Three's A Crowd!
Chapter Three
A/N I'm back with another chappie! Hope you all had a good new year, urrrhm, yeah n.n On with the show…
OOOOOOOOOO
"NEJI!!" The two ran over to their comrade as fast as their legs would take them, the Hyuuga's legs were shaking as he tried to stand up; blood was soaking his attire. Surrounding the group were many fallen shinobi, as well as large craters in the ground; most probably due to Neji's kaiten. The brunette was short of breath; his eyes were only just about able to make out the two figures coming towards him.
Neji's legs buckled beneath him, he was about to fall to the ground but Naruto managed to catch him in time, the Uzumaki's face paled seeing the condition his teammate was in, his upper body only had a few scratches and bruises, but his legs had deep wounds and he was quickly loosing blood.
Ino got to work on the wounds, her healing chakra slowly began to get to work on the Hyuuga's body, Neji bit his tongue and endured the pain, although it hurt he knew that Ino was infact making it better.
"Neji, what happened?" Naruto asked whilst holding him up, he wondered if Neji would even be able to reply.
Thankfully Neji was a strong jounin, one of the best, he turned to Naruto, his voice somewhat dry. "These guys…thought…they'd try to ambush me…heh."
"Are you gonna be OK?"
"I guess… that depends on Ino."
Soon the two males turned their attention to Ino who was finishing off her healing jutsu, her brows arched into a frown. "Well I've closed up the wounds, so hopefully without anymore blood loss you wont feel so faint. But there's still some internal damage that I can't heal, so you'll just have to let time take care of that."
"What?!" Naruto seemed disappointed with that outcome. Ino's expression became more pained.
"I'm sorry but I just don't have that type of training yet! And if it weren't for you wanting to stop none of this would've even happened anyway, so don't blame me!!"
Naruto couldn't deny that she was right; he turned away and frowned. "You're right, and I'm sorry for shouting, its just…" He stood up, fists clenching by his sides.
"It's just that I know what its like to loose a teammate, and Neji's lost two of them!! I don't want him to suffer that pain, because he's already lost family… he shouldn't have to loose friends too, so it just annoys me that these bad things happen and its all my fault. I just want to help but I'm only making things worse."
Both Neji and Ino were shocked by the teen's outburst, neither had seen this more serious and emotional side of Naruto, sure they'd seen his determination in battle, but this was a whole new kind of determination. Neji looked up at Naruto, and gave him one of his rare, yet meaningful smiles.
"Naruto, thank you. I'm sorry if I doubted you being right for this mission, I know your heart's in the right place."
"Yeah, but is that really enough?"
Ino frowned, she was beginning to regret shouting at him now, she hadn't meant for it to come out like that, so cold and harsh. She didn't know why, but she seemed to be getting better at hurting other people's feelings, and that was the last thing she wanted. Putting on a smile, she butted in to Naruto's pessimistic train of thought.
"Hey, cheer up Naruto! You didn't know this was going to happen, and besides, if anyone should be sorry it's me." She sighed "If I had more training Neji would be absolutely fine and we'd have no trouble getting to a safe spot to rest before dark."
"Hmmm…" Naruto wondered, scratching his chin. "I'm sure we can still get to a safe spot in time."
"How? I can hardly walk." Neji said bluntly.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Soon Naruto had made a clone of himself, the clone bent down in front of Neji with a grin. "Well Ino helped your wounds so I'm gonna help out too! Hop on!!"
Neji's expression soon turned sour, he supposed he didn't really like either of the choices given to him, it was either sit here for some more ninjas to come along, or look like an idiot whilst riding on Naruto's back.
Eventually he chose the latter.
"Allright!! Let's get going!!!" Naruto said, pointing towards the distance.
"Yay!"
"…Hmph…"
OOOOO
After their ordeal that day, everyone felt a little closer to each other, and rather than a silent journey the whole way, everyone was joining in the discussion.
"Twelve?! No wonder you were in such bad shape, there's no way I'd take on that many people…" Ino declared, she wasn't going to try deny it, the most she'd probably take on would be about three. "I guess Naruto and I were lucky we were only attacked by one girl."
