Sorry about the late update. It has been a surprisingly busy week for me, so I didn't get around to getting two chapters out. However, this one is the longest I've ever written so maybe it'll make up for it. I still don't own anything Naruto and enjoy!
Chapter 6- Are You Lost?
Nanami has done stupid stuff in her life, but walking without any sense of direction or guidance through a forest in search of a bunch of teenagers seemed to top the list. At first she was hopeful since she had seen the general direction Naruto had taken. However, as the path she took started looking more and more undisturbed, she felt that hope fall. She checked her phone for the thousandth time in case she suddenly had a signal. Just like before, no such luck.
She finally took a seat next to a large tree trying to consider her options before getting more lost. She had no service, had no idea where she was, and was pretty sure that no one else knew how to find her. She didn't think this forest would be this big, but after walking around for an hour she realized it was to the contrary. She figured she could retrace her steps and wait by the car, but she wasn't even sure where that was anymore.
Completely out of ideas, she laid her head back trying to enjoy scenery. The forest floor was pretty as it was bathed in a green glow from sunlight pouring down through the trees' leaves. Surprisingly, it was oddly quiet. She would have thought for sure that the birds would be chirping, or bugs buzzing around. Curious, she perked her head up for the slightest sound. That's when she heard distinct scratching noises. Maybe she wasn't alone.
Nanami carefully made her way toward the sound. Not even ten yards from where she was sitting she found a small clearing, but more importantly she found the source of the sound.
A young boy, probably Naruto's age, was leaned up against a tree, drawing on a large sketch pad. He wore a tight fitting white shirt with a black half shirt over it. He also wore gray skinny jeans that ended with splatter-painted cons. His hair was short and dark, but his bangs were held out of his pale face by a black sweat band. She didn't think he had noticed her so she tried to peek over his shoulder, curious about what he was drawing.
"I believe that it's proper to introduce yourself when meeting strangers." He stated simply not once looking up from his work.
Nanami was caught off guard by him saying something and by his strange choice of words.
"Um, yeah sure. I'm Nanami Uzumaki. What are you doing out here?"
"I also believe that it is proper to let the other introduce themself before you continue on with the rest of the conversation."
Nanami walked around the base of the tree to stare at the strange boy. She didn't know what he meant by things being proper.
"Okay so what's your name?" She decided to ask.
He smiled at her, but something about it seemed forced and fake. She really couldn't figure this guy out at all.
"My name is Sai." He offered getting up. "And since you have ruined the scene, I suppose I should be going now."
Nanami felt a twinge of annoyance at being blown off by the only person she had been able to find in this stupid forest.
"Well, sorry. I didn't know, but I need your help. You see I kinda got lost, and I don't know how to get back to the Hole or whatever."
"Why would you want to be in a hole if you're lost?"
Now Nanami really was flustered. "Look! I'm just trying to get back to my brother and his friends, so will you help me or not?"
"I'm sorry. I don't know where you're trying to go, and I don't normally talk to people twice my age."
Nanami was livid. Twice his age? What did he think she was, his mother's age? This stupid uptight monotone boy was the last person she wanted to turn to. However, since she was out of any other options she decided she had no choice.
"Hey! Obviously you know where you're going. I on the other hand, have no idea how to get back to my friends. All I'm asking for is a few minutes of your time." She replied through gritted teeth.
"I don't know if I'll lead you to any holes, but I suppose you can follow me back into town." He replied not even turning around.
"Whatever." Nanami grumbled.
She didn't try to start another conversation with Sai; instead she followed him at a distance with her arms crossed. She was a little curious about how he knew where he was going, but just the thought of listening to him made her angry again. She mostly admired the scenery as they walked, but the quiet was killing her. She then remembered that she had her iPod in her bag. The perfect solution to this horrible situation. She bent over to unzip her bag when everything fell out.
"Great, just great!" Nanami huffed. "Hey Sai, wait up a sec."
Nanami didn't look up to see if he stopped or not as she tried to shove all of her belongings back into her bag. She figured he had to have stopped since she didn't hear any footsteps, but then again he didn't come rushing over to offer his assistance. Nanami found her iPod strung out on the ground and reached up to put the ear buds in her ears when she heard a distinguished bark followed by a couple of shouts. Nanami lifted her head in that direction to hear it again closer this time. Almost out of nowhere, Akamaru came charging into the clearing followed by Kiba, Naruto, and a couple of people she hadn't met before.
"Hey, Nanami. Are you lost?" Kiba asked with a grin.
