The bushes rustled and I looked up warily. Sakura burst through the bushes with Sasuke at her heels. Naruto grunted, and I looked over at him and saw that he was straining against the thick ropes Kakashi put around him.
"Give it a rest Naruto, you're never gonna get out of those ropes." I sighed as I looked at Sasuke, who haughtily smirked at me. Naruto wasn't the only one tied against a pole, I was too. It was all because of me almost taking off Kakashi's mask, he took it as an offense and tied me to this pole. As for Naruto, well, he'd tried to secretly eat everyone's food. Fool.
Sakura kept a smug grin on her face. She wasn't the one stuck to the pole, I was. This would no doubt be something that she'd bug me about this year. What joy. My eyes narrowed at her as she ran over to Kakashi-sensei to get her lunch. Sasuke chuckled as he followed her. I mumbled, "Shit head" He was using this to his amusement.
As soon as they got their lunches, and Naruto and I had our lunches placed at our feet to allow the aromas waft into our nostrils, in other words, to taunt us, Kakashi walked around to position himself in front of us. He rested his hands on his hips and sighed before stating, "Now, you've all done some pretty pathetic strategies to try and get these bells -" He tapped the bells. My jaw dropped. Pathetic? Who was he calling pathetic? I had performed at least an A or B ranked jutsu. "- So don't mess up now. Because Amiko and Naruto are tied to the poles, they aren't allowed to eat. So don't give them any." And at that he vanished into a puff of smoke and leaves, But some of his words lingered behind, "Or else, you'll be failed."
An aggravated groan came from Naruto. I looked over at him. He still was struggling against the ropes. All he was doing, or had been doing, was swinging his legs around rapidly and balling his hands into fists. I rolled my eyes.
Sakura leaned up against a third pole at its edge so that it was closer to me. Her eyes scanned each rice ball or clump of ramen that she picked up with her chopsticks before slowly placing it in her mouth. She was taunting me.
"Just save it Sakura. It's not like I'm gonna die of starvation and beg you. Taunting me is just a waste of your time."
She lifted her nose in the air as she walked away to sit next to Sasuke, who almost immediately shifted away form her. "Humph!" She looked away from Sasuke.
That made me chuckle. Even Sasuke has his ways of telling her off.
All of a sudden, a very loud and long grumbling noise came from Naruto. All heads turned to him. He was still squirming and looked at Sakura with pleading eyes.
"Hey guys could you give me some? At least one rice ball?" Immediately he began drooling just at thought of it. Sasuke's face looked disgusted as he ate. Sakura just had to say something more than 'no'.
"No way! Kakashi-sensei will just fail us! But Naruto's used to that. He fails at everything!" She snickered.
I looked at her scornfully. How dare she say that. It's not like he is the only one. And doesn't she know that people have feeling?
My hair whipped slowly around my face as I shook my head. "You're wrong Sakura. Naruto only fails at listening. He succeeds at everything."
It got quiet for a moment. Naruto was actually calm, Sasuke's eyebrows were risen, and Sakura seemed just about to burst.
"Excuse me?"
"You know I'm right Sakura. He never fails to actually try, which is something you hardly do, he always keeps to some sort of bright side, he gets serious the more determined he gets, which you can tell now, and he always tries to do better. I've watched you all secretly while you were in the ninja academy, I saw you all walk home and train. My parents didn't allow me to be a part of anything including fighting so I observed those my age who did. And all through the ninja academy, Naruto was the one who tried the hardest out of you three."
Sakura hung her head in defeat. He pink hair fell scattered in front of her green eyes that held shame. "I-I never thought of him that way." She spoke low, at almost a whisper. I nodded and looked away from her to the sky, which was now turning darker because of the big fluffy cirrus clouds that drifted along it and blocked the sunlight. My first reaction when I looked up was to throw a hand over my eyes but I couldn't do that, so I just closed my eyes and breathed in. A light breeze swirled around me, waving my golden hair like grass. But small moments like that don't last long.
Naruto groaned silently as his stomach once again, growled. My eyes shot open while I was still facing the sky.
"Ah!" I should've kept them closed, that sun hurts. My eyes sealed shut.
"So Sakura, would you please forget about getting caught and feed him a rice ball?" I heard Sakura sigh. Then I looked down at the forest, watching to see if Kakashi was spying, which he probably was.
Sakura glance up at Sasuke with questioning eyes. Sasuke had a thoughtful expression plastered onto his face and his eyebrows were tightly furrowed, the corners of his lips were pulled into more than his usual frown. Then his eyes shifted from his nearly finished lunch to Naruto, me, and finally Sakura. His dark eyes leaked no emotion and his voice was a low monotone.
"Go ahead Sakura, he needs his strength.