"Yeah, and she wasn't even that strong."
"Even though none of your attacks really worked on her…"
"They did too!!!"
Neji sighed as his teammates got into another little squabble. Looking up, he noticed the sun would soon be out of view, luckily they were out of the woods and no longer in what was considered a danger zone by many. The Hyuuga was impressed by the colossal amount of chakra Naruto must've had, his clone had been made some hours ago and was still going on strong, no signs of Naruto's strength wavering.
Neji was beginning to notice other things as well, like how Ino and Naruto's bickering had died down, and now they were getting on surprisingly well. The Hyuuga smirked to himself a little, perhaps there's was more to this than met the eye.
"Well the sun's setting so we should probably set up our tent before it gets dark," Neji said before pulling out the map from his bag and inspecting it further. "Hopefully if we continue at this pace we should get to the village where Lee and Tenten were last seen by tomorrow."
With that the team stopped, the clone helped Neji get down before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. "See? You love these piggy-back rides, don't'cha?"
"Don't push it." Neji mumbled before limping away.
OOOOO
The tenth attempt to put up the tent had finally succeeded, Ino had insisted on doing it by herself since Naruto had been using up a lot of chakra to get Neji here, and Neji was injured and she didn't think it'd be right to make him work any harder. The sun had set long ago by then, and Neji and Naruto sighed with relief when the tent was up, they thought it'd never happen.
Placing a hand over her mouth Ino gave a loud yawn before rubbing her eyes. "What a day…" She sighed to herself.
"Maybe you should get to sleep Ino-chan."
"Mhm, OK." The kunoichi didn't put up a fight, after all; she was exhausted, she clambered into the tent, taking in her belongings and her sleeping bag. "Well, goodnight!"
It was only when she got into the tent she realised what Naruto had called her. 'Ino-chan hm?' Without even realising it she was blushing, a warm smile spread across her face as she climbed into her sleeping bag and began drifting off to sleep.
OOOOO
A fire crackled outside the tent as two boys watched over it, the small blaze keeping them a little warmer. Neither Naruto or Neji were planning to sleep just yet, after bickering about who would be the best choice for keeping guard, both decided to stick it out, and whoever fell asleep first was the loser (well, it had actually been Naruto's idea to turn it into some kind of competition).
"Naruto…can I ask you a question?"
"Hm, what is it?" Naruto asked curiously, he wasn't expecting Neji to start up a conversation with him.
"Why do you like Sakura?"
Naruto's eyes widened a little at that statement, for starters it was a bit of a personal question, and secondly, why on earth did Neji want to know? Naruto didn't mind answering though, he was actually kind of happy that Neji wanted to talk to him, and that's when it hit Naruto. 'Ooohhhh, so THAT's why he wants to know…' A large grin spread across the teen's face.
"Heh heh heh, so-o, you want her all to yourself huh? Well tough 'cause there's no way that's gonna happen!!"
"Uhh, that wasn't why I asked…"
"Oh, well in that case. I guess, uhhhm, I don't know… she's pretty, and smart, and… and."
"And are you so used to saying you've got a crush on her that now you just say it without even believing it?"
Naruto was instantly silenced, what was this guy? A psychiatrist? Either way, Naruto didn't need one, but he did want to know why Neji would suggest something like that.
"Where'd you get that idea from?" He asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"Well, its not like you two spend much time with each other, she's busy with her training and so are you. You don't talk about her all that much anymore, and you don't make much of an effort to see her."
Naruto cast his eyes away, Neji was right; Naruto really didn't make the effort anymore, he didn't even blush in her presence the way he used to when he was twelve, the only obvious signs of affection he still had for her came in his dreams at night. Naruto turned back to Neji, it was odd that he knew all this stuff; he obviously paid more attention to people than Naruto had first thought…maybe Neji was some weird stalker type? Naruto didn't mention it though; he didn't want to ruin their 'bonding time'.
"I guess so, but there are still traits of hers that I find admiral in women, ya know?"
