in relief. Again, there was a very awkward pause.
"So… I think we should get dressed." Tenten said, looking at Neji.
"Yeah." Neji agreed. Luckily, their clothes were beside the bed, so they got dressed rather quickly; making sure not to look at each other.
When they were both fully dressed, Neji made the bed and picked up the scattered Kerplunk pieces and put them into the box. Then, they went down to the breakfast nook.
"Good morning Neji, Good morning…" Hinata paused, confused, "T-Tenten? You're still here?" She asked.
"Yes." Tenten said nervously, as she sat between Neji and Hinata.
For the next 30 minutes, the Hyuga's were asking all kinds of questions about Tenten. Finally, at about 9:30, Tenten went back home to grab some stuff while Neji and Hinata packed up their stuff. Tenten returned an hour and a half later to go with Neji to the southern docks. Hinata spoke with Shino and told him to wake up Kiba and for them to go on without her; she wanted to travel with her cousin and his friend.