"How could you tell?" Nanami laughed.
She couldn't believe that they found her. She was so excited to see somebody she recognized, and now she would no longer have to follow Sai the World's Worst Guide. She suddenly remembered that she wasn't alone.
"Oh guys, this is Sai. He's the reason…I made it this far?" She finished uncertainly as she looked around finding a surprising lack of the anorexic artist.
"Um, what are you pointing at?" Kiba asked confused.
"Yes! It seems like being lost in the woods has become too much for this young woman! I will carry her the rest of the way!" The dark haired boy with bushy eyebrows in a one-piece old timey green swimsuit announced.
"Quit it Lee! Cut the poor girl a break!" The other person Nanami didn't recognize piped up. She was a girl with brunette hair pulled into two buns on the side of her head, a pink tank top, cut-off jean shorts, and a bright and smiling face.
"Nanami, you are acting a little crazy." Naruto pointed out.
Nanami's eyes finally shot to him. Her over eager, impatient, little brother who was the whole reason for her little trek in the first place. She felt her eyes narrow, and could see everyone else edge out of the line of her vision. Naruto started to look a little nervous, and tried to back up.
"I'm going to kill you." She let herself whisper through all of her pent up anger.
"Now let's not be hasty, I mean I thought you were right behind me after all." Naruto nervously tried to defend himself.
However, it was too late. Nanami lunged toward him, and he took the hint and started running. She gave chase making sure he never got out of sight this time. She was going to make her brother pay for ditching her. She had finally chased him toward a cliff. Perfect, now she had him cornered. Instead of stopping, though, he jumped right over the side.
Nanami panicked and threw away her childish ideas of revenge to save her brother. She dropped her bag and jumped over the edge after him. However, where she expected to be met with a dark endless chasm, she found herself next to a five foot waterfall that ended into a small lake below. This must be the Hole.
Nanami was submerged in the cool liquid, and kicked upward to fight her way back to the surface. The first thing she noticed after gasping in a lungful of air was all of the laughter around her. Then she heard splashing and turned to see Naruto breaking the surface not too far away from where she was. First things first, she reached over and dunked him back down into the water which increased the volume of the laughter. Then she swam over to the bank where all of Naruto's friends were laying.
Sakura and Ino were sitting in lawn chairs, sun tanning by the looks of it in their pink and purple bikinis. Then she saw Hinata in her purple one-piece sitting next to Choji who wore red swim trunks and a white T-shirt, and some boy she had never seen before, but who looked surprisingly like Hinata. They sat on a blanket surrounded by picnic baskets. Shikamaru, in green swim trunks, and Sasuke in black swim trunks that fit perfectly around his sculpted body were in the shallows of the lake.
"So I guess they found you." Sakura pointed out after she got her laughter under control.
"Yeah you would have thought Naruto had left you in the woods to die the way the girls were carrying on, it was such a drag." Shikamaru commented.
"Well what kind of moron leaves someone behind when they obviously would have no idea where they're going?" Ino yelled.
"Yeah, but Kiba's reaction was by far the funniest." Sasuke added with a smirk.
The girls started giggling at this. Nanami just blushed at having all the attention turned toward her again. She tried her best to pull her sopping wet body out of the water as casually as she could, but her tank top started to feel like it was weighed down with lead and her flip-flops refused to leave the muddy bottom.
"I guess I deserved that." Naruto exclaimed from the middle of the lake.
"Yeah, and you probably deserve this." Sasuke said, launching himself directly at Naruto with such ease and pose as he had a turn of dunking him as well.
Pretty soon everyone was diving in after Naruto until it was just Hinata, the other guy still sitting on the blanket. He looked like he was trying his best to ignore the nonsense going on around him by keeping his attention on his book, but Nanami could still see the hint of a smile that lingered from earlier.
"Na-Nanami, that was pretty impressive. Jumping off that cliff after Naruto, I mean." Hinata stated.
"Well, it was really just a determination to get to Naruto." Nanami tried to ride it off, not sure what was so impressive.
"And no one here blamed you after what he did." The boy chimed in.
Nanami really studied him from the same eyes as Hinata's to his long brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail, and the fact that he wasn't dressed in beach attire. In fact, he was wearing jeans and a black polo. Nanami didn't know whether she should introduce herself to him or not. Luckily, Hinata came with the save.
"Oh! Nanami, this is my cousin Neji."
"Nice to meet you." Nanami supplied while he merely nodded.
"Oh and that's Shino." Hinata added pointing to her other side.
