Three's A Crowd!
Chapter Two
A/N- Wow, I'm actually a little disappointed with the lack of response, NaruIno really DOES need more love! So yeah, enough of my ranting, enjoy chappie number two!
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The three shinobi made their way through all kinds of terrain, most of their travelling was done by hopping from tree branch to tree branch, the trio remained quiet the majority of the journey, which was surprising for Ino and Naruto. Naruto was the first one to break the silence, with his stomach growling violently. Ino gave him a look of surprise, she hadn't even heard Chouji's stomach make that much noise, but then he always did have some snacks on hand whenever he needed them.
"Ehehe, forgot to have breakfast this morning…" The blonde sufficed, causing Ino to sigh before she turned to Neji.
"Uh, maybe we should stop for a little while?" She said before halting on one of the tree branches. The two males both stopped too, Neji turned back to his comrades with a look of disapproval.
"I'm not sure if that's such a wise idea, this area is known to be swarming with ninjas who are just out looking for fights."
"Awh, come on Neji, they're probably just academy students who think they're really tough, I doubt they'd hassle us!" Naruto chimed, his hand gripping his rumbling stomach all the while. "And besides all else, I'm hungry!!"
"As if that wasn't obvious already…"
Neji sighed to himself, he was used to having a team that could follow orders, but these two were defiant all right, it seemed as though they cared more for their own well being than the mission they were assigned. Neji was beginning to feel more like a parent than the leader. Jumping down from the tree branch, Neji picked up a nearby twig, marking an 'X' in the soil beneath them.
"Fine, but if you have to go off then we'll meet up back here, and I don't want to stop for too long, an hour at the most. That way we'll still be able to reach a safe place to camp before it gets dark."
Looking up from his 'X' Mark on the ground, Neji noticed only one of his comrades was listening, the other had disappeared altogether.
"…Naruto?"
Turning around, Ino also noticed that the other male had gone missing, she turned back to Neji, and she was sure that if she squinted hard enough she'd be able to see steam coming out of his ears.
"Well don't just stand there, find him!" The Hyuuga shouted, the annoyance in his voice obvious.
"Uh right!" With that Ino turned on her heel and set out into the forest in search of Naruto, she didn't really like the way Neji spoke to her, but for now she'd just keep telling herself that the loss of his teammates was worrying him, and making him a little cranky.
With a sigh, Neji sat down, leaning against a near-by tree 'Why did it have to be those two?' He wondered to himself.
OOOOO
"Naruto? …… Naruuuuutooooo? Are you there?" Ino called out into the woodland, her bright blue eyes stared up at the treetops, an occasional beam of sunlight would manage to seep through the foliage from time to time, obscuring her vision for a moment. She felt as though she had been walking around in circles, and all she could hear were birds chirping and the odd snapping of a twig underneath her feet. No sign or sound of Naruto anywhere…
"It's so quiet…almost…too quiet," Ino mumbled to herself, a bead of sweat rolled down her face. 'What if something bad happened to him…what if…what if there are bears!?!'
Slowly Ino began to pace backwards, not liking the idea of facing a pack of bears. 'But if I go back without Naruto, Neji will probably be just as scary as those bears, or maybe he'll like the fact that Naruto's gone, yeah, that's right ehehehehe…'
Another twig crunched, but this time it wasn't from underneath her foot, it was from.
"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!"
"BEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRSSS!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
THUMP!
"Bears!?! WHERE!?!" Naruto had been hiding on a treetop above Ino, his plan to scare her had obviously worked, and his mighty roar had even gotten a shill scream out of her, but he hadn't seen any bears. His eyes darted around in fear of those large furry creatures, and suddenly he noticed that Ino had disappeared from his view.
"Ugh, get off me you oaf!" Ino yelled, her face had suddenly become bright red with either fury or embarrassment, she had only ever had thoughts of one male mounting her like this and it certainly hadn't been Naruto. Looking down, the Uzumaki soon found out where that voice was coming from, so that's why his landing had been so warm and soft.
"Oh, sorry Ino, ehehe…" He said before getting up and lending Ino a hand, she quickly got up and brushed herself off, her eyes focused on the ground until the redness of her cheeks died down a little.
