Three's A Crowd!

Chapter Four

A/N W00T! Another chapter done! Urhm yeah, hope their aren't too many mistakes ehehe, I really need to get a beta-reader =_= anyway, enjoy!

OOOOOOOOOO

After packing up all their belongings the team were finally on their way once more, again, Neji was having to rely on one of Naruto's clones for travel. Neji mentally sighed to himself, he'd been having fun torturing Naruto, but he couldn't do that now that he was relying on the blonde for travel. He was beginning to understand why it may not have been a good idea to do this mission alone, but he wasn't going to voice that opinion out loud.

His eyes travelled over to his two blonde teammates, they were both caught up in conversation about the mission, Neji stayed silent; not wanting to interrupt. Soon the trio had the sea in their sights, they made their way onto the sandy terrain, watching as the waves crashed against the shore.

"Our boat will pick us up here, it should only be a few more hours until we get to the land of water, and the village we're after just so happens to be right by the sea." Neji told his team, whilst Ino breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew! My feet are killing me!!"

"Mine too, and I'm soo hungry…" Naruto whined.

OOOOO

It was now late in the afternoon, and the team had finally made their way to the village they were looking for, Ino was still a little shaky from the boat ride; she'd never been on a boat before, so naturally she wasn't aware that she'd be prone to sea-sickness. And to think she'd been looking forward to that boat ride to give her feet a break.

"You OK Ino?" Naruto asked, seeming somewhat concerned for his comrade. "Don't worry, we're here now, and you don't look that weird greeny-grey colour anymore!!"

"…Thanks Naruto, you sure know how to compliment a woman…" Ino said with a look of disapproval in her eyes, although it didn't look like Naruto had noticed it.

"Really? Thanks!" Naruto said, taking her sarcasm as a serious compliment, he then proceeded to give her a forceful pat on the back, the sudden motion soon caused Ino's face to drain of its colour once more.

"Uh, Naruto…maybe you should take Ino into some kind of inn to rest up, we can start the investigations without her for now."

Ino looked down, feeling a little disappointed that rather than helping, she was hindering the mission. Naruto may have been oblivious to her sarcasm, but he defiantly noticed the sad look in her eyes now. He turned to Neji, who was slowly limping through the crowds of people.

"Sure thing, but maybe you should rest up too." Naruto commented, pointing to the Hyuuga's legs, he was no longer riding on one of Naruto's clones and was simply limping his way around the busy village, he was slowing the team down just as much as Ino, and Neji couldn't deny that Naruto raised a very good point.

Before Neji could say anymore, a shrill voice boomed through the hoards of people, causing them to scatter away from that loud cry.

Soon the team noticed a large woman, dressed in a colourful kimono and with a large bun of black hair resting on her head coming towards them, her lips were painted bright red and wore an almost too-friendly smile.

"Welcome travellers!!! I see you are in need of a place to rest!!" She chirped, before inspecting the trio, first she went up to Ino, squishing her colourless cheeks in every which way.

"What a cute young girl! A little sick hmmmm??"

Then it was onto Neji while Ino nursed her sore cheeks, the woman lifted up his damaged leg, causing the Hyuuga's arms to flail about as he tried to keep his balance. Soon his face started to drain of colour, he didn't like this woman touching him, she was a little too close for comfort.

"Ohh, what a nasty injury, and on such a dashing young specimen too…" She said, winking with a sly smile at the brunette, and now it was Neji who was feeling a little queasy.

The only one who didn't seem too freaked out by this large lady was Naruto, he was just grinning at Neji's expense, it seemed karma was on the Uzumaki's side today.

Finally the woman turned to Naruto, patting his stomach as it growled aggressively.

"And you must be hungry, Chi-Chan will make you a delicious display of delicacies to die for!!" She yelled with a hearty laugh to follow.

"So, you're Chi-chan then?" Naruto asked, before a pamphlet was shoved in his face.

"I certainly am!! And the owner of the luxury Hot Spring Hotel, the ideal place to rest up and get delicious food. Our hot springs and herbal remedies would be ideal for you and your little friends." She giggled, causing Ino and Neji to sweat.