That's when Nanami first noticed another body underneath the big tree. She had remembered them talking about another member of their group at the mall the other day. Shino was unlike anyone Nanami had ever seen before since she couldn't see anything about him. His entire body was hidden under a large black trench coat with a black fedora on top of his head and sunglasses that hid his eyes.
"So you're Nanami Uzumaki." He stated in a weird drawl.
"Uh-huh." Nanami nodded.
"How very odd." He commented.
She didn't know what he meant by that, but she didn't get a chance to ask before Kiba and the others finally made it back.
"Wow, when you go after somebody you really go all out." Kiba commented.
Nanami finally noticed that he was no longer wearing his hoodie giving her a clear view of his chocolate colored hair and his tan body that was only hidden behind a netted tank top and red swim trunks.
"I like to consider it giving him what he justly deserves." She replied back.
"Whatever it is, I hope I'm never on the receiving end." Kiba teased.
"A smart place to be." She teased back.
"Alright, enough flirting." Neji interjected looking up from his book annoyed.
Kiba's cheeks turned bright pink and he tried to excuse himself before taking off towards the water. Nanami could also feel her cheeks growing hot, but she just stood there dumbfounded.
"Neji, I cannot believe you would interrupt the power of true love like that." The eyebrow boy defended making Nanami blush deepen.
"Lee! Shut up, you're not helping the situation!" The girl with the brunette twin buns, and innocent face scolded.
"Forgive me, sweet Nanami. I did not mean to embarrass you. For doing so I will swim ten laps around the lake." The Lee kid said grabbing her hands in his before turning away toward the water.
Nanami just stood there wondering if red was going to be her natural skin color since she couldn't see it turning back anytime soon.
"I can't believe him! That idiot!" The girl yelled to no one in particular. "I'm so sorry about my two very inconsiderate friends. I'm Tenten by the way."
The girl extended her hand and Nanami shook it numbly.
Nanami was having trouble getting her emotions under control that mostly fell under the embarrassment column. That was when she felt a cold splash hit her face making her feel a ton better as well as shocking the hell out of her.
"What the-" Nanami called out looking for the source.
"F-forgive me, Nanami." Hinata apologized.
"You did that?" She asked, surprised by the younger girl.
"Y-yes. I have had enough experience with embarrassment to know when you need a cold splash in the face." Hinata tried to explain.
"Isn't that the truth." Neji piped up again.
"Could you be nice for just one minute?" Tenten asked incredulously.
"I was just stating the facts." Neji shrugged indifferent.
Tenten groaned, but not in an angry way. If anything it looked like she had a soft spot for the impassive boy. Nanami realized that she wasn't the only girl who had ever been put in awkward situations by Konoha boys, and she felt much better.
"It's alright Tenten. And thank you Hinata."
"Oh, we picked up your bag from the top of the hill too, Nanami." Tenten remembered handing her the duffle.
"Thanks." She said, looking around the clearing. "I suppose Sai didn't come with you?"
It was when she had her bag in hand that she remembered she had not been alone when her search party found her. Even though she couldn't stand the creep, that didn't mean she had to ditch him like that.
"There you go with that name again. When we found you, there was no one else there." Tenten told her shaking her head.
Nanami just stared at her. So that's what they all meant earlier. They thought she had made Sai up.
"No, really. I met this artist named Sai. He was showing me the way out of the woods when you guys showed up."
Everyone on the shore just stared at her like she was crazy. Even Neji had one eyebrow raised over the top of his book.
"It's not unusual to find others in these woods. Possibly some that don't want to be found." Shino spoke up in her defense. "Although, usually those are the people you don't want to attract their attention."
Tenten gave her the "exhibit A" look that added to her argument. Nanami just sighed knowing when she was beat.
"I know what I saw." Was the last word she said, and everyone followed suit.
Nanami realized that she was still sopping wet and reluctantly removed her tank top and shorts. Tenten had taken her place beside Neji on the blanket who was completely oblivious to anything outside of his book once more.
"See I told you that would look cute." Ino told her walking up from behind.
Nanami turned around and realized everyone was coming back in. Sakura and Ino led the pack approving their choice in her swimwear. Choji was next, his gaze never leaving the picnic basket next to Hinata. Then came Shikamaru and Sasuke who gave her the once over making Nanami feel a little too revealing. Kiba glanced in her direction, turned pink again, and made his way to the edge of the campsite. Nanami felt bad knowing that he was still smarting from the embarrassing situation earlier, but she wasn't sure she could offer any kind of comfort right then.