"Did you have to do that, I thought you were a bear!"
"So you think bears hide up in the trees now?" Naruto grinned; it was nice that someone on his team had an intelligence level that he could compete with. She glared at him until she began to wonder why he had come out here in the first place.
Naruto sat down, opening the backpack he'd been wearing he pulled out a tub containing some riceballs that looked too good to have been made by Naruto; defiantly shop-bought.
"Why'd you come out all this way just to eat lunch?" Ino asked as Naruto stuffed the first riceball in his mouth. She sat down beside him, watching him choke for a few seconds before finally managing to take a breath and answer her.
"Hm? Oh uh, actually when we were travelling I noticed something around this area, so I thought I'd come and find it."
"Well…what kind of thing?" Ino asked, what could be so important anyway, surely their mission should've been top priority… Suddenly she felt her stomach growl, another flush of red adorned her features as Naruto turned to her, she looked down at his hand, noticing he was holding out a riceball for her.
"Here, I didn't make 'em so they actually taste OK." He said with a chuckle, Ino hesitated, she was always yelling at him and getting annoyed with him, and yet here he was offering her food when she knew all too well how hungry he was. She took the riceball since she hadn't bought her own lunch.
"Thanks," She murmured before taking a bite. "Ew! Pickled plum!" Ino's expression was of disdain as she picked out the pickled plum and just ate the rice around it. Naruto was surprised, he would've thought someone like Ino would just throw it away, but instead she was quite happy to pick at it.
"Ya know, for a lady you're actually a pretty messy eater!"
She scowled at him for a moment or two before he finally began to answer her previous question.
"But anyway, the thing I was actually looking for was this.." He said before rummaging through his bag, soon he showed Ino what seemed to be a purse.
"Uhh…what's so amazing about that?" Ino enquired (although she was impressed that Naruto had noticed this tiny purse from when they had been travelling overhead; it must've been the sequins on it that gave it away), but before she could say anything more her jaw practically fell open when she saw what was inside. "Woah, there's got to be… thousands in there!!!"
Yes, it was nothing more than a few giant wads of cash squashed inside this little purse, Naruto began laughing evilly to himself. "Yup, aren't I the lucky one?"
"Naruto you can't just take some random purse, remember what Neji said?"
A blank expression adorned Naruto's features; of course he wouldn't remember what Neji said. She sighed before continuing.
"There are a lot of dangerous ninja's out here, all looking for fights, for all we know this purse might belong to one of them."
"Oh yeah, 'cause all of the most dangerous ninjas carry pretty pink sequin purses around…"
"Well, looks can be deceiving Naruto," Ino sufficed, but before she could say anymore another voice joined the conversation.
"Hm, that's a nice looking purse you've got there…I might have to take it off you, though its not really my favourite colour."
"Huh?" Naruto looked around, as did Ino, neither of them recognising the new voice. Ino's eyes widened in shock.
'I didn't even hear anyone approach us…this is bad'
Suddenly a swarm of kunai and shuriken came crashing down to where the two shinobi had been sitting, both only just managed to get out of the way in time, leaving Naruto's lunch and backpack to be impaled by the weapons. Once the two blondes caught their breath they looked up to see a kunoichi perched on one of the branches. A cruel smile twisted onto her face.
"I see I'm going to have a lot of fun with you two."
OOOOO
Meanwhile, Neji's ears caught the sound of leaves rustling, he was still sat by the 'X' he'd marked in the ground, waiting for the rest of his team to arrive back. But he had a feeling that the noises he could hear approaching did not belong to either Ino or Naruto. Without hesitation, the Hyuuga activated his bloodline limit.
"Byakugan!"
Just as he'd suspected, enemy ninja were waiting to strike, hidden in the foliage all around him, calmly the teen stood up, counting every last one of them in his head. To think they could fool this prodigy, Neji was confident he could beat every last one of them, even if they did have an unfair advantage in numbers. They had probably picked him thinking he was an easy target, out here all alone.
Neji smirked to himself, if they thought that for a second then he would prove them wrong.
"Twelve of you hm, hardly seems fair, but I'm up for the challenge." He said before taking his stance. "Well?"
And with that, all twelve ninja leapt fourth from their hiding places, all plunging towards Neji with incredible speed.