Naruto inspected the pamphlet in his hands, this place seemed ideal; they had a team of medical experts and physiotherapists, and those hot springs sure did look nice.

It was only when Naruto turned the pamphlet over that he nearly died after reading the staggering price.

"WHAAAT!! There's no way we can afford this!!"

Ino's eyes narrowed 'I bet this old woman does this to any unsuspecting travellers who look as tired as us, and takes every penny they have.'

"Let me see Naruto," Ino said before taking the piece of paper from him, she looked at the price, and normally it would have made her stomach churn, but thankfully, they had enough. "OK, we'll stay."

"What?! Ino are you crazy?" Neji said once he'd inspected the knew there was no way they could afford it, and Neji wasn't keen on the idea of trying to escape from this crazy lady without paying their bill.

"Relax, Naruto's got enough money for all of us to stay, right Naruto?" Ino said, giving him a sweet smile.

"But that, that was my money!"

"No it wasn't, you just happened to find it, and now we can put it to good use!" Ino said, putting an arm around Naruto's shoulder, without him even noticing, she quickly undid the zip of his backpack and took the purse out.

"Ooooh, but I was gonna save that for ramen! With that money I could've had ramen everyday for the rest of my life!!!" Soon Naruto was in a little world of his own, imagining what it would be like to have all that ramen. Soon he snapped out of it though, glaring at Ino.

"Well, your gonna have to get it off me first!!" He declared.

"Too late for that, Naruto-kun" Ino's voice made the blonde blush a little, before he noticed that Ino was holding the purse in her hand. "Hey! How did you-?"

Neji simply sighed at their antics, as Chi-chan clapped her hand together.

"Excellent!! Right this way my dears!" She announced before pulling them all through the crowds and to her hot spring hotel.

OOOOO

The trio soon found themselves in the Hotel having all their money taken, Naruto sulked as he mentally waved goodbye to his lifetime supply of ramen, however, he was pleasantly surprised as he got up to their room, to find a delicious looking spread of food on their table.

"WOOOOOOOW!!!! This stuff looks amazing!!" Naruto squealed, most of the dishes he'd never even seen before, but they all looked good.

"Yes yes, do tuck in!! And I hope you have a pleasant stay here!!" The old lady beamed.

Ino looked around the spacious room they were staying in, before turning to the owner. "Uhh, I only see two futons."

"Of course, a girl cannot share a room with boys!! That's a no-no!!" Chi-chan exclaimed, before opening a sliding door that separated the large room they were in to a smaller room housing another futon. "You will be sleeping in here! Well, I'll leave you dears to your business!" And with that, she left.

Ino and Neji joined Naruto at the table, and began to tuck in to the food.

"We'll start our investigation tomorrow then, for now, we'll rest up." Neji ordered, both Ino and Naruto agreed.

OOOOO

Once they had let their food go down, Naruto decided it was off to try out the hotsprings. "Are you guys coming?" Naruto asked as he picked up his towel.

"Sure thing, what about you Neji?" Ino asked the Hyuuga, who seemed lost in his own world, his white eyes gazing out of the window.

"Maybe later…"

Ino arched a brow; she could tell Neji was thinking deeply about something, she just didn't know what. She brushed that thought to one side though; she didn't want to pry into his business after all. Picking up her own towel, she followed Naruto to the door and made her way to the hotsprings.

OOOOO

"Aahhhh…this is great!" Naruto chimed to himself, he had the whole hotspring to himself, the warm water around his body helped to relax his body that ached from the all that travelling, and the steam hitting his face made his cheeks glow a soft pink colour. Beyond the high wooden fencing was the women's hotsprings, he shouted over hoping Ino could hear him.

"How's thing on your side Ino?"

No answer.

"Uhh, Ino?" Naruto called out again, finally getting an answer.

"Oh uh, sorry Naruto. Yeah, it's nice."

"Got something on your mind?" Naruto asked, he could hear in Ino's voice that she was thinking about something, he swam closer to the fence in order to hear her.

"I'm just… curious about Neji…"

For some reason, when she said that it caused a dull ache in Naruto's chest, he was just glad that she couldn't see his expression drop when she said that. Gulping, he dared to ask why.

"Uhhh, you mean, romantically?"