Lee came in next which surprised Nanami. This was a pretty good sized body of water that he supposedly did ten laps around. However, it seemed that his attention was elsewhere as he followed faithfully after Sakura. Then, finally, her dear little brother crawled up the bank before her.
"We're even now right?" Naruto asked nervously.
As much as Nanami wanted to leave him in the dark or get him back again, she realized that he had suffered enough. After all, he did look a little blue from all of the dunks he had received within the last ten minutes.
"I guess, for now." She grinned wickedly.
Then again, it was totally fun messing with him. He edged away from her nervously over to Kiba since he was the farthest point away.
"So Nanami, are you going to Konoha High?" Tenten asked bringing her attention back to the group seated on the blanket.
"Yep, I'll be a junior." Nanami answered.
"No way!" Tenten exclaimed, lighting up. "That's awesome! You won't believe how few girl friends I have in my grade."
Neji looked like he was going to say something to this, but Tenten stared him down. He quickly closed his mouth.
"So you're a junior too?" Nanami asked, excited to finally find someone her own age.
"Yeah, me, Neji, and Lee."
"That's so awesome, I was scared I would start Monday not knowing anyone in my class."
Tenten laughed. "Trust me, I understand. Neji, Lee, and I have been friends for so long I don't even talk to anyone else in our grade. It'll be so great having a girl friend in my classes."
"Tenten, are Neji and I not doing a good enough job as your friends?" Lee asked hurt.
"You guys are the best. I just need girl time sometimes." She assured him.
"So what are we, chopped liver?" Sakura asked gesturing to her, Ino, and Hinata.
"I didn't realize I was going to start so much trouble! I was just excited to have Nanami in my class!" Tenten yelled aggravated.
Nanami started laughing. She really liked Tenten, and knew exactly what she meant. As much fun as she had with the younger girls yesterday, sometimes two years was a huge maturity gap. Everyone really started chatting then. Nanami was learning about what school was like and what everyone liked to do. It seemed so weird that such a huge group of people would get along together like this when they were all so different. Nanami was surprised to learn, when she brought this up, that it was mostly through their connection to Naruto that they all knew each other.
Nanami really enjoyed hanging out with everybody, and was disappointed when the sun finally started to set. Everyone had started gathering up their belongings and headed toward the path that Naruto had taken when he left Nanami in the dust. Nanami noticed that the green Camry belonged to Lee, the truck to Tenten, and surprise, surprise, the Porsche belonged to Neji.
Hinata got in with Neji; Lee refused to let Sakura walk home and she wouldn't go with him without Ino or Sasuke. Shikamaru lived by Tenten so he and Choji caught a ride with her. That left Kiba and Shino.
"Do you guys want a ride?" Nanami offered.
"Alright." Kiba agreed while Shino merely shrugged.
She wondered how he wasn't dying in that coat, but didn't say anything. Naruto claimed shotgun and the other two got in the back. She asked how to get to their houses and took off, following their directions. Nobody said a whole lot, because of how exhausted they were from spending a whole day out in the sun. Nanami got to Shino's house and he thanked her for the ride as he got out. Then it was on to Kiba's. Within five minutes, he was also saying his good-byes.
"Hey Kiba." Nanami stopped him, surprising even herself.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"Thanks for finding me." She told him, shyly.
He smiled at her for the first time since Neji's comment. "Anytime. So I'll catch you Monday?"
"Count on it." With that she finally let him walk towards his house with Akamaru in tow.
"What was that?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What? I was just being nice." Nanami defended although her blush said it all.
"Yeah, right. Do you like Kiba?" He continued, scrunching up his nose thinking about his sister together with one of his best friends.
"Not like that." She denied.
"Good, because that would be way weird." He sighed in relief.
"Yeah, it would." She agreed quietly.
She didn't feel that way about Kiba, did she? Of course he had helped her out twice now, but that didn't mean anything. That just made him a really good friend. However, no matter how many times Nanami tried talking herself out of it; she couldn't help but want to get to know Kiba more. She pushed these thoughts aside, her first and foremost priority was getting through her first day of high school Monday. With having all these friends, it looked like this was becoming a more achievable goal every day.
Finally! As much as I've loved these chapters so far, I've been itching to get into the high school aspect of the story. So the next chapter in the first day and the introduction to Nanami's other love interest. Sorry if you thought it was going to be Sai, because it's not. Thank you for reading so far, and I've been itching to get some reviews so don't be afraid to send them!