OOOOO
The kunoichi was dressed in some heavy armour; Ino was surprised at the speed she could move at with all that heavyweight gear on. The enemy withdrew another kunai as she darted towards Ino, Ino wasn't the best at hand to hand combat, and her speed was nothing to be proud of either. Ever since starting her training as a medic-nin, it was as if her fighting skills had become somewhat rusty. 'There's no way I can dodge in time!' Ino thought to herself, and all she could do was shield herself with her arms.
In the midst of all these thoughts, Ino had barely heard Naruto call out his signature jutsu.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!" In a puff of smoke a small heard of clones appeared, one ran towards Ino with great haste, managing to push her out of the way, the opponents kunai was still able to slash into the clone though, and soon the clone was nothing more than smoke.
'Naruto…' Ino gasped, watching as his clones all headed towards the enemy, throwing punches and kicks in her direction 'I guess he's gotten stronger, and faster too…' she admitted to herself. Standing up, a look of determination gleamed in her eyes; if Naruto was going to help her then she would help him.
"Naruto!! Hold her still!" Ino shouted over to the swarm of Naruto's, slowly but surely they were becoming less and less.
"What?"
"Just do it!!"
Naruto didn't really understand her logic, but did as she said, after all; his attacks weren't really doing anything, not with all that armour that this woman wore; perhaps a different approach was needed. With a whole lot of struggle, four Naruto's managed to grab a limb each, holding her tightly in place.
The kunoichi gritted her teeth, not knowing what these two were up to. "Let me go!!" She shouted, but soon her eyes were focused on the girl, who was standing before her, with a smirk plastered onto her face.
"Sorry to spoil your fun, but this is one battle you won't be winning." Ino said with a smile, before forming the hand-sign needed to activate her jutsu.
"Shintenshin no jutsu!"
Soon enough Ino found her mind embedded into her opponent's body, in front of her she could see her own body collapse onto the ground. One of the clones ran over to the body to make sure she was safe whilst the rest disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Naruto turned to the enemy, he knew of Ino's jutsu and knew that she was infact in this other girl's body.
"OK, I need you to tie me up, and hurry!" Ino demanded; her jutsu would only last for so long.
"Woah woah!" Naruto said whilst waving his arms about. "I'm not into all that kinky stuff!"
"Idiot!!" Ino yelled before whacking him over the head. "If we tie this girl up she wont follow us and we can get back to Neji."
"Well, alright, but only if we get to take the money."
"Ugh, fine." Ino agreed, perhaps the money could buy them a room for the night; it would beat spending all the evenings of this mission in a tent. "There's some wire in my leg-pouch." Ino said as the clone and the real Naruto got to work on tying up the enemy to one of the large trees in the forest, they made sure to tie up her hands too, and discard any of the weapons that were still on her attire.
Soon Ino was back in her own body, and the duo quickly made their way back to where they were supposed to meet Neji, leaving behind a kicking and screaming kunoichi.
"I thought Neji said these ninja's were supposed to be tough!" Naruto said with a confident laugh.
Ino laughed along too, giving Naruto a wide smile. "Thanks for helping me out back there by the way."
"No problem, thanks for coming up with the smart idea, if it weren't for you we'd probably still be fighting." Naruto could see a little colour coming to Ino's cheeks, in turn it caused him to blush, this was probably the first time he'd complimented a girl without getting clobbered.
OOOOO
"Well, here's the X" Ino announced, seeing the small marking in the ground.
"Yeah, but where's Neji?" Naruto asked looking around before crossing his arms. "I would've thought he'd be the first here, it's not like him to be late."
"Yeah…" Ino said with a hint of worry in her voice, soon she turned to Naruto, whose eyes had suddenly become wide. "Naruto? What's wrong?"
"Take a look," He said, pointing to a dark stain on the dirt path, on further inspection, both confirmed that it was definitely blood. They both exchanged worried glances, before following the trail of blood; soon they reached the horrifying sight before them.
"NEJI!!"
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A/N Dun, dun, DUUUUUN! *cough* urhm yeah, please let me know what you think so far, your reviews are my writing inspiration n_n
Ja ne for now!!!