"No, no!! I mean… don't you think it's a little odd that Tenten and Lee were sent on a mission without him? I know they're not all Genin anymore, but still, I'm sure Neji was around when they left, so why didn't he go with them?"

Naruto sighed with relief, for some odd reason, he was only too glad that she wasn't crushing on the Hyuuga. Neji's words soon came rushing back to him though, was Neji right? Could he really have feelings for Ino? When he thought about it, it seemed to be the obvious conclusion, but Naruto wasn't sure if he was ready to accept it.

"Hmm, why don't you just ask him?"

It did make sense to ask, what was the worst he could do? Say that it's none of their business? Ino contemplated the thought, before another female approaching the hotsprings caught her eye, with the thick steam rising from to hotsprings, it was hard to see her face, but as the woman lifted her head and saw Ino, she suddenly bolted in the other direction.

Ino hadn't recognised the girl, but perhaps this girl knew Ino.

"Hey!!" The blonde said before making her way out of the hotspring, but as she turned the corner, the other girl was out of sight. Sighing, Ino picked up her towel and wrapped it around herself, she wondered who it could've been, before an image replayed itself in her mind.

"No way…it couldn't be…"

Naruto had heard Ino's voice on the other side, and decided it was probably time to get out and find out what all that commotion was. He picked up his towel and wrapped it around his middle before finding Ino outside the women's hotsprings, with a look of horror on her face.

His face turned bright red, seeing Ino in just a towel, he tried to look everywhere else but found his eyes getting drawn to her slender legs, and the point where her towel stopped covering her thighs.

"Wow, your hotspring must've been really hot."

"…Huh?"

"Well, your face is pretty red," Ino said with a giggle, her look of horror washing away in an instant.

"Um, yeah…very hot…very, hot." Naruto said, not realising that he was ogling her. She coughed loudly to get his attention to her face, and it seemed to work. She wasn't offended by his staring, to be honest; she had gotten a quick peek at him too.

Ino blushed a little, admiring his chest and abdomen; she hadn't realised how toned he was; Ino always assumed Naruto wore those baggy clothes to hide a jelly-belly from all that ramen he consumed.

"Oh yeah! I came out when I heard you shouting, is something wrong?"

"Oh…" Ino's expression went back to being serious. "That girl we fought in the forest…

I think she's here."

"WHAAAT!? But how?"

"I don't know! But just don't tell Neji, he doesn't need any more stress! So just be careful OK? Cause I'm pretty sure she's after us." Ino warned Naruto, although the girl hadn't attacked, Ino just assumed it was because she was unarmed at the time, and now she knew where Ino and Naruto were, it was likely she'd come back prepared.

Naruto was shocked to say the least; he always wondered what it would be like to have a girl stalking him, but he never wanted it like this!

OOOOO

Neji's injuries would've loved a dip in those hotsprings, but the Hyuuga's main focus was the mission at hand, and unlike his teammates, he wasn't prepared to waste a single moment. Ignoring his own commands about resting up, he made his way down to the hotel's reception, where Chi-chan was sitting with that creepy smile of hers plastered onto her lips.

"OOOooooh, well hello handsome! What can I do for you?" She beamed, sending a shiver down Neji's spine. He took a photo from out of his pocket, showing it to the plump woman. "I'm here to find these two people, have you seen them around?" Neji asked monotonically.

A bead of sweat rolled down Chi-chan's features, she tugged at her sleeves before letting out a hearty laugh.

"Who, me?! No, never! I know all of my guests and haven't seen these two! No, I would recognise a face as strange as that if I'd had seen it, HA HA HAAAA!" She said pointing to Lee. Neji simply narrowed his eyes at the old woman, for one thing it was obvious that she was lying, and she didn't need to point out that it was Lee with the odd face…

"Well…thanks for looking anyway." Neji said before leaving and making his way back to the team's room. For now he couldn't really pursue this trail of their investigation much further, instead he'd make sure to keep a close eye on this Chi-chan woman. For now he would relax until their full investigation started tomorrow.

OOOOOOOOOO

A/N Sorry if its taking a while to get into the swing of things, usually I tend to rush things and so I didn't want to with this story, anywho, remember to R&R and let me know what you think!

Ja ne for nows!!