"Such as, beauty, confidence, charm…?"
"Yeah!! Wow, I didn't know you knew about this kind of stuff!"
The crackling of the fire was dying down a bit know, Neji picked up a few nearby twigs and leaves and put them on, before turning to Naruto.
"It's funny, Ino seems to have a lot of those qualities you like eh?" Neji said with a small smirk on his lips.
"Whaa!? Just what are you trying to stir up here?"
With a small chuckle Neji continued. "Don't deny it, I saw the way you two were talking earlier, I saw you blush at least twice."
A bead of sweat rolled down Naruto's features. Outstretching his arms, Naruto yawned loudly before getting up from his place next to the fire.
"Well, I'm probably gonna go to sleep now."
"What happened to the competition that was your idea?" Neji enquired.
"Uhhh….you win?"
"Hm, thought you might say that."
"Well you were the one who said all those nice things about Ino. YOU said she was charming and beautiful, so maybe you fancy her!"
"Someone's in d-e-n-i-a-"
"SHUT UP!!"
And with that, Naruto huffed at the cold night air before clambering into the tent, leaving a small smile on the Hyuuga's face; Neji knew it was fun to rile people up about their fighting abilities, but he didn't know if was just as fun to rile people up about their romantic interests too.
Naruto's sleeping bag was situated in the middle of the tent, Ino's was on his right and Neji's on his left, his eyes trailed over to where Ino was lying sound asleep. He continued to make his way into his sleeping bag, not bothering to change out of his clothes, especially since it was so cold; and it seemed Ino had the same idea too, the only thing she changed was letting her hair loose rather than keeping it tied up. Naruto wondered why she'd grown her hair back long, there was the rumour of Sasuke liking girls with long hair, but Ino never really seemed to mention him anymore.
Shrugging those thoughts aside, he looked at Ino once more, she looked so peaceful, lost in sleep, none of that brash personality showing though her still features. 'She's…pretty, really pretty.'
Naruto gulped, he wasn't supposed to be thinking things like this, he wasn't going to give that Hyuuga more things to ridicule, after all; Neji did have eyes in the back of his head.
After making himself comfortable, it wasn't long before Naruto was fast asleep, only the crackling fire outside that Neji was still tending to and Naruto's snoring could be heard.
OOOOO
The sky was an array of beautiful pastel colours, before him stood a beauty, her eyes were fixed on him, and it made his heart flutter wildly. She had long blonde locks of hair cascading down her shoulders, and a serene smile on her lips.
"Naruto I-"
"You…?"
"I…" She walked up to him, getting closer and closer until he could feel her breath tickle the nape of his neck.
"I…I love you, Naruto-kun."
"I love you too…Ino."
Ino.
INO?!?
OOOOO
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" Naruto woke up with a shill scream, he looked to both sides, only to find an empty tent, catching his breath, he realised that it was just another one of those dreams he was always having, but there was something different about this one. For one thing, he actually got through the whole dream; he'd never actually gotten to the end of it before then. But, there was also the odd bit about the fact that Sakura had turned into Ino.
"Oh! Looks like someone's awake!" Came a chirpy voice as the door of the tent was un-zipped, letting in the bright morning sunshine, Naruto shielded his eyes, mumbling about something or other.
"Come on Naruto, rise and shine! As soon as you've finished breakfast we'll get going." Ino instructed to the sleepy and confused Naruto. Sluggishly he made his way out of the tent, finding Ino and Neji already up and ready to go (well, except for packing away the tent, which would probably take them forever).
He blushed upon seeing Ino, remembering the odd dream he had, but all too soon that look on his face turned into a scowl, since Neji was smiling at him, with a small hint of evil.
"You," He said, pointing to Neji. "I don't want to hear any of your…your…remarks, and if I do, then don't think about getting a lift from me!!" Naruto demanded, and what with Neji's battered lower limbs, he could hardly refuse the offer.
Ino just raised a brow, wondering what on earth they were talking about…
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A/N Hope you all enjoyed this instalment, and remember to R&R! Ja ne for